#anti-productivity jam

[neointeractives]

Anti-Productivity Jam

Why work when you could make games?

The Anti-Productivity Jam is a place for you to create interactive fiction using tools that were decidedly not intended for making games. Take your favorite (or least favorite) office software and use it to make a game!

Constraints and Rules:

Your game should be made with a specialized software not used for making games (see jam page).

Games should be interactive fiction; that is, they should be interactive in some way, and focus on the text.

The Jam is open to any language.

You can submit up to 3 entries!

You should aim for a maximum gameplay length of 15-30min.

Entries can have NSFW content, as long as it is indicated in your submission.

You must credit any asset used in your entry, or it will be removed (ex: code, images, sound, etc...)

Entries using AI or LLM will be removed.

Spam or hateful content will be removed.

During the duration of the jam and the two weeks following the deadline, the submissions should be free to play.

You should not use dedicated IF/game engines such as Twine/Ink/Inform/Ren'Py/etc..., and you should avoid re-creating a game engine using JavaScript or other general-purpose programming languages.

Join the Neo-Interactive Discord 

[hyohaehyuk]

I was a bit skeptical at first but it seems this person works in the entertainment industry so it makes sense Jacob had said confidencial things to her

[manonamora-if]

May Check-In

Hi. It's been.... almost a year since I did one of those. And until Harcourt, I hadn't posted here since October. During that time, things... happened in my personal life. I'm not going to get into it* here, but it affected greatly my ability to create and interact with IF in general. I'm getting back on the tracks, slowly returning to my original routines and circles. *maybe through more cathartic writing? after more settling.

Let's get into the longer things:

Recap of last month's progress what I've been up to since July

The 2024 To-Do List

Plan for this month

Some general lines for the rest of 2025

TLDR on the important things because it's really long: Harcourt was my announcement of some return to normalcy. I'm in the process of moving. There's going to be an announcement later this month. It's good to be back. Here's to a healthier rest of the year!

What I've been up to since July?

Some posted here, some missed (I should make some separate posts). Instead of comparing posts, I'm just recap'ing it all.

The 100% Good Assets

I created a Harlowe guide for Saves and Settings, updated the huge SugarCube Guide to match the 2.37 release, generalized the Tweego Folder for Mac users and other Twine formats, expanded the ChoiceScript to SugarCube Guide, made a Harlowe template to resemble Chapbook, updated all the SugarCube templates to 2.37, ported Cloak of Darkness to Adventuron, started Chapbook templates (Save System out, Config.style still a WIP), and finally, made a Chapbook Reference Page for convenience*. *the Guide is already chef-kiss, but the Ref Page is easier CTRL+F'ing stuff

Releases

I participated in a secret jam from the Sacred Veins collective with Svipul (an excuse to create in Twine 1/SugarCane). The theme was Righteous. This is not a happy story.

And as a final hoera in 2024, Dénantir for the Partim500. It's a mini French parser made in Donjon.FI (which had been on my to-try-list for at least two years). Some more sadness and reminiscing.

As you can see, there was a mood...

Updates

Aside from the assets listed above, obviously, the major one: the final story update of The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt. Released 6 months later than announced, but out nonetheless. Granted, the game was 90% done last October, but I dragged my feet (when IRL wasn't in the way to begin with) to deal some major coding issues that messed a lot of things.

Neo-Interactives and other Events

After the major success Neo-Twiny Jam, where we raised more money than last time (help us repeat it?), there was the Single Choice Jam, Bring Out Your Ghosts, Anti-Productivity Jam, The Bare-Bones Jam, (from here, I was less involved) Educational Jam, ShuffleComp 2024, Smoochie Jam, and the recently ended Dialogue Jam. A lot of participation overall with pretty neat entries! After a very busy, but very exciting, first full calendar year of events, we've decided to scale it back a little*. In 2025, at least, only the month-long jams will be held. *I have a huge backlog of stuff to play now... and NTJ25 is coming soon...

In other events I've helped, there was the IFCOMP for which I did Socials and Moderation, and the SeedComp! that kinda fizzled out at the end (tbf being completely MIA didn't help).

And finally, the Interactive Fiction Showcase 2024 which had so many entries. Which reminds me, I didn't announce the 2025 Showcase yet, which I should do sooner rather than later.

I did play some games, and reviewed a bunch last winter, but that fell off as well earlier this year.

Awards and other cool things that happened

I interviewed Chandler Groover for @the-rosebush-mag, following his win at the 2024 IFComp. This was such an honour to sit down with him and talk about his journey through IF.

I PROMISE I AM WORKING ON THE GAME and machina caerulea was included in the 56 edition of Indiepocalypse! A double feature~ And included with some really cool other people too!

I PROMISE I AM WORKING ON THE GAME was in a 1st-place tie for Best Use of Interactivity at the IF Short Game Showcase.

Les lettres du Docteur Jeangille won Outstanding French Game of 2024 at the IFDB Awards!! And a bunch of nominations for most of my 2024 games (though none came as close). Really proud of this. Twice in a row too! Won't happen this year, because no French Comp for me.

And David Welbourn included Not Another Sad Meal in his monthly parser walkthrough (January 2025). It's kind of wild. I've been using his amazing walkthroughs when playing many old-school parsers. And now I'm in the list! That reminds me, I need to fix some things.

~ And I think that's it? I've missed some pretty eventful periods, so a lot of stuff fell through the cracks.

It does look like I've done a lot, even during my quiet times, but it's really been more in spurs. Short periods of extreme activity and long ones of nothing (half of the summer, the whole of November, most of December, most of January, and from February until mid-April). In other words, when I had some quiet time to actually do something and when shit really hit the fan. It's been hard to balance, but I think I'm regaining my footing. April's been somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

~

The 2024 To-Do List

... has not really been followed. I haven't fixed the bugs on any of my older projects, or finished any of my WIPs (well, Harcourt, but 6 months too late). Instead, the first half was filled with unplanned game releases. On the bright side, I've fulfilled my wish of testing out new programs, or getting better at them. Well, and with Harcourt now out, I guess one thing got crossed out.

On the other hand, I haven't reviewed/played as much as I had hoped*. Even updated my website is completely out of date. Also dropped the ball on all the social media stuff. Very lacklustre year. *esp. the Neo-Interactives entries. It was important to me that every entry got some comments, to ensure everyone knew people looked at their work.

So hum... yeah. ⭐for "participating", lol.

~

The PLANtm for May

Not so much of a plan, more of what to expect this month, which... won't be much. Because the thing is: I'm moving at the end of the month. So between packing, selling, cancelling stuff here, and unpacking, opening, and probably buying things there, my IRL To-Do is arm-length at this point. It's both super stressful and a huge relief. I picked such a good time to come back, lol.

But I hope to have time to do some things. If not in updates/engaging, at least in planning for the rest of the year.

Harcourt: while the story is finished, there are still some kinks in the code/interface that can be handled better. As mentioned in the the update post, it's currently an Open Beta. There are a couple of things I'd like to add in-game. Nothing major. I don't expect the polished version to be out this month, but I'd like to make some progress on it, at minimum.

Secret Project: this will have a proper announcement later this month, but I'm currently planning a summer project for myself. It's both related to IRL and IF. Some good stuff I hope.

Really Bad IF Jam: is back by popular demands. The whole month of May, you can let out some steam by making terrible stuff. If I manage some free time, I might wing something?

Website Update: because it's a long time coming. Half a dozen games are missing, so does a bunch of new info. And it could do with a new interface.

Reconnect with the community. As a whole. I want to catch up on a lot of stuff I missed, and return notes that have been sitting in my inbox for too long.

I think if I can update the website and manage to tick off enough from planning of the secret project, I'll be pretty pleased with myself.

