#Unauthorized Diplomacy

[originalleftist]

Donald Trump is calling Netanyahu up and telling him to prevent a ceasefire because it will help Kamala Harris.

Why is he doing that? Because Harris and Biden are trying to negotiate a ceasefire, and he doesn't want them to get credit for doing it.

I do not want to hear one more Goddamn word about how helping Trump win is the "pro-Palestinian" or "anti-genocide" position.

[tinynerdz360]

Above and Beyond Chapter 8: First Contact?

With a simple press of a button an image was released to the public; an image that would set the internet ablaze: an enigmatic alien boy with snow-white hair and piercing green eyes, standing with the Ares Crew. His build was of a scrawny teenager compared to the adult astronauts.

 The questions came fast —Was this incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial life? Had the government been harboring cosmic secrets all along?

The unknown employee smirked at his handy work. He felt pleased at what he had done, and not an ounce of shame or regret. This would set the necessary wheels into motion.

***

Hashtags and buzzwords spread like wildfire across social media as the leaked image of Dantom went viral. Theories abounded, ranging from measured skepticism to wild-eyed conspiracy.

"Alien Boy Among Astronauts – What Is NASA Hiding?"

"NASA discovers evidence of aliens on Mars #LittleGreenMen #WeAreNotAlone"

"Leaked photo reveals hidden extraterrestrial, are they walking among us? #Area51Revealed #TruthIsOutThere"

"Press conference DEMANDED - what is @NASA hiding from the American people? Full transparency now! #ReleaseTheAliens #NASACoverup"

Teddy Sanders scrolled through the endless stream of tweets, a scowl etched on his brow, fingers drumming an agitated rhythm on his mahogany desk. They had planned to let the public know, he was hoping to do this on his own terms. That they would be able to delay for a little bit longer. An alien discovery was one of those cases where NASA had wanted to give its own government a heads up and time to process this world-changing event.

But soon after getting the crew picture with Dantom, someone leaked it to the public.

With a heavy sigh, Teddy picked up the phone and dialed the president. This conversation wasn't going to be pleasant.

The call clicked through. "Mr. President, we have a situation." Teddy gripped the receiver with white knuckles. "An unauthorized image of the entity has been leaked. It's spreading rapidly online."

"God damnit, Mr. Sanders!" President Davis' voice boomed through the line, frustration palpable. "I thought I made it crystal clear - no leaks, period. You assured me NASA had this under control."

Teddy winced, feeling the sharp sting of failure. "Sir, I apologize. We're investigating the source of the breach. But right now, we need to get in front of this. The media sharks are circling, demanding answers. And I’d like to point out, that NASA did not have to tell you first. We are a public domain; the public would be told eventually. It’s just happening sooner than later."

Tense hung between them. "I see. I assume we’re on the same page?” Davis asked.

“The page being the emphasis of peaceful contact and diplomacy?” Teddy emphasized.

“Yes, yes, of course.” The President replied. Teddy could just imagine him waving his hand in the air in dismissal. The line clicked dead.

Teddy leaned back in his chair, rubbing his throbbing temples. This alien kid was proving to be more trouble than he ever imagined. As speculation raged out of control, time was of the essence. They needed to seize the narrative before it spiraled beyond their grasp.

With a deep breath, Teddy reached for his computer mouse and clicked open his saved draft of his speech.  

***

The cameras flashed incessantly as Teddy Sanders stepped up to the podium, the NASA logo emblazoned on the wall behind him. He cleared his throat, his heart pounding against his ribs. "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here today."

He glanced down at his carefully prepared notes. "As many of you are aware, an image has been circulating online depicting what appears to be an extraterrestrial being alongside our Ares crew on Mars." Murmurs rippled through the room, but Teddy pressed on.

"I can confirm that this image is authentic. During their mission, our astronauts encountered a juvenile alien life form, which we have come to learn is named 'Dantom.' This alien child was injured, and our crew has been assisting him and successfully making peaceful contact.

The room erupted into a frenzy of shouted questions and camera flashes. Teddy raised his hands, attempting to quiet the crowd. "Please, let me finish. We understand the monumental significance of this discovery and the delicate nature of the situation. Our top priority is ensuring the well-being of Dantom and maintaining a peaceful relationship with any potential extraterrestrial civilizations."

He took a deep breath, his voice growing more solemn. "We face unprecedented challenges in navigating this uncharted territory. But I assure you, we are proceeding with the utmost caution and respect. NASA, in collaboration with the government, is committed to transparency and will provide regular updates as the situation unfolds. Thank you."

As Teddy stepped away from the podium, the room exploded with a barrage of questions.

***

President Alfred Davis stood tall behind the lecture podium, he had handsome dark skin, and a charming smile. His presence commanding the attention of the entire nation. The cameras zoomed in on his confident smile, capturing the historic moment. "My fellow Americans," he began, his deep voice resonating through the room, "today, we stand on the precipice of a new era for humanity."

He paused, letting the gravity of his words sink in. "The discovery of an alien child, Dantom, on Mars is a testament to the boundless possibilities that await us in the vastness of space. This is not a moment for fear or apprehension, but one of hope and opportunity."

Davis leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with ambition. "As your President, I am committed to fostering peaceful contact and maintaining good relations with Dantom's species."

"We must approach this situation with wisdom, compassion, and an open mind," he continued, his voice growing more impassioned. "I call upon all nations to join us in this endeavor, to set aside our differences and work together for the betterment of all sentient beings."

Behind the veneer of diplomatic ambition, those closest to him recognized the undercurrent of self-interest. To be the President who welcomed aliens to Earth, who brokered alliances among the stars—it was a legacy any leader would covet. And one that Alfred Davis craved more than anything else.  

As the audience erupted in applause, Davis basked in the moment, his ego swelling with each camera flash. *This is my destiny,* he thought, his smile widening.

***

The scene shifts to a bustling newsroom where reporters from various international outlets scramble to cover the breaking story. On a large television screen, a stern-faced journalist from the BBC delivers a scathing report.

"While the discovery of an alien child is indeed a momentous occasion, many world leaders are expressing their disappointment and frustration with President Davis's decision to keep this information hidden from the international community."

The camera cuts to a press conference, where the UN Secretary addresses a room full of journalists. "Transparency is crucial in matters of global significance," she states, her voice laced with a mix of relief and irritation. "While we are thankful that first contact was handled peacefully, the lack of communication and cooperation from the United States government is deeply concerning."

Meanwhile, on the streets of New York, a reporter wove through the crowd, microphone in hand, capturing the pulse of public opinion.

A middle-aged man in a suit shakes his head, his face etched with concern. "I don't trust it," he says, his voice tinged with xenophobia. "For all we know, this could be the beginning of an invasion. We need to protect our own first."

Not far from him, a middle-aged woman shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm neutral about it. If they wanted to harm us, wouldn't they have done so already?"

Next, a young woman steps up to the microphone. "I think it's incredible!" she exclaims, her enthusiasm palpable. "Just imagine what we could learn from them. This could be the start of something truly amazing."

The reporter approaches an elderly couple walking hand in hand. The man shrugs, his expression neutral. "I've seen a lot in my life," he says, his voice gruff but not unkind. "Aliens? Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time. As long as they come in peace, I've got no problem with it."

Excitement bubbled up in the form of a group of people of various ages all clad in sci-fi merchandise, their eyes bright and voices animated.

"Can you imagine? Actual aliens!" one exclaimed. "This could be the dawn of a whole new era, like...like Star Trek coming to life!"

"Think of what we could learn from them!" another chimed in, practically bouncing on their toes.

As the interviews continue, the divided reactions of the public become increasingly apparent. Some express fear and mistrust, while others embrace the possibility of interstellar friendship. The reporter turns to the camera, her face a mix of excitement and uncertainty.

"One thing is clear," the reporter says, her voice steady. "The world will never be the same again. As we stand on the precipice of a new era, it is up to all of us to decide how we will navigate this uncharted territory and shape the future of human-alien relations."

***

In the flickering glow of the living room TV, the residents of Amity Park clustered together as the evening news shifted to a breaking story. Amidst the collective gasp that rose from the townspeople, there lay a thread of recognition that twisted their shock into bewildered concern and confusion.

"Isn't that... Inviso-BILL?" someone trailed off, lips quivering in disbelief.

"Can't be; I thought he was a ghost, not an alien," another murmured.

Dash Baxter dropped his plate of pizza as the camera zoomed in. “Danny Phantom! So that’s where he’s been. In Space! So COOL!

"Is that... Danny Phantom?" Paulina asks, her voice laced with disbelief. "What's he doing on Mars?"

"Oh, WOW! I guess he was an alien this whole time.” Star said.

“Does this mean we had first contact? Kinda sucks that NASA’s stealing credit,”   Kwan remarked.

As the news spreads, the people of Amity Park find themselves grappling with a mix of emotions. Some express concern for their beloved hero, wondering if his presence on Mars means he's left them vulnerable to ghostly attacks. Others wonder if he was always an alien and not a ghost. Some wonder once again why The World never bothered with Amity Park's business.

---

Across town, in the privacy of Sam's bedroom, three figures huddled around her laptop. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz watched the same broadcast, but their reactions diverged sharply from the rest of Amity Park. As the image of Danny—no, Dantom—flashed across the screen, relief washed over their faces like the first rays of dawn after a long, harrowing night.

"He's alive," Jazz whispers, her voice trembling with relief. "He's alive, and he's on Mars."

Sam stops pacing and leans over their shoulders; her brow furrowed with worry. "But why is he pretending to be an alien? What happened to him?"

"You know, only Danny can make first contact happen by being the alien.” Tucker chuckled, though the sound was shaky, relief undercutting the humor. "Classic Danny."

Jazz took a deep breath in and out, calming her anxiety. Her hands clasped so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "This whole week...we thought the GIW finally got him." She let go of a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

Their search had been relentless, scouring every corner, confronting every specter with the same desperate question: Where is Danny? But each inquiry led only to dead ends and mounting despair. They had been in the middle of making plans to infiltrate the GIW to see if they had him and rescue Danny if they had to. Sam had been ready to take any means necessary to save her best friend.

Sam stands up, her eyes blazing with resolve. "We're going to D.C.," she declares, her voice unwavering. "If Danny needs us, we'll be there for him. No matter what."

“Wow! Wait, if he’s on Mars, it will take them months to return. And they haven’t even left Mars yet.” Jazz quickly pointed out. 

“I know that I’m not stupid.” Sam glared. “But my gut tells me; we need to be the ones to inform NASA of the truth. Do you really think the government will sit by and play 'first contact tea party' with him? Do you really think that they won’t sic the GIW on him the first chance they have? I say we go, so we can be his backup. We can see what NASA knows and see if they can be allies. If not, WE get Danny out of there. Distract them, find a way to give him an opening. What if they greet him with ecto guns and shoot him down before he can run or poison him somehow? He might not be able to get out!” Sam ranted.

Jazz stared at the other teen. Her face turning from worry to determination. “You’re right. We don’t know what NASA knows. If they truly want to help, we might be the only ones that can give them the correct information. We can’t trust the government to play nice……I mean, they already keep Amity in the dark and out of the eye of the world.” Jazz crossed her arms; she hunched her shoulders up in concerned thought. “I’m honestly surprised they haven’t done worse to us. Especially with the anti-ecto policy. They could drag any of us off the streets.”

 Tucker nods, his fingers already flying across the keyboard. "I'll start digging into NASA's servers, see if I can find any information about what they know and what their intentions are.”

"Right," Jazz agreed, already pulling out her phone to look up flights. "He might have kept his secret from NASA, but the GIW must know by now, which means the government knows. Which means…... Danny is on borrowed time.”

"We've got his back," Tucker finished, his usual jovial demeanor replaced by the steadfast resolve of a friend ready to wade into the unknown. "Just like he's always had ours."

***

Jack Fenton's fist slammed down onto the console in his lab, causing a small eruption of sparks from the machinery. "That darn Phantom!" he bellowed, glaring at the image on the computer screen that showed Danny Phantom, or 'Dantom' as the media had begun to call the figure, standing amongst the astronauts on Mars.

"Jack, calm down," Maddie pleaded, her voice strained with concern, her eyes not leaving the second monitor that displayed a map with their son Danny's last known locations—each point a dead end.

"Can't you see what he's doing, Maddie? Pretending to be an alien just to gain fame! It's infuriating!" Jack's face was red with anger, and his hands shook as he raked them through his hair.

"Jack, please," Maddie said, her own frustration barely contained. "We need to focus. Our son is still missing, and if Phantom is on Mars, then he couldn't have taken Danny." Her voice broke slightly on their son's name, revealing the depth of her fear.

