Fourteen
Tarbos, the Main Conference Center
“Son, I’m going to take a walk around the building during the break,” Mike announced. “I imagine I’ll have one or two of those guards for company, but I need some air.”
“OK, Dad. Maria and I are going to duck back to that snack bar they set up, get a drink.”
“All right.” Mike adjusted the hang of his jacket and walked ostentatiously out of the building and, as he’d expected, an OWME Security troop tagged along. Mike wasn’t surprised to see Sergeant Gerry Stiles’ face behind the polymer helmet face-shield.
He paused for a moment just outside the Conference Center’s main doors to drink in the cool, humid evening air.
“Sounds like everything’s moving along in there pretty well, Mike,” the Sergeant observed, stepping ahead of Mike to make a show of scanning the surroundings.
“Yeah, I suppose. Did you get a chance to scout around the area?”
“You bet I did.” Stiles took a step back. “There’s only four buildings within a kilometer that are ever empty at any time of day or night, and one of those is a bank – it’s got computer-run security cameras and stun panels on all the doors and windows. There are two big warehouses that are empty at night, one just north of here about a block, and another about half a klick to the east. Last one’s a power station, it’s got one night operator for about a square kilometer of station – that’s as good as empty.”
“I don’t see how they could be pulling off something like this without someone on the inside,” Mike said. “And they’ve got to be meeting somewhere around here, don’t you think?” Stiles nodded agreement. Mike stood a moment, rubbing his chin with one hand.
“Let’s think about this for a minute. They already tried to bomb the Convention, and it almost worked, didn’t it? They killed two delegates. Now, the Convention is starting up again, and Bob Pritchard’s tech people have cooked up explosives sniffers to cover every way in and out. Now, these people, if they’ve got someone on the inside, they’ll know that. So, they’ll try something else.” Mike looked up at the Conference Center building. “Could a rifle bullet get through those windows?”
“Not likely, Mike. That polymer will deflect an artillery shell.”
Mike examined the area with the trained eye of a hunter. “You know, though, if I had a good rifle, and I wanted to nail someone walking out these main doors, I think I’d set up right over there, just up that alley – see those trash bins? You’ve got a clear shot right at the doors, and the alley hooks off to the left. Good place to get away if things go wrong.”
“You’ve thought about this some,” Stiles observed.
“You don’t hunt rocs twenty years without learning how to set up a stalk and a shot, and also how to get away in a hurry if you miss,” Mike said. “I’d be roc-food by now if I didn’t have an instinct for this sort of thing.”
“Well, I can put a sensor in that alley, sure enough, and that’ll tell us if anyone slips in there.”
“Let’s do that but keep it quiet. Nobody but you and me should know about it. If someone goes in there and hides, just come and tell me. OK?”
Stiles nodded. “If you say so.”
Inside the Convention Center
“Where’d your Dad go?”
“Outside, I guess,” Mike Junior answered. He smiled broadly at Maria Gomez. “He can’t stand being indoors too long. Back home on Forest, the biggest problem we have around the place is getting Dad to stay indoors for more than five minutes.”
“You’re not too good about that yourself, you know.” Maria giggled as Mike Junior drew her into his arms, kissed her.
“I know. It’s hard to get used to all the people here.”
“You’re doing better than your Dad.”
“Yeah, Dad’s hardcore. I didn’t think he’d ever make it through that month down the coast.”
Marie put her arms around the younger Crider’s neck and stood on tiptoe to kiss him back. “You’re hardcore yourself, you know. Just in a different way.”
“They’re coming back in. Guess the break’s over.”
Maria frowned prettily. “That was too short. Take me dancing again tonight?”
“Try to stop me.”
The Cachalot, in Tarbos orbit
“Captain, last shuttle to the Skyhook is leaving in ten minutes.”
Captain Jan Benton of the Cachalot picked up the handset on the desk in her stateroom. “Very well. Please ask our guest to meet me in the hangar bay.”
“Yes, Captain.”