~

Some general lines for the rest of 2025

Normally, this is where I whip out my yearly to-do list of things I want done but probably not even manage to make a dent into it. You know the list from the start of the year, when I do my retrospective. Which hasn't happened this year either. So there's no list.

But for now, my main goal is to get back into a good healthy rhythm, where I can balance IRL stuff, IF responsibilities, and my own projects, without burn out looming or me being unable to do the things I enjoy doing. I think I'll need to make peace with my own capabilities, and stick to proper limits.

In terms of limits, the first has to be participating in events. It's not sustainable for me to try and make a game for all the IF events/game jams that catch my eye - even if I really want to or find them inspiring, and even if I can combine them. Almost all my projects have been created for or ended up submitted in a competition or jam; with ~90% of those being done on a whim/last minute. And because nothing I put out is a perfect bug-free experience, that means re-adding more to my plate with each submission. Because I still like those events very much, I need to be more realist with what I can do, and back out when things are not attainable. Like I have so far this past year. I had full planned or some form of ideas for the SingleChoice, Anti-Productivity, Educational Jam, ShuffleComp, the French Comp, the SpringThing and the Text-Adventure Jam, which all passed without a peep from me; as well as projects I've pushed for a later time for the ParserComp, IntroComp, IFComp (can't since helping organising), and EctoComp from last year. It's both been a disappointment (because I can't work on those ideas), and a relief (less stress to meet a too-short deadline!). So, for now, I'll most likely stick to just @neo-twiny-jam (for a good cause), and the Partim500. In huge part because it's only 500 words max. But also because they are the most fun experience I recall having, consistently. For any other jam, I'll restrict myself to long length (>= 1 month dev) only if I have actual time and a concrete plan (not just a vague idea/vibe - even if I want to test a new program). As for competitions, no submissions until I've finished at least one more WIP - and the entry is actually polished and tested properly (maybe I'll get better reviews now lol). That should leave me with more time to fix older projects, and complete current (and secret) WIPs. Actually actively removing stuff from my desk. For actual realsies now.

In terms of limits pt.2, IF responsibilities. I've been a part of a bunch communities, at different levels of organising, and with different amount of required efforts. Since getting more involved in the community, I've given more than 100% of myself to everything I've said yes to. It was working great for me... until I realised how much piled up. It was already too much last year, and I knew it - I couldn't keep up with most things then. Which is why I said my goodbyes to the great @interact-if last summer, and left a bunch of other discords/spaces. As mentioned above, Neo-Interactives is scaling back as well in terms of events. I had the foresight of preparing a bunch of stuff in advance (this is why @neointeractives has had scheduled posts with reminders). It's been less hectic and stressful, since not having something looming and having to untangle every 2-3 weeks. Gotta give major props to @lapinlunaire-games and @cyberpunklesbian for all their work too (esp during my breaks), they've been real rocks! As for other events, I can be pretty laissez-faire with random unranked events (like the Showcase or Really Bad IF), like posting it and let it be. But comps (and anything with more than one clear rule) require a minimum of admin and promotion*. Time and energy I need to see if I can spend (especially if I delegate) and reevaluate. *seriously... it's more work than you think it is, because it's very concentrated on specific days. It's exhausting. Rewarding too! but exhausting. That would give me a a more balanced planning at least. More time for updating stuff (the reason why yall are following me) :)

A potential path for myself in the soon future (brought to me by moving) is maybe being able to start a Ko-Fi or Support author button on itch. There's a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo attached to that, but it's definitely something more attainable than it was while being here. It's something I'll be checking out this summer, and if possible, there will be an announcement (maybe even a new dev name?). Anyway, that's at least for late-2025-me to worry about. Also will need to find a new job first...

In any case, a slower, calmer, healthier "normal" on the horizon. And a new website! 🤞

[kirain]

Saw your comment on a post about Sound of Freedom and I came here to say.....shame on you. Shame. On. You. Since when is child trafficking a political issue? Since when is calling pedophilia bad a political issue? If you have a problem with this movie then maybe YOU'RE the problem. No better than the big Disney fat cats who tried to suppress this movie and keep it shelved. Or theaters messing with the ac and saying seats are sold out when they're empty. Shame on you! God's children are not for sale!

I wish people would do a little more research on this topic. If Hollywood and the "powers that be" didn't want this movie being seen, it wouldn't have been released in over 3000 theatres countrywide. It's being shown in major and minor locations all across America and Canada, and the vast majority of those locations aren't having any problems.

Case and point, my own mother and her friend went to see it last week and everything was fine. No issues whatsoever and the seats were packed. The movie isn't being "suppressed". This is all a marketing gimmick from the production company Angel Studios, a Christian streaming service. The movie is jam-packed with lies and only serves to glorify Tim Ballard, the man the movie is based on, and Christianity as a whole. I truly wish this wasn't political, but it is. They made it political.

Tim Ballard has provably exaggerated or fabricated many, if not most of his "rescues", and his organisation, Operation Underground Railroad, has been widely criticised by professional anti-sex trafficking organizations (including other Christian-based ones) for years. He has accumulated millions of dollars for his so-called "non-profit" organisation, and he runs several for profit organisations on the side. Most of this money is presumably pocketed by Ballard and his cohorts, as millions is unaccounted for and only a sliver goes to OUR. It's not about "saving children", it's about money and spreading Ballard's religious ideology.

This is compounded by the fact that Ballard, before he left the CIA, was almost always the last officer to arrive on any scene where child sex trafficking was involved, yet he somehow has hundreds of stories where he's singlehandedly rescued children. In fact, the "true story" the film is based on, where Ballard apparently saved a five year old boy—who, by Ballard's own account, ran up to him, hugged him, and begged to be taken away—didn't even happen. According to court receipts from the arrest and trial of Earl Venton Buchanan (the pedophile in possession of the little boy), Ballard arrived at the scene long after the boy was rescued and taken into custody, and he was barely involved. The documents can easily be found online under the San Diego incident reports.

Ballard was also caught lying about saving one particular girl named Liliana, the literal poster child for OUR. As it turns out, Liliana rescued herself by escaping her captors when she was seventeen and being trafficked in New York. Even more egregious, every time Ballard told her story, he would lower her age to garner more sympathy ... as if her being seventeen wasn't sad enough. In one instance, he claimed she was 14. In another, he claimed she was 11. Ballard also exploited Liliana's story as a reason for needing stricter border patrols and a better wall, despite the fact that she was being abused in America. There is no evidence to suggest OUR had anything to do with her rescue.

Ballard and his "organisation" have even ruined entire legitimate rescue operations in other countries and put children at risk, like in the Dominican Republic, where he endangered the lives of 26 girls by playing vigilante, being followed around by a camera crew, and causing a shootout that effectively traumatised the children he used as a prop to lure in buyers. His response to the mishap and rightful criticism by the Dominican police was basically, "Well ... you win some, you lose some."

The children were released without receiving any therapy or rehabilitative care, and Anne Gallagher, the leading global expert on the international law on human trafficking, said that OUR has an "alarming lack of understanding about how sophisticated criminal trafficking networks must be approached and dismantled" and went on to call the work of OUR "arrogant, unethical, and illegal". Those children easily could've been shot and killed. This occurred in 2014, but Ballard still insists that his "rescues" be filmed, and he even pitched it as a reality TV show. His reasoning for this, he says, is to "spread awareness", but we all know it's because he loves the spotlight.

Entire law enforcement agencies have actually cut ties with or even condemned OUR, such as Washington State Law Enforcement, as a result of Ballard's proclivity to conflate child sex trafficking with consensual adult sex work. Ballard and OUR regularly set up sting operations and lambasted the men who showed up for kink play, publicly branding them as pedophiles, even though the men in question were under the impression that they were meeting for sex with consenting, adult women. This led to several lawsuits against OUR, all of which they rightfully lost.