"Then who did?" Jack's question hung heavy in the air, unanswered. Together, they returned to the task at hand, capturing and interrogating any spectral entity they could find, hoping one of them held the key to Danny's whereabouts. But it had already been a week. They both felt the cold tendrils of fear crawl into their hearts. The more time that passed without a lead to Danny, the odds of them never finding him increased. The police hadn’t been able to find anything either. Both Jack and Maddie were convinced that a ghost had done it, not the living.

Jack wraps his arms around his wife, pulling her close as he tries to hold back his own tears. "We'll find him, Maddie. We won't rest until we bring Danny home safe and sound. And if a ghost did take him, they'll have to answer to the Fentons."

***

Meanwhile, in his mansion, Vlad Masters paces back and forth, his eyes glued to the television screen. He watches as the news anchors gush over the incredible discovery of an alien child on Mars, his fists clenching tighter with each passing minute.

"Damn you, Daniel," he mutters under his breath, his voice dripping with venom. "Of all the attention-seeking stunts you could have pulled, you just had to go and become the world's most famous alien."

Vlad's mind races with possibilities, his anger warring with his ever-present concern of maintaining his own secret identity. "As long as that brat keeps his mouth shut about our true nature, I suppose I can let him bask in the limelight for now," he muses, a calculating glint in his eye.

“But be careful, little Badger, one slip up, and I’ll have you locked away for all eternity.” Vlad thought. He could live without making him his adopted son. After all, without that pesky brat getting in the way, he could kill Jack and take Maddie all for himself. He could always make more sons.

With a final glance at the television, Vlad settles into his armchair; his fingers steepled as he begins to plot his next move. He knows that patience is key, and he's more than willing to bide his time until the perfect moment arises to strike.

***

A cacophony of angry voices rebounded off the walls in the stark, sterile confines of the GIW’s operations center. Agents clad in their customary suits huddled around monitors that showed an endless loop of the image that had ignited worldwide speculation.

"Sir, the public's eating this up," a junior analyst said, tapping her tablet to bring up social media reactions. "Public opinions are mostly positive.”

Agent A glared in anger. “We can't let Phantom continue this masquerade. It's... it's a national security threat!"

Agent O nods in agreement, his jaw set in a grim line. "We need to get the President on our side. If we can convince him that Phantom is a danger to the country, he'll have no choice but to hand him over to us."

"And once we have Phantom in our custody, we'll make him pay for his deceit," Agent K adds, a cruel smirk twisting his features. "We'll expose him for the evil entity he truly is, and the world will finally see ghosts for the evil beings they are."

Agent A nodded, his expression unreadable behind dark glasses. "Move up the meeting with President Davis by force if necessary. He’ll understand once we explain," he ordered, his voice calm but carrying an undercurrent of urgency. "It's time we exposed the truth about ghosts, starting with Danny Phantom."

They had been working with the mole in the White House to set up a meeting, but it was clear they needed to educate the higher government sooner rather than later. They would understand and forgive the need for secrecy. Agent A could just see the President agreeing that the GIW needed to take funds in secret.

Agent A paused a nagging thought clawed at the back of his mind. “Agent O, how about you take this mission? I want you to meet with the President. Can I trust you? To make the President understand by any means necessary?”

Agent O straightened, purpose igniting within him. "Yes, Director. I'll make sure the president understands the gravity of the situation. I’ll do whatever it takes; you can count on me!"

As agents scurried to carry out their orders, TVs nationwide aired President Davis' call for unity and cooperation with the alien species. The channel switched to an UN assembly where diplomats voiced their concerns and criticisms, the atmosphere fraught with tension.

***Back on Mars****

Commander Melissa Lewis glanced at the beds lining the wall, her gaze lingering on the one where Dantom lay curled up, seemingly asleep.

"Alright, let's keep it down," she murmured, her voice carrying the authority.

"Let's go over our tasks once more," Lewis began, her eyes scanning the expectant faces. "We need to find a way to get Dantom what he needs —"

"Commander," interrupted Johanssen, her brow furrowed. I think we need to address the elephant in the room first." She gestured subtly toward Danny, " like how he can speak English and how Vogal can speak this alien language.”

Lewis nodded slowly, acknowledging the point. "You're right, Beth. This situation with Dantom... it's complicated things."

"Complicated is an understatement," Rick Martinez chimed in, his skepticism a stark contrast to his usually jovial demeanor. "He lied to us about speaking English. What else isn't he telling us?"

"Exactly," Lewis agreed, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. "It concerns me deeply. Not just that he wasn't honest from the start but also that his interaction with humanity has obviously been negative. If someone on Earth hurt him... We need to be careful how we handle this."

"Whatever his reasons for hiding the truth," Lewis continued, her voice firm yet tinged with empathy, "we have to remember he's just a kid. And he's scared. Let's not forget that."

Alex Vogel cleared his throat, drawing the room's focus. He stood with an engineer's precision, his face somber yet earnest. "I spoke with Dantom," he glanced toward the slumbering figure. "And I believe I understand how we can communicate."

The others leaned in, curiosity piqued.

"Back in Germany, when I was a child, I nearly drowned in a lake during a family outing," Vogel began, his voice steady despite the personal nature of his story. "From what Dantom told me, experiences like that allow for one to understand and, in some circumstances, speak what he calls, ‘Soul Speak’.”  

"Wait, you're saying because you almost died once, you can understand him?" Rick Martinez interjected, disbelief etching his features. "That sounds like something out of a fantasy."

"Perhaps it does," Vogel conceded with a nod. “But We don’t have much else to go on.”

“I can’t prove anything or disprove anything, for that matter. Nothing stands out in Vogel’s vitals, and nothing that stands out as odd from everyone else.” Beck said.

"Sure, but English? How does some near-death childhood experience explain him knowing our language?" Rick pressed, folding his arms across his chest as he scrutinized Vogel with a sharp gaze.

Vogel met Rick's skepticism with a calm resolve. "I do not claim to have all the answers, Rick. But our communication transcended mere words. It was as if we connected on a level beyond language—a shared understanding."

Rick's frown deepened, and he looked away. There was no protocol for otherworldly linguistics.

"Regardless of how it works," Vogel continued, addressing the group, "it's clear that Dantom has knowledge far exceeding our own in certain areas. We should consider the potential for learning from him."

Beth Johanssen leaned forward. “From what he said, he’s been on earth before, maybe he’s been there awhile…...but clearly someone hurt him….” Beth pointed out, trailing off with a hint of sadness in her tone.

Chris Beck shifted in his chair, the physician in him analyzing the boy's reactions from earlier interactions. "That would mean he's been among us—hiding in plain sight, or worse, a captive……someone hurt him, and it’s possible he learned English from his captors. And it would explain why he lied to us…...he was scared.”

Commander Lewis gave a heavy sigh. “We better hope it wasn’t the US government. THAT will complicate things.”

“Still doesn’t explain how he got here, and yes, I know he said by portal…...but a lot is missing from that story,” Mark commented.

“Maybe he found a way back to this ‘infinity realm’ as he escaped somehow. Maybe he got caught, then escaped, and then somehow ended up here?” Rick babbled on.

Vogel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We really don’t know how these ‘portals’ work and even how much of what the kid said was the truth.”

Beck crossed his arms in thought. “Either way, he needs this ecto-deposit. He’s weak. If we want to help him, we either find the deposit here or leave for earth.”

“I’ll contact command, I think our best bet is getting him back to earth.” Commander Lewis said. She turned to her computer screen to send off the message.

Mark Watney stepped up to Lewis’s side. He leaned over and whispered to her. “Maybe find a way to let command know that someone hurt him back on Earth.”

*sigh* “I plan to Watney.” Lewis replied.

“Yeah, but are you adding in the possibility it was us…. like the US government? Like this could be our fault, well, not OUR fault, but someone down there. What I’m trying to say is that we should come up with a backup plan to make sure he’s safe and we’re not handing him over to the wrong people.”

Lewis frowned. NASA would not like to hear this theory. But with NASA being a more public institution they might have a chance at protecting the kid or at least making him known to the public. “Keeping him in the public eye should help…...not just our public but the world.”

“Right! THAT way they can’t lock him away in area 51.” Mark replied.

Chapter 9

[locustheologicus]

TRUMP’S AGENDA

Pushing people out

Imagine the population of Chicago. Then quadruple it. That’s about how many unauthorized immigrants Donald Trump hopes to remove from the country: 11 million people in all.

It won’t be easy. How will the government find all of these people? Where will they be held as officials process their cases? Will migrants’ home countries take them back? And will lawmakers approve all the funding required for this?

The Morning is running a series on the policies that Trump and his congressional allies will try to implement next year. Today’s installment will look at his mass deportation goals.

A huge operation

We already know the broad contours of Trump’s plan. He wants to use the military and law enforcement to detain the millions of people who are in the United States illegally. The government will hold them in detention facilities while it inspects the facts of each case. Finally, it will fly undocumented migrants to their home countries or other places that agree to take them.

We know less about more specific details. Here are six lingering questions:

1. Who are the targets? Trump aides say they will prioritize migrants with criminal records and previous removal orders, who number in the hundreds of thousands. The federal government already knows where to find most of these people, thanks to their previous contact with law enforcement, and can quickly deport many.

The question is who comes next. Trump also wants to deport undocumented migrants with clean records (aside from the blemish of breaking the law to enter the United States). And he has said he’ll go after people with Temporary Protected Status, a program that allows some migrants from specific countries to stay in the United States legally. These migrants could be harder to find and detain, especially in cities and states that call themselves sanctuaries for the undocumented. Those places have refused to cooperate with most federal deportation efforts.

2. Will courts sign off? Undocumented migrants have due process rights, so their cases typically have to work through the courts. But immigration courts have yearslong backlogs. Trump officials want to use arcane laws, like the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to bypass this process. That will likely lead to lawsuits — similar to those that stifled Trump’s first-term immigration policies.

Trump has two advantages. The courts, especially the Supreme Court, are friendlier to conservatives than they were in his first term. The Supreme Court has also ruled that the president has broad powers over immigration.

3. Where will migrants be held? Right now, officials don’t have anywhere to put tens of thousands more migrants, let alone hundreds of thousands. The government will have to build, buy or lease more detention centers.

4. Will other nations cooperate? Some countries, such as Venezuela, don’t take deportation flights from the United States. Others might resist taking in a sudden surge of migrants, especially those with criminal records. The administration could persuade nations to cooperate with a mix of favors and threats — trade deals and tariffs — but that would require careful diplomacy.

5. Will Congress pay up? Trump’s plan will cost $88 billion a year, the American Immigration Council estimates. That’s nearly twice the budget of the National Institutes of Health and four times NASA’s budget. Trump has suggested he’ll declare an emergency to use military funds for deportations. But the plan is expensive enough that Congress will likely have to approve more spending for it, and a bill might require Democratic support to pass the Senate.

6. Will immigrants self-deport? A goal of mass deportations is to create a climate of fear among migrants, leading some to leave America on their own. We don’t know how many people will do this.

Given these hurdles, Trump might not sustain the millions of deportations a year he wants. Still, he’ll almost certainly succeed in deporting more people than President Biden did. After all, the country has done it before, as this chart by my colleague Ashley Wu shows:

A chart shows deportations from the U.S. per year. During the Bush and Obama administrations, an average of about 300,000 people were deported per year. During the first three years of the Biden administration, an average of 105,000 people were deported per year.

Source: Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University | By The New York Times

The Bush and Obama administrations managed to remove 400,000 people a year at their peaks. Biden has deported fewer than 200,000 most years.

The consequences

Trump and his allies say that their plan will revitalize the economy and prioritize the rule of law. American workers “will now be offered higher wages with better benefits to fill these jobs,” Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top immigration advisers, told The Times last year.

Critics say that mass deportations will cause chaos in Latino communities, as well as labor shortages in industries like agriculture, food processing and construction, leading to higher prices. They also question if the cost of mass deportations is worth it. For the same price as deporting every undocumented migrant, the American Immigration Council estimated, the United States could build almost three million homes.

For more

New York City officials are considering closing a Brooklyn shelter that houses 2,000 asylum seekers. They fear Trump may cancel the lease for the shelter, which is on federal land.

Trump mentions Mexican migrant caravans to bolster his claims about the border. These groups rarely make it near the U.S.

[eton75]

Why Elon Musk’s Meeting with Iranian Officials Could Be Controversial

Recent reports indicate that Elon Musk met with Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, to discuss easing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. While Musk’s intentions may have been diplomatic, the meeting has raised questions about its legality under U.S. law.

1. The Logan Act

The Logan Act, a rarely enforced federal law, prohibits unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with foreign governments involved in disputes with the U.S. Without official authorization, Musk’s meeting could potentially fall under this statute.

2. Unofficial Diplomacy Risks

While Musk is not a government official, his prominent status in business and technology could blur the lines of his influence. Engaging in diplomacy without federal clearance can undermine official U.S. foreign policy efforts.