The Convention Center
Free of speeches for the moment, the Convention Center was a buzz of conversation; knots of people stood discussing minutia of the forming government, sub-committees held caucuses around tables, and social plans for the evening were finalized with laughs and back-slapping. Amazingly, the Russian Vice President Tarakanov and the Chinese President Kee Chow An had struck up a fond friendship, despite centuries of tension between their Earthside nations that still lingered today. They and their wives spent most of their evenings together, touring Mountain View’s shops and restaurants. How fast things change in a new perspective, Mike Crider told himself.
“Mike?” Mike looked up from his notes to see the American Vice President.
“Hector. What can I do for you?”
“We’re about to wrap up for the evening. Will you come over to the Mountain View Skyhook with me? There’s someone coming in from Earth to provide technical advice. I’d like you to go with me to meet him.”
“All right. Who is it we’re meeting?”
“Let’s just say he’s someone with a unique perspective.”
Mike stood up, stretching out muscles unaccustomed to spending the days in a chair. One issue had been weighing on his mind most of the day, and he said so: “A lot of the delegates don’t like the article about a right to bear arms in the Bill of Basic Rights.”
“I know. I was hoping you’d speak to the Convention about that.”
“Better you do it, Heck. You’re a Libertarian politician, you know all the arguments.”
“Yeah, Mike, but you’ve been there. If it wasn’t for armed citizens, Forest would be a Grugell colony now.”
Mike nodded. “And I’d be dead. Yeah, nothing like first-hand witnesses, is there? OK, I’ll make some notes, and talk to Bob Pritchard about getting on the clock for a few minutes during opening remarks in a day or so.”
“Thanks, Mike. I’ve got to go talk to Kee Chow An for a few minutes, then I’ll be ready to go.”
“OK, I’ll go find Junior, tell him where I’m going. We’re going to have a situation with these kids of ours, Heck.”
The Vice President rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Don’t I know it? All Maria talks about is ‘Mike this, Mike that.’ I suppose your son is the same.”
“Pretty much.” Mike looked doubtful. “I’ll meet you at the main entrance in what, ten minutes?”
“Sounds good.”
One hour later, the Mountain View Skyhook
“Here’s the bus,” Hector Gutierrez pointed up at the yellow indicator light above the bus walkway doors, which had just flashed on. He and Mike stood in the waiting area in front of the big disembarkation doors, which slid open a moment after the bus slid to a stop. Mike goggled at the tall figure that stepped out.
“You!”
Clomonastik III, once and former Group Commander in the Grugell Navy, now a Maryland restaurateur, strode forward, a wide grin on his narrow face. “Michael! What an honor it is to stand before you again, my respected friend!”
Mike couldn’t quite forget that this tall, imposing alien had tried very hard to kill him and his Jenny at one point, but that had been a long time ago. He took the Grugell’s proffered hand and shook it, carefully, allowing for the alien’s delicate bone structure.
“You are well, my friend? You look fit!” Clomonastik looked exactly as he had twenty-two years earlier, but an obviously expensive tailored three-piece suit in dark gray silk had replaced the issue Grugell uniform and cloak. A narrow black silk necktie on a sparkling white shirt completed the outfit. While Clomonastik had adopted the dress of a successful Earthly entrepreneur, his fastidiousness had survived the years unchanged.
“I’m fine. You look like you’re doing well on Earth.”
“Very well indeed. I’ve grown quite fond of your home world, Michael. You must be Vice President Gutierrez,” Clomonastik noted, extending his hand again. “It is my honor to meet you at last. Your President speaks very highly of you.”
“Pleased to meet you, sir. Tony and I go way back. He told you what we’re dealing with here?”
“Indeed, he did. I do hope my insights may be of some small assistance.”
“I don’t understand this,” Mike said. “I know it’s been a long time, but you’re one of them! How do we know you’re going to steer us straight?”
Clomonastik just smiled. “This must indeed seem very odd to you, my old friend. But the President understands my motivations for helping, and he finds me adequately trustworthy. You are so right to be cautious, Michael, but we have not the time for excesses of prejudgment just now.”
“Let’s head back to the hotel,” Hector Gutierrez answered. “We’ll fill you in on the way.”
The Truffle, a restaurant in Mountain View
While the service and the cuisine were impeccable in the Truffle, one of Tarbos’ most exclusive – and expensive – restaurants, Corinthia’s King Harold was less than happy with one aspect of the proposed Constitution and didn’t hesitate to let his kin from Earth know about it.