Ballard's means of gathering intelligence is also questionable, as he, by his own admission, sometimes consults psychic mediums for information on missing children and asks where they're being held captive. I genuinely wish I was joking about that.

The main actor in Sound of Freedom, Jim Caviezel, also has ties to the Qanon movement, and Caviezel himself is a hardcore conspiracy theorist. He believes that Donald Trump is "the new Moses" and that "liberals [literally] drink the blood of children". This is ironic, considering Caviezel and Ballard both met Trump several times, yet never pressed him for information regarding Epstein's client list. Moreover, Caviezel and Ballard both donate to the Catholic Church, which funds the largest child sex trafficking ring on the southern border and has a history of rampant sexual abuse of children. Even more insane, Caviezel admitted to watching child porn, to apparently "get in character" for the movie. He claimed that if Ballard had to watch it, it only "made sense" that he'd have to watch it, too. To "motivate" him to fight child trafficking.

...Alright, bud.

Surprise, surprise, both men are also outspokenly anti-LGBTQ+, despite the fact that children/teens in that community are statistically more likely to be trafficked. The majority of child trafficking is not the result of random kidnappings, as the movie would have you believe. The majority of children are actually recruited into sexual exploitation by a family member or friend/boss. The majority of those children are also not generally passed around in Mexico, like this racist, white savior-oriented movie would have you believe, but they actually either stay in or end up in America. America is, in fact, the largest consumer of child porn and child sex slaves this side of the globe (and nearly the largest producer), yet the movie depicts almost every pedophile as Mexican or some other non-white race.

At the end of the movie, Ballard comes on screen and asks people to donate/buy tickets for others, so that the movie can spread awareness. This is why so many seats in certain theatres are empty, despite websites saying the seats are sold out. Whether or not Angel Studios is also shadow purchasing tickets to boost sales can't be proven, obviously, but I wouldn't put it past them. These "conspiracies" have all served to market the movie and boost ticket sales.

As for Disney trying to keep the movie shelved, that's also a lie. Yes, Disney did technically shelve the movie when they bought Fox, since it didn't exactly correspond with its family-friendly brand, but they had no problem with the movie being released under a different studio. The actual reason Sound of Freedom was in "production hell" for five years was because Tim Ballard kept trying to milk donations. Despite the fact that filming wrapped up in 2018, he kept asking for more and more and more. He used people's faith and understandably emotional response to something as wicked as pedophilia to rake in millions. That's what Ballard is really about, money and stardom. In the movie, there's even a post-credit message where Jim Caviezel says the movie was held back to "maximize its distribution and raise awareness about child sex trafficking".

Translation: Ballard greedy.

Ballard himself admitted the accuracy of this movie "isn't important", and that he just wanted to get the movie out to "spread the word". By that, he of course means the Christian word—but why should fighting child sex trafficking be tied to religion? At the end of the day, Sound of Freedom is a vanity project, and it spreads incredibly dangerous misinformation. Stranger still, Ballard left the OUR just prior to the debut of Sound of Freedom, a fact he's neglected to mention in every interview regarding the movie. It's not clear why he left, but it seems that he fled after an internal investigation into the organisation began. That's not too suspicious or anything. My guess is authorities are trying to find out were all that missing money went, and Ballard doesn't want to be there when they figure it out.

By the way, that final line you hit me with; "God's children are not for sale", the line from the movie that Ballard claims a fellow agent whispered to him while on a case, as well as the title of the movie, which another agent supposedly said to Ballard after a giant rescue operation—those were lies, too. No agents ever said that to him. The police reports for those cases, as well as the agents Ballard supposedly quoted, all said he was the last to arrive on the scene and those conversations never happened.

Ballard cannot be trusted and Sound of Freedom is based on a lie. It's a scam. Everything he does is a scam. All he cares about is spreading his ideology, making money, and looking like a superhero. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Look into his other companies, and into the ex-military soldiers and police officers who left OUR because of how poorly trained their people are when it comes to rescue operations.

Every sane person knows pedophilia and human trafficking is wrong, but giving your money to Qanon-adjacent, right-wing leaning, LGBTQ+-hating, Catholic Church-sympathising, fame-chasing, money-hungry, perpetual liar Tim Ballard isn't going to help.

The best way to help out is learning about the signs of child trafficking. Keep an eye out for any children that might be getting abused. If you suspect something, report it, don't be a silent bystander. Volunteer within your community to make sure the children in your area have food and resources, support LGBTQ+ youth, and watch the other adults around you to ensure they're not acting inappropriately. You can also donate to social programs that create safe spaces for children and even apply for jobs that specialise in these fields. Don't go to see a movie just because it aligns with your religious beliefs, feel sad for a little while, then sit on your ass and let Tim Ballard handle everything.

[cozidreamsreimagine]

The Impact of Grunge

Forget polished pop and hairspray-laden hair metal, the early 90s saw a seismic shift in music and culture with the arrival of grunge. More than just ripped jeans and flannel shirts, grunge was a raw, unfiltered expression of angst and disillusionment that resonated with a generation. But what was its lasting impact?

Sonic Boom

Grunge's distorted guitars, raw vocals, and melancholic lyrics challenged the prevailing musical trends. Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden gave voice to a generation feeling alienated and unheard. This sonic rebellion infiltrated mainstream music, influencing countless artists and shaping the soundscape of the 90s and beyond.

Cultural Shift

Grunge wasn't just about the music; it was a cultural phenomenon. It challenged the consumerism and superficiality of the 80s, embracing authenticity and anti-establishment ideals. This "slacker" attitude, with its emphasis on individualism and self-expression, permeated fashion, film, and even literature.

Check out my shop for unique designs and gifts:

A Legacy of Authenticity

While the grunge era may have faded, its impact is undeniable. It reminded us that music can be a powerful tool for social commentary and personal expression. Grunge's legacy of authenticity and raw emotion continues to inspire artists and individuals to embrace their true selves, flaws and all.

[read-marx-and-lenin]

If for the impending overthrow of the present mode of distribution of the products of labour, with its crying contrasts of want and luxury, starvation and surfeit, we had no better guarantee than the consciousness that this mode of distribution is unjust, and that justice must eventually triumph, we should be in a pretty bad way, and we might have a long time to wait. The mystics of the Middle Ages who dreamed of the coming millennium were already conscious of the injustice of class antagonisms. On the threshold of modern history, three hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Münzer proclaimed it to the world. In the English and the French bourgeois revolutions the same call resounded—and died away. And if today the same call for the abolition of class antagonisms and class distinctions, which up to 1830 had left the working and suffering classes cold, if today this call is re-echoed a millionfold, if it takes hold of one country after another in the same order and in the same degree of intensity that modern industry develops in each country, if in one generation it has gained a strength that enables it to defy all the forces combined against it and to be confident of victory in the near future—what is the reason for this? The reason is that modern large-scale industry has called into being on the one hand a proletariat, a class which for the first time in history can demand the abolition, not of this or that particular class organisation, or of this or that particular class privilege, but of classes themselves, and which is in such a position that it must carry through this demand on pain of sinking to the level of the Chinese coolie. On the other hand this same large-scale industry has brought into being, in the bourgeoisie, a class which has the monopoly of all the instruments of production and means of subsistence, but which in each speculative boom period and in each crash that follows it proves that it has become incapable of any longer controlling the productive forces, which have grown beyond its power, a class under whose leadership society is racing to ruin like a locomotive whose jammed safety-valve the driver is too weak to open. In other words, the reason is that both the productive forces created by the modern capitalist mode of production and the system of distribution of goods established by it have come into crying contradiction with that mode of production itself, and in fact to such a degree that, if the whole of modern society is not to perish, a revolution in the mode of production and distribution must take place, a revolution which will put an end to all class distinctions. On this tangible, material fact, which is impressing itself in a more or less clear form, but with insuperable necessity, on the minds of the exploited proletarians—on this fact, and not on the conceptions of justice and injustice held by any armchair philosopher, is modern socialism's confidence in victory founded.

