I think this is great. We need to prioritize other transportation modes besides just the car. They are a little pricey but will make getting around the downtown and UNCG campus a breeze. GSO needs to explore shutting down Elm to all car traffic. Just the Hopper, bikes, scooters, and pedestrians with even more seating in the downtown please! Full story here from TCB: https://triad-city-beat.com/birds-electric-scooters-are-returning-to-greensboro-despite-filing-for-bankruptcy/
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Also, shout out to Gale Melcher who keeps covering important transportation issues in the Triad. Have you set up a recurring donation to TCB to support local journalism like this? If you haven't, you should.

Source: Benjamin Fulford. He is a Canadian expat in Japan who is obsessed with conspiracy theories about "the yakuza, MI6, the Freemasons, the CIA, the KGB, Mossad, the triads, the Chinese government, Japanese military intelligence, etc." His big thing is the Khazarian mafia. Trying to explain who they are is like trying to explain NESARA--you need all day. Short version is: the KM is a centuries old Satanic cabal with Jewish origins, that now controls all the evil stuff. Believers tend to be anti-Semites. Fulford associates the KM with the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, the Vatican, and all the other usual subjects. He sells a weekly report. Everything below is from a preview of his latest report. Comments in brackets [] are mine.
New Chinese Emperor oversees Khazarian mafia purge
The failure of a Khazarian mafia coup attempt in China means the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Corporation is not going to be able to escape bankruptcy this time, multiple sources say.
This is because a new emperor -who is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan- has taken power in China, according to dragon family sources. So far, over a thousand senior Chinese officials and three generations of their families have been executed for accepting bribes from the KM, the sources say. The rest of the top levels of the Chinese government remain under house arrest until investigations are completed. [The dragon families are Good Guys who will be helping to I element NESARA/GESARA. The United Stats Corporation has defaulted on loan to them & the dragon families are now going to make the corporation bankrupt. The corporation, of course, was the result of the KM takeover of the US in 1871.]
It is still not clear if Chinese President Xi Jinping has been replaced by an avatar or not, the source adds. However the real Xi Jinping has a shoulder injury from an assassination attempt in Singapore so, when the new Chinese politburo is revealed on October 16th, the thing to watch for is the presence or absence of this injury on Xi if he appears, they say. Either way, any Xi who appears will not be a KM stooge, they add. The fact that KM propaganda rags like the New York Times are now viciously attacking Xi is another indicator their attempt to take over China has failed.
The coup attempt was staged by the ROTHSCHILDs / ROCKEFELLERS / VATICAN / BLACKROCK / DAVOS GROUP ETC. in an effort to stop Chinese support for the Russian Alliance and the annexation of Ukraine. The second reason for the coup attempt was the takeover of the BRICS temporary reserve system, into which half of the world’s currencies have already shifted.
[Last week, Fulford reported:]
Worldwide shoot-to-kill orders have been issued against all Khazarian Mafia members until they surrender unconditionally, according to an agreement made between MI6, the CIA, Mossad, the Russian FSB and other military/intelligence agencies worldwide. This is legal because the KM are actively trying to kill 90% of humanity. If they surrender, they will face Nuremberg-style war crimes tribunals. If they don’t, they face death.

I intended to write this entry exactly a year ago, but laziness and resignation got in the way. And now we're in the middle of the start of the next world war, so it's somewhat more relevant. I will begin by a brief account of my understanding of ethno-cultural geography (here's hoping it's not too excessive, and not too brusquely offensive).
Epigraph: 《Throughout the meeting, Hitler remained in a foul mood. After lunch, Halifax brought up his experiences as viceroy of India, where he had urged a policy of conciliation. Hitler, who had just related how Lives of a Bengal Lancer was his favorite film, and compulsory viewing for the SS to show “how a superior race must behave,” rudely interrupted him. “Shoot Gandhi!” A startled Halifax fell silent, as Hitler went into a rant: “Shoot Gandhi! And if that does not suffice to reduce them to submission, shoot a dozen leading members of Congress; and if that does not suffice, shoot 200 and so on until order is established.”》 © Pat Buchanan – The Unnecessary War (sources: Roberts, Smith)
I would divide the Eurasian landmass into four great cultures - Europe, West Asia, India, the Sinosphere. Both India and China only ever expanded into South-East Asia (Chola, Ming, wokou). West Asia created immense empires under the Achaemenid Persians, Arab Rashiduns, Turkic Ottomans. Europe, however... Europe dominated the known world multiple times - in the Indo-Germanic conquest of Eurasia millennia ago, in the Alexandrian and Roman empires more recently, and in the industrial subjugation of the planet by the Europeans a century ago. This is the background of the current stormy history.
In 1914, the planetary supremacy of the West was complete. So much so that, it seems, the Asian races, from the Turks to the Thais, were in a comatose state, awaiting the finishing blow... a blow that never came.
Instead, the sister empires of Europe proceeded to turn one another to bloody shreds in epochal internecine wars. Thence emerged a triad of great ideologies that gripped the imagination of all people.
...It must also be specified that since the demise of Rome, Europe gradually fell under the spell of the Christian religion. Its message of love towards foreigners only grew stronger with the advent of the industrial age, enabling this cultural cancer to metastasise, so to speak...
1, Germany was completing its long-burgeoning apostasy from Christian mercy under A. Hitler. It, however, went to war too soon, and thus brutally awakened the military feeling of its relatively-asleep neighbours on both sides. Savagery met savagery, and the sword-wielder was vanquished by the sword. Germany fell in 1945.
2, Russia lost the war to Germany in 1917, first disintegrated in a liberal revolution, then the Marxists succeeded in rebuilding the state anew through a monstrous civil war. Marxism is arguably a humanistic universalist offshoot of Christian ethics, with a focus on technological advancement, achieving world peace, and improving material conditions. Marxism would press on to save Russian statehood again from the Hitlerian German invasion, then to send the first man into space, and would then pathetically lose the culture war to the Americans without a shot fired. Russia fell in 1991 (and hasn't regained its sovereignty since, as of 2022).
3, And finally, America. The perfect, impregnable fortress, with oceans for moats. Colonised by the Anglo-Saxon stock at the peak of the European culture, during the Enlightenment era. Bestowed upon a century of peaceful expansion, of acquiring its own boundless Lebensraum in the West. Its tragedy, however, was in the total triumph of the Christian moral system in its midst, with not a single competing ideology in sight.
The first bell of impending doom was the American Civil War. No matter how modern racists may cope, it was neither a war about state rights, nor did any Jews give any recognisable impetus to the conflict. No, as Dr. Robert Morgan points out beautifully on the Unz Review, it was the first tangible sign of Christian dominance in the American cultural life. If the martial, pagan Romans had to wage a civil war not to grant citizenship rights to their traditional allies in war (the Social War, 91-87 BCE)), the American Christians went on to bloody civil struggle in order to equalise the most debased foreigners with themselves - precisely the heart of the Christian message of love ("the last shall become the first", earthly strength is evil, Galatians 3:28, etc.).