3. Political and Legal Implications

Given Musk’s advisory roles and high-profile connections, critics argue that such a meeting could set a dangerous precedent. However, legal experts note that the Logan Act has rarely been enforced, and Musk’s motives may shield him from prosecution.

4. The Broader Context

Musk’s meeting comes at a time of heightened U.S.-Iran tensions. His involvement in such discussions reflects the expanding role of billionaires in international affairs but also raises questions about accountability and oversight.

As investigations into this meeting unfold, the debate around the legality and ethics of private citizens engaging in foreign diplomacy continues.

#ElonMusk #Iran #Diplomacy #LoganAct #USLaw #InternationalRelations #Geopolitics #Controversy #TechAndPolitics

[ahmuseme]

open verse: historical/fantasy

The tension was palpable as the two forces converged on a backwood cliff path leading out of their host nation's land. The once-promising diplomacy negotiations were now on the brink of disaster, and her lord had ordered the discrete withdrawal of his wife and consorts from their no longer potential allies' lands to prevent them from becoming hostages. It was clear that the unauthorized action was not well-received, as Khulan took note of the weapons carried by the other patrol. She focused her gaze on the leader, unsurprised that her party had been discovered despite her best efforts to leave unnoticed. Their reputation had preceded them long before their nations began considering an alliance. "My lord has charged me with the safe return of his ladies," she restated firmly, her voice and gaze unwavering, before she unsheathed her saber. "Let us pass."

[dannyphantom1234]

I didn’t know if I was allowed to add to this but I had been through this hyper fixation and still currently attached to it longer than planned— but here are more of your interested in any of these? I love these authors and try to support them.

DC x DP recommendations;

Remember, Remember(to think before you jump)

By Assassination_Midoriya

(Danny is a failed clone from the Court of Owls, and was sent away and miraculously(lol) got adopted by the Fentons. But when something with the portal accident knocks the old memories loose, what will Danny do once he discovers Dick Grayson’s secret? And, through connection and memories, the rest of the Bat’s secret identities?)

Alternate Ways to Live and Die

By

Katlover98

(Basically Danny is an alternate version of Jason. One-shot).

Safehouse

By

Elizabehta_Beilschmidt

(When she is offered help from a random dude in the streets of Gotham, Dani accepts it even though he might be secretly a creep, because who could turn down a warm shower and free food?

Although this dude, Jason, may be an okay guy to talk to after all. But why does he smell like death?)(one shot)

Son of the Hood

By Shynnohwen

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shynnohwen/pseuds/Shynnohwen

(Danny was gone. The GIW had wrecked his core and Jazz was left grieving with her family and friends, all devastated. They hunted the monsters that destroyed her brother, hunted them all the way to the Himalayas and destroyed the Guys in White but Jazz felt like it was a hollowed out victory.
Grieving and anguished she stole Vlad's booze and wander off, runs into a guy hiding a body and deciding to spend a weekend running amok with "Jason" (a nice jerk that left without even saying goodbye and who she really should not have developed feelings for).
Then she discovered she was pregnant, and Clockwork told her he had placed Danny's ruined core in her so he could be reborn.
Skip nearly seven years later and Jazz is the mother of a rambunctious six (and a half!) year old boy who is the reincarnate of her brother and she just moved to Gotham with her family to go to school.
Jason meanwhile runs into a kid that tries to steal his wheel and pay for it with coco, a duck candle and a literal piggy bank... and then reunites with a blast from his past... and she has a tinier version of him attached to her hip.)

Protector

By

Chromatographic (Lia)

(Danny's been learning how to protect what's his with diplomacy as well as sheer power. So when someone mistakes him as an easily targeted civilian? Well. They can't hurt him, but if he doesn't do anything they might target his people.

Being a ghost makes it so much easier to scare off a threat.)

Family introductions

By

Half-dead Ham (Grima101)

(Danny and Tim have been dating for about a year now, figuring out their relationship between Tim’s vigilante duties and Danny’s Ghost King responsibilities. Danny is taking a small (unauthorized) break from his paperwork to find his bf flat on his ass sick trying to go on patrol. The only way to stop him was to take his place, and Danny was lucky they're the same size.)

Yes, He's the King of the Infinite Realms of the Dead, But He's Also an Introvert

By

bongo_balderdash

(When Duke mentions a boyfriend none of the family have heard of before out of the blue one day, there's a mad scramble to find out more. He likes space, he's known Duke for years- and apparently, he's shy. But surely, it's only a matter of time until they finally meet him.

In hindsight, maybe they should've asked if this mysterious boyfriend was human first.)

(One shot)

Contretemps

By

Olive_of_Vanders

(Prompt: Time/Dimension Travel

Danny enters a natural portal by accident – it's really not his fault it opened up in front of him! What is this "Got-ham" place anyway?)

(One shot)

Blood on the Crown

By

SkylarkSky

(She leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his brow, a covenant between them, a secret promise that she would tear the world asunder if it meant keeping him safe.

“Close your eyes, have no fear.
The monster’s gone, he’s on the run.”
She turned to the whimpering man before her.
“And your mommy’s here.” 
She didn’t hesitate this time.
“Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy.” 
The knife glinted in red as the man choked on his blood.
“Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy."

AKA: The fic where I accidentally make surprise single teenage mother Jazz, an overprotective serial killer. (She's cool with it)

Jason is definitely swooning, cause that shit is hot.)(has a lot of chapters and still updating I think?)

Rooftop Express

By

EmeraldsAndAmethyst

(Danny Fenton just wants to help his big sister be comfortable in Gotham. But he is getting so done with not being able to fly around freely. Danny tries to do things on the up and up but just progressively accidentally starts looking more and more like a new rogue trying to get set up. His parents must be retired super villains, which might not mean anything. But the rest of the evidence isn't very promising.

And then he finds a half-ghost no one knew anything about. Befriending him in the suit instead of out isn't helping his 'definitely not a super villain' case in the slightest.)

(Probably still updating, but it caught my attention).

A Second Life

By

Die_Erlkonigin6083

(He wakes up with no memories. He knows things, but he doesn’t know why. Who is he? And how did he get here?)

(Danny reborn into the dc universe with sis and friends/future significant others. Lots of chapters and a very good read. Think it’s finished updating?)

That Feeling When You (Accidentally) Seduce Your Landlord to Avoid Eviction

By

halfagone (milkywxy)

(Jason finds out the building his favorite safehouse is located in has been recently bought out. He could easily move, but he doesn't do easy. He'll just have to find a way to stick around, even if that means growing closer and catching feelings for his impromptu landlord.

Meanwhile, Danny is pretty sure he hit the jackpot for surprise tenants.)

(One shot)

Eldritch Toddler

By

halfagone (milkywxy)

(Bruce is not prepared for when John Constantine hands over a young boy who has been de-aged. While Constantine goes off in search of the one responsible, Bruce and his family are left to care for the child. Danny is a sweet kid, he isn't fussy either! This should be fine. They quickly learn to take Constantine's warnings seriously.

Day 3/November 16th: Eldritch Identities | The worst person to put in charge of teens is another teenager)

(One shot)

Prodigal of Lazarus

By

sherashalala

https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherashalala/pseuds/sherashalala

(The al Ghul heir died, which is how Damian al Ghul inherits the title of heir. By technicality, he gets to keep that title even if the eldest son is revived two years later.

Some things happens, and eventually Danny is tasked to escort his younger brother, the heir, to their father. They didn't... exactly tell him he's also to be delivered to Bruce Wayne.

To be fair, they could really work with their method of communication!)(idk if it’s still updating? But it’s an interesting concept).

!New Hyperfixation!

I've been binge-watching Danny Phantom for a day and I'm obsessed. It is literally soo good and it has started to mix with my DC hyper fixation so now I'm scrolling through the DC x DP hashtag and have been for the past hours scrolling on AO3 for Fanfics

So here are the fanfics I'm currently reading <3 includes Ships!!

'When We're Older' by haleswallows [Relevant tags: Jason Todd/Danny Fenton, Slowburn, 5+1 Things]

Blobs! In Space! by BooBean (NinaBeena) [Relevant tags: Ghost King Danny Fenton, Mild cannibalism (?), Haunted Watchtower, John Constantine, Batman ensemble, Tears in reality]

Red is Hood's Favorite Color by mango_sushi98 for TheRandomSith [Relevant tags: Jason Todd/Jazz Fenton, Ecto-Contaminated | Liminal Jason Todd (Danny Phantom), Ghost Cores (Danny Phantom), Ghost King Danny Fenton, Protective Jazz Fenton, Good Sibling Jazz Fenton, Batfamily Members (DCU) & Jazz Fenton, Batfamily Members (DCU) & Danny Fenton]

Cow Love by SIRDUCK__o7 [Relevant tags: Halfa | Half-Ghost Damian Wayne (Danny Phantom), Halfa | Half-Ghost Danny Fenton, Ghost Prince Danny Fenton, Obsessive Batfamily Members, Ecto-Contaminated | Liminal Batfamily Members (Danny Phantom and DCU), Bad Parent Maddie Fenton, Good Parent Jack Fenton (Danny Phantom)]

Send by: The Traveler

Addressed to: You my dear reader

[originalleftist]

To be fair, I have not yet found confirmation of this from another source. So until then, treat it with whatever skepticism you feel is due. If anyone has corroboration, please share.

However, if this is true (and I have not generally known Snell to be a fringe conspiratorial source), then every single death from the war between now and then, Palestinian, Israeli, or other, must be considered a potential homicide by both Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump as a result of Trump's illegal violation of the Logan Act, by engaging in unauthorized diplomacy with a foreign government for his own political gain.

Also, to every single person who says they won't vote, will "protest vote" or even vote Trump to punish Democrats over not stopping the war in Gaza, who holds assisting a Trump victory up as the "pro-Palestinian" or "anti-genocide" position- you are an imbecile and a scoundrel and a tool, you do not care about Palestinian lives, you are yourself a collaborator in war crimes with Netanyahu and Trump, and fuck you.

[masterofd1saster]

CJ current events 19jan23

Couldn’t happen to a nicer pack of $@!!%

JPMorgan Chase on Thursday shut down the website for a college financial aid platform it bought for $175 million after alleging the company’s founder created nearly 4 million fake customer accounts.

The country’s biggest bank acquired Frank in September 2021 to help it deepen relationships with college students, a key demographic, a Chase executive told CNBC at the time.

JPMorgan touted the deal as giving it the “fastest-growing college financial planning platform” used by more than 5 million students at 6,000 institutions. It also provided access to the startup’s founder, Charlie Javice, who joined the New York-based bank as part of the acquisition.

Months after the transaction closed, JPMorgan said it learned the truth after sending out marketing emails to a batch of 400,000 Frank customers. About 70% of the emails bounced back, the bank said in a lawsuit filed last month in federal court.

Javice, who had approached JPMorgan in mid-2021 about a potential sale, lied to the bank about her startup’s scale, the bank alleged. Specifically, after being pressed for confirmation of Frank’s customer base during the due diligence process, Javice used a data scientist to invent millions of fake accounts, according to JPMorgan.*** https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/12/jpmorgan-chase-shutters-student-financial-aid-website-frank.html

***

Speaking of fraud, Nellie Bowles writes:  

→ Meet our new colleague, SBF: We who publish on Substack are a family, and so it’s with a lot of joy that I welcome my brother in blogs: Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced crypto magnate and Dem megadonor. On Thursday, comrade Bankman-Fried published a long, dense piece continuing to explain just how innocent he is and how his various crypto schemes (FTX and Alameda) were very legitimate. He does summarize it nicely: “All of which is to say: no funds were stolen,” he writes. Meanwhile, his old company, which declared bankruptcy, recently “discovered” $5 billion more in cash and liquid assets. Sorry, what? And from where? Impossible to know, really. As the Wall Street Journal puts it: “The company didn’t keep reliable financial records and lacked normal corporate controls under past management.” https://www.thefp.com/p/tgif-planes-trains-and-gastric-bypass

***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, January 12, 2023Appointment of a Special Counsel

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced today the appointment of a former career Justice Department prosecutor and former U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur to serve as special counsel to conduct the investigation of matters that were the subject of the initial investigation by U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr. related to the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and the Wilmington, Delaware, private residence of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/appointment-special-counsel-1

***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, January 12, 2023 Woman Arrested for Voter Fraud Scheme

An Iowa woman was arrested today in Sioux City for her role in an alleged voter fraud scheme during the Iowa 2020 primary and general elections.

Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, of Sioux City, made her initial court appearance today. According to court documents, Taylor allegedly perpetrated a scheme to generate votes in the primary election in June 2020, when her husband was an unsuccessful candidate for Iowa’s 4th U.S. Congressional District, and subsequently in the 2020 general election, when her husband was a successful candidate for Woodbury County Supervisor. Taylor allegedly submitted or caused others to submit dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information. For example, although these documents required the signer to affirm that he or she was the person named in them, Taylor signed them for voters without their permission and told others that they could sign on behalf of relatives who were not present.

