#War on Corruption

[woc-f4t]

Predator's victims get awaited justice

For months, our platform has followed the case of Nathain Hisey, a Berwick PA., man who, in his own confession, sexually abused children and even assaulted a young woman upon his initial release from jail. After one delay after another, justice has finally been served. At no point, during the court proceedings, did the defendent deny the accusations. In fact, he confessed to them long before was…

[windfalling]

1.02 // 1.06 // 1.08 The Stranger vs. Sol on recognizing and differentiating Osha and Mae

[nando161mando]

[theforceawakens]

"Osha, you should be trained. Would you ever consider?"

[saphronethaleph]

Fascist, Thus Inefficient

“As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed,” the Emperor said, triumph in his tone. “Now, witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!”

Luke looked at him in shock.

“Fire at will, Commander!” the Emperor said.

Fourteen months previously…

“Shipment IL-214-73 arriving,” a petty officer reported.

“Thank goodness,” muttered one of the technicians. “After the delays we’ve been having, we need to get those Khyber crystals into the third main focusing array. It’s been on the critical path for a week.”

He brought up the display, frowning. “All right, I think we can make up a bit of time if we just get them straight to cutting and installation.”

“Don’t we need to run them through the testing process first?” a more junior technician asked. “That’s on the list.”

“I know it’s on the list,” the senior tech replied. “But the list was written when they didn’t expect there’d be rebel attacks hitting our supply lines.”

He waved at the screen. “The testing process means heating each individual crystal up to eighteen hundred, even though we know Khyber can all handle temperatures of up to forty-seven-fifty. The cutting process doesn’t rely on heat tolerance either. Any crystalline flaws will come out in cutting, and we can just junk them. It means cutting takes a bit longer, but by going straight to cutting we can save at several hours on the overall process. And you know how much time we’ve lost already.”

The junior tech looked worried, then shook his head.

“All right,” he replied. “I guess so.”

“You need to learn how things are done in practice,” the senior tech said. “No big deal.”

Eleven months previously...

“I’m quite sure Rothana Heavy Engineering’s XJ-15 hypermatter feed systems will meet your needs better than the alternatives,” the Rothana representative said, as Admiral Jerjerrod examined the datasheet.

He wasn’t so sure. The newer units had better specifications, certainly, but they weren’t proven, and they were also somewhat more expensive.

“I don’t think that’s necessarily the case,” he said, out loud. “While I appreciate Rothana’s position, the Sienar alternative has similar flow rates and more proven applications.”

The Rothana representative nodded, sagely.

“I understand entirely,” he said. “However, I must point out that Rothana has some important additional information to present.”

He held out a credit chip, which Jerjerrod took and inspected.

“Owing to the XJ-15’s protracted development, we are willing to provide our test units at cost,” the representative went on. “That is in addition to having a higher production rate than our competitors and a less committed production output.”

Jerjerrod hesitated, then pocketed the credit chip.

“That all seems in order,” he said. “The XJ-15 it is.”

“Marvellous,” the representative declared.

Nine months previously...

“I’ve examined the records that exist from the first Death Star,” a senior technician said. “The amount of strain that was placed on the flash suppression systems was minimal to nonexistent. Even with the full firing that destroyed Alderaan, surviving records indicate that the flash suppressors had no more than a five percent load placed on them – an amount that can be handled by untreated durasteel.”

The other men and women in the meeting looked at the data on the screen behind their colleague.

“You’re suggesting we forego the duratemp treatment on the flash protection systems?” one of the women asked, cautiously. “I can see the advantages, but the downsides seem significant. I’d even say potentially destructive.”

“It is my position that the cost of including the duratemp treatment is unacceptable,” the tech replied. “It takes time and effort, including supervisory attention which cuts into the available man-hours on the project. We only have so much experienced manpower.”

That drew winces, though none of the humans in the room drew attention to the fact that they were spending a lot of that time in interminable meetings.

“In the following presentation, I’ll discuss my proposal and how it could shave as much as one week off the final completion timetable,” the senior tech continued, flicking to the next screen of his presentation. “This model shows how the flash suppression systems are built around the main weapon…”

Six months previously…

“There simply isn’t an option,” the head of personnel replied. “Our existing system is not providing enough technicians and operators.”