“So, I’m to understand that I’m to put this to a vote of my subjects on Corinthia? A vote?” He slapped his wine glass down on the table, sloshing a bit of rich Tarbosian red on the sparking white tablecloth. The red stain widened, faded, disappeared into the polarized polymer thread woven into the cloth.
Prince Harry of the United Kingdom, Earth, paused with a forkful of steak halfway to his mouth. He laid the fork down, frowning. “A vote, cousin. You know, it’s not such a bad thing, having a Parliament. Blighty’s managed very well with one these last few hundred years, you know, and the Royal Family carries on.” Prince Harry smiled at his cousin. “Would it really be so bad? You can’t expect to hold onto a true monarchy for more than a generation, not in this day and age.”
“I’ll be forced to form a Parliament, the way this thing is worded.” Harold held up a draft of the Constitution in one hand, slapping it with the fingertips of the other. “I didn’t take my subjects a hundred and eighty light years from Earth to form just another rule-by-rabble!”
The British Prince scowled. “You know, Harold, you were an arrogant sod when you were a lad, and I’m afraid you haven’t changed much. We’ve done very well on Earth, you know, with ‘rule by rabble’ across the globe now. We’ve fought very hard to make it that way. It’s not realistic of you to think you can keep your world otherwise.”
“And if we choose to go it alone? What need have I for this Confederacy? And the right to bear arms, what’s the purpose of that? They may as well say the rabble has a right to overthrow their rulers!”
“Given the way you’re carrying on, you’re right to think that, you know. As for the first, you can bloody well answer that for yourself, cousin. There’s a hostile race out there, in case you’ve forgotten, and part of this Confederacy involves forming a Navy to defend us all from attack.”
“Well, I don’t care for it, you know.”
“Perhaps you don’t,” Harry chided his relative, “But you’d better accept it. Unless you want your precious Corinthia to be facing an alien occupation army with nothing to protect you but a couple of local cargo haulers and an orbital shuttle.”
“I’ve half a mind to form my own Navy,” Harold sniffed.
“Billions of dollars of your own money, cousin,” the British Prince reminded him.
King Harold I of Corinthia lacked an answer for that. His own personal fortune, while unparalleled in human history, still wasn’t up to forming a Navy. And he had three daughters to think of, three little girls whom he didn’t want seeing an armed Grugell Occupation force landing on Corinthia. Still… “Well, I don’t like that last bit. I’ll vote against it.”
“You must do as your conscience dictates, of course.” Prince Harry said, smiling wryly at the intended irony.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Did you guys know that Mike Tomlin has Never Had A Losing Season?
Who?
Not even fall? What about Summer? Winter? Spring even, it can be muddy.
I hope you can find some solace in the fact that Miles Garrett now holds the single season sack record.
He can keep the imaginary trophy he gets for that right next to his imaginary Super Bowl ring.
My favorite aspect of it is the ridiculous propaganda put forward to show just how much better he was than Watt. You know, lying about snap counts needed to obtain it. It’s just as comical to me as when the stat geeks made up stats to show just how great Myles was when he was getting blatantly outplayed by a guy in his own division in every real stat there is.
I’ve still never seen in a “great” player as streaky or hot and cold as Garrett. Even in this season he has completely invisible games and his “dominant” performances correspond with losses. They lost all but one game in which he registered more than 1 sack. and the win was against a Raiders team that should have been relegated out of the league a long time ago. Like he had 5 sacks against NE and they still put up 32 points on the Browns.
When Watt was good, he was legitimately making game changing plays and the Steelers fell off a cliff without him. If the Browns lost Garrett, would anyone even notice?
I retract one thing about what I said. Knowing Garrett and how he operates, he’ll probably actually make himself a trophy and put it up in his house for setting that record.
I saw the interview with him before they played the Steelers last week.
He didn’t say a word about getting a win, just how he wanted the record.
Pretty sure he would have been happier if the Steelers had won if he got a sack.