Friedrich Engels, Anti-Dühring, Part II, Chapter 1, 1877

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Kamala Harris promises to carve out exception to filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade

In a significant policy announcement (and departure from Joe Biden’s policy), Kamala Harris promised to support an exception to the Senate filibuster to allow passage of a bill codifying the protections for reproductive rights previously recognized in Roe v. Wade. See Politico, Kamala Harris backs ending filibuster for abortion rights legislation. [Note to experts on the filibuster: I am using the term in the popular sense, to describe a cloture vote.]

There is a great deal of confusion surrounding the filibuster and what it means to create an exception to the Senate rule. Indeed, the Politico headline, above, misstates what Kamala Harris proposed. She did not propose to “end” the filibuster for abortion rights legislation, but merely to create an exception in a rule that is riddled with exceptions.

Before discussing the hypocrisy that surrounds the opposition to creating an exception to the filibuster, let’s skip to the most important part first: Despite popular belief to the contrary, it is possible to create an exception the filibuster with only 51 votes in the Senate. The complicated procedure is known as the “nuclear option,” but has been used in the recent past. Mitch McConnell created an exception to the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations when he wanted to jam Trump's reactionary justices through the Senate nomination process.

So, the important point is that Kamala Harris can restore the protections of Roe v. Wade with a 50-member Democratic caucus (which would include independents who caucus with Democrats). But for safety’s sake, Democrats should aim for 52 or 53 votes to pass the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal legislation. We must therefore focus our efforts on defending every seat (Senators Tester (MT) and Brown (OH)) and capturing new seats (Colin Allred (TX) and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL)).

Let’s get some common misconceptions out of the way. See, the excellent article by The Brennan Center, The Case Against the Filibuster | Brennan Center for Justice (October 30, 2020).

The filibuster rule is NOT in the Constitution. Indeed, there is a strong argument that it is unconstitutional.

The Senate filibuster rule did not exist for the first 129 years after the Constitution was ratified. Even then, it was used for the first several decades of its existence to speed the passage of legislation, not to block it.

The filibuster does not “protect the rights of the minority.” To the contrary, the Constitution presumes that action by the Senate requires only a simple majority, with exceptions for super-majorities for treaties, convictions after impeachment, and overriding vetoes by the President The filibuster denies the rights of the majority expressly recognized by the Constitution.

The Senate is designed to be an anti-democratic institution by giving disproportionate representation to small states. Layering on an additional undemocratic feature (the filibuster) grants extreme power over all legislation to 20% of the population. The filibuster thus does violence to the vision of the Framers of the Constitution.

Exceptions to the filibuster were recently created in 2013 and 2017 to allow federal judicial nominations, including Supreme Court justices, to be enacted by a simple majority. Budget bills are not subject to the filibuster.

Since 1960, the increasing use of the filibuster has drastically reduced the productivity of the Senate. See the report by The Brennan Center.

In short, the filibuster is an antidemocratic, unconstitutional, productivity-killing tool that has been used to suppress voting rights and deny protection of rights to American citizens in the minority by exalting the partisan interests of the political party in the minority in the Senate—which was never the intention of the Framers.

Kamala Harris’s proposal to create an exception to the filibuster is a major policy announcement that will help move women closer to their rightful status as equal citizens under the Constitution. That should have been the headline story today. But unbelievably, the NYTimes ran with this headline: Manchin Won’t Endorse Harris After Her Call to End Filibuster Over Abortion Rights.

What?! The Times subordinates the major policy announcement that will promote the equality of all women to the political story of a has-been Senator who won’t be around to vote on Kamala Harris’s proposal on the filibuster. Shameful and disgraceful journalism at its worst! You really must make an effort to be that bad. The Times doesn’t care about women’s equality but is hot and bothered about what Joe Manchin is thinking. Did I say shameful and disgraceful? Unbelievable!

And for everyone who will write to me to say that the reporters don’t write the headlines, the Times editors and publishers are responsible for the headline writers. Apparently, the editors and publishers want trashy, clickbait headlines. Did I say shameful and disgraceful?

Trump has crossed another line

Trump gave a speech on Monday that broke a new barrier: He blew past racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic barriers to plumb the depths of “creepiness.” In addressing the issue of reproductive rights, Trump appeared to be trying to “hypnotize” women by telling them that everything was fine, that their eyelids were growing heavy, and that they will cluck like chickens when he is elected. (For those who missed my tone, that last sentence used the literary device of sarcasm.)

See Talking Points Memo, Behold Trump’s New Creeptastic Quotes On Abortion. See also Aaron Rupar, Public Notice, Trump's pitch to women is getting weirder and weirder.

As noted in TPM and Public Notice, Trump said the following in an effort to convince women that he isn’t responsible for denying them reproductive freedom:

“I always thought women liked me. But the fake news keeps saying women don’t like me.” “You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared.” “You will no longer be in danger.” “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.” “Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free.” “You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”

Trump's comments are patronizing, offensive, weird, and creepy. When added to the comments of JD Vance and GOP candidate for the Senate Bernie Moreno (that women over 50 shouldn’t care about reproductive rights), it is incontestable that the GOP platform is anti-woman. But that fact has been clear for some time.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[mariacallous]

Around 12,500 miles above our heads, the satellites that make up the Global Positioning System (GPS) quietly keep the world running. A blackout would result in almost instantaneous chaos.

“You would see traffic jams, a lot more traffic accidents, because transportation is going to see the first most immediate impact,” says Dana Goward, the founder of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, a charity which works to strengthen GPS.

Thousands of planes in the air, which use GPS among other systems for navigation and precision landing, would face a wave of uncertainty. Then other critical parts of society—from financial transactions to energy production systems—which have come to rely upon the precision positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) provided by the US-owned constellation of 31 GPS satellites may start to stutter. The ripples would be felt around the world.

“If it was a catastrophic moment that happened at a blink of an eye and we lost GPS entirely, you would see this global seizure of everything that moves, every piece of data that moves, every human that moves. All of that would shut down,” says Erik Daehler, the vice president of defense, satellites, and spacecraft systems at Sierra Space. The timing signals included in GPS would be one of the most impactful losses. Cell phone connections would likely collapse. Billions would quickly be wiped from stock markets amid the disruption.

A GPS outage could be particularly ruinous to the United States, which has a heavy reliance on its sovereign space system and has dragged its feet in building backups that can provide the required resilience needed to keep the country running. The US has fallen behind, the National Space-based PNT Advisory Board warned last year. In contrast, China has reinforced its own more modern satellite navigation system—BeiDou—with a sprawling network of fiber-optic cables and terrestrial radio signals.

The conditions needed to cause the entire GPS network to be entirely knocked out would be extraordinary and likely would come with wider societal ramifications. Such an outage, for instance, could be caused by China or Russia firing anti-satellite weapons against the GPS satellites (the US also has anti-satellite weapons), a powerful geomagnetic storm, or an escalation in the capabilities of electronic warfare.

Despite the improbability of a total outage, GPS isn’t infallible. It has its demons. “What really happens is, regionally, GPS gets messed with and jammed and interfered with on a regular basis,” Daehler says. Thousands of planes and ships are having their GPS interfered with each week, and signals are regularly disrupted around war zones.

“America is not well prepared at all,” Goward says. More should be done to build out PNT systems that can act as a backstop to the space-based GPS signals, he says. “There’s not a general overall awareness. We certainly don’t have a resilient PNT architecture or a PNT architecture of any kind other than GPS.”