My next bullet point will be about the conduct of the Americans in their colonies. In my view, an attentive observer would have been able to see already in the 1930s the ephemeral nature of the Western-style empires. Let's take the Philippines, conquered by the Americans in 1898, and Poland, vanquished by the Germans in 1939.
Philippine population (1903 > 1939) = 7.6 mil. > 16 mil. (+8.4 mil.) Polish population (1938 > 1946) = 34.8 mil. > 23.7 mil. (-11.1 mil.).
Thus, using this undisputed statistic, we can deduce that all the Christian American Empire has ever done is increase the population of foreign nations wherever it went. This same pattern would continue in Japan, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. Sure, the initial conquest may employ excessive violence - after all, American military might is astronomically supreme. But during peace-time, the Christian mercy of the American culture will do its work, undoing all the visible successes of their material capability.
This, in a nutshell, is my view of the world. And my response to anyone talking about "American interests". Geopolitics is moot if a given subject of history does not act in its own self-interest - not merely making honest mistakes without a perfect knowledge of future outcomes, but with an outright sabotage of its place in the sun. Again, an intellectual experiment - would Adolf Hitler als Führer Amerikas have ever been able to lose world supremacy as America enjoyed it in 1945? Would America have allowed China to industrialise in the 1980s, at America's cost? Hell, would America have allowed the Japanese to live on their archipelago, instead of colonising it for itself?..
And so comes the end of the American Empire, the most illustrious one, quelled by its own hand. And with it, the ending of the history of the Occident, entangled with the fate of the Washington élite. America may still conquer the last vestiges of the Eastern European Russian heartland, as I anticipate, but it will merely forestall the inevitable by a decade, if that. The future will belong to the three remaining Asian cultures - from the Turks to the Juche Koreans.

Today's top thread asks why there isn't a massive housing sell-off in Canada right now, given that everything is being squeezed (and household budgets getting crushed)
The general consensus is that unless people are FORCED to sell, they'll probably avoid doing so in this environment, especially if they bought recently (as they'd be underwater).
So, barring any additional black swans (or a deeper than anticipated recession), there may not be a giant liquidation of houses like there was in the US during 2008.
HOWEVER
That doesn't mean prices will "stabilize" at these insane levels.
In fact, if the volume of sales stays low whilst affordability keeps drastically eroding - then all it will take to reprice every neighborhood in every Cdn city is just a consistent flow of "forced sales" (from things like death, bankruptcy, divorce, relocating for work, moving to / away from Canada, hardship, land assembly, people who bought 50 years ago for $19K, etc.)
And those will never stop.
But, obviously, if we start hitting 3-4+% overnight rates at the BoC for end of year / early 2023, mortgage rates are going to be 5-6%.
I know it's hard to believe, but not everyone is going to find a Saudi prince or Chinese Triad leader to overpay by $600K for their 80's bungalow. The vast majority of the buyers will be normal, taxpaying Canadian families.
(And almost NONE of the buyers for the short-term will be investors, since they all see this market trending down).
And as such, the prices that these sales settle at - as we're already clearly seeing - will be much lower than the height of the froth in Q1, and will simply continue heading lower & lower as rates climb.
In the meantime, Canada's economy will face increasing pressure from inflation and the impact of rate hikes, which is going to squeeze everyone's budgets, and basically just wipe out household spending on anything but the bare essentials.
Bottom line: Housing went on a Meme-stock "number go up" tear in 2021 & Q1 2022 because rates were deeply negative & the BoC was flooding the bond market with liquidity.
ALL of that is being reversed. Rapidly.
Housing isn't magically going to defy gravity.
Enough forced-sales will happen, and they will reprice at what real people can actually afford. This will impact appraisal values, and reset the entire neighborhood comps as each sale processes.
If you think this can't happen, well... you're already seeing it. Record low sales volume. Massive price drops.
No giant sell-off needed.

Taken from: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2022/1/7/22871849/peter-bogdanovich-obituary-director-resume
The director, who died at 82 on Thursday, was a master craftsman who used his wealth of film knowledge to create singular hybrids of the old and new
“Comedy has to be built carefully,” Peter Bogdanovich told Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri in 2018. At his best, the New York–born filmmaker was a master craftsman, drawing on his love and knowledge of classic Hollywood style and conventions to create hybrids of the old and new. In a rollicking road movie like Paper Moon, about an experienced con man who takes a preteen apprentice on a cross-country odyssey, every moment feels familiar yet bereft of cliché; Bogdanovich didn’t just know how the comic mechanisms worked, but also how to keep them purring just below the surface. While rarely lumped in with the generation that reinvented Hollywood in the 1970s, Bogdanovich’s love of old genres—especially screwball comedies and musicals—yielded the same sort of postmodern pleasures as Francis Ford Coppola’s updating of gangster picture myths in The Godfather. (To wit: If Bogdanovich is to be believed, he was offered the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel first.)
Bogdanovich was a raconteur and a gossip—in addition to the sterling books of film criticism he published during his 20s, he wrote and directed numerous behind-the-scenes books, articles, and documentaries, appearing in most as a vivid, polarizing character in his own right. Always good for a quote and gifted at intertwining narcissism with self-deprecation, he dined out on his ’70s successes while also owning the commercial failures (Saint Jack, They All Laughed) that led to his declaring bankruptcy by the mid-’80s. In time, there would be comebacks for this compelling fallen figure—retrospectives and late triumphs, including a killer recurring guest role on The Sopranos and the release of his friend and hero Orson Welles’s long-unfinished The Other Side of the Wind, a movie in which Bogdanovich brilliantly played a version of himself. He leaves behind not only several classics but a wide, varied, and almost uniformly idiosyncratic body of work—movies, performances, essays, books, and one-liners. Here’s our attempt at a Peter Bogdanovich syllabus.
The Wild Angels (1966)
As a young film critic, Bogdanovich hooked up with B-movie maestro Roger Corman, whose mercenary showmanship belied a similar appreciation for auteurism and aesthetics. (Among other things, Corman was responsible for distributing some of Ingmar Bergman’s key works in America.) Discussing potential collaborations together, Corman got Bogdanovich to do uncredited rewrites on a biker picture featuring Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, and Diane Ladd—a brilliant assemblage of hipster talent. As a portrait of posturing malcontents wearing their antisocial tendencies on their leather sleeves, The Wild Angels helped to define counterculture cool toward the end of the 1960s and anticipated the beautiful losers of Easy Rider. It also showed that Bogdanovich had a knack for road-movie narratives, which would bloom more fully in picaresque comedies like What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon.