That appeared to be the mindset of the entire Browns team. Steelers have taken a lot of flak for how they seemed to approach the game, trying to prevent him from getting that sack, but less attention was given to the fact that Garrett was lining up so wide on many plays that he was basically a slot CB at times based on alignment. And when he wasn’t doing that they were constantly moving him around and designing every snap to give him the best possible match-up.
You may say it was a meaningless game in a lost season where Garrett getting the record was the only thing they really had to play for, but they’ve literally had other defenders or at least one complain in the past that they prioritize Garrett’s production to such an extent that it comes at the expense of other defenders and the team as a whole.
From the organization to the fans, it’s just legit crazy how far they will go to defend that guy’s honor (which is non-existent, for anyone wondering) and ability. It’s like they’ve been bad for so long that they’ve completely lost the plot. He’s the one solitary point of pride on that entire team since being drafted and they fetishize his success over everything else.
For his part, he’s always appeared to be a guy who cares more about money and stats than winning and rightfully deserves to be mocked relentlessly for what he did last off-season.
Ok, mock the Browns and Steelers as much as you want, but let me point out that Mike Brown expressed his confidence in Taylor and Tobin as the right leadership to take the Bengals to championships today and therefore we win the terrible franchise competition hands down.
Did you know you couldn’t even wait more than 60 seconds before ignoring the author’s work and just random commenting?
I think we’d all be far better served if midday articles on this site stayed under a dozen comments total as long as they were considered to be on topic.
That’s the ticket to keep the site chugging along alive and well.
It’s funny. A few weeks back RJ gave a glimpse under the hood with the number of comments his posts have received over the years and it confirmed what we can all observe with our own eyes. The numbers have more than halved. That’s obviously not a statement on RJ or his contribution.
Being a stickler over nonsense when people do choose to comment and trying to force a boneheaded “etiquette” policy on what people can comment on aint working. I’ve told you it aint working for years now only to be called an asshole time and time again.
Most people aren’t going to sit here and be attacked over and over for simply saying what they want to say on a site that is mainly supposed to be about the community engagement. Again, no disrespect to the people who take the time to put together content to be posted.
You know what most people do when they get tired of the Hall Monitor shit you employ Swiss? They just leave.
It’s even funnier because most of you who run keep the site running don’t even deign to talk to us peasants. You pop out here or there and seemingly half the time its to chide or attack someone for speaking for their mind in some way you consider to be rude.
Animal has been posting articles here since its inception. If at this point he doesn’t know an asshole like me may stumble into the thread and start posting my thoughts all willy nilly without concern for things like being on topic, particularly in some arbitrary time after it’s initially posted, I don’t really know what to say at this point.
No. But neither do I have a clue who Mike Tomlin might be. For all I know, he or she is the World Underwater Basket Weaving All Time All Star… so sure… why not no losing seasons?
He was on House for a bunch of years.
The leather exports just not bringing in enough cash?
The King wanted to invest heavily in a reliant light cruiser design — but got khan’d out of his money.
Sci-fi related (and scream inducing):
https://screenrant.com/blade-runner-franchise-returns-2026-amazon-show/
😱
Could be worse. Could be Netflix.
The second bladerunner was too empty of a world. Cyberpunk should be a densely populated busy, wild and wooly, visual cornucopia. Not a sandy Fallout wasteland.
Was I supposed to be able to tell the difference between humans and replicants like the characters in 2049 could?
I don’t know, I never watched that one.
I’ve seen pieces claiming that Blade Runner 2049 was a much better movie than the original. I’ve noticed a correlation that these same people are also trying to rehabilitate shite like Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and Jason X. I’m half waiting for someone to start saying how any one of the later Hellraiser movies to be the best of the series.
2049 was definitely a much prettier movie than the first one.
Much weaker bad guys, and the whole plot hinges on understanding the first.
Which cut of the first? Because I had a long argument with someone about the first movie and they cited details that I know were not in that movie – because we’d seen different cuts.
leprechaun six was the hardest hitting, it is known.
That might be cool if they wanted to do a story that actually followed some of the themes from the book.
Somehow, I don’t think that’s what they’re doing.