The GPS constellation of 31 satellites, which has received several hardware updates over the years, has been in operation for the past 40 years. The system typically broadcasts at 100 percent availability and provides accurate location data to within 7 meters.

The GPS satellites are just one of the four so-called global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) in operation. As well as China’s BeiDou, there is Russia’s GLONASS and Europe’s Galileo constellation. Over the past half decade, though, GNSS signals have increasingly been attacked as the technology to disrupt them has become cheaper and more sophisticated. Most commonly, disruption happens around Russia, Israel, Myanmar, the South China sea, areas of the Middle East, and the Baltic countries in Europe.

Broadly, there are two main forms of attack against GNSS signals: jamming and spoofing. Jamming involves blocking signals so that positioning isn’t available, while spoofing involves creating mock signals that make something appear somewhere else on the map. Ships have been made to appear inland at airports, while planes are made to look like they are flying in tight circles. In one video shared by the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation that appears to show GPS interference, a plane’s systems blast out a warning message to “pull up” when its pilots reported they were flying higher than Mount Everest.

“I’m most concerned about aviation,” says Todd Humphreys, the director of the University of Texas at Austin’s radio navigation laboratory. “At least one fatal aviation accident in Europe can be traced to GNSS interference as a primary cause. A deliberate attack against US aviation, as opposed to the collateral attacks in Europe, would cause astounding economic harm.” The number of spoofing incidents last year was 500 percent higher than in 2023, according to aviation officials.

The US Space Force, which is responsible for the GPS satellites, did not respond to a request for comment for this article from WIRED.

Across the US, PNT data is crucial to almost all critical infrastructure—from communications and health care monitoring systems to food production and wastewater management—but GPS is often the “sole” source of this information, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, making the systems more vulnerable. (The military uses a more robust GPS setup than commercial applications).

“There is no one sector that doesn’t use GPS, and some are more reliant than others. Users in these sectors are not all acutely aware of the risks associated with their dependency on it and the ways that the system can be disrupted or degraded,” says Caitlin Durkovich, a former national security official and critical infrastructure expert.

Building a “layered” approach could help to make GPS less vulnerable to attack, experts say. Both Europe’s Galileo and China’s BeiDou are newer than GPS and, in some ways, more resilient. Last year, the National Space–based PNT Advisory Board produced a comparison of GPS and BeiDou that flagged a broader series of backups to Beijing’s system.

While GPS satellites are located only in middle Earth orbit, BeiDou has satellites in multiple orbits and is further along in deploying them into low Earth orbit. China also has a terrestrial radio broadcast network, called eLoran, and has laid 20,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cables that link up with 295 timing centers to broadcast alternatives.

“In the case of BeiDou, the system’s enhanced resiliency and capability should be considered an element of ‘soft power’ and an element of great power competition,” the advisory board wrote last year. The board, led by Admiral Thad Allen, a former leader of the US Coast Guard, called for a more joined-up approach to managing PNT across the US government and for GPS to be specifically designated as “critical infrastructure.”

On April 26, 2024, the first of two Finnair flights were forced to turn around due to GPS interference likely carried out by Russia. After a second aircraft was diverted the following day, Finnair suspended its daily flights between Helsinki and Tartu, Estonia. Source: AirNav

“I think there has to be a federal role in this, both because the system and signals are operated and provisioned by the federal government. But because of the complexity of the system and the fact that you need a common standard,” Durkovich says.

“We’d like to see a core national PNT architecture,” Goward says. “Then we would suggest some form of fiber network and a terrestrial broadcast. We think it would be a substantial deterrent and it would actually make space-based systems safer because folks would be less likely to interfere with it.”

Across the country, there are various levels of backup systems in place that have been sporadically introduced and multiple ongoing efforts to improve the GPS setup. Financial institutions, for instance, have been deploying atomic clocks to ensure they have backups for the timing element provided by GPS and telecoms networks have some capacity in place.

“It’s not to say that the US doesn’t have a robust timing infrastructure, actually it’s quite robust,” says Jeremy Bennington, the vice president of PNT Assurance at Spirent Communications, adding that much of it is spread across commercial entities, a stark difference to China’s national approach. “I do think that a backup is going to be required so that you end up with that layered approach.”

The calls to modernize PNT have increasingly become more urgent. In 2020, a first-term Trump executive order called for making PNT systems more resilient. At the end of March this year, the Federal Communications Commission opened an inquiry to identify GPS alternatives that can provide backups. “Relying on GPS alone as the primary source of PNT data leaves America exposed to a single point of failure and leaves our PNT system open to disruption or manipulation by adversaries,” the FCC said at the time.

There are multiple ways to add more resilience and upgrade the existing GPS system. The military has long been working on upgrades to be used in defense situations. Bennington says that GPS satellites could be added to other orbits and the further rollout of more capable signals. Daehler and colleagues at Sierra Space are working on creating ways to reduce the impact of jamming and spoofing.

Lisa Dyer, the executive director of the GPS Innovation Alliance, says the GPS system could build in authentication to confirm its signals are genuine, like Galileo and BeiDou. Dyer says that rolling out the newer L5 signal can also build in more protection for planes and aviation. “To me that's an important national objective of the United States: that GPS remains the de facto international navigation standard,” Dyer says.

There are also hardware updates happening, though some of them are slow and have dragged on for years. The US Space Force has recently been funding multiple companies to develop low Earth orbit satellite GPS constellations and quickly launching systems into space. Elsewhere, quantum technologies are being used to create new navigation systems. SandboxAQ, a Google spinout, is working on magnetic navigation.

Ultimately, as well as better government management around GPS, organizations need to spend money to upgrade their systems and protections, Bennington says. That means spending money. “If GPS jamming or spoofing were to happen at any major airport, whether it's Heathrow, Frankfurt, Munich, New York, the amount of cancellation and delays in the cost incurred by the airlines just in several hours would be more than the cost to upgrade their fleets,” he says.

[nemoofunknownparadigm]

Rebecca: Yeah, so then I said to Stacy, “Wh-…Emily, what the hell is that?

Emily slightly jumps

Emily: Oh, uh- this? Final Girl, it’s a horror novel that dissects the trope of the fi-

Rebecca: What? No, not that nerd shit. I’m talking about the gun sticking out of your backpack. Why the hell do you have a gun?

Emily: It’s a Mossburg Maverick 88.

Rebecca: I didn’t ask what it was, I asked why you have it?

Emily: Self-defense. I mean, we’re going out into the woods. So, I-uh thought it would be a good idea to-

Rebecca: Ugh, whatever. I don’t even know why I’m bothering with you.

Rebecca turns and leaves, joining Lizzy and her friends

Emily: Oh…

Uzi walks over after Rebecca leaves

Uzi: Hey?

Emily: Oh! Hi! Hey.

Uzi: What gun was that again?

Emily: …It’s, it’s a Mossburg Maverick 88. 8 rounds, 20 gauge with twin action bars and anti-jam elevator. It went into production back in 1988.

Uzi: That’s pretty frickin cool!

Emily: R-really?

Uzi: Yeah! I didn’t know you were into guns?

Emily: Oh, yeah. Doesn’t come up often since people don’t really talk to me…but my mom has a pretty big collection! Taught me everything she knows…you wanna fire it?

Uzi: How is that even a question? HELL YEAH I WANNA FIRE IT!

Emily: I saw some targets back over there.

Uzi: What are we waiting for? Let’s go!

[darkeangel]

X-MOW Anti-Drone Frame. A modification of the Sniper Frame (https://www.deviantart.com/darkeangel/art/XMOW-Sniper-Frame-606695661) for Anti-Drone Warfare.

The Frame’s primary weapon is its powerful communication and sensor array which Ai (the onboard A.I) can use to track, hack and/or jam the drones long before they reach their target.