Targets (1968)
One of the creepiest and most resonant American movies of the 1960s, Targets imagines a meeting of monsters between clean-cut Vietnam infantryman Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) and aged horror-movie icon Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff). The conceptual pun is that both men are “veterans,” and Orlok—played by Karloff as a barely veiled riff on his own legacy—is eager to leave the Hollywood trenches, only to get caught up in an unfolding tragedy as Bobby steers his Charles Whitman–esque killing spree toward a Reseda movie theater. Lee Harvey Oswald was famously apprehended at a matinee, and Bogdanovich’s film plays with the iconography of the JFK assassination as surely as it satirizes—and sancitifes—the old Universal movie monsters, imagined here as harmless, emasculated anachronisms. By juxtaposing the encroaching, simmering psychosis of a politically divided America against the innocently lurid imagery of its B-movie fantasies, Bogdanovich parlayed his cinephilia into a confidently postmodern style; the film is a clear forerunner of Quentin Tarantino’s pop-cultural morality plays (alternate title: Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood). Released into a zeitgeist reeling from the killings of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, Targets alienated mainstream audiences before being reclaimed as a cult masterpiece.
The Last Picture Show (1971)
“Nobody wants to come to shows no more,” remarks a character late into Bogdanovich’s Oscar-nominated commercial breakthrough—a crisply photographed, black-and-white eulogy for a small-town Texas cinema and the innocence of the kids who patronized it. Ben Johnson won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as the regal theatrical impressario Sam the Lion, whose death on New Year’s Eve throws the sleepy oil town of Anarene into a state of crisis. Instead of just piling on nostalgia for an idealized postwar America, Bogdanovich locates the hairline fractures along racial, sexual, and cultural fault lines that would explode in the decades to come. Everywhere, things are less wholesome than they seem. The cast is amazing—not only Johnson and the similarly Oscar-winning Cloris Leachman, but also an impossibly young and charismatic Jeff Bridges as a sensitive high-school stud who falls out with best pal Timothy Bottoms over preening homecoming queen Cybill Shepherd. Written and acted with a bittersweet ambivalence miles more sophisticated than George Lucas’s contemporaneous Eisenhower-era salute American Graffiti, The Last Picture Show has aged as well as any key New Hollywood drama, right down to its final, deeply moving gesture of generational connection and communion.
What’s Up, Doc? (1972)
As a programmer at the Museum of Modern Art, Bogdanovich had long advocated for the swiftly paced screwball comedies of Howard Hawks, whose Western Red River makes a cameo near the end of The Last Picture Show. Proceeding from the principle that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Bogdanovich whipped up his own Hawksian comedy in the form of What’s Up, Doc?, which is loosely based on a novel by Herman Raucher but patterned almost beat for beat after 1938’s Bringing Up Baby. To stand in for Cary Grant’s dazed straight man figure, Bogdanovich tapped Ryan O’Neal, best known for the sappy Love Story; as his dizzy love interest, he secured Barbra Streisand, a natural comedian and then one of the biggest box-office draws in the world. The jokes range from gloriously old-fashioned—pratfalls, puns, and a slapstick demolition derby during a parade—to wryly self-reflexive; upon being told that “love means never having to say you’re sorry” (the much-quoted catchphrase of Love Story) O’Neal responds, directly to the camera, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.” The standout performance comes courtesy of Madeline Kahn as O’Neal’s humourless fiance, Eunice Burns, a woman with a misguided sense of dignity who exists as the butt of every gag. In the end, Bogdanovich’s uneven homage to Hawks ends up glorifying its subject in an ironic way: It shows how even a very gifted young filmmaker on the way up couldn’t touch the master.
“The Kane Mutiny” (1972)
The rumor is that Bogdanovich’s withering retort to Pauline Kael’s essay about the making of Citizen Kane was ghost-written by none other than Orson Welles. If so, the opening salvo makes for a pretty good joke. “Welles has made better films,” Bogdanvoich avers of his hero and frequent drinking buddy before pointing out that the issue at hand is not Citizen Kane’s greatness, but the fact that Kael’s piece—whose privileging of cowriter Herman Mankiewicz as the screenplay’s driving force ended up being the indirect inspiration for David Fincher’s Mank—is “loaded with error and faulty supposition that it would require at least as many words as were at her disposal to correct, disprove and properly refute it.” Considering that Kael had been less than enamored of Bogdanovich’s own body of work to that point, including a pan of What’s Up, Doc?, it’s possible to read more than a little bit of bad vibes into the piece, which includes the revelation that Kael borrowed another unnamed writer’s research—a high irony considering her thesis about stolen credit.
Paper Moon (1973)
Tatum O’Neal became the youngest actor to win a competitive Academy Award for her role as preteen scammer Addie in Paper Moon—a more successful exercise in 1930s pastiche than What’s Up, Doc? right down to its beautifully re-created Depression-era backdrop. This time, instead of doing double takes and looking befuddled, Ryan O’Neal exploits his natural charisma as a grifter whose paternal affection for his orphaned partner doesn’t totally offset his wariness; his Moses is just as prone to bickering and bartering with Addie as protecting or indulging her. The masterstroke of casting a real-life father and daughter in a story about the creation of a surrogate family was credited by Bogdanovich to his ex-wife and collaborator Polly Platt, while the film as a whole vibrates with a charm and tenderness at odds with the filmmaker’s prickly persona. While it doesn’t sanitize or sentimentalize the Depression, it generates the same sort of cunning, humane social vision as vintage Preston Sturges.
Saint Jack (1979)
Following the big-budget period pieces Daisy Miller and Nickelodeon—both less well-received than his early-’70s hits—Bogdanovich took advantage of the fact that his then-girlfriend Cybill Shepherd had the rights to Paul Theroux’s novel about an American hustler in Singapore. The story goes that Shepherd had originally wanted Orson Welles to direct the film, and that when Bogdanovich opted to do it himself, it caused a falling-out between the longtime friends. It’s easy to see what both filmmakers saw in Theroux’s story about a waylaid would-be pimp whose dreams of opening his own glitzy, full-service brothel put him in the crosshairs of the local triads. After all, it’s an edgy, politically incorrect parable of creative passion under pressure, and a ready-made allegory for moviemaking. Jack Nicholson was under consideration for the title role, but Ben Gazzara is brilliant, filtering rakish, easy, all-American charm through an underdog outsider’s constant, churning sense of alertness. The chaotic making of Saint Jack is documented in Ben Slater’s 2006 book Kinda Hot, and captures Bogdanovich—who also appears in the film—as a mirror of his protagonist: relentless, talkative, adaptable, and in over his head in a culture that views him as an emissary of exploitative Western imperialism. The movie was shot under a false title so as not to arouse local suspicions and was ultimately banned in Singapore and Malaysia. In the U.S., it was a casualty of the end of the new Hollywood, struggling at the box office as audience tastes shifted toward special effects and sequels.
The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960-1980 (1984)
Described in The New York Times as “part tribute, part self-justification, part accusation,” Bogdanovich’s 1984 book about his relationship with Playboy centerfold Dorothy Stratten—who starred in his 1981 comedy They All Laughed before being murdered by her estranged husband Paul Snider—doubles as a withering critique of Hugh Hefner and the Playboy empire, identified by the author as a predatory institution exploiting not only the bodies and sexuality of its models but irreprably damaging their senses of self-esteem and independence. Bogdanovich also takes shots at director Bob Fosse, whose Stratten biopic Star 80 was based on a Village Voice article that had painted him unflatteringly as a struggling director “who needed a hit badly.” For Bogdanovich, Star 80’s prurient violence and dread went beyond the demands of artistry into the realm of exploitation. Even while narrating personal tragedy, Bogdanovich couldn’t help but practice a form of film criticism.