Taylor is charged by indictment with 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/woman-arrested-voter-fraud-scheme

***

Asian immigrant

A man accused of beating a Chinese immigrant to death in New York City while he was collecting cans to earn money pleaded guilty Thursday.

Jarrod Powell, 51, pleaded guilty to a hate-crime manslaughter charge and is expected to be sentenced to 22 years in prison for the death of 61-year-old Yao Pan Ma.***

Ma was collecting cans in East Harlem on the evening of April 23, 2021 when he was suddenly attacked. He was pushed to the ground and kicked in the head. Powell stomped on Ma's head multiple times during the beating, which put him into a coma, Bragg said.

A bus driver stopped at a light saw the attack and flagged down a nearby ambulance. Ma sustained brain injuries and was put on life support.

Ma’s wife said that her husband was just collecting bottles and cans to help pay the rent and bills for his family.***

As part of his plea deal, Powell admitted he attacked Ma because he was Asian. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9. Bragg's office currently has 44 open cases related to anti-Asian hate crimes. https://www.foxnews.com/us/nyc-man-pleads-guilty-beating-chinese-immigrant-death

***

https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/

BoP:  we had him here somewhere.  He was just here.  https://www.foxnews.com/world/isis-beatle-alexanda-kotey-disappears-us-prison-system-records

***

Many times your job is helping people on their worst behavior.

***Sangamon County State's Attorney Dan Wright said Tuesday in a press conference that LifeStar EMS workers Peggy Finley, 44, and Peter Cadigan, 50, were charged in the death of 35-year-old Earl L. Moore Jr. on Dec. 18.

Wright said police were called to Moore's residence and found him suffering from a hallucinatory episode and immediately called EMS for patient care.***

An autopsy revealed that Moore died from "compressional and positional asphyxia due to prone face-down restraint on a paramedic transportation cot stretcher by tightened straps across the back."

The pair should have known from their training and experience that positioning a patient in such a way "would create a substantial probability of great bodily harm or death," Wright added.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/illinois-ems-workers-charged-murder-patient-care

***

He interrupts violence by drugging people & shooting them

Chicago police officers who were executing a search warrant reportedly discovered a man who works as a violence interrupter naked under a bed with cash, drugs, and a gun in the home.

Jerel Taylor, 30, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, possession of heroin and possession of a controlled substance after police raided an apartment in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago and found a loaded pistol on the kitchen window ledge along with bags of suspected crack cocaine, according to CWB Chicago.

Taylor was reportedly hiding under the bed and police saw his feet sticking out from beneath the bed after a woman told them there was no on in the house.

Police say they found $50,000 cash on the floor and that they also found heroin on the floor next to Taylor's pants when they asked him where his clothes were.***

Taylor has been convicted of five narcotics-related felonies since 2018, according to prosecutors. *** https://www.foxnews.com/us/anti-violence-worker-found-chicago-home-naked-gun-suspected-narcotics-5ok-cash-prosecutors

***

You will meet defendants like this

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnDZCFrJyS4/

Flamingo Road.  (1949).  Joan Crawford &  Iris Adrian.

***

Where would we be w/o memes?

https://img.ifunny.co/images/f4bc870bbfa8e454e988c05674d6062db3b193062462556cc4b1011eec0f025d_1.webp

***

Homeland security

Walking along a dirt road in her village, a Ukrainian grandmother notices five men walking toward her. It’s dangerous to stare at them, but even from just a quick glance as they pass by, she senses something isn’t right — they’re not local. “These guys don’t fit in,” she thinks. “They’re all in their 20s. They’re muscular. Maybe they’re infiltrators.”

Within minutes, she has contacted the police, reporting her suspicions. The police react rapidly to her tip, intercept the five men, and discover they have heavy-duty explosives hidden in their clothes, which they were planning to plant on a nearby bridge.

This scenario is unfortunately common in Ukraine today. Saving the bridge, in this case, depended on both vigilant citizens and, most of all, a strong and efficient police force.

When I visited Ukraine for five days in December 2022, I spoke to the Kyiv Regional Police to gain insight into why the Russian Federation invaders make incapacitating the local police a top priority when invading a country. In each of the 12 wars they’ve been involved with since 1991, the Russians have systematically bombed police stations, destroyed police communications, and either stolen or disabled police cars.  *** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/why-the-russian-invaders-make-crippling-police-a-priority

***

B/c the humane thing is to let people be homeless

SEATTLE (AP) — A record 310 homeless people died in the Seattle area last year, highlighting the region’s struggle to house the thousands of people living on its streets.

The 310 deaths in King County surpassed the previous record of 195 homeless deaths set in 2018, the Seattle Times reported, and marked a 65% jump over 2021.

“That’s just appalling,” the paper quoted Chloe Gale, policy and strategy vice president for REACH, the largest homelessness outreach provider in Seattle, as saying.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said it underscores his administration’s urgent need to get more people indoors.

Fentanyl-related overdoses accounted for more than half of the deaths. Many people had a combination of fentanyl and other drugs such as meth or cocaine in their system, the paper reported, citing records from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Eighteen homeless people died by homicide, a number that more than doubled from 2021.

Thirty-five people died from natural causes at a much younger age than is typical. The average age of death for homeless people was 48, the medical examiner found.*** https://apnews.com/article/health-seattle-4b20246a2b18e34f46688cf1dee3ed90

***

Adolescence exists because we can afford it

The biggest technology story of this past year involves a fraud perpetrated by a boy. Or so the press would have us believe. Just months before Sam Bankman-Fried’s unraveling, Fortune Magazine referred to the billionaire as a “trading wunderkind” a latter-day Warren Buffett only with a “goofy facade” and a penchant for fidget spinners. Even after his downfall and subsequent arrest in the Bahamas, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Axios all referred to Bankman-Fried, or SBF, as a disgraced “crypto wunderkind.” Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times illustrated his boyishness best when interviewing him at the Times’ DealBook Summit last November. “When you read the stories,” Sorkin said, “it sounds like a bunch of kids who were all on Adderall having a sleepover party.” SBF’s fate will now be decided by the Southern District of New York, but his media charade of aw-shucks interviews and congressional testimony laced with brogrammer idioms built a public persona that we’ve largely come to accept: SBF is just a kid. Indeed, he’s so young that his law school professor parents were involved in his business and political dealings. (In this, they embody the helicopter style of child-rearing favored by nearly the entire Boomer elite.) The reality, of course, is that SBF is a grown-ass, 30-year-old man. He is twelve years older than many of the men and women we sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.*** But the reason this iteration of the time-tested financial fraud plotline matters so much is not because SBF is an exception to the rule of how our culture infantilizes millennials. It’s that he is the rule.*** “Twenty-five is the new 18,” said The Scientific American in 2017, pointing to research that extended adolescence is a byproduct of affluence and progress in society. Which is why the finiteness of a mid-thirties half-life is such a surprise to those in their 20s and 30s. It runs counter to every meme and piece of advice young people receive about building a career, a family, a company and in turn, a country. The prevailing wisdom in Western nations is that the ages of 18-29 are a time for extreme exploration—the collecting of memories, friends, partners and most importantly, self-identity. A full twelve years of you! Self-discovery aided by platforms built for broadcasting photos of artisanal cocktails and brunch. And with no expectation for leadership because there will be time for that, a generation can absolve oneself of responsibility for their actions. (Tragically, that was never true for half of the population, which is why we have a generation of extremely accomplished older women, who weren’t really aware how difficult it is to become pregnant at 39.)  *** https://www.thefp.com/p/its-time-to-get-serious

***

Angry much?

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A man going through a contentious divorce was caught on camera on a smash-up rampage, crashing a dump truck into his estranged wife's home in South Los Angeles and slamming into parked cars on the street.

Patricia Dunn told Eyewitness News the man in the video is her husband. They are going through a divorce and and she says she fears for her life.

"A man under that kind of rage - who's to say what he might do?" she said. "He was trying to kill me. He really was."

She said the area of the house he struck with his car was her bedroom.

The incident happened Sunday afternoon in the area of 107th Street and Normandie Avenue, in South LA's Westmont neighborhood.*** https://abc7.com/man-crashes-parked-cars-south-los-angeles-divorce-rampage/12710369/

***

What could do wrong with donuts in a confined space?

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- An arrest has been made in connection with the death of a woman in her 20s who was fatally struck by a car during a street takeover in South L.A.'s Hyde Park neighborhood last month, authorities said.

The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed the arrest to ABC7 but declined to release additional details. More information is expected to be disclosed at a Tuesday morning news conference.

The victim, identified by relatives as Elyzza Guajaca, was struck shortly after 9 p.m. on Dec. 25 by a black Chevrolet Camaro while standing with a group of people at the northeast corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Florence Avenue, according to the LAPD. She was transported to a hospital, where she died from her injuries.

The driver involved in the collision fled the scene, authorities said.*** https://abc7.com/street-takeover-arrest-racing-elyzza-guajaca/12711250/

***

That is a disagreement....

Eight people were shot at a block party packed with more than 1,000 people celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Fort Pierce, Florida, Monday, police said.

All eight of those shot were adults and they were ferried to the hospital for treatment, including one person in critical condition, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Brian Hester said during a news conference.

At least four others were injured as people ran for safety, the sheriff’s office said. One of those injured was a juvenile who was hurt as people rushed to flee the park where the event was being held, Hester said.***

The sheriff’s office has not named any suspects in the shooting, but investigators were following up on several leads from witnesses and community members Monday night.

Investigators preliminarily believe the gunfire involved multiple shooters and resulted from “a disagreement of some sort between two parties,” Hester said.*** https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/us/fort-pierce-shooting-florida-mlk-day/

***

Sore loser

Albuquerque police on Monday arrested the man they say is the “mastermind” behind a recent string of shootings targeting Democratic lawmakers’ homes.

The suspect, Solomon Pena, is a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for office in November, has made repeated claims that the election was rigged and appears to have attended the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington, D.C.

Around 3 p.m. APD’s SWAT team swarmed a condominium complex near the ABQ BioPark Zoo to execute a search warrant. They made announcements for Pena — who they said may be armed with a firearm — to surrender as drones flew overhead.

Within an hour officers had arrested Pena, who is accused of paying four men to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators, Police Chief Harold Medina announced Monday evening. Investigators also believe Pena was present for at least one of the shootings.***

House Republican Leader Ryan Lane, R-Aztec, issued statements applauding law enforcement and condemning violence.“***

Lane said the New Mexico House Republicans are grateful no one was injured in the shootings and referenced Pena’s criminal past — which had been a controversial issue during the campaign.

“This is yet another example of a convicted felon unlawfully gaining access to firearms, which they are barred from owning or possessing, and using the weapon in a manner that causes public harm,” Lane said.*** https://www.abqjournal.com/2565117/solomon-pena-arrested-in-shootings-targeting-new-mexico-democratic-politicians-homes.html

***

We’ll talk about privileges

A Douglas County psychologist violated Colorado’s mandatory reporting laws when she failed to tell authorities about a teenage client’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse, Parker police allege in court filings.

Virginia Kibler, 71, was charged with a misdemeanor count of failure to report suspected child abuse in August, and is scheduled to appear for a disposition hearing in mid-February, court records show.

The psychologist was charged after police say a teenage client confided to Kibler that a man sexually assaulted her multiple times between the ages of about 6 and 12. The girl repeatedly told Kibler about the assaults during therapy sessions between November 2020 and May 2021, but the psychologist never reported the allegations to the Colorado Department of Human Services or law enforcement, as is required by the state’s mandatory reporting laws, Shelly Bradbury writes.  https://www.denverpost.com/2023/01/17/colorado-psychologist-fail-report-sexual-abuse-virginia-kibler/

***

In Nawlins you can buy “other lawyer be stupid incense.”

https://www.gocomics.com/thefuscobrothers/2023/01/17

***Wed

By Whiskey Fueled Tirade

WASHINGTON — A White House staffer changed the “days without a security incident” sign back to zero this morning after aides found additional classified documents in President Biden’s personal residence, sources confirmed today.

“Guess we’re not getting a pizza party this week,” said Kenneth Franklin, a 23-year-old West Wing staffer, after he changed the sign and lumbered back to his desk. “It was my turn to pick this month, too — it’s just not fair.”

Franklin and his colleagues were required to change the sign from four days back to zero after the revelation that aides found additional classified documents in the President's garage, private office, and in the glovebox of his 1981 Camaro. Staffers were not the only White House employees unhappy about the revelation.