Secondary weapon is a head mounted laser cannon which can fry the internal electronics of a drone or prematurely detonate any explosive payload.

For close quarters combat the Frame is equipped with two backpack mounted automatic shotguns, each controlled by their own independent AI subroutine. The Frame also carries a third shotgun in its hands. Lastly, an electric net is mounted on the left arm, a device Jess calls “The Bug Zapper”, which is a last resort measure to disable drones.

As a final defensive measure the Frame is outfitted with reactive armor on the shoulders, waist and knees, and the right arm has additional armor bolted on to protect the elbow joint whilst retaining free movement.

The Frame retains its back mounted XION Drive which allows the Unit to float in the air. The original legs of the Sniper Frame have been removed and replaced. Now that the Frame no longer has to supply power to the energy-intensive Beam Sniper-Rifle, the dedicated weapons generator in the chest now feeds power to a secondary XION Drive mounted between the legs. Whilst not strong enough to produce lift, the second Drive continuously feeds X-IONS to two particle storage tanks in the legs, which in turn can power two small but powerful XION thrusters in the feet. Combined with the original XION Drive, this allows the Frame to perform extended jumps up to a height of about a kilometer; thus allowing engagements with Drones operating at higher altitudes.

Typically the X-MOW is optimized for a human pilot with AI assistance; for Anti-Drone operations this is reversed. Ai’s hacking abilities, quicker reaction times and finer control of the machine make her the primary operator. Jess, the pilot, isn’t totally redundant however; her human senses are still more adept at identifying drones, especially ones that employ their own jamming signals or dazzle camouflage, which can confuse the A.I subroutines. Therefore Jess’ primary role becomes Target Acquisition and Identification; she can also still take over control of the Frame should Ai become too overwhelmed with hacking multiple targets.

The AD Frame is an experimental test model and in reality has limited effectiveness. The main issue is that the Frame, which stands 18 meters tall, is too big to adequately defend against sub-meter anti-personnel and reconnaissance drones that are deployed in large numbers on the battlefield. It has more success with the larger, long range drones, but most of the “kills” are a result from hacking and jamming and very few from the mounted weaponry, leaving them mostly superfluous and a drain on power.

The concept is, however, later applied to series of smaller L-MTFs (Light-Mobile Terrestrial Frame) that mount a backpack with a set of four AI controlled sub-arms that can mount various weaponry including shotguns, Bug Zappers and mini guns. These 8-meter tall mechs have a limited production run but enjoy a modicum of success in protecting small squads of infantry and armor against Drone Warfare.

***

A concept I thought up whilst reading about the rapid advances of Drone Warfare in Ukraine. It’s actually kind of low-key terrifying; so this is a way for me to deal with that? IDK. Sorry about the lore dump.

Why yes, I have been watching G-Quuuuuux. Why do you ask?

X-MOW designs are mine. Maybe I’ll post some of my older X-MOW designs some time, if anyone cares to see em.

[usafphantom2]

New F-16 Electronic Warfare System ‘on Par with Fifth-Gen’ Enters Flight Test

Sept. 4, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The F-16’s new electronic warfare suite, the AN/ALQ-257, has begun flight testing after successfully completing ground tests in an anechoic chamber, Northrop Grumman reported.

The Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite, or IVEWS, mounted in a Block 50 F-16, completed an Air Force evaluation in the Joint Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic Sensors (J-Prime) facility—an anechoic chamber—last month, Northrop said. That same aircraft has been conducting flight tests for about two weeks, and will soon be joined by a second F-16, a company official said. Northrop is not yet cleared to reveal the location of testing.

Flight testing to validate what was learned in the chamber will take just a few weeks, and an operational assessment will be completed “by the fourth quarter of this year,” said James Conroy, vice president of navigation, targeting, and survivability, in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. Developmental and operational testing should be completed in early 2025, and based on the results, the Air Force will decide future milestones such as when production and deliveries can begin and when the first F-16 unit is expected to be declared operational, he said.

“We’re going fast,” Conroy said, because the Air Force’s F-16s “don’t have this kind of survivability equipment” and need it to be operationally relevant. The system is an all-digital jammer that has been extensively tested to cooperate with and deconflict with the F-16’s new AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR), an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar. The two systems can be used simultaneously, Conroy said. Both are made by Northrop.

The electronic warfare system is capable of detecting, identifying and countering “the most advanced threats” on the battlefield today, Conroy said, and can perform accurate geo-location of emitters with just a single aircraft. The simulations in the chamber were “intense,” he said.

The IVEWS will be internal to the F-16 and will replace the centerline-mounted AN/ALQ-131 self-defense jamming pod, freeing one external station on the fighter for a fuel tank or weapon. The system will use antennas located elsewhere on the fuselage; the outer mold line of the aircraft hasn’t been altered, Conroy said.

He declined to characterize whether the IVEWS is comparable to the Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) being mounted on F-15Es and F-15EXs, saying only that that they are “both advanced electronic warfare systems” and can work together.

The IVEWS is intended to provide the F-16 with electronic warfare capabilities “on a par with fifth-generation aircraft, significantly enhancing survivability for operations in contested and congested electromagnetic spectrum environments,” Northrop said. “Its ultra-wideband suite can detect, identify, and counter advanced radio frequency threats, including millimeter wave systems.”

The IVEWS started out as a Middle-Tier Acquisition program to achieve rapidly fielding; it became an Air Force program of record in 2019.

Conroy said the system will be especially helpful in coping with mobile anti-aircraft radars and missiles whose position is unknown at the start of a mission and which may turn on and fire on F-16s when directly overhead or nearby.

To reach this point, the IVEWS has undergone three years of testing, both on the ground and in the air aboard Northrop’s Bombardier CRJ, acting as a surrogate for the F-16 in the Northern Lightning 2021 exercise, Conroy said. It has also been tested at Hill Air Force Base’s F-16 Block 50 avionics system integration laboratory.

In the chamber, the IVEWS was “subjected to accurate representations of complex radio frequency spectrum threats,” Northrop said in a press release. It demonstrated “the ability to detect, identify, and counter advanced radio frequency threats while operating safely with other F-16 systems.”

Conroy said the system could permit the F-16 to remain credible into the 2040s, and is being evaluated by a number of F-16 user countries, particularly those buying the F-16 Block 70. Turkey has signed a letter of agreement selecting the IVEWS for its Block 70s.

@FHaeromedia via X

[dustedmagazine]

David Ivan Neil — I Hope Yer OK (Perpetual Doom)

Photo by Emilio Pagnotta

David Ivan Neil is a singer/songwriter out of British Columbia who hoes his own row of outsider folk music in which he seeks the infinite among the wilds of the mundane. For over a decade he has nurtured the flame of creative practice in the nooks and crannies afforded by the life of a working parent, leaving behind a trail of shambling, homespun albums across the internet. His new tape, I Hope Yer OK, found a sympathetic home on the immaculately curated slacker-folk-rock label Perpetual Doom. Rising to the occasion, it is the best produced work in his lengthy catalog, boasting the barest studio sheen and a tight, stripped-back honky-stoner band, the A OK Players, who lend urgency and back-beat movement to DIN’s emotionally zoomed-in half-slurred confessionals.

DIN’s music, like that of his north star inspiration Daniel Johnston (name-checked in the liner notes of the physical product) has never had trouble getting its point across even under the most minimal recording circumstances. This album, however, demonstrates that sweetening that pot never hurts — the locked in rhythm section and touches like keyboards, woodwinds, strings and backup vocal arrangements push things further into a zone of accessibility and beyond the immediate Daniel Johnston “outsider” association. Hints of past literary anti-folk heroes such as Jeffrey Lewis and David Berman, whose Silver Jews jam “K-Hole” is covered here, pop up, but DIN is determined to keep his feet planted firmly on the ground in the dirt-patched yard with the cigarette butts and beer cans rather than let his head float too high into clouds of verbose metaphor.