Mask (1985)
Bogdanovich’s biggest box-office hit since Paper Moon was a relatively conventional drama about an unconventional family; in an unexpected callback to The Wild Angels, Bogdanovich reentered the world of motorcycle gangs to tell the true story of Rocky Dennis, a disfigured teenage boy who dreams of biking across Europe. The film won an Oscar for its makeup design, while Bogdanovich’s big swing—casting Cher as the protagonist’s freewheeling mother, Rusty—connected and then some. Cher got a Best Actress prize at Cannes, although the glory was mitigated by a very public feud with the director. She claimed that Bogdanovich was hard to work with, leading to a series of mean-spirited rebukes on his end, including comments in a 2019 Playlist interview that Cher “can’t act” and “didn’t like men.” “Her eyes have the sadness of the world,” Bogdanovich continued. “You get to know her, you find out it’s self-pity, but still, it translates well in movies. I shot more close-ups of her than I think in any picture I ever made.”
The Sopranos (2000-2007)
The best interview ever recorded with David Chase is this one with Bogdanovich, which deals with almost every important aspect of The Sopranos from conception to execution to legacy. Of course, Bogdanovich isn’t interacting with Chase simply as a critic or observer of the series. As Dr. Elliot Kupferberg—the nosy, flexibly ethical, massive-water-bottle-toting psychiatrist of Lorraine Bracco’s Jennifer Melfi—the longtime director placed a provocative frame around the show’s psychoanalytical dynamics. If Melfi was meant as a sounding board for Tony’s inner life—and a surrogate for the show’s audience—Elliot was like a dry, obnoxious voice from the peanut gallery, simultaneously critiquing her ongoing interest and commitment to an obvious sociopath while pressing her, fan-like, for gory details. On a show displaying more varieties of recognizably obnoxious human behavior than probably any other ever made, Bogdanovich was a reliably hateful presence, right up until “Blue Comet,” when he calls out Melfi on her enabling once and for all.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream (2007)
Few rock stars of the 1970s and ’80s were as easy to take for granted as Tom Petty: hooky, whiny, and reliable, he hung around the Top 40 not by changing with the times but by keeping the faith. At their best, Petty and his band played a kind of straight-ahead rock ’n’ roll as inescapably American as Bruce Springsteen, but because he rarely wrote protest songs—focusing more on character studies or affairs of the heart—critics took him for a lightweight. Bogdanovich’s fleet, four-hour profile documentary clarifies Petty’s political bona fides and documents the turbulent but ultimately affirmative history of his band—the ornery, competitive spirit that had them racking up hits past their time. Runnin’ Down a Dream is a slick, accessible piece of filmmaking that finds Bogdanovich in an uncharacteristically populist mode. It doesn’t mystify Petty, or intellectualize him, or turn him into a myth. Instead, it shows a talented, hard-working star doing his thing. And the concert scenes are terrific.
The Other Side of the Wind (2018)
As the obsequious up-and-coming writer-director Brooks Otterlake in Orson Welles’s ’70s Hollywood satire The Other Side of the Wind, Bogdanovich spoofed his own image, fawning over John Huston’s two-fisted auteur protagonist as he had in interviews with John Ford. When Welles was unable to finish the film for a myriad of reasons, Bogdanovich stood by his friend, and several decades later—long after Welles’s death and the pair’s falling-out over Saint Jack—he fulfilled his promise to help take the project to completion. Restored and released in 2018 by Netflix with editorial contributions by a host of collaborators, The Other Side of the Wind is wild, funny, ragged, masterly, ambitious, and singular.

I'm not Peter Griffin from Family Guy, but you know what really grinds my gears? People who play the lottery so compulsively, they hold the entire line behind them hostage.
Almost every time you go to a convenience store/gas station/corner store/bodega/whereever lottery tickets are sold, you will encounter one of these whales with so much money to piss away on a whole book's worth of lotto tickets, they end up causing the line to back up behind them while the poor clerks have to meticulously scan each ticket, and give the whale their cash. Most if not all the time, these whales are typically some senile old boomers with nothing better to do than to piss their retirement fund away at a futile chance of being set for life. Good god, not only these whales are wasting their money, they are also wasting our time! Nobody should have to wait for the lottery! These are stores! Places where essential goods are sold! Not fucking casinos! If I wanted to go to a casino, I expect tacky neon lights flashing in your face on the outside, and maybe a show with Penn and Teller (Nothing against them, I'm a fan) on the inside. These businesses need to put limits on how many lottery tickets a customer can cash before they have to move to the back of the line to process more. This would solve lottery related line congestion, and make these customers more tolerable.
Which brings me to another thing, why I just hate the fucking lottery? It's pretty much the Idiot Tax! Think about it! Lotto corporations are partially owned by a local state or provincial government, and taxes are what funds local governments to improve society, or so what I'm told, and it's where money sunk into the lottery goes! Which is why the lottery is seen as a predatory source of income from compulsive gamblers! It's no wonder why organized crime syndicates from the Mafias to the Triads love to use casinos for racketeering and money laundering.
And the odds of winning? Don't make me fucking laugh! Did you know that the odds of winning the jackpot are so astronomically high, you are more likely to get killed in a car accident on your way to cash the winning ticket than you are to actually win it. If you honestly think playing the lottery is a good thing? You might as well go to an ATM, withdraw all of your life savings, and burn it all! Put a blowtorch on the money slot, and watch all your money burn up in smoke! There! If you want to go bankrupt, that's a quicker option! That's all the Lottery/Gambling is! Bankruptcy with extra steps!

POD: 1908
The Sundering (WWI/the Great War): 1912 – 1918
Considered to be the first modern global conflict, the Sundering was mainly between the two large alliances of Europe. It quickly grew to be the most devastating war of the time killing 17 million, dissolving some empires, and creating others.
The War of Eternal Night (WWII): 1933 – 1945
The USSR dissatisfied with the Treaty of Paris giving away all of its conquered territories following the German Civil War launches a campaign into eastern Europe to reclaim its "rightful possessions". It is resisted by Finnish, Polish, and Romanian forces; simultaneously, the Japanese use the distraction of the conflict to take over European possessions in the Pacific. Six years of bloody senseless conflict followed resulting in over 70 million casualties both military and civilian; this war was also the first use of atomic weaponry.
Moon Landing: 1969
The fledgling space race between the superpowers escalates to a new stage after the U.S. spacecraft: Apollo 8 successfully lands American astronauts on the lunar surface. Soon after the Soviet Union successfully lands its own spacecraft: Vostok 7 on Luna.