“You got any Xanax?” the White House security manager asked as she poured something from a flask into a coffee cup and stubbed a cigarette out on her armchair.*** https://www.duffelblog.com/p/white-house-staffer-changes-days

***

Welcome to Mexico

GOSHEN —  

Six people, including a 6-month old baby, her teenage mother and an elderly woman, were killed Monday in a Central Valley farming community in what the local sheriff said was likely a targeted attack by a drug cartel.

The massacre occurred around 3:30 a.m. in and around a residence in the Tulare County town of Goshen, near Visalia. Authorities said they were searching for two suspects and that the killings may have been related to a search warrant carried out last week at the property that resulted in one arrest and the seizure of guns, marijuana and methamphetamine.

“I think it’s specifically connected to the cartel,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux told The Times without specifying a particular criminal organization. “The level of violence … this was not your run-of-the-mill, low-end gang member.”***

Several were shot in the head, including the baby, Boudreaux said. A sheriff’s deputy responding to reports of gunfire found the infant cradled in the arms of her 17-year-old mother, who also had a gunshot wound to the head, in a ditch outside the home.

An elderly woman discovered dead in a bed also was shot in the head.***

Bisected by Highway 99, with a sparse law enforcement presence, acres of wide open land and a highly mobile population of farmworkers, the area has served as a smugglers’ paradise since at least the 1970s.

In more recent decades, the area has been home to the production of meth and the cultivation of both legal and illegal marijuana.

Some of the most prominent — and most violent — figures of Mexico’s recent drug wars have ties to Tulare, including Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, a former leader of the brutal Zetas cartel, who was born there.*** https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-01-16/six-people-including-mother-and-baby-killed-in-tulare-county

***

parody

7 Ways To Spot An FBI Agent Twitter Profile 

https://babylonbee.com/news/7-ways-to-spot-an-fbi-agent-twitter-profile

***

general knowledge  - forensic science pub

https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/publications/evaluating-digital-forensic-expert-witnesses.pdf

***

good murder knowledge pub

Murders in US are very concentrated, and they are becoming even more so

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID4325838_code16317.pdf?abstractid=4325838&mirid=1&type=2

***Thurs

Sam Bankman-Fraud sniffs  "only $700M?"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Wednesday, January 18, 2023 

Founder and Majority Owner of Cryptocurrency Exchange Charged with Processing Over $700 Million of Illicit Funds

The founder and majority owner of a cryptocurrency exchange, Bitzlato Ltd. (Bitzlato), was arrested last night in Miami for his alleged operation of a money transmitting business that transported and transmitted illicit funds and that failed to meet U.S. regulatory safeguards, including anti-money laundering requirements.

Anatoly Legkodymov, 40, a Russian national who resides in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China, is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. French authorities and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are taking concurrent enforcement actions.***

According to court documents, Legkodymov is a senior executive and the majority shareholder of Bitzlato, a Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange that operates globally. Bitzlato has marketed itself as requiring minimal identification from its users, specifying that “neither selfies nor passports [are] required.” On occasions when Bitzlato did direct users to submit identifying information, it repeatedly allowed them to provide information belonging to “straw man” registrants.***

As a result of these deficient know-your-customer (KYC) procedures, Bitzlato allegedly became a haven for criminal proceeds and funds intended for use in criminal activity. Bitzlato’s largest counterparty in cryptocurrency transactions was Hydra Market (Hydra), an anonymous, illicit online marketplace for narcotics, stolen financial information, fraudulent identification documents, and money laundering services that was the largest and longest running darknet market in the world. Hydra users exchanged more than $700 million in cryptocurrency with Bitzlato, either directly or through intermediaries, until Hydra was shuttered by U.S. and German law enforcement in April 2022. Bitzlato also received more than $15 million in ransomware proceeds.***

As alleged in the complaint, Bitzlato’s customers routinely used the company’s customer service portal to request support for transactions with Hydra, which Bitzlato often provided, and admitted in chats with Bitzlato personnel that they were trading under assumed identities. Moreover, Legkodymov and Bitzlato’s other managers were aware that Bitzlato’s accounts were rife with illicit activity and that many of its users were registered under others’ identities. For instance, on May 29, 2019, Legkodymov used Bitzlato’s internal chat system to write to a colleague that Bitzlato’s users were “known to be crooks,” using others’ identity documents to register their accounts. Legkodymov was repeatedly warned by colleagues that Bitzlato’s customer base consisted of “addicts who buy drugs at [] Hydra” and “drug traffickers,” with one senior executive even stressing that Bitzlato should combat drug dealers only “nominally,” to avoid hurting the company’s bottom line. An internal spreadsheet saved in Bitzlato’s shared management folder encapsulated the company’s view of itself: “Positives: No KYC. . . . Negatives: Dirty money. . . .”

As alleged in the complaint, although Bitzlato claimed not to accept users from the United States, it did substantial business with U.S.-based customers, and its customer service representatives repeatedly advised users that they could transfer funds from U.S. financial institutions. Moreover, Legkodymov – who himself administered Bitzlato from Miami in 2022 and 2023 – received reports reflecting substantial traffic to Bitzlato’s website from U.S.-based Internet Protocol addresses, including over 250 million such visits in July 2022.

Legkodymov is charged with conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/founder-and-majority-owner-cryptocurrency-exchange-charged-processing-over-700-million

***

Really need SCt to revisit danger to self/others std

A Michigan woman and her two sons froze to death after wandering the streets of Pontiac, Michigan, for nearly three days. Authorities said that Monica Latrice Cannady, 35, her two sons, Malik Milton, 3, and Kyle Milton, 9, and her ten-year-old daughter spent the night sleeping in a field as temperatures dropped below freezing.***

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the deaths were "accidental-slash-preventable." He said the Cannady had been acting paranoid and believed that she was being tracked by microchips in her phone.

"The woman, the mom, was having a mental health crisis. She believed someone was trying to kill her, and everyone was in on it, including the police," Bouchard said during a press conference.*** https://www.iheart.com/content/2023-01-18-woman-and-her-2-sons-froze-to-death-after-wandering-streets-for-3-days/

***

America’s Police Exodus

The fallout of 'defund the police' is still unfolding. Just ask Brian Lande.

By Leighton Woodhouse

January 19, 2023

***Making the wrong decision is now a lot more likely to land you in prison, Lande explained. “It’s not tenable for my family,” he said. So in early 2022, he started thinking about quitting his dream job.

He was hardly alone.

A 2021 survey showed that police departments nationwide saw resignations jump by 18 percent—and retirements by 45 percent—over the previous year, with hiring decreasing by five percent. The Los Angeles Police Department has been losing 50 officers a month to retirement, more than the city can replace with recruits. Oakland lost about seven per month in 2021, with the number of officers sinking below the city’s legally mandated minimum. 

The list goes on: Chicago has lost more cops than it has in two decades. New Orleans is backfilling its shortfall of officers with civilians. New York is losing more police officers than it has since such figures began being recorded. Minneapolis and Baltimore have similar stories. St. Louis—one of the most dangerous cities in America—has lost so many cops that there’s a seven-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide pile of uniforms from outgoing officers at police headquarters called “Mount Exodus.”

And in San Francisco, just across the bay from Richmond, the police department has seen 50 officers out of a force of fewer than 2,000 take off for smaller, suburban departments, according to Lieutenant Tracy McCray, the head of the city’s police union.***

Lande transferred to Kensington, a 15-minute drive away.

Kensington is filled with California craftsman-style bungalows, mid-century ranch houses and Spanish-style villas with Priuses and Teslas out front, and decks with gorgeous views of the San Francisco Bay out back. Black Lives Matters signs are everywhere, reflecting Kensington residents’ solidarity with working-class black people in cities like Richmond—even as Richmond has become less safe as a result of the changes that movement has ushered in.

Life is good: Officer Lande is now Sergeant Lande. His job involves far fewer risks. Much of his day is filled with administrative work at the station. When he goes out on patrol, he mostly writes parking tickets.***

Peter Moskos, the former Baltimore police officer now teaching at John Jay College, was mystified by progressives who insist that the single greatest threat faced by black Americans is systemic racism. “Congratulations!” said Moskos, who has called for legalizing drugs in response to the drug war’s ineffectiveness and its disproportionate impact on young black men. “You’ve increased the black murder rate. You’re giving blacks worse policing through this transfer of cops—and doing it smugly in the name of racial justice.”  https://www.thefp.com/p/americas-police-exodus

***

Not as smart/funny as he thought

https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/10fe3xr/gummy_bears_dont_lie_to_your_mother/

***

About time

More than a full year after the now-infamous shooting, Alec Baldwin will finally face charges. New Mexico prosecutors investigating the shooting on the set of the film Rust are charging Baldwin, who was both a lead actor and producer on the Western, with involuntary manslaughter for killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Prosecutors also plan to charge the film's armorer, Hannah-Gutierrez Reed, with involuntary manslaughter. The film's first assistant director, David Halls, will plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon.

Baldwin, who has previously used his privilege to escape accountability for violent outbursts, faces a maximum sentence of 18 months for the manslaughter charge, a fourth-degree felony under New Mexico law. Perhaps Hutchins deserved more from the criminal justice system, but it is a severe blow to Baldwin's campaign to deflect blame that he is being charged at all.

Baldwin, the actor, has maintained that despite his dereliction of duty in checking the chamber of the gun for bullets, he didn't actually pull the trigger of the gun when he aimed it directly at Hutchins. After investigating the shooting, the FBI determined that this claim was false — or, as an objective observer would deem it, a face-saving lie.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/not-even-alec-baldwin-can-get-away-with-shooting-a-woman-to-death

***

New York Senate:  “We like minorities until they disagree w/ us.”

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s governor suffered a historic defeat in just the first few weeks of her new administration. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday became the first governor to lose her bid to appoint the state’s top judge, a major rebuke by progressives, unions and her Democratic colleagues in Senate. Hochul, who barely won election to a full term in November, plowed ahead into Wednesday’s confirmation hearing despite aggressive opposition. She was met with fierce resistance from fellow Democrats. It’s the first time New York lawmakers have denied a gubernatorial nominee to the state Court of Appeals under the current system that started in the 1970s.*** Hochul swiftly dismissed the committee’s integrity and authority and called for a full Senate vote. The fight pits the moderate governor against the Democratic majority in the Legislature and its allies who rallied against LaSalle, who would have been the state’s first Latino chief judge of the state Court of Appeals.*** https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/18/hochul-chief-judge-pick-rejected-00078443

***

Why the 1st Amendment is important

The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua has found a Catholic priest, imprisoned since August 2022, guilty of “conspiracy” against the state.

According to the Nicaraguan media outlet 100% Noticias, Judge Nancy Aguirre of the Tenth Criminal District Trial Court of Managua found Father Oscar Benavidez Dávila guilty of the crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national security and sovereignty” and “spreading fake news.”

The prosecution is now asking for a sentence of eight years in prison for the priest, the pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in the town of Mulukukú in the Diocese of Siuna.

The accusations against the priest were made in September 2022 after he was held under arrest for 42 days in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ) in Managua, better known as El Chipote, a prison notorious for torturing political opponents of the regime. The priest was apprehended Aug. 14, 2022, after celebrating Mass and was taken to the prison.*** https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253372/nicaraguan-priest-found-guilty-sentenced-to-eight-years-in-prison-for-conspiracy

***

DC asks for more crime

The D.C. Council is expected to override Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s veto of sweeping criminal reform legislation that will soften penalties for many violent crimes, including carjackings and burglaries.

Bowser vetoed the Revised Criminal Code Act earlier this month after the council, which lacks a single Republican member, voted unanimously to adopt it in November. The overhaul of the city’s criminal code includes reduced maximum sentences, the elimination of nearly all mandatory minimum sentences, and expanded rights to jury trials by those accused of misdemeanors.***

Council members are expected to override Bowser’s veto and send the bill to Congress, where federal lawmakers will have 60 days to review it. Within that period, Congress may enact a joint resolution disapproving the Council's Act. If President Biden approves the resolution, the act will be prevented from becoming law.*** https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dc-poised-soften-penalties-carjacking-violent-crimes-despite-mayors-veto

***

Our daughter knows how to use a chainsaw?  How cool is that??

A Pennsylvania woman has been arrested after allegedly shooting both of her parents in the head and then dismembering their bodies with a chainsaw, prosecutors say.

Verity Beck, 49, is now facing murder charges after investigators discovered the remains of her parents, identified as Reid Beck, 73, and Miriam Beck, 72, at a home in Abington Township on Tuesday night.

"These were not easy autopsies to conduct based upon the fact Verity used this chainsaw and then had put parts of her parents into trash bags and had covered them up, and they were actually in two different trash cans," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/pennsylvania-woman-verity-beck-accused-killing-parents-dismembering-bodies-chainsaw

***

We have so few murderers, we need to import them

EXCLUSIVE: A suspected MS-13 gang member set to go on trial next week for the horrific 2018 slaying of his California girlfriend's 10-year-old son is a native of El Salvador and living in the U.S. illegally, according to a law enforcement source.

Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37, and his American girlfriend Heather Maxine Barron, 33, are both charged with murder and torture in the death of her son, Anthony Avalos, as well as child abuse against two other children in the home, court records show.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-ms-13-member-accused-10-year-olds-torture-murder-us-illegally

[originalleftist]

The fact that Muskrat still has government contracts AND A SECURITY CLEARANCE while being more or less openly an agent of the Russian government (sabotaging Starlink, letting Russia use it, constantly platforming the most vile Russian propaganda, pitching a Ukraine "peace plan" which is basically helping Putin and is potentially a violation of the Logan Act by conducting unauthorized diplomacy, and probably more) is obscene.

Hopefully this is a step toward his losing all of them.

musk was under invegested for pac

so I heard, his PAC has been pretending to offer help registering people to vote, but if you say you're from a key swing state it doesn't send you to your states' Sec of State website to get registered, it asks a bunch of demographic follow up questions and then doesn't help you get registered, no doubt valuable data.

but all that is illegal.

he's also in trouble because Twitter's little AI troll, grunk or whatever the fuck its called, has been telling people misinformation about the election, telling people Kamala Harris missed ballot deadlines in a lot of states, she didn't, she will be on ALL 50 state ballots. So a number of Senators sent Musk an angry letter. Now having an AI bot be a liar isn't illegal, but when your life blood is federal contracts its not great to have Senators pissed at you.

[countessofbiscuit]

The One-Day War

During the Clone Wars, Pantora attempted to petition the Galactic Senate to recognize its sovereignty over its parent planet, Orto Plutonia. However, the Jedi who investigated the matter discovered the Talz who claimed to have been there for generations. The Chairman of the Assembly declared war on the Talz, but died in the ensuing slaughter. After receiving emergency powers, Senator Riyo Chuchi negotiated a treaty between the two peoples.

To many Pantorans, this One-Day War represents both the dangers of political power and the triumph of diplomacy and democracy. It also represents Pantora’s eager, naive, and potent desire to be recognized as a global power and participant in galactic politics. No world or people felt a greater psychic blow than the Pantorans when the Galactic Empire dissolved the Senate.

New tensions are arising now between the Talz on Orto Plutonia and the Pantorans. Since the collapse of the Republic, Pantora has been cut off from the galaxy. It is desperate to secure resources, including the natural resources on Orto Plutonia. The Talz, however, have no interest in allowing industry on their planet. Some Pantorans want to reaffirm Riyo Chuchi’s treaty out of respect for the Talz and the Republic. Others want to educate the Talz and integrate them into Pantoran society and political debates. Still other Pantorans think the treaty only refers to the Talz’s geographic location and that the rest of the planet is fair game. The Talz themselves sense something amiss, as they have reported unauthorized starships landing on Orto Plutonia. Who is piloting them and for what end, however, they do not know.

- Star Wars: Force And Destiny: Endless Vigil. Fantasy Flight Games, 2016. pg. 22. 

How delightful it is, to find Riyo Chuchi given the credit she’s due in a sourcebook! And to have an official name for the skirmish seen in S01E15 “Trespass”.

However, this is an interesting way of framing the events of the episode — that the Jedi are called to attest Pantora’s right to sovereignty of a planet that Pantora already considers a protectorate (in this version of events, has the Republic never formally recognized this claim?), not to investigate a mysterious massacre of Republic troops. Yes, the question of Orto Plutonia’s uninhabited status (a status the Jedi are uniquely qualified to determine) falls straight into the lap of this episode’s plot, but that seems in direct opposition to Chairman Cho’s wishes.

It was Cho who petitioned the Senate for the GAR listening post on Plutonia (either himself or through Senator Chuchi). And now he seeks proof of a Separatist incursion, not Republic permission to annex Plutonia — which he already regards as belonging to Pantora. Whether that’s just his opinion/desire/delusion, or a ruling in Pantoran law that he does not wish overturned, the Republic evidently considered Plutonia fair game for a military installation. Cho may have had genuine concerns for Pantora’s sovereignty, so friendless as they are in the Sujiimis sector, and so close to pockets of Separatist space. He may have been looking to bait the Separatists, giving Pantora the push he feels it needs to enter the conflict — where Cho, an aggressive personality and veteran of many conflicts (if his own claims are to be believed), might elevate his martial reputation*, perhaps even expanding the Pantoran executive power — or giving the Republic cause to send more troops to the sector, further safeguarding Pantora.

Besides Plutonia’s potential as useful operating base away from the populated, peaceful Pantora, where, despite strong pro-Republic feeling, garrisons of clone troops might be politically dicey, what other motives might Cho have for insisting so rabidly on Plutonia’s protectorate status? Why is this “wasteland”, as he describes it, so valuable to him? A matter of Pantoran pride? A historic claim that Cho won’t see invalidated in his term, in his lifetime? Possibly. Indeed, to put it down to anything other than jingoism, especially given Cho’s irrational actions at the crisis point of the episode, might be unnecessary. That seems all the show wants us to take away.

Personally, I find it interesting to entertain the possibility that Pantora was exploiting Plutonia for centuries, and the arrival of the Republic party threatened that. How could Pantoran scientific institutions be ignorant of any sentient lifeforms on its parent planet? Especially a population of people who, by Obi-Wan’s estimation, haven’t mastered space-travel? I refuse to credit that. A far more likely scenario than either the sourcebook or the show depict strikes me as follows:

Pantora has long maintained lucrative mining outposts on Plutonia’s unsettled hemisphere, purposefully giving the pockets of Talz a wide berth; never has Pantora declared their surveyors’ early discovery of the indigenous population to any Republic body. Besides the resource taxation they may avoid paying, Pantora also benefits from being the only ""civilized"" beings in the sector — it gives them a monopoly on representation in the Senate and funding from the Senate. Cho knows the dangers of requesting a Republic listening post on Plutonia — Senator Chuchi sweats as she reminds him of them — but the Talz migration patterns have not changed in living memory; if contact happens to be made, perhaps it will be overlooked; perhaps Republic troops will regard the Talz as Cho does: savages worthy of being eliminated, committing his dreamt-for genocide for him. Regardless, the need for an advanced warning of Separatist movement outweighs the risk of discovery. Republic bureaucracy is notoriously sluggish — who would suffer it to represent the rights of such a worthless and backwards species? Cho’s listening post is built and manned. Then the worst occurs: a CIS frigate lands undetected and the droids’ investigation of ‘the southern canyon’ in Talz territory aggravates the locals, who then mount an attack on the other invaders: the GAR garrison. (Don’t ask me to explain how the Talz achieved this. At some point logic must simply refuse to turn the corner and carry on, untroubled :p) Cho must now intervene with the Jedi officers and the young, foolish, bleeding-heart senator who appealed to them to investigate in person. They are a necessary evil: the only ones who can divert more Republic troops his way … the very ones to raise a stink about the natives.

Hence, Cho’s anger, his reactionary belligerence, and his strident insistence that this is an “internal matter”, perhaps hoping to cow his senator and the Jedi into retreating from this parochial dispute and back to their bigger problem … but not before Cho borrows their military assets for a bit of murder, thanks.

Declaring the situation an “internal matter” should prevent Cho’s use of Republic troops — Anakin and Obi-Wan have every right to let Cho and his two guards shake their fists at the Talz and be skewered. Why they don’t is baffling. Maybe they figure “JEDI ARREST EXALTED RULER OF REPUBLIC WORLD” or “‘PEACEKEEPING’ JEDI WATCH AS EXALTED RULER SPEARED TO DEATH” would be bad press. Maybe the Jedi just need to buy time for Senator Chuchi to secure means of legally detaining the Chairman, and sending Cho on a goosechase with Captain Rex is the best way to stall: Rex won’t engage the Talz except in self-defense (he might even see the Chairman … take himself out of the equation), and they can remain behind to bolster little Chuchi’s confidence as she embarks on a legislative coup with the Speaker of the Assembly, presumably urging him to call an emergency session that will see Cho declared “out of order” and executive authority temporarily devolve to her. (The clone escort with Cho is easier to swallow on a Watsonian level if one interprets the unit depicted to be a group of 501st penal troops; see: red triangles meta.)

Critics of Riyo Chuchi or stans of Obi-Wan cite the conversation in the LAAT/i as proof of that Chuchi is a corrupt bully herself, no different from any other politician. To be honest, I find that such a reductive and blind reading of the situation:

Obi-Wan: Senator, now that you have the authority, how do you plan on making peace with the Talz?

Chuchi: Actually, Master Jedi, since you’re far more experienced, I was hoping you could negotiate on Pantora’s behalf.

Obi-Wan: … I’m afraid that’s not possible, Senator.

Chuchi: But I don’t understand. The Jedi serve the Senate. I must order you to —

Obi-Wan: Senator, it is your people the Talz are at war with. If the violence is to stop, it is you who must represent your people.

Everything about how the scene is shot emphasizes Chuchi’s discomfort. She is feeling small and uncertain. She misunderstands Jedi jurisdiction and assumes, influenced by her own self-doubt, that the Jedi can take care of the negotiation for her. Are they not the Republic’s mediators? Is that not the role they have carved out for themselves — declared for themselves, time and again, before the holocams? “We are keepers of the peace”. That’s not to say Obi-Wan isn’t correct: as far as the Republic is concerned, their dispute with the Talz is settled, the deaths of the Republic troops forgiven. It is, indeed, now an internal matter, and Chuchi must represent Pantora for Pantorans. And she does so, with spine-stiff courage, little boots firm upon the powdered plain.

That Riyo Chuchi clearly goes down in Pantoran history as responsible for securing indigenous recognition of the Plutonian Talz is fantastic to see. A quick parlay with Chieftain Thi-Sen does not a formal treaty make; Chuchi must have pursued the matter in the Assembly, taking Obi-Wan’s advice to “make it [peace] last” to heart. Does she stand up for the rights of the Talz before her countrymen, arguing that Pantoran claims to the planet be rescinded? Does she lead a second delegation to Plutonia, to formalize Talz sovereignty? (I’ve long headcanoned that Chuchi’s peace is named “the Cold Spear Peace”.) Does she press for Republic recognition of the Talz, in the face of industrial scrutiny? Is that why she lost her seat to Chi Eekway, before war’s end, in spite of her subsequent actions against the Trade Federation blockade, too? 

*Chairman Cho is addressed as “Your Majesty” and styles himself the “Supreme Chairman and Exalted Ruler of Pantora”; the sourcebook quoted has a section on Pantora and makes mention of holdovers from its ‘feudal’ past, which is born out by these titles and Baron Papanoida’s as well. (Though I headcanon that Papanoida is new money and his baronetcy is granted by the Assembly for services to Pantora’s media industry or something — he is George Lucas’s self-insert, after all!) As Papanoida is never addressed as “Your Majesty”, one of a few things are likely: a) Cho is from a quondam royal family, perhaps a royal dukedom, and Pantoran law still recognizes and protects the use of certain titles, though no other legal privileges are attached to them. Due to his status, and some footnote in the Pantoran statute books, he has the right to add the supreme prefix and assume the title of exalted ruler upon being elected to the chairmanship. b) Cho is noble and “Supreme Chairman and Exalted Ruler” is the chairman’s actual title (perhaps the powers of the chairman are curtailed in the wake of Cho’s mismanagement) c) Cho is noble, but styles the chairmanship very grandly without justification

[rosheendubh]

WIP...art-manipulation as visual inspiration for The Elegy of Dead Kingdoms...(crossover of StarWars/revamped Thrawn trilogy, FireFly/Serenity, and the Keltiad...also, spoof SpaceOpera-RockOpera featuring anyone from David Bowie, to LED Zepplin, NewOrder, U2, Ah-Ha...etc)...

~Background

~ At the impetus of River Tam, and the Operative, the Serenity’s renegade crew defies transit laws prohibiting unauthorized access to the wormhole connecting Terran space with the quadrant of the Republic Alliance and the Galactic Empire. Having only a fragmented record mentioning a lone survivor from a planetary massacre, the crew track rumors of a psionically gifted orphan said to have come from the Terran Fringe system of New Celtica, possessing the ability of manipulating the molecular structure of organic matter. An exile once in the service of Palpatine, whose skill of biokinesis Thrawn covets to stabilize the unpredictable violence of his cloned hybrids. A woman with adversaries on both sides of the wormhole, winning a Jedi to her cause, and determined to discover the key to a secret kept hidden for a thousand years. A buried legend of Old Terra, Earth That Was, that may be the last defense between the ancient darkness wakened by Thrawn‘s pursuit of absolute dominion, and the destruction of all life throughout the galaxy...(queue *cinematic drama music*)...