I Hope Yer OK begins with what feels like a thesis statement for the album, “Drums,” a love song about frustration that centers on the almost shouted refrain “I wanna play the drums, I wanna play ‘em loud.” The band engages in a string and woodwind backed lope here that recalls a less restrained Woods band when they assumed the role of David Berman’s backing unit on Purple Mountains. However, where Berman’s fire for life seems tragically all but put out on that album, DIN sings with an unhinged, manic glee, clearly “happy to be alive” — a line which is found later in the song “Haircut” — despite the madness inducing moebius strip of disappointment that a regular life can feel like. You can always bang on a drum kit, listen to the cymbals sizzle, that beautiful noise and physical exertion has the potential to bring everything back to center.

The song “Haircut” continues this theme, covering a bleary hungover day that requires a couple different restarts and revisions over a lo-fi country ramble with accents of mandolin. Fatherhood and house maintenance, getting old and hangovers hitting harder, observing with resignation that the relentless march of time is a reminder that life has been worth living. Something as simple as a haircut can be a transformation, or maybe it can’t. You’re the same person, you could never be anyone different, and that’s ok. You’re alive, you love, and you are loved, and all this stuff that’s pissing you off, all this work you must do, proves it.

The lead single from I Hope Yer OK and its penultimate shot at the windmill of the indifferent universe is the joyous and fatalistic “Used to Only Win,” an unanswerable demand to the void to give us back what we think we deserve when the petty losses and indignities of life keep adding up. It’s darkly funny subject matter that contrasts with the bouncy piano, electric guitar and woodwinds that float it along. The sweet, polished music combined with sour, reeling imagery is another nod to Purple Mountains, which seems to loom large over the full-band approach DIN takes with the A OK Players. It works as a thematic mirror to the statement made in the title of the album – we hope we’re all ok, we all know we aren’t, we know no one is getting all of what they need or deserve. The best we can do is hit the drums or sing at the top of our lungs, or maybe “drink until my piss-bag is full up,” until it all feels little bit better.

Joshua Moss

[popculturebuffet]

TMNT Month: Turtle Tunes and We Wish You A Turtles Christmas: Not So Erotic Nightmares Beyond Any Measure and Christmas Fever Dreams to Treasure Forever (Comission for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to turtles month. Thanks to a schedule change, we're looking at another piece of weird turtles media coming as the franchise was loosing steam and someone was huffing that steam to try and come up with new ideas.

As a result we got two direct to vhs specials, designed to try to eat into that sweet sweet DTV market that was starting to really take off at the time and would do so long into my childhood and long after. These specials go for a younger audience, I suspect trying to get some of that barney money. They did not and we only got two and the world was spared the third that would've triggered the end times.

As you can see just looking at the covers for these things they had the budget of a paper clip and a piece of string, and it shows. The turtles have horrifying barley moving heads that insure they'll be your sleep paralysis demon for years to come. But beyond the terrible costumes what do these specails have? Well not a lot and everything respectively so let's talk about them, and hopefully make my night terrors worth the money under the cut

Turtle Tunes has an objectively weird premise. It's not a horrible one for doing some goofy less actiony videos as these costumes would tear apart if the wind blew on them slightly, I can't imagine them doing full on fight scenes like the movies, but it's still weird for the nonexistant budget this thing has.

So the turtles got a hookup from april to host their own show on channel 6 and were this just a tmnt version of waynes world i'd have watched this years ago. Also something to keep in mind for the mutant mayhem verse. Just saying.

But no their instead just counting down their faviorite songs.. and rather than say use the ones from out of our shells which are actually pretty good, or make some up they decide to do covers of various public domain songs and still present it like it's TRL. Do kids still know what TRL was? I.. I feel old.

Anyways, the Turtles rather than have April, who agreed to this in the first place, Splinter or Casey help out, instead have a bunch of random kids serve as their crew and boss them around. Also Mikey runs off and apparently does this all the time. Just goes to skateboard around the park and do mushrooms, living his best life.

As for the rest of the plot

This vid is just an excuse to do terrible covers of public domain songs.. and a loose one of Rick Springfield's don't talk to strangers. I'm dead serious. I mean the song IS a mild banger and using it for an actual anti stranger message and not Rick Springfield desperatly trying to stop his girlfriend from leaving him, but it's left as atonal garbage.

I don't have much for this one. I mean it has Leo on a rowboat as he slowly dies inside, that's kinda funny and it's weird they chose to do that one to yankee doodle dandy instead of row row row your boat, but I stand by their dumbass decision. At least Leo struggling to breath as he rows a boat is funny. Everything else is just bland: the turtles talk over each other, announce videos and somehow get renewed, though I think the renewal is really an excuse to get them out into the open and into a woodchipper.

Turtle Tunes proves, in the words of our prophet huey lewis, sometimes bad is bad. Sometimes cheese can be really funny, this is just 20 some minutes of my life I won't get back.

Thankfully We Wish You A Turtles Christmas, which emma and I watched before is so bad it's good. It's gloriosuly stupid, cheap and while still using music videos to pad things, is far more creative with them. This feels more like a tmnt product.. one that was written by a sentient mound of cocaine, but still a thing people put actually efort into at least feeling like a tmnt vide0 Turtles tunes could have any obnoxious mascot jammed in it. It could've been Busby Tunes... imagine him announcing videos and doing stuff and

Okay maybe it's thanks to saftey regulations we got the turtles, but still you could've also just.. put an opossum on screen to music. There's a line and a few layers of hell between TMNT and Bubsy

We Wish You A Turtles Christmas is the good kind of crack to Turtle Tunes shard of glass they tell you is crack, taking a straightforward tale of "the turtles forget to get a gift and have to go get it" and making it baffling as it is hilaroius.

So our story begins with We're the Turtles, the theme song for both tapes where their turtles and their on the look out for a friend in need that's what their about... and never actually find one too busy as they laugh and sing and do their thing their the turtles. Their the turtles. It's this weird durge that gets glued to your brain.

So it's christmas eve and the turtles are joking, putting presents under the tree while Leonardo sings Reggage, you know what everyone does every christmas. Or else.

Leo is horribly out of character in both these specials, taking being a stern big brother type who leads the team and tries to keep them on task and making him a dick who insults his brothers and also the mutant equilvent of Ras Trent.

As for the reggae song itself it's deck the halls but TO A REGGAE BEAT MON. CULTURAL APROPRATION POWER! It's the clear seperation from this special and turtle tunes; Turtle Tunes is KINDA weird, We Wish You A Turtles Christmas is FUCKING weird. You have a scooby dooby doo doo laden song about decking the halls that both is happy Bebeop and Rocksteady aren't here yet wishes a merry christmas to the shredder, while also having a beat drop for some reason. It's beautiful and I never want to hear it again.

The turtles then have a horrifying relization: WE FORGOT TO GET A GIFT FOR SPLINTER. I do like HOW this comes about as it's the only part of this special that's not written by a guy who was told the basics about the turtles then told to write a christmas special or they'd release the bees. The boys all thought one of the others had the duty: it's a sitcom cliche sure but one that would happen to a family.

So they have to go shopping on christmas eve with a rousing rendention of over the river and through the woods "up through the sewer"... or sleep inducing. Let's go with coma-tastic, sounds snappier.

We get to the surface for what's the best song of the special. A subterranian bar but it's the upbeat and peppy gotta get a gift for splinter. It has dancing, random children out on christmas eve busking, ryming gotta gift for splinter with "I hate shopping in the winter", and suggesting they get him a go cart "a go cart in the sewer baby!" while aruging. This sibling bantering and bickering at least is a little fun.