“What’s the easiest way to churn AI scripts? Make sure we base it on crap people have nostalgia for…. the AI prompt is easier if we have something to start from… and FOMO will get all the people who think maybe we’ll actually continue a story this time!”
If I ever wonder why it feels like I almost never find anything new to watch (I think Ludwig was the last one)…. I’ll think of this now, NA.
Something something warm embrace
Such promises have put this country in a horrible bind. The revenue that the government takes in is simply not adequate to meet the public’s needs. That means less public investment — less spending on things that will produce benefits in the future, such as highway construction and scientific research.
Over the last fifty years, public investment in this country has fallen by more than 50 percent. That decline means crumbling schools, roads, and hospitals, with no prospect of improvement in the quality of our common lives.
——-
The American tax system, at all levels, is notoriously unfair. The rich should pay more. But that in itself will not fix the problem of declining public investment, which threatens to further undermine the quality of life for all Americans. The truth is, compared to other wealthy countries, our total tax burden is quite modest. We can afford to increase it.
Only time will tell whether Mamdani can pull off his own “tax the rich to improve public services” gambit. In the meantime, America faces a difficult choice: Raise taxes for public investment or see further declines in education, transportation, and medical care.
All those rugged individualists, hoarding property and stealing from the collective.
It almost makes a man ashamed to call himself an American.
The author failed grade school math and it shows.
A lot of stupid to unpack there. Per pupil spending is at record highs. It constantly climbs upwards and I’d wager strongly beats inflation. There’s never enough being spent on schools, though. The same is true of the supposedly crumbling infrastructure, though if there’s any truth to that it’s largely the result of politicians making it into a giant racket. It’s just about funneling money to cronies with costs always ballooning well beyond initial projections and red tape delaying things for years and years while everyone collects paychecks and money gets funneled back to the pols. The issue isn’t one of money there, though, as much as just a sign of how broken our public institutions have become even by the standard of government. That shit is intentional on the part of our “leaders,” though.
The taxing shit? I don’t even get the argument. The tax billionaires shit always comes from the same people who spent years and years telling me that deficit spending doesn’t matter and that government spending/money printing doesn’t lead to inflation. Who the fuck cares how much revenue the government takes in if that’s your argument? Public spending is barely even tied to the actual “revenue” the government collects from the local on up to the state level.
The constant bitching that we need to tax more in that context just looks a lot more like the people at the top what to exert more control over wealth. It’s the source of their power, it keeps the absurd amount of money spent on elections flowing in and it’s where the real graft is at. It’s how these critters get paid. But it has no real relation to providing public services which go on with ever increasing budgets regardless of results or silly things like “revenue.” They’re going to spend and spend some more with every “emergency” becoming a new baseline for future spending no matter what.
I’m in the road maintenance business.
Nearly all of the “crumbling infrastructure” claims stem from the feds taking over and changing standards which they then retroactively place on the states or the states adopt and force counties to adopt.
A perfectly fine bridge built in 1970 is “functionally obsolete” not because it’s in disrepair or failing but it’s 2’ too narrow for the new federal shoulder or lane width requirement just adopted.
Same goes for ‘education.’ I’m shy my elementary Ed degree one class and a semester of student teaching. Ed is a massive boondoggle. Even here in Idaho where government routinely spends the least or second least per student they find 50-100 million more a year to throw at it, only two or three years in the last twenty has the spending not far outpaced inflation.
Because the problem is the schools don’t get enough money.
FFS!
If you truly desire the ‘warm embrace’ from public investment, might I suggest taking all the money spent on public investment, converting it to a pile of cash, and setting the it on fire?
At least that way, we can gather around it and warm ourselves up…
And on the plus side — we could have clowns circulating through the throng coming to bask in the warmth, ready to make lots of pencils disappear….
Spending money without a return even possible IS NOT INVESTMENT!
“The revenue that the government takes in is simply not adequate to meet the public’s needs.”
After the Minnesota fraud has been exposed, I am convinced we take in more than enough money to meet the public’s needs. It’s just that so much of it is being stolen. Does anyone believe Minnesota was the exception?
I was listening to the All-in-Pod recently, and they predicted all the foreign investment in municipal bonds are going to dry up. Who the hell would invest in cities and states that can’t pay their bills, but have plenty of money to spend on fake daycares?