Somewhere between the battle of the Dark Force fleet, and Wayland, MonMontha offers a last ditch effort at negotiation with Thrawn. Imperial forces victorious in recent campaigns, have pushed back the RepublicAlliance to their InnerPlanetary systems. Rogue genetic scientists from the Terran quadrant, refusing to abandon their research after the PAX Hydrochlorate failure on Miranda, found a ready market amid trans-conduit Imperial war-profiteers, for their newest discovery. An archaic protogenome derived from dark-matter structures, endowing hybridized Reaver clones with real-time tissue regenerative capacity. These clones now render Thrawn’s army nearly indestructible. The scene above is merely my toying with a concept of the ethereal, and formidable River Tam crossing paths with the illustrious brilliance embodied in the GrandAdmiral Thrawn...

~scene~

On Coruscant, during Monmontha’s attempt at negotiating a peace, Rhyanon ferch Garowen (alluded to above) blatantly rejects Thrawn‘s coercive effort at bringing her to his side during a dinner banquet. B/c of this act of arrogance, Thrawn vows no mercy in the progression of his campaign, conquering and converting sector upon sector into a dark matter/anti-matter morass which becomes dubbed The Dimensional Rift, despite the valiant efforts of the Republic Alliance squadrons, directed by LukeSkywalker, and allies, to fend off the onslaught of Thrawn’s Dreadnaught fleet.

Before all that though, with the evening following the dinner still at hand, Thrawn abides by the Old Republic etiquette of host and guest, honoring civil diplomacy amongst enemies. A requisite social diversion-music or a dance-ensuing in the Palace reception hall holds no interest to him in Rhyanon’s absence. Preferring solitude, he meanders out to a balcony overlooking Coruscant’s expanse of lights, twinkling ladders of motion, reaching up to the lower atmosphere. And here, she follows after him minutes later, floating between shadows, a specter of innocence and dangerous beauty.

She pauses beneath a statue of some nameless goddess, a figure of Victory or Life, a pretension of lesser cultures. Weaker nations seeking hope in empty icons. The girl, young woman really, by the standards of human chronology, offers an entirely different contemplation.

From the sofa where he’s seated, viewing her from across the fountain, Thrawn appreciates the lithe symmetry of her form, a subtle disguise of strength and grace. Dangerous beauty. “You’re very like her, River Tam. A work of art, a living masterpiece,” he comments.

For as young as she is, not more than 20 years surely, she carries herself with a remarkable serenity. Stepping lightly around the other sofa, she leans her hip against the cushioned neck rest. Barely flickering an eyelid, she focuses luminous dark eyes on him, shining through the mottled patterns of light scattered between them.

Her voice resembles her figure, light and flowing. “A failed experiment, you mean, Mitth’raw’nuruodo.” Flawlessly, she speaks his name, though he knows they weren’t introduced at any point previous to this moment. ”I was supposed to be like them—the researchers were trying to make me like them. One of your chimeric hybrids.”

“Ah, the one who got away,“ he muses. Something at that stirs a flicker in her dark gaze. “Yes, little Albatross, I read the classified reports of your Core Parliament. About your brother, the escape. An elegant devising. And a lesson as to the deficiencies of private-contract security.“

Tension firms a line between her brows, hardens her expression as she glances away from him for a moment. “It wouldn’t have mattered.“

His derision comes out as a short, barking laugh. “Why? Because your escape resulted more from the incompetence of poorly trained guards than the alleged skill of your brigand crew mates?

Her attention swings back to him, conviction firm in her words. “No. Because my brother watches out for me. He protects me. And he loves me.”

Thrawn says nothing, stoic against her emotion, such a human flaw. Rubbing his thumb and middle finger together, of the hand draped eloquently off the arm-wrest, he continues sizing up this most intriguing amalgam of softness and mettle.

”Love is a weakness,” satisfaction grim in his tone, picking at a piece of this puzzle embodied by River Tam. Toying with it, testing how she’ll react. “It causes distraction from the warrior’s path. Makes them vulnerable to fear. And you, little Albatross, were foremost, molded as a weapon. A living masterpiece of perfection.”

Her lids slant, head tipped to the side slightly. “I dream about them still. The other test subjects. The Reavers. The dreams used to frighten me. They were worse when the scientists would be administering some new cocktail. They’re not as bad as they used to be, since Miranda. But their voices—I...hear them-“a frown ghosting over her features”-though I’ve learned to hush them.”

”I think you hear a lot more than that, River Tam.”

Challenge broods in a strange magnetism between them. ”So do you,” she says mildly, sending a wary shiver over his skin. How she knows about inoculating himself with the protogenome he can’t begin—

-of course he can. She’s a mind-reader, a telepath. What can’t she pick out of the whirl of thought composing humanoid psyches if she’s so determined?

His awareness smolders like embers in a breeze, open to the Shadow’s primordial sequences merged into his own cells. Enhancing perception, layers of reality peeled back when he channels this infernal heat coursing through his blood. Vision, smell, sound, his mind branching like light off a faceted diamond, reflecting images in a 1000 different plains. And Thrawn, glorying in the draught of fractured darkness.

River’s eyes glint in guarded scrutiny, attuned, perhaps to the whisper of power subsumed by Thrawn’s cultivated urbanity. Wandering over to where he’s seated, she lowers herself next to him on the couch. Her mind brushes against his like leaves floating upon a watery surface, remaining on the periphery without venturing into the depths.

“Chiis physiology-Stamina, strength, resilience against extremes of physical exposure. Superior reflexes and intellect inherent to your species, allowing adaptive advantages over the millennia. A robust psychology keeping you from succumbing to the deterioration of sensory assimilation, the way your clones eventually will. A perfect medium for channeling the Shadow.”

Thrawn wonders where she’s going with her exposition. She bears the full weight of his scorching gaze with nary a flinch. The fey-like curiosity alive across her youthful grace causes a rare unease, unused to be so unabashedly studied. He holds himself still, tensing at the light pressure of her hand taking his out of his lap, wrapping delicate fingers over a wrist corded by muscle.

”Everyone has a weakness,” she says. “Even you.”

Anger snarls beneath the surface of his poise, a broiling red froth that must have blazed up in his gaze. ”Whatever you think you see child, you take liberties of interpretation,” speaking in cold, controlled wrath before which she pales, breathing deep to collect herself. The pressure of her touch on his wrist, though, remains steady.

Her hand, slender fingers resting atop his own, no suggestion of anything other than gentleness. His own hand, larger, stronger, a grip that could crack her bones with minimal exertion. Strangle the air from her lungs, twist her fragile neck like silken twine. Tangling the rich brown waves of her hair in his grasp, forcing her head back till her spine might snap, plundering her mouth as he would plunder her body. Raze her mind till she was left a weeping pile of bruised limbs and torn clothes, cowering on the chill marble floor, her thighs bleeding like the rags of her mind.

Unperturbed, she shares every image coalesced in his thoughts. Each portrait of violence fading into the recess of darkness where the Shadow brews and twists like smoke above the infernal hells. As well, he’s viewed the record of her encounter with the Reavers after Miranda. Like Rhyanon, she would fight him with a skill capable of delaying the ultimate conquest. This wisp of a child, scarcely into womanhood, moving like sand and water, a song of death captured in every leap and twist. Every dive and slash as she wound a choreography of slaughter against an entire pack of beastial invaders. The outcome inevitably in his favor, if for no other reason than the greater strength of his sheer physicality would overwhelm, exhaust her eventually, compared to human anatomic inadequacy.

“A matter of minutes, to take you. An act of utility, really--to break you. Make you beg for a mercy that would never come.“

Her eyebrow crooks up, scolding or skepticism. “But you wouldn’t do that, any of those things.”

Her patient humoring isn’t what he anticipated. ”What makes you think so?” he asks out of mere speculation, momentarily forgetting the antagonizing subtlety guiding their conversation.

”Because you‘ve seen what I am. The weapon, not the woman. And,“ she says, sighing with an almost child-like assurance, looking out to the far horizon, “because seduction isn’t your weakness. She is.”

Damn the girl, for gut-punching through his composure with such guileless effort. His gaze follows hers, tracking the aerial traffic dotting Coruscant’s night skies in a flickering menagerie. He concentrates on keeping his breathing even, stilling his mind, as he considers his reply. The silhouettes of soaring towers outlined by shimmering lights blot out the sky, the glow which would normally be visible on a less metropolitan planet, of satellites in orbit, and stars far beyond.

”One word,” he says finally. “She could have changed the tide of this war for the Republic with one word.“

She turns, a searching intensity in her deep gaze. Seeing too much within him. “So could you, change the tide of this war for Republic,” she says softly, giving a gentle squeeze of his wrist.

Impatient and irritated with the poignancy in her tone, Thrawn shakes her hand off. “She has no idea, the fate to which she’s condemned the galaxy,” he tells her with a hard look, rising off the sofa. He looms over her, eyes burning across her face, so that for the first time, she shudders away from the brewing wrath. He marvels again, the steel disguised beneath the seeming delicacy of her body. Her sandeled feet tucked beneath her on the sofa, the fabric of her dress, simple design of polyfiber cotton, drapes fine curves of breast, hip, and thigh.

Despite her attention fastened upon the night horizon, nothing of intimidation colors her posture, but sadness tinges the turned-down line of her lips. He bows his head to her before heading back to the reception hall lying through a corridor adjoined to the balcony. A salute, a parting to conceal his remorse of the lost fate she chooses with her friends and allies.

“And you, little Albatross,“ he rasps in dire promise, the epithet snaring her surprised glance up at him. “You have no idea what’s coming. None of you do.”

A wasted masterpiece of living art, dangerous beauty.

—

Watching him stride away into the dim hall, the Grand Admiral’s disappointment aches like an overstrained joint. Bothersome, but eventually fading unless exacerbated. In his absence, the darkness hovers about her, the balcony esconsed, now, in transient quiet. Illusory peace.

Alive, so alive, the hum of myriad thoughts, voices, hopes, griefs—the gambit composing sentient life throughout the city. The planet. Her mind-reading truly can’t extend with any precision beyond the palace, but a general hum always persists in the background of her consciousness. The sound of living beings. A vibration silenced forever upon Miranda.

That silence had almost broken her sanity more than any experimentation. As scientists sought to harness innate hyper-sensory perception with neurochemical alterations, subjecting her to an intensive programming, molding her mind-body duplex into prime mental and physical conditioning. In the process, she was often torn, battered, abused, and tortured, her mind confused, shifting between lucidity and dissociation and nightmare. But never breaking.

The sound of death, of nothing. Emptiness like a vacuum, no thought, or feeling. Miranda had almost broken her. Miranda, it turned out, opened the road to a recovery of herself. What she is, what she’s meant to be? No one seems to know. At least not since Simon rescued her from the illicit lab which had been her prison. Hyper-awareness, sensory adepts, psychic traits expressed amongst humans were hardly uncommon through the Terran quadrant, both Core and Fringe systems. Posited by some scientists as a natural development of sentient consciousness, induced by interstellar travel over the centuries.

Among these foreign systems across the wormhole, peoples attributed such gifts to some metaphysical energy field. The Force. Light and Dark. The association, to River’s thinking, paradoxical for a property endemic to all beings, carrying no inherent morality until determined by the intent of the wielder. Perhaps she just didn’t quite grasp its intricacies as yet, conceding that nuances of intuition, emotion, passive reception, meditation still often eluded her. The Force embedded such concepts, rather than the more actualized focus of psychic traits held by the majority of systems native to the Terran quadrant.

What she is. What she‘s meant to be—*a weapon, a work of art*. *No*, she answers her own query, the feeling of defiance liberating. *A failed experiment. The one who got away.*

”And you forget,“ she whispers to the attentive night. “I can still hear them in my head. All the time. Just like you do, Mitt’raw’nuruodo.”

Miranda is not what Thrawn has in mind, that sort of emptiness. He wants something more. Under Imperium’s auspices, subjugating and assimilating one star system after another, spreading this corruption of time and reality, bleeding the Dark Entity’s ravenous, primordial substance like an oil-slick settling into the sinkholes of what had been viable Star-systems. Seeding these tortured hybrids cloned of Reavers, and whatever other mutated derangements of horror will fuse and divide in an incubator. With his enhanced soldiers, their minds a racket of incessant savagery, submission to Thrawn throughout the galaxy seems inevitable. Especially now that Intel, and Republic specialists working with Rhyanon, recently confirmed the adaptive capacity of certain hybrids to infect other living creatures with their intracellular genetic material.

They’ll never be completely hushed, even in the deepest caverns of her own mind. Reavers. The chimeric hybrids. They howl, writhe, snarl, and scream in agony beyond their comprehension. But the havoc of their consciouses, keeping the hybrids contained as a utilizable resource requires increasing concentrations of sedatives, hyponotics, and psychogenic pharmaceuticals.