Wormhole Travel: 1984
The discovery of wormholes had long been a closely guarded secret of the U.S. and USSR. Months after its initial discovery, a Soviet ship: Kazarinova transited through a wormhole at the L3 Earth-Moon Lagrange Point on May 5th, 1984. Two months later an American ship: the John Paul Jones made its own successful transit. The Kazarinova emerged in the Alpha Centauri system, soon after the John Paul Jones followed suit.
First Expedition into Deep Space: 1992
In 1992, a program is created to explore the various endpoints of the L4 Sun-Earth Wormhole. A small fleet of ships is constructed and sent into it. The fleet arrives at the edge of Proxima Centauri. It soon would take 11 years for the fleet to arrive in the inner system.
Operation Thermopylae: 2006
In an effort to combat the effects of climate change and protect coastal cities, the United Nations allocates a large percentage of its budget and begins to construct sea walls surrounding every major city on Earth. Measures are made to punish and limit the use of fossil fuels in favor of nuclear power and renewable energies. Despite this, the majority of the world's nations still use fossil fuels for power and other necessities. A collective effort is begun to catalog and preserve every known species of fauna and flora on Earth similar to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault but on an extremely massive scale. The facilities where these seeds and genetic material are stored are colloquially called Vaults. Over 25 years, more than 259 were built across the Earth.
Interstellar Travel: 2008
A joint Russo-British research and development team successfully develops a device capable of navigating the hyperspace within wormholes. The device is tested on several automated probes and achieves spectacular results. In the same year, the 4th Expeditionary Fleet arrives around Barnard's Star, finding a lone planet orbiting within the outer area of the habitable zone.
The Surge: 2032 – 2046
The South Greenland ice sheet falls into the Atlantic and combined with the wobbling moon devastates coastal cities and sends sea levels 8 - 10 meters above pre-Anthropocene levels. Numerous hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena slam into coastlines across the planet, destroying hastily constructed levees and sea walls. Soon after the Marie Byrd ice sheet, begins to collapse into the seas, eventually leading to the Marie Byrd Wars following the expiration of the Antarctic Treaty.
U.N. Decline: 2072
After sixty-six years of service, Operation Thermopylae is suspended due to a lack of funding from the U.N. As the world becomes increasingly uninhabitable many countries begin to turn inward, global cooperation has all but ceased.
Rocinian Civil War: 2083 – 2092
Civil War breaks out within the fledging Rocinian Republic. Republic aligned military forces battle against Solon rebels. After nine years, the Rocinians manage to emerge victorious albeit with a pyrrhic victory rather than the expected swift triumphant one.
The First Exodus: 2094
As the costs of superluminal travel continued to drop, many major corporations, wealthy elites, and talented individuals leave Earth for opportunities in the colonies. The first exodus is mostly into surrounding areas in the Solar System and comprises the wealthiest individuals.
Mass Extinction/Collapse of Earth Habitability: 2100 – 2102
As the effects of climate change and global warming reach their peak, they begin to trigger a global mass extinction. Thousands of species of plant and animal life become threatened as extreme weather events, ocean acidification, and droughts ravage Earth. Food scarcity becomes commonplace across numerous nations as droughts and other unstable conditions become commonplace. The areas in the most danger are Earth's oceans where entire ecosystems begin to suffer a complete collapse. Efforts to preserve native life restart as Operation Thermopylae resumes, its sole purpose to preserve as many remaining species of plant and animal life as possible. The remaining billionaires and trillionaires either remain on Earth or move offworld.
Expansion: 2105 – 2127
Between 2105 - 2127, humanity has probed hyperspace connections out to 15.00 light-years.
The First Extrasolar War: 2134 – 2158
After decades of rising tensions, the Sirius Federation presents a series of fourteen demands to the Triad Confederation and its ally the Hrönn Scientific Directorate. When the deadline passes with no response, the Federation begins an invasion of Bane, Procyon, while clashes between Federation and Confederation allies occur across colonized space. After five years of largely inconclusive fighting across the Federation-Directorate-Confederation border, a Confederation counter-offensive in Sirius occurs two years later with the fiercest fighting being over the world of Hielo. After another seventeen years of fighting amongst the Federation and Confederation, the war ends. The Treaty of Pyrrhus [state] restores the status quo within the Core with minor concessions and war reparations given to the Directorate and Confederation.
Formation of the Organization of Sovereign States: 2161
As the First Extrasolar War concluded, the people of the Solar Neighborhood began to demand an organization to mediate conflicts and disputes between their respective nations. In a vote conducted behind closed doors, delegations from every recognized colony and nation-state in the Orion Arm approved the creation of the Organization of Sovereign States (OSS). A spiritual successor to the United Nations on Earth, the OSS is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop and maintain amicable relations among nation-states and planet-states, achieve universal cooperation, and be the center for solving disputes and conflicts within the Solar Neighborhood. Its founding members are listed in order of signing: the Glacial Commonwealth, Solar Association, Sirius Federation, Triad Confederation, and Hrönn Scientific Directorate with the Aquidanist Republic of Helios as an observing party. Later they were joined by the UUR, Solarian Empire, Republic of the Red Sun, and Rocinian Union following the dissolution of their own intergovernmental organization.
North Star Cartography: 2178
North Star Cartography becomes the first corporation to employ over ten million and one of the most profitable. A multinational conglomerate of immense size, the company's divisions, and affiliated businesses begin to wield substantial influence and power.
Kotimaan Hegira: 2194
In early 2193, a comet is detected to be on a collision course for Kotimaailma. The Kotimaans try everything to stop it, diverting it away, splitting it apart, and even destroying it, but it was all in vain. As the comet approaches, the Kotimaans begin to build a great fleet of enormous arks, greater than the old colony ships they had arrived on. Leaving in groups of twelve, the ships departed into orbit around Kotimaa. On March 6th, 2194 the comet breaches the atmosphere of Kotimaa and crashes into the Southern Continent. It takes about a day for the full effects of the comet to spread across the world and by then most of the Kotimaailmans had fled into orbit. So begins the Kotimaan Hegira.
Crisis on Earth: 2208
The sea-level rise and mass extinctions on Earth reach their peak. Most of the pre-Anthropocene coast was already submerged while millions are displaced, refugees, or dead. The ocean becomes highly acidic while plant life dies. In a last attempt to save the planet, the Earth Rejuvenation Society razes much of the remaining urbanized regions of Earth to reduce overpopulation, pollution, etc.
1st Liberation War: 2210 – 2219
The 1st Liberation War began when the Unitary United Republic hoping to expand its sphere of influence invaded the Republic of Santorini an autonomous region of the Solarian Empire. The UUR quickly and easily blitzed through the small three-system state. It seemed that the war would be over by the end of its first year. The remnants of the Solarian Imperial Navy conducted a daring and desperate raid on the UUR's capital of Lionrock which fortunately for the Solarians wiped out the leadership of the Unitary United Republic. The resulting sudden loss of command caused a period of chaos lasting two and a half years, allowing the Imperial Navy to reinforce and strengthen itself. In a battle that would determine the outcome of the war, the Imperial Navy remarkably wins the engagement crippling the UUR's primary fleets for the remainder of the War. By 2219, both sides signed an armistice lasting for 7 years, with the Republic of the Red Sun acting as a neutral party.