I was already there after the multi-billion-dollar CA “bullet train”. And the perpetual “we need more money” bond measures every. f’ing. ballot…. It just became so obvious that there’s zero interest in spending properly… so of course fleecing the host for more and more becomes the only option.
But here’s hoping the various daycares wake folks up a little, yeah TOK.
Good news for those that fear needles.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/05/novo-nordisk-launches-wegovy-weight-loss-pill-us-price-war
Novo Nordisk launches Wegovy weight-loss pill in US, triggering price war
First and only GLP-1 pill on the market costs significantly less than injectable versions
Price wars are tight!
I’ll stick to my meat based high fat diet.
#metoo
You do you. 😉
moi aussi!
5th day or pure carnivore for …. January. Can’t think a cutesy clever catchy phrase like “MoVember”, so it probably won’t catch on.
Just about a year since I went keto-ish.
Down 30+ lbs.
I’d say it works well but, to borrow from Dr. Nick, N=1.
The author failed grade school math and it shows.
But he learned about “sharing” real good in nursery school.
We met another homeschooling set of parents over the last month. They send their kids to a group/hustle once a week and buy their curriculum.
She dropped all the institutional lines, ‘it’s good for them to get used to not being with their parents,’ ‘sharing,’ and the dreaded ‘socializing.’
Don’t take your kids out of government schools to send them to an alternative that uses the same propoganda.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/05/media/trump-donroe-doctrine-ny-post-fox-news
While describing the US military operation in Venezuela on Saturday, President Trump referenced a two-word title for his determination to dominate the Western Hemisphere.
“They now call it the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’” Trump said, crediting unnamed others with the phrase.
That could be praise or condemnation depending on the speaker and inflection.
Thanks for the story Animal.
Yes. Thanks for the story. I look forward to it every week.
Indeed thanks;
I don’t want to sound like a broken-record, encouraging people to purchase Animal’s fine books, but people should purchase this fine book (and the sequel). I greatly enjoyed them.
Yeah — I did buy them, which is the only reason I’m not reading them in installment form. 😉 But certainly thanks for making them available to the foolish mortals who didn’t already buy the full version, Animal…. (I keed! I keed!)
“I’ve half a mind to form my own Navy,” Harold sniffed.
With blackjack, and hookers?
As opposed to rum, sodomy, and the lash?
“There is no cannibalism in the British navy, absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount.”
No kink shaming!
Blackjack and hookers vs. rum, sodomy and the lash…
Porky NoDoze?
I would think if you win enough at blackjack and ply the hookers with the rum you can still get the sodomy and the lash.
What our “democracy” is devolving into.
It’s not devolving. Democracy is, by definition, rule by rabble. Always has been.
Well, we were a republic…
Ok, this is so far beyond NSFW it can’t see workplace decorum with the Webb Spacetelescope, but it is awesome and I don’t know how I am only encountering it now.
english voices? lame.
Rogue state
The Trump administration views the United Nations, the European Union, and other multilateral institutions as relics of a discredited globalism that works against U.S. interests. As a contributor to a Heritage Foundation symposium put it, although the U.S. retains a “vital national interest in defending human rights,” under Trump it will no longer work through “meaningless” human rights treaties, “useless U.N. bodies,” or “supranational courts,” which “all too often are dominated by the enemies of freedom.” Nor will the U.S. accommodate the progressive agenda of “woke cultural elites.”
The first Trump administration withdrew from the Human Rights Council, the principal U.N. human rights body, denouncing its anti-Israel focus and whitewashing of authoritarian states’ human rights records. The Biden administration rejoined the council, but after returning to the White House, Trump again withdrew, and the U.S. became the first country ever to skip its Universal Periodic Review, the council’s annual review of countries’ human rights records.
The United States also withdrew from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine, and the Paris climate agreement. Trump has also ordered a review of all treaties and international organizations to which the U.S. belongs, to identify still more candidates for withdrawal.
Trump, the pirate king.
… views the United Nations, the European Union, and other multilateral institutions as relics of a discredited globalism that works against U.S. interests…
I can’t find fault with that.