“This was quite sufficient for the first Death Star,” Jerjerrod protested.

“The first Death Star was a project that took decades,” the manager replied, shrugging. “It didn’t come up at first, sir – for that I apologize – but if we are going to redress the problem, we need to act now. There is no alternative.”

Jerjerrod rubbed his temples, thinking about the problem.

The fully functional Death Star was going to need hundreds of thousands of qualified technicians and operators, familiar with the systems of the vast battle station, and so many of the men who knew much about the Death Star at the moment were busy building it.

There hadn’t been many left after the destruction of the first battle station, because most of them had been working on it at the time.

“All right,” he said. “So your proposal is…?”

“We keep the same number of trainers for now, but abbreviate the course,” the manager answered. “Two months – at most. Then we have the new graduates train the next batch for two months, and so on. Exponential growth. At twenty students per instructor and a hundred instructors to start with, we’ll end up with eight hundred thousand in six months.”

That was extremely tempting… they wouldn’t be anything like the equal of what they should be, but they could learn on the job.

“All right,” Jerjerrod said. “Approved – see to it.”

One month previously…

“Next item on the checklist?” Commander Jaskier asked.

“Step one hundred and seven,” Technician Mils replied. “Self test.”

She pressed the self-test button, and the computer system clicked and flickered as it ran through the diagnostics.

Data results and readouts went up on the screen, and Jaskier and all the others in the control station watched the results.

None of them had any comment to make about the numbers. The checklist said to run the self test, so that was what they were doing.

“Step one hundred and eight,” Mils went on. “Sign off on results.”

She did that, as well, and Jaskier nodded.

“Good,” he said. “And I believe we’ve finished that half an hour ahead of schedule! Good work, everyone.”

Now.

The firing commands flashed out through the Death Star’s systems, triggering a cascade of further commands, and the whole massive battle station’s main superlaser woke for the first time.

Fifty XJ-15 hypermatter flow regulators controlled the flow of energy from the power core into the power collectors, and the energy being channelled into the system surged rapidly – rising to one hundred and eighteen percent of nominal, above what would have been anticipated, and greater than the one hundred and two percent that the older, more proven Sienar systems would have generated.

Thousands of high powered beams were generated, controlled and focused through an enormous array of Khyber crystals… a small but measurable fraction of which were cheap industrially grown diamonds instead, added to the shipments by subcontractors eager to stretch out their production from the strip-mined planet of Ilum without running so late on their deliveries that financial penalties were imposed.

None of the technicians who were in a position to spot the problem at this stage were actually capable of doing so. Their necessarily abbreviated training had mostly been on what buttons to push, and nobody had the deeper knowledge of the systems to recognize that the system was in an anomalous state.

Then some of the diamonds shattered under the load, allowing the beams free to damage adjacent systems, and in moments the whole of the energy drawn from the hypermatter core was unleashed.

The flash suppression systems were wholly, and fatally, inadequate.

“Watch yourself, Wedge!” Lando called, his head on a swivel, and banked the Falcon around so his ventral turret gunner could clear off one of the TIEs attacking Red Leader. “We’ve got to-”

Then there was a sudden blinding flash, and Lando did a double-take.

The Death Star’s protective shield was instantly, and dramatically, visible – because the entire inside of it was full of plasma and flame, lighting it up as clearly as Ackbar’s briefing had done back before the operation was launched in the first place. Then something blew up on the surface of the forest moon as the plasma followed the funnel of the shield, and the explosive force was no longer contained but began to drift out into space.

“...the kriff?” Lando asked, eventually. “What just happened?”

“Ow,” Darth Vader said, indistinctly, reaching up to feel his helmet, which had been crushed in by an impact with the ceiling.

The Emperor’s throne room seemed to mostly be intact, though there was an Emperor-shaped hole in the window nearest his throne, and Luke had his hands out to either side as he stood on the wall.

“Father, are you all right?” the younger Skywalker asked.

“What happened?” Vader replied. “I remember the Emperor ordering that the Death Star should fire…”

“I don’t know, it exploded just after he said that,” Luke answered. “It turns out that overconfidence was his weakness… do you have any idea where the nearest spaceship is? Keeping the atmosphere in is tiring me out a bit.”