2nd Liberation War: 2226 – 2245
Following the end of the Solarian Armistice Agreement, conflict resumes near the border of the Unitary United Republic and Solarian Empire. Imperial Solaria formed an alliance with the Red Sun Republic (Republic of the Red Sun) in the interlude between the two wars. This alliance proved pivotal in the new conflict as the UUR would be forced to fight a two-front war. The Republic quickly succumbed to the Imperial Navy's advances in its Northern Territories. The Red Sun Republic invades and secures the Crisana System subsequently conquering all of Mare Verde. Following the fall of Opunohu, Narran one of the more unstable states in the UUR rebels beginning a civil war within the UUR. Facing the collapse of its nation the Unitary United Republic is strong-armed into a white peace by the Solarian Empire.
Abandonment of Earth: 2227
With conditions on Earth deteriorating to the point of being unable to support even basic complex life, Earthers flee in an exodus far greater than the Kotimaan Hegira spreading across the entire Solar Neighborhood. In a strategy later called "system-hopping" or colloquially "hopping", an exodus fleet would enter a system, drop off some small amount of its people, gather viable resources, and leave using a wormhole entering hyperspace to repeat the process. Using the strategy, several of Earth's superpowers set up "successor-states" across many planets within the Solar Neighborhood, moving their remaining populations and infrastructure offworld. Other less powerful nations banded together to fund and build exodus fleets to escape the dying Earth. By 2236, of the original 11.24 billion people that had lived on Earth prior to the Abandonment over 90% had left or died trying. Only about 120 million people remained on the planet by 2250, the population would remain close to that number for the next two hundred years while the United Nations and the Earth Restoration Front worked to rebuild the planet's biosphere and polluted environment.
Rocinian Decentralization: 2257 – 2283
In the centuries since its founding, the Rocinian Republic had transformed from a burgeoning democracy to a brutal autocracy. Following a bombing at the Ministry of Defense Building in Salisbury (Rocinian Capital), the Republic was faced with a series of organized protests against the government. These protesters turned to rioters and then insurgents following the suppression of protestors within the Solon system using military force. As the riots grew and several threats of secession, cooler heads within the Republic prevailed. Later called the Coup of '262, several high-ranking government officials along with low-rank military officials staged a coup against the dictatorial government of Rocinia and by extension the Republic. Its success would lead to the drafting of a revised Primary Octava (similar to the U.S. Constitution), in which democracy was restored, the political power of the Chairman of the Ministry would be limited and several systems would be promised greater autonomy. Officially, the revised Primary Octava was ratified on June 3rd, 2279, though it takes another four years for all systems to ratify it, leaving the newly proclaimed Rocinian Union out of the Second Extrasolar War.
The Second Extrasolar War: 2279 – 2292
"Too long have our people been oppressed, forced to live in the shadows, hiding from the light. We have lived in fear and doubt of his word and since our banishment, we have bowed to the oppressor, the heathen, the Heretic. No longer. The Prophet demands justice, he demands retribution for our people's spilled blood. Blood begets blood! For, within the darkness, the light shines brightest!"
The Second Extrasolar War would not begin with another dispute among the myriad of nations in the Core but instead as a result of the machinations of the extremist religious sect known as Quida. The Aquidanists had been quiet since their banishment to the Helios system, but following the ascension of a radical Antistes, a new mandate would be dictated. With their new mandate, the Aquidanists began a campaign of violence and stoking the flames of war. It did not take long to incite conflict, the rivals of the Sirius Federation and Triad Confederation only needed a spark to begin another conflict. A minor skirmish on their border occurs and quickly inflames into battle. Infrastructure was annihilated, millions were slaughtered, and worlds were sundered to nothing but dust and ash. In total, nearly a billion people lost their lives, across many worlds and systems. Some nations collapsed while others were crippled for centuries. In the end, there was no victor of the war, only those who had lost the least. The Triad Confederation and Sirius Federation the instigators of the conflict would suffer the most, not only becoming crippled for centuries but losing their status as major powers until the post-Collapse era.
Economic Crisis of 2302: 2298 – 2302
Due to the devastation caused by the Second Extrasolar War combined with the collapse of many widespread currencies, several nations within the Core begin to close trade and enact tariffs on foreign goods. As a result of the tariffs, unpaid debts, and a new wave of bankruptcy among companies and small businesses, a new Great Depression begins around late 2295, and by 2298 reaches new heights. The height of the Crisis lasts until 2303 when a recovering UUR desperate for new trade partners and revenue to stabilize its devastated nation begins the 3rd Liberation War and the subsequent intervention by the OSS which results in new international trade regulations and the rebirth of cooperation.
3rd Liberation War: 2302 – 2309
Due to the Economic Crisis of 2302, a recovering UUR desperate for new trade partners and revenue to stabilize its devastated nation plans to declare war with Solaria to gain a sphere of influence over it. Imperial Solaria had recently broken its alliance with the Republic of the Red Sun due to trade disagreements and distrust of one another, following the crisis of '302. These two factors would result in the onset of the 3rd Liberation War. Beginning as the previous two wars had; skirmishes within the Darpas and Celestine systems ignited into a full-scale conflict in both systems with neither side gaining "ground". The Republic of Santorini a neutral power is unintentionally bombed by the Solarians bringing in OSS peacekeepers into the conflict. The peacekeepers cripple the Imperial Navy and in its moment of weakness, the UUR takes advantage and quickly sets up a puppet government taking control of nearly all Solarian territory. With most of its infrastructure destroyed, and its military decimated the Imperial Domain of Solaria had no effective way to resist.
Distance: 2315
As of 2315, humanity had surveyed nearly all of the connections in the hyperspace network. Mankind could expand out to any star within 45.00 light-years of Earth, over a while.
Birth of the Battani Order: 2346
Around November, the Battani Order is formed on the newly settled planet of Sjóndeildarhring, it is named after a Syrian-Arab astronomer and mathematician. The main principles are to preserve and protect humanity's collected knowledge as well as expand on it.
The Solarian Liberation: 2346 – 2350
The Solarians, sick of high taxes, restricted movement, and the exploitative tactics of the imperialist Unitary United Republic rebel against its occupying forces. Guerilla warfare ensures as resistance groups, as well as other nations, aid the Solarian insurgents in their fight for freedom. A brief siege conducted over months beginning around late 2349 results in the recapture of the Solarian capital of Imperia from occupying UUR forces. This event leads to a forced withdrawal from Imperial territory as well as recognition of Solarian independence as a free polity by the UUR; a statement officially recognizes these facts on April 9th, 2350.