Yup, I agreed with all of that.
You aren’t supposed to notice that.
Since I happen to agree with that position…. “Yes, and?” is my immediate thought to that.
These assholes are going to make me like Trump.
The U.S. ambassador to the UN should exist to veto all UN resolutions
Declaring the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor “a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders” in friendly nations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio proposed a sweeping reorganization, eliminating most of the offices supporting human rights and establishing a new Office of Natural Rights to ground U.S. diplomacy in “traditional western conceptions of core freedoms.” That office, added Rubio, “will build the foundation for criticisms of free speech backsliding in Europe and other developed nations.”
This Orwellian framework is vividly reflected in the State Department’s radical transformation of its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Unlike its predecessors, the new version pays little attention to torture, extrajudicial killing, and political repression, glosses over abuses by autocratic allies, and criticizes liberal democracies, including France, Canada, and Germany, for regulating hate speech and extremist political parties.
The suppression of politically disfavored ideas is the apotheosis of free speech.
Orwellian framework
Sure, Jan.
“Yes…. and?”
Call me crazy — but I somehow don’t think someone in the hospitality industry really should be looking to piss off DHS about now. And yeah — I’m assuming it was the Minneapolis franchisee and that corporate wasn’t this stupid.
Who can tell? Maybe EverPeak Hospitality really wants DHS to go up their ass with both hands and a miner’s lamp…
No kink shaming.
My only objection to internally illuminated anal double-fisting, would be the DHS doing it.
What if they dress up like something from Tom of Finland?
There’s a large chunk of this country’s citizenry that are fundamentally broken. I don’t see any way this will ever be fixed in a constructive way.
A full on Great Depression 2 might do it if it clears the dead wood in the capital markets / multi-national corporations as well. Only thing I think will do it at this point, honestly. And obviously not looking forward to it — no one thinks it will be fun… not wishing for it… but that’s what my gut says it would take (okay, full on apocalypse would do it too, but we’re less likely to come out of that with representative government, and I don’t wish for mass casualty events even if I joke about SMOD…)
Maybe. Toss up if a real GD2 goes socialist revolution instead.
Why wouldn’t it?
The first one got us half way there.
…. starts to argue the point…..
…. remembers FDR channeled the populism into socialism the first time around…..
Dangnabbit…. you have a palpable point there. Well, crudpuppies…. I don’t know then. Cutting the public teat dry and forcing people to have to fend for themselves is all I can think of to dry up the corruption a bit and get folks back to not exploiting handouts…. I was thinking an economic contraction and inability to find idiots to buy the bonds would do it… who knew I was being too optimistic there…
In a true disruption, the big cities collapse into chaos without a steady influx of food and energy. They eventually are taken over by various strongmen.
The rural areas do what they can to choke off the cities. The suburbs are complicated.
The country will fracture along social norms — socialist/urban vs conservative/rural areas.
The military is run by elites but staffed by populists from rural areas. Hard to say which way it breaks in the long run.
“The military is run by elites but staffed by populists from rural areas”
I got out in 2010.
The army was staffed by southerners, I would barely call that part of the country rural. Populists? Kinda. I was shocked by how many guys on the enlisted side were multigenerational government employee socialists who hated that civilians were even allowed to vote much less own firearms.
The stories I heard out of former navy and airforce guys that went army and ended up in my unit were even worse.
I can’t imagine it’s gotten any better in 15 years. Those guys are in control now, the good ones tend not to make it to a reenlistment and rarely make it to a rank over E7. You have to toe the line and the line is that government is good, government is God.
ok.
We need that Witcher clip on speed dial for this thread.
which one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYvwLLxKqhM
The one the corporate firewall blocks.
fuck
Apparently Maduro has Assange’s lawyer.
I created positive change in the world!
When I sat for my Range Master review board I got into an animated discussion with the Director of the National Range Officer’s Association about the use of a particular rule. To simplify the discussion:
“You know the intent, right?”
“I know the intent, but that’s not what the rule says!”
That rule has been rewritten in draft form to address my concerns and is out for member feedback.
Well done.
Trouble maker.
And well done! Anyone here who is not a trouble maker is on the wrong site.