She can feel their echo within Thrawn, too. Not of the violence, but his craving the Shadow’s power. It’s why he covets Rhyanon-her abilities of biologic manipulation, transforming the very backbone molecules of life. Healing, rejuvenating, reconstructing, restoring from disease, infection, deterioration and decay. Thirsting for the surcease she could provide, balancing the Dark Entity’s immersion of his own constitution. A living masterpiece, the kind of gifted elegance Thrawn desired, Rhyanon, like River, was another one who’d gotten away. Another failed experiment. Another dangerous beauty.

Rhyanon loathes him. Holding her captive on his flagship under the influence of cortical inhibitors, and hallucinogens. Trying to force her into stabilizing the synaptic connections of higher brain function in his hybrids. Dampening their insanity as the cloned offspring reached maturity. Coercing her in other ways as well, while she resisted the influence of intoxicants deluging her system. That was why she rejected his play at truce earlier during the dinner, an offer to join him voluntarily. That. And the fact she and the Jedi were patently lovers. A circumstance exacerbating the already furious enmity between the Grand Admiral and Luke.

Rhyanon would use those same graces of biokinesis to tear him apart one atom at a time, despite the danger of inducing her own body’s destruction. The price of biopsionic talents, a check limiting the potential for abuse of that power over life and death. Unfortunate, in that Rhyanon’s ability, synergized with the particular strengths shared between their small group of Force-wielders and sensory adepts, offers the only potential counter against Thrawn’s growing influence.

Finding some way of battling this Dark Matter entity. This Abaddon, commanding elemental forces dating from the universe’s origins. A being capable of destroying multiple star-systems if they resist its Seeding. They’d all seen what happened on Namsonis 4 in the aftermath of losing the majority of Dreadnaughts. A desperate evacuation. A world wrenched apart like a ball of mud crushed in a fist. A solar system facing a monstrous dehiscence of time and space, heart of chaos, blowing a hole through the core of a sun, and incinerating the other 6 planets spared Namsonis’s fate. Hours later, a festering wound across the void of black, rocky debris and ionized gas discharges the last traces of a star system no longer existing between tomorrows.

Contrary to the stillness in which she sits, River’s thoughts spin countless strands in the spreading web of her mind, her fingers running absently along the ridge of her collarbone. Picturing simultaneous star-maps, envisioning parallel scenarios of navigation vectors, battle engagements, the stratified calculations worked in trans-dimensional matrices. Always hearing the Reavers seething in the recess of her soul.

Finally, arriving at some conclusion, she reveals to the passing night, ”I do know exactly what’s to come.” And maybe, maybe there’s a chance. One distant, improbable-verging on impossible-chance they have of subverting this menace before it reaches the Terran quadrant.

[ollie-ollie-oxenfreee]

Council of Venice File #1889: Regarding the “Mighty Nein”

( a secret world / critical role crossover because i can’t resist the allure of the au)

Unauthorized cabal operating outside the bounds of faction rule. Mercenary in nature, slaying monsters on commission and apparent personal whim. 

Members include:

Fjord “Tusktooth” Stone

Age: 31

Affiliation: Phoenicians (past)

Status: Active

Skills: sailing, navigation, occultism (Lovecraftian), inside knowledge of emerging cult of Uk’atoa, combat (shortsword, falchion, manipulation of water and eldritch energy), interpersonal

Notes: Previously served as a member of the crew of the Tide’s Breath (shipping vessel #4682) before it ran aground along the coast of Solomon Island. Reported sole survivor. Cagey and mercurial in personality - seems to be using charisma as a shield.

Threat level: undetermined; further research required

[REDACTED] “just call me Jester” Lavorre

Age: 23

Affiliation: Dragon (current initiate)

Status: Active

Skills: field medicine, diplomacy, occultism (faerie), combat (chaos magic, battleaxe, illusion), physical strength, interpersonal

Notes: Described as “disarmingly, inescapably charming” - an accurate assessment. Bright, friendly, exuberant and intense in personality. Recruited by the Dragon for her connection to a chaotic entity known only as the Traveler, who she considers a personal friend. Adores cabal members and defends them at every turn. Will not stop sending messages to high - ranking Council members at all hours of the day and asking inappropriate personal questions. 

Threat level: moderate to high; very unpredictable 

Beauregard “Beau” Lionett

Age: claims to be 24; no birth date on record

Affiliation: Unaffiliated (working with offshoot organization)

Status: Active

Skills: research, archival, combat (hand to hand, bo staff), agility, physical strength, occultism (translation and interpretation of ancient texts)

Notes: Archivist and expositor for the Cobalt Soul (see file #7492). Documented animosity against the big three factions, particularly the Illuminati, who are actively hunting her for crimes including “embarrassingly obvious espionage,” “blatant theft and destruction of rare artifacts” and “unauthorized use of hexadecimal #0047ab - get your own fucking color.” Brash, argumentative, socially awkward and forceful in personality with a strong sense of justice. Fiercely protective of cabal members.

Threat level: moderate; could be put to good use with enough oversight, but defiance of authority is dangerous

[REDACTED] [REDACTED]

“Caleb Widogast”

Age: 33

Affiliation: Templar (past; dismissed from service for “personal reasons”)

Status: Active

Skills: research, archival, combat (pyromancy, wide range of support magics), interrogation, diplomacy, occultism (translation / utilization of spells, incantations, rituals, etc.), investigation

Notes: Unknown but reportedly “troubled” past. Anxious, deeply secretive and paranoid. Quite charming and capable in diplomatic / interrogative situations. Strong if occasionally tentative sense of loyalty toward cabal members - especially fond of Brenatto, Lavorre and Lionett. Shows signs of significant post - traumatic stress, particularly around fire. 

Threat level: high; too many worrying unknowns coupled with extensive knowledge of dangerous magic

Yasha “Orphanmaker” Nydoorin

Age: 28

Affiliation: Unaffiliated; unsuccessfully sought after for recruitment by the Templar

Status: Active

Skills: incredible physical strength, combat (greatswords), occultism (fluent in celestial and abyssal languages, angelic mythology), inside knowledge of now - inactive Angel of Irons cult

Notes:  Very intimidating figure, but surprisingly mild - mannered and quiet in personality. Connections to the nomadic Scandinavian Dolorav Tribe (see file #2197), though she shows marked discomfort with discussing them. Affectionate and gentle toward cabal members. Extensive documented history of violence. Reported connection with dangerous elemental entity known as the “Stormlord” - possibly associated with Kingsmouth crisis?

Threat level: high; needs little additional explanation

Veth “Nott the Brave” Brenatto

Age: 25

Affiliation: Unaffiliated

Status: Active

Skills: theft, agility, marksmanship (crossbow, handgun), chemistry, occultism (transformative magic), stealth, infiltration, investigation

Notes: An interesting individual. Managed to steal multiple minor trinkets from the office during her interview, including the interviewer’s spare shirt buttons, an entire drawer - full of pens and a gold paperweight. Past is not well - documented, but involved hostile goblin clans and unauthorized use of transformative magic. Eccentric, mischievous and chaotic in personality. Slow to trust but incredibly fond of cabal members - particularly Widogast and Lavorre. 

Threat level: cautionary high; unpredictable, impulsive and resistant to tempering authority

Caduceus “Caddyshack” Clay Age: Unknown (approximately early twenties)

Affiliation: Unknown (member of the renowned Clay family of clerics and mystics)

Status: Active

Skills: field medicine, wilderness survival, occultism (nature sprites, elementals, undead, faerie), various fields of magic (ability to commune with plants and animals, banish spirits, summon swarms of insects, heal / spare the dying)

Notes: Interviewer’s favorite - expect bias in their conclusion. Reportedly offered them a cup of tea and answered questions genially (if often bemusedly). Still worthy of caution considering his mysterious past, family history of powerful magic and deep connection to an apparently Agarthic spirit (deity?) known as the “Wildmother.”

Threat level: undetermined; continue research and proceed with caution; attempt to contact family if possible

[feifiefofum]

mildly upset that people were upset about riker threatening the romulans at the end of star trek picard

like, context is kinda important here. the criticism here i’m seeing is mostly about how un-starfleetlike it is to go in with a war-like posture instead of, y’know, the softer negotiations approach of the usual starfleet protocol.

y’know, conveniently forgetting that one time picard himself negotiated his way out of a confrontation with 2 romulan warbirds with a few cloaked klingon birds of prey in the neutral zone.

big stick diplomacy cool except when riker’s the one doing it.

y’know, i think it’s fair for starfleet/riker to be upset at oh, who was a romulan infiltrator, caused the attack on planetia utopia, and sullied the good name of his friend data along with his friend’s children along with being half the reason that his friend picard ruining his career to try to pull their people out of a supernova and this is how they repay the federation? with subterfuge and provoking an attack from sentient artificial life forms who have had to face the prejudice of organics so often that they created a helpline for artificial life forms in case those pesky organics wanna do a genocide on them.

y’know, if they actually didn’t have a starfleet official do a romulan thing with shishkabobbing one of the said artificial lifeforms, they could’ve avoided robot tentacle apocalypse from ever happening. their wouldn’t have been a robot magneto advocating for death to organics, with catchly slogans like ‘they’ll always strike first’ if y’all hadn’t have done that shit.

maybe if y’all weren’t such secretive assholes about everything, starfleet wouldn’t have had to resort to big stick diplomacy on y’all.

twice.

the romulans built a goddamn fleet, an armada in the federations backyard. that’s an army, fam, in another governments front lawn, and y’all expect the federation to what? be chill about that???

what is your major malfunction???? politically, that’s not cool no matter how peace-loving you are. they rode up in an unauthorized armada on a planet in federation space, speaking on behalf of federation citizens. and you all wanted riker to make nice???

oh, i’m sorry, you all wanted the federation to join forces with the romulans to fight the tentacle robot armada.

which is so stupid i can’t even begin to describe to you how stupid it is because that’s dumb.

y’know the difference between a warp-capable civilization vs a non-warp-capable civilization? this, but this is a trans-galactic civilization vs warp-capable species. the distance between galaxies vs the distance between stars within a galazy is insane. the tech to bridge that gap is gonna be equally insane. the fed and the romulan star empire (what’s left of it) can traverse a backyard pool while them artificial lifeforms are capable of crossing oceans at a moments notice apparently. give them time to identify the organics in said galaxy and they’ll be able to pop in on every organic in said galaxy posthaste.

meaning they wouldn’t have stood a chance.

[willowpaypayrollservices]

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[trekkele]

Avengers Star Trek crossover where they discuss family of choice.

According to the Vulcan High Council (who are never wrong, obviously) inter-universal space flight does not exist.

However, Jim is currently having a beer with Captain America, so he feels fairly comfortable calling bullshit on that particular hypothesis.

That and the fact that their ship was swallowed by some unholy hybrid of a black hole and an ion storm to get here so maybe he can cut the VHC a little slack this time around.

"Would it be weird to admit I read your comics growing up?"

Steve laughed, passing him a bag of fries and shaking his head, "Not really, I mean I must've watched your films a dozen times by now, so..."

There was a crash, and some very Scottish yelling from the kitchen. Jim thinks they might be trying to build a warp core out of Stark's coffee machine.

"Should I apologise for letting Tony corrupt your engineer, or is it the other way around?" Steve hadn't even turned around at the noise, grinning over at where Pepper, Natasha, and Uhura were discussing the finer points of manipulation and diplomacy. Of course they were doing this in French and Russian and the occasional Klingon.

"I found him exiled on an abandoned space station for unauthorized experiments with transporting sentient matter, so No." Chekhov, meanwhile, had taken over one of the glass window walls with a pack of expo markers and the Hulk. Or really, Dr Banner and his intern, Peter, who seemed equally excited with the red shirt Chekhov had lent him as the equations he was scribbling.

Cap snickered, eyeing the corner where Sulu and Clint had set up shop, arguing about the applications of medieval weoponry. "I'd ask how we found ourselves in this mess, Captain Kirk, but I'm pretty sure we threw ourselves in head first."

Jim tapped his bottle against Steve's, "To the ridiculous groups of people we call family, Cap. May they never let our lives be boring."

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully, "Because I'm pretty sure boring would kill us faster then the world ever could."

[politijohn]

Has Bernie made any public plans to stop spending so much money on wars?

Bernie on ending US interventionism

Focus foreign policy on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and peace, and economic fairness

Allow Congress to reassert its Constitutional role in war-making, so no president can wage unauthorized and unconstitutional interventions overseas

Stop endless wars

End U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe

Limit use of drone strikes

Against militarizing space. Regarding Space Force, Bernie stated: “Maybe, just maybe, we should make sure our people are not dying because they lack health insurance before we start spending billions to militarize outer space.”

Adamantly opposes raising the defense budget