Brief Recovery: 2354 – 2371
Since the Abandonment, Earth had been in a slow recovery. While not as beautiful or habitable as it had been prior to the Anthropocene Era, it was stable. The devastating effects of Anthropological Climate Change while not reversed were at least contained. The various remnants of the people on Earth had reorganized into new nation-states. While a thinly-veiled peace had descended since Earth was rendered uninhabitable but as the environment stabilized war quickly resumed to claim remaining resources and newly inhabitable territory. In a mere twenty years, nearly all of the efforts and recovery of the past century had been reversed. War after war would end in the Earth's recovery being pushed back to twice as long as originally speculated.
Dissolution of Mutual Interest Zones within the Outer Reach: 2385
The Outer Reaches of the Solar Neighborhood were a region that was designed to be disunited and divided. The colonizers were deliberately from rival nations, had large ethnic or religious differences, or were given little access to resources building resentment. Regions of the Outer Reach were divided into Mutual Interest Zones (analogous to spheres of influence in all but name), dived up among the Major Powers of the Day, the largest of which was owned and operated by the Unitary United Republic, at the time containing two future major powers (the Exiles of Kotimaa, and the Federation of Sovereign States). Prior to the 2380s, the Unitary United Republics had been increasing control of their sector of the Outer Reach. In the mid-2380s, the Chief Executive of the UUR declared the dissolution of the Mutual Interest Zone. By August 1st, 2385 the Unitary United Republic's Mutual Interest Zone was reorganized into the Urvon Border Territory. What followed was outrage from the other Major Powers while subtlely replicating the UUR's tactics.
Annexation of the Outer Reach: 2402
While the Outer Reach had long been exploited and under control of the Major Powers since its founding, it was made official on February 28th, 2402. The Annexation would sour relations between the Major Powers and the Outer Reach for centuries, a hatred that has even powered through the Collapse.
The Assassination of Simon Fadelli: 2409
Simon Fadelli was a rising political figure within the Outer Reach that had been advocating for the region's political and economic autonomy from the corporations and Major Powers. His assassination would be the ember to ignite the fires of revolution within the Outer Reach.
The Third Extrasolar War: 2410 – 2421
Unlike the previous two Extrasolar conflicts, the Third Extrasolar War was fought between the Reach and the Core Worlds. With the assassination of Simon Fadelli, the Outer Reach entered into a full revolution against the Major Powers. The onset of the conflict began when seventy stations monitored by the Outer Reach Authority were attacked simultaneously by rebel groups, insurgents, and guerilla fighters throughout the region. These first attacks expanded in ferocity and lethality to slowly push out the Major Powers' influence from the Outer Reach. As quick as the attacks began they ceased, the message being sent and received. The remaining 9 years of war were quiet with only brief skirmishes occurring, the last major battle of the War was an attempt of several megacorporations to reassert control over a small section of the Outer Reach, the attempt failed. While the war had for the most part been over since 2412, the Major Powers finally acquiesced to the demands of the Outer Reach and on September 9th, 2421 the Fadelli Plan was ratified by all leaders of the Major Powers. The plan would create several new states within the Outer Reach in order of importance, the Thaluth Pact, Keiran Exiles, Federation of Sovereign States, Desnan Union, and Frontier Confederation as well as numerous microstates and planet-states.
Unification Wars: 2438 – 2467
The Unification Wars are a series of conflicts that occurred on Earth during the 2430s - 2460s. These conflicts often combined into a single event in history called "the Last War" would result in the United Nation unifying the many states of Earth. Due to the planet's isolationist nature, interstellar and interplanetary events are irrelevant to the post-Abandonment Earth.
The Crisis of 2457: 2456 – 2467
The Crisis of 2457 was an economic depression that lasted from August 22nd, 2456 to February 8th, 2467. The Crisis is considered to be the worst economic disaster in human history. Some nations entered severe depressions which took decades to recover from, others responded to the sudden devalue of their currencies by mass producing them resulting in hyperinflation, some of the worst affected peoples saw their worlds or nations see a rapid increase in death rates and a decline in their population as people either moved out of their country or simply died. Many economists argue that the Crisis of '457 was a large warning of the fragility of the systems that had built all civilization and the ignorance of this lesson would result in devastating consequences.
The Smyrnian Pandemic: 2462 – 2477
Beginning in the nation-state of Smyrna located on Santorini, a key world in one of the most crucial trade routes to the Outer Rim. A novel bacteria-based illness quickly spread throughout the country. Soon after while quarantines were initiated across neighboring states, the plague quickly jumped across the borders. Soon even the Republic of Santorini was dealing with cases of the plague. The Smyrnian Pandemic had encompassed the entire planet. It was thought the Republic of Santorini would be able to contain cases of it to their world but a month after the first cases began appearing, several new cases were discovered within the nearby Solas system on Icaria. The plague would spread and infect nearly 31% of the human population throughout the Solar Neighborhood before a vaccine was created. Even then, it would take another 7 years to vaccine enough people on every planet for the plague to be eliminated. Even today there are still some flare-ups of the disease across forgotten systems. It's said that the virus (or pathogen) slowly eats away at the brain, the resulting degeneration turns infected to insanity leading to killings, torture, cannibalism, and body horror becoming common among infected and non-infected alike. Some conspiracists believed that samples of the disease were saved in laboratories across the Solar Neighborhood to be used for bioweapons programs.
Division: 2485 – 2536
In the 60 years since the Outer Reach gained independence, an armistice was held between the many new states that formed from the region to avoid conflict. Initially slated to last at least a century, the first war among the Outer Reach is between the burgeoning nation-state of the Thaluth Pact and the Federation of Abeni. The conflict while brief and ending in a white peace has far-reaching ramifications. Since it renders the Armistice broken, numerous other Outer Reach nations begin to fight as old rivalries and tensions crushed by colonial ambitions flare up into conflict.
The Collapse: 2541 – 2548
The Collapse was the result of contact between planets being disrupted due to an unknown cause. The majority of scientists concur that the wormhole network that humanity had been using for superluminal travel destabilized, whether it was by human intervention, natural processes, or another different cause is a mystery. Communication and contact between planets fell in regions, first starting at the Outer Reach and gradually working its way in towards the Core. While an emphasis on self-sufficiency was considered the ideal for most colonized worlds, easy access to other systems and planets meant that it was a rare and often ignored dogma.
Wealthier worlds relying on deep-space infrastructure and trade with other systems (some relying on trade from specific worlds) quickly crumbled as international trade dried up while tariffs were enacted and resources hoarded. Several occupied or prison planets found their occupying forces no longer having the strong backing of an entire nation behind them. Numerous revolts and wars occurred across the many planets cut off during the initial stages of the Collapse.
Most space infrastructure whether inhabited or not descended into barbarism or authoritarianism with strict rationing. Ships caught in hyperspace at the time were subject to being lost adrift between systems or stuck permanently wandering Hyperspace never being able to escape. Newly scouted or colonized worlds quickly descended into panic or anarchy when the realization that no help would ever arrive set in. In the end, even the most autonomous and efficient planets found themselves in states of social and political upheaval (not to mention the massive economic strain that happens when one loses access to the market of over 160+ systems).