[justacynicalromantic]

Elon Musk was forced to reveal who financed his purchase of Twitter. Amongst owners are two Russian oligarchs close to Putin and sanctioned over the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Petr Aven and Vadim Moshkovich.

Petr Aven is a Russian billionaire, founder of Alfa Group, which is one of the main wallets for Putin. Aven also attended a meeting with Putin on February 24, 2022 to mark the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

Vadim Moshkovich owns Russia's largest agricultural holding Rusagro. Naturally, he also attended the meeting with Putin on February 24, 2022 and, like Aven, did not protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

[charmwasjess]

Lightsaber Theory: Obi-Wan "Sith Lords are Our Specialty" Kenobi consistently loses duels to Dooku not for any reason of technical form mismatch or lack of ability, but because Dooku is not even pretending to try to kill him. Resultantly, Obi-Wan can’t figure out what the fuck is going on when they fight. 

Obi-Wan: (preparing to defend an expected lethal strike) You’ll answer for your enormities, Count!

Dooku: (giving him the lightest love tap on the leg) Don’t be so sure, my special good lineage baby boy, so perfect in my eyes. 

Obi-Wan: …What?

Dooku: What?

Which Dooku and Obi-Wan proud lineage moment is even the most unhinged? There are so many to choose from! Is it Dooku’s frequent inability, both in AotC and TCW, to keep from spontaneously gushing about Sidious’s plans and even his own dark secrets to Obi-Wan?? Is it the time in Labyrinth of Evil where Dooku drags a long-suffering, bored Grievous over to watch a holorecording of Anakin and Obi-Wan thwarting his plans yet again, to point out how beautifully they’re working together as a team and how much he likes watching their lightsaber work evolve? Is it in the recent Brotherhood novel, where Obi-Wan just has to casually namedrop Qui-Gon to get Dooku to do exactly what he wants?

Obi-Wan is a big problem for Sidious in his mission to destabilize and corrupt Anakin, and Sidious knows it. He needs him out of the picture to do the same isolating, evil bullshit that worked so well when ensnaring Dooku himself. But the war has been going on for years now, and guess who remains inconveniently alive? And whose job was that to take care of? Oh yeah. I remember. His useless, Padawan assassin-collecting apprentice: fucking Count Dooku. By the time of RotS, Sidious has specifically ordered Dooku to make fucking sure Obi-Wan is dead only for him to completely ignore the command about a half-dozen times.

Going by the Stover RotS novelization, in the same scene where Dooku also literally refers to Obi-Wan as his fucking grandson actually, add that to our earlier list, Sidious reiterates that KILL OBI-WAN is the plan (over the sound of Dooku’s loud complaining) moments before that final duel.  I kind of wish we’d gotten a shot of Sidious's incredulous, enraged expression as Dooku knocks Obi-Wan unconscious and pins him safely out of the way. He is, once again, going out of his way to not kill Obi-Wan in that duel, and this time directly disobeying his Master to his face after they just had a conversation about it. You just know exactly what Sidious must be thinking at that moment. Oh, Dooku. You are so fucking fired.

[forzathunder]

"I have many fears, most of them about Lucrezia." — Cesare Borgia (The Borgias, 2011-2013) + hints of insecurity

that she adores someone that much / if she will reject his dark nature and act of love and violence as Ursula did / if he truly is not part of her desires / that she easily forgets him

[sixtysixproblems]

i want to see Fox have the most chaotic ass relationship with some feral investigative journalists. and it somehow turns into a fix it fic. like this somehow leads to Palpatine getting taken down. how funny would that be.

like. journalists are fucking insane man (i mean this as a compliment), and insane in a way I think fanon Fox would 100% get along with. Like, what Palpatine didn't realize when creating a clone army to kill the jedi, is those clones might be very enthusiastic whistleblowers.

Fox stresses out the journalists by how much he's willing to divulge despite the potential consequences (or, yk, actual consequences cause it's palps), and the journalists stress out Fox bc they're catching up to Padme in number of assassination attempts. meanwhile--

Thorn: how many hours of sleep did you get last night

Journalist: i got like 30 minutes at my desk

Fox: omg twinsies

Thorn: nO

thorn's just. stressed.