We then get to the most inexplicable part of this special.. and yes

As Mikey decides to sing opera. And this alone would be amazing just for the sheer what the fuckery.. but the turtles annoyed reactions and implication he does this a lot just sell it. The bit's dumb, but like this special it's also fun. No one not even the characters know why the fuck this is happeing.

After that our turtles return home to wrap they also decide.. TO RAP. Yes it's time for the Rap every bit of 90's childrens media thought they could do. It's as painfully awkward as you could hope for. Not as awkard as the rasta bit because it has a little bit of a beat but it sure does exist, i'll give it that.

So with that we get the climax as the turtles all get vauge gifts and give Splinter a 12 days of christmas themeed barrage of gifts while awkwardly sings about them. I do love how he looses pace towards the end and looses his space and his delighted "nailed it" when he catches up. Splinters singing is stiff as it's clear his actor cannot sing int he character voice, but I'll give him points for enthussim

So the gifts they got are

Twelve April O'Neil autographs

Eleven pairs of sneakers

Ten yellow yo-yos

Nine narrow neckties

Eight chopsticks

Seven silk kimonos

Six frisbees

Five video games

Four man-hole covers

Three skateboards

Two comic books

And a pizza with pepperoni

It's a bizzare assortment something you notice while listening but really looking at the lyrics, thanks turtlepedia for having those so I didn't have to listen to this song in full again to find em all, you see just how slapdash it is. It's in character but it dosen't make it any less bizzare as this list is not played for laughs. So we have 12 autographs from someone they know and likely got in a rush, elven pairs of sneakers which.. is honestly quite nice they found them in his size as while it's not his style of footwear i'm sure splinter would love some shoes after walking in the sewer barefoot for nearly two decades, ten yellow yo yos clearly from the dollar store, nine narrow neckties which while the specitfication weird is a classic parent ot child they don't know too well gift, eight chopsticks which is just.. .did you guys go for chinese and realize you missed a gift for your schitck, seven silk kimonos which is kind thougthful and a good gift, six frisbees because they went back to the dollar store, five video games all copies of the first NES game no one wanted, four man hole covers because theft is okay if it's christmas, three skateboards because splinter can shred man, two comic books which is just aweirdly low number and a pizza with pepperoni which is the most self serving as we all know Splitner prefers sushi.

Finally we have the title song.. which is eh. I don't have much to say its there for a moment, it's gone and they all rock out ending the special.

We Wish You A Turtles Christmas is something you have to experince at least once: it's baffling, stupid and hilarious and i'm glad to share it all with you. I encourage you to watch it.. and leave turtle tunes in a dumpster where you likely found it. Thanks for reading and remember i'm pullin for you, we're all in this together.

[troopanegre]

The 60's-70's was an era where radical, rebellious, empathetic, protest music was the norm, not the exception. This is why I listen to music mostly from those decades. I like some modern artists and artists I grew up with. But nothing in my lifetime comes close to the substance and passion of the era of civil rights, suffrage, etc.

But when I think of the people who did grow up in that age, I'm revolted. People like Hillary Clinton, Chuck Shumer and Donald Trump are so far removed from the ideals of their own generation I don't get it. How can you grow up loving "The village people" and hate gays and trans? How can you sing along to Bob Dylan then call black people "Super Predetors." How can you Jam out to Country Joe McDonald and call for deregulation? How is it that out of all the active senators that once march alongside Dr.King, Bernie Sanders is the only one left still fighting that fight?

The only explanation I can think of is, they where never genuine in the first place. Like pepsi using popular worldwide solidarity over police brutality, to push product. They cosigned those struggles for the clout, the visibility and votes. In much the same way that most of the people that took philosophy when I was in college didn't actually care about expanding their world view. It was just a popular class to take because "Zen" was all the rage. It made people sound more sophisticated and nuanced than they actually were. And above all, it helped a lot of guys get into the pants of girls that they otherwise would have never stood a chance with.

Now here I am, The voter. Being courted by all these congresspeople who want to get in my pants by telling me how pro or anti "woke" they are. Sorry fellas but I wasn't dumb enough to be fooled by plastic people as a young, naive college student. Now as an adult, I see right through your games. Democrat, Republican. It's fascism out in the open or fascism behind closed doors. I'd rather die with the pains of thirst than die sated by either sides poison.

[jacscorner]

Jango: So, Blue Bomber or Red Rocker?

Tara: Red Rocker definitely. Never use Blue Bomber products.

Jango: Eh? Seriously?

Tara: Yes, seriously? The one time I bought a Blue Bomber Solar Gun, I was going on a mission to Kirkwood, right? Went off to stop a pirate from extorting the natives. I get jumped by a Rubrum. I pulled out the Solar Gun, and you know what happened?

Jango: it jammed?

Tara: It broke! Literally fell apart. Brand new gun with fresh solar batteries and it crumbled to bits.

Jango: Ooh...that's embarrassing.

Tara: It goes beyond 'embarrassing'! That Rubrum looked at me with those big ol', "you poor thing" eyes! It's like I was a kitten that got caught in the rain. He pitied me so much that he didn't even bother tying me up, just waved his gun and told me to get to steppin' to their boss.

Jango: Shishishi~ That's awkward.

Tara: So, what about you?

Jango: Hmm, okay, I got one. So, I was on my way to Tycho, right? I was hauling tobacco for a merchant - was promised a cut of the profits, but the sector I had to cut through was pirate infested. So, I had the idea to fly through a nebula and go around the sector.

Tara: And did you have a navigator that could find their way through the nebula?

Jango: Nope! My mates and I got lost and ran out of fuel and we had to-

Jango/Tara: Open up the transponder and pray.

Jango: Heard this one before?

Tara: Everyone has at least one transponder story. So, did help come quickly?

Jango: Yeah, but you know who came to help? Slugmen.

Tara: No...

Jango: Yes!

Tara: That's anti-help. They'd sell their mother for 10 Vox Coins. And they'd throw in their pops for another 5.

Jango: Yup, and they had a deal I couldn't refuse: give half of my cargo and all my coins for fuel.

Tara: How much fuel.

Jango: 10 units.

Tara: Literally spaceway robbery!

Jango: That's what I said! And they said, 'I have the bigger guns' and I was staring down the barrel of 3 missile launchers, a pulse cannon, and a tachyon beam. With a ship that couldn't move.

Tara: So, you had to pay.

Jango: Yup. And then, when flying away, guess what they did.

Tara: Shoot you?

Jango: They shot me! In the back!

Tara: Oh, love, this is why you never deal with slugs...

---

Just a fun pic & flash fic I found from a year ago.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I just had a vision that the inevitable DC-Marvel crossover movie will begin production before 2030. It'll have James Gunn's new Superman and Tom Holland Spiderman (Disney will either have acquired 100% of the rights from Sony by then, or else they will have absorbed Sony Pictures in a merger like 20th Century Fox). You know those fake movies that are just commercials for a studio's other IPs? Wreck It Ralph 2, Space Jam 2, Chip and Dale, Ready Player One; it'll be one of those (I call this genre Corporate Masturbation, but I'm sure somebody else has a better name for it), a bloated mess with 15 or 20 b- and c-list heroes crammed in the background, as well as an OG Avengers reunion (very short cameos, because despite it costing $400 million the studio will still say they "can't afford" Robert Downey Jr or Chris Evans anymore). It'll make a billion dollars, billion and a half maybe, but leave no real mark on pop culture, like Avatar 2 did. It'll come and go without much fanfare, but it won't bomb which means it'll be what leads to the Disney-Warner merger by 2040. I say merger, but really it'll be Disney buying the bulk of Warner-Discovery outright and selling off the entrails to smaller companies so as to avoid an anti-monopoly suit.