[foundfamilynonsense]

Mace Windu said fuck the rules fuck the law fuck tradition the Chancellor is a Sith Lord and has made himself an emperor and I’m not going to sit by and let it happen.

Mace Windu said if I do nothing I’d be betraying the democracy I thought I was fighting for this whole time, which means more than the crimes I’ll be charged with when this is over.

And yet people try to praise Anakin or Dooku for “leaving a corrupt system”. As if that was why Anakin left. As if Dooku did anything but make it worse. People praise the Mandalorians for only following their own rules. As if we’ve ever seen the Mandalorians truly stand for anything.

As if we don’t already have the most metal anti-authoritarian, badass character for people to praise.

And yet these parts of the fandom hate him. I wonder why 🤔

[woc-f4t]

Vegan Teacher: the 9/11 controversy

For those of us who are old enough to remember the September 11th attacks, it is a day that has forever been burned into our memories. The emotions we felt, the shock as this horrific attack unfolded are images that will never leave our collective minds. While many of us feel compassion for the families, forced to watch the deaths of their loved ones, one individual has decided to release a…

[reality-detective]

ENERGY WEAPONS MOUNTED ON PLANES ATTACKING PEOPLE AT NIGHT

I know, you will say it isn't true. Lasers don't exist as weapons. There are no DEWs. The gubment would never do that. Keep repeating what the MSM and Google tells you to say. I'll just drop a mountain of links below 👇 for you to ignore.

US firing up first fighter-mounted laser weapon

The Air Force Is Deploying Its First Drone-Killing Microwave Weapon

Boeing YAL-1 LASER ENERGY WEAPONS used against the WORLD

American fighter planes to have laser weapons by 2020

Raytheon’s Ship-Mounted Laser Weapon Incinerates a UAV in Flight

Directed energy weapons making jump from sci-fi to real world

Directed Energy Weapons

If you wish to continue feel free to copy and paste the rest 👇

High Energy Laser Directed Energy Weapons

https://www.ausairpower.net/APA-DEW-HEL-Analysis.html

Directed Energy Missile Defense in Space ..

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/directed-energy-missile-defense-space

Directed Energy Weapons: The Silent Killers ..

https://chanakyaforum.com/directed-energy-weapons1/

The US Navy and the Future of Directed-Energy Weapons ..

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/the-us-navy-and-the-future-of-directed-energy-weapons

DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON GOLD MINE ...

https://stopthecrime.net/wp/2018/11/18/directed-energy-weapon-and-electronic-warfare-relevant-patents/

They just break them out and they start using them on their own people, by the same people who took an oath to protect this country and its own innocent people. You know what this is don't you? What's happening is "War Crimes," it's crimes against humanity and the punishment for their atrocities is death by hanging or firing squad. And these soulless traitors will get what they deserve. 🤔

[truth4ourfreedom]

CO. POLICE DEPT. ORDERS LOCK DOWN DUE TO ARMED GANG VIOLENCE!

Mike Davis.. never one to mince words… this is a strong warning of what we may see in the weeks and months ahead. Be prepared.

----------------------------------------

This is not the America we grew up with. This is America turning into a 3rd World country. And it is a sad day when we cannot depend on our law enforcement brethren to protect us due to defunding, manpower shortages, and good for nothing prosecutors and DAs who let violent offenders go free quickly. I am considering buying my first firearm because living in CA, it's just a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.......

[azertyrobaz]

[chiliger]

Look at him, look at him,

The man who brings the wretched thrum.

[tranakin-skywalker]

So I'm pulling most of this out of my ass, but-

I think such an underrated concept to explore is Padme's first few years as senator. Like, just the culture shock of that alone must be enormous, going from Naboo and being the highest voice of authority to suddenly being just one of thousands (or hundreds of thousands depending on what canon you choose).

The slow creeping realization that Palpatine didn't fix any of the problems he told her existed under Valorum. Seeing just how deep and pervasive it really is. Realizing that most of her peers are only there for their own gain, that their priorities are themselves and not the people they claim to serve. That building, burning fury at the injustice of that. That she seems to be one of the only people trying to fix anything. Anger strong enough she could rip someone apart with her teeth that her colleagues are actively trying to stop her from doing that.

And that deep, alienating realization that she is so so alone in caring about any of this.