By 2578, all superluminal travel had ceased, what planets had not been annihilated in nuclear wars, revolutions, rebellions, and general chaos, now faced an era of technological deterioration, stagnation, and extremism coupled with economic, intellectual, and cultural declination.
The Era of Silence: (2548) 2578 – (sources vary)
The Era of Silence is the name given to the current age of mankind. While some scholars argue that the rediscovery of Hyperspace and Reformation of the OSS marked the end of the era, others have noted that since humanity has barely begun to understand let alone recover from the effects of the Collapse, that the Era of Silence is only just beginning. Most consider the name "Era of Silence" to refer to the Great Interstellar Dark Age that followed the sudden termination of superluminal travel which lasted from 2578 - 2736.
Rediscovery of Hyperspace: 2712 – 2736
Arguably the discovery that reignited innovation, the rediscovery of Hyperspace by a group of scientists from the forgotten world of Sjóndeil would lead to superluminal travel becoming feasible. It took nearly twenty years to get a prototype of a device that would allow a user to navigate the myriad of pathways and routes of Hyperspace. The first prototype of the Von um Velgengni (Hope of Success) [Vonum] Drive returned favorable results. Between April 8th, 2736, and June 23rd, 2736 several simple phrases were sent and received from Sjóndeil to Hrönn. The final message consisted of three words "Vona ekki meir." (Hope no more).
Reformation of the OSS: 2749
Subsequent testing of the Vonum Drive would result in the technology being replicated by several other worlds and distributed across the various (technologically, political, and socially stable) systems of the Solar Neighborhood. The OSS had become defunct following the collapse of superluminal travel, though in recent years many of the major powers now recreated or ascended met in and around the Solar System to discuss the reformation of the intergovernmental organization. Several discussions and arguments ensued but soon enough, a compromise was reached and the Organization of Sovereign States was reformed.
4th Liberation War: 2782 –
The first test of the OSS would come in 2782, following tensions between a recently revived Unitary United Republic and the Solarian Empire (currently the Solarian Republic). Border skirmishes turned to violence, and a list of demands was made by and ignored. Soon after the Solarians preemptively invaded the Unitary United Republic. Centuries of mistrust, hatred, and contempt for one another had finally boiled over. It is clear to all, that this will be the last "Liberation" War.
Present: 2783

Source

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Questions	Answers
You mention that a degree may not be necessary for a job in cyber security, do you have resources or online courses that someone could use to gain relevant knowledge? Edit: Although with some considerable delay, I would like to thank you all for your comments and your feedback. This is all very helpful and I’m genuinely impressed with how supportive you are! I’ll give everything you’ve sent a proper look and might bother some of you with additional questions.	Bob: I'm a fan of the Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge (https://www.cybok.org/) and you can learn tons just by absorbing the MITRE ATT&CK content (https://attack.mitre.org/) (they update ~quarterly)
​	Jen: I completely agree with Bob's recommendations. For training courses, you can also look at SANS and also a lot of community security conferences, even smaller regional ones, offer training. They tend not to be free though.
​	Marc: There is an excellent thread in /cybersecurity covering just this.
​	Also: Mentorship Monday in /rcybersecurity.
​	Allan: I know most people don’t like social media, but infosec Twitter is a great place to learn and get help. People are always sharing resources, videos and little tidbits of information that can be very useful.
​	Jen: I also agree with Allan - I actually learn a ton from infosec twitter and asking questions.
the below is another reply to the original question	​
I think it may be beneficial to elaborate a little more to accompany answers already provided- so let me share some of my experience. I've been employed in a full time information security role for about 10 years; with three different employers. Currently employed as a cyber analyst with a large law-firm. Previously, my specialty was a broad mix of infosec risk/cyber engineering/and web-application penetration testing. I have no college degree, and am 31 years old. My best advice to you, is to get a tech role in an organization- and gain as much on-job experience as you possibly can, even if this means you start in a different initial role. It'll be important to gain some technical knowledge, while grasping security concepts as you learn. Additionally, learn frameworks and standards such as ISO 27001:2013, and NIST 800-53. Read the requirements of the standards, and try to figure out how to correctly interpret them- and how you would implement them based on your interpretation. (The standard says this requirement must be implemented, but what does the requirement actually mean- and how would it be implemented?) Look up current vulnerabilities making their rounds in the wild, using resources like Tenable (https://www.tenable.com/research). Learn about the different types of Malware (https://www.crowdstrike.com/cybersecurity-101/malware/types-of-malware/) and ask yourself; How can security be layered to prevent malware from finding it's way into an organization? (Look up Defense in Depth.) How does malware most often enter a network? (Look up: Initial attack vector) How can you find anomalous network traffic that may be indicative of malware spreading? (Look up: Endpoint Detection and Response, and Threat Hunting.) Read about security best practices (e.g. Google: Access Control Best Practices, Data Loss Prevention Best Practices.) Read the articles, and imagine how you would implement the recommendations. Some context for those interested: My first 'real' job (circa 2009, 19 years old) was in helpdesk/desktop support. I did my best to kick ass, and offered to take on issues that often went beyond the scope of my role. If I came across an issue that required engineer escalation or an issue with a server, I would do my best to find a potential solution that I could offer, and communicated the potential solution to the appropriate individual(s). After about a year, and much determination doing the above- I migrated into a Windows/Linux Systems Administration role. (Followed by becoming a VMware vCenter virtualization SME, but that's not super relevant.) Through ad-hoc learning, shadowing team members, and asking 100000 questions, I developed a reputation for being 'that kid who just got stuff done.' Being in a SysAdmin position, I was introduced to projects that essentially crossed the Information/Cyber Security 'border.' (Backup and restore testing; defining data retention requirements by working with upper management while juggling applicable regulations; early Mobile Device Management (BES at the time, yikes) redundant datacenter architecture to ensure data availability during adverse events; identity and access control, scoping penetration tests, and generally... understanding the entire tech stack. Some questions I'd ask myself when looking for risk, or trying to understand how a tech stack worked: * What's actually 'open'/NAT'ed on our external networks, across all allocated IP Addresses? * Should this resource be open publicly to anyone who knows the URL/IP? * Why is it open, and what does it do? * What does the NAT point to internally? * What kind of vulnerabilities does that system have externally? Internally? * Is the system hardened? \ * Does it have Anti-Virus, and does it send its logs to a centralized logging platform? (e.g. Splunk) * What kinds of vulnerabilities may exist in the source-code/services that the system is serving (OWASP) ? * Who has access to this system? Are any of these user accounts old? Do they use MFA or SSO for login? * Do they follow a defined procedure [e.g. Secure Software Development Lifecycle] to consistently release new source code that is reviewed and scanned for vulnerabilities? * Does a firewall properly segment everything? * If data is stored in databases, is it human readable- so if an attacker were to dump an entire database would all the data be compromised? Now that I had the sysadmin privileges, I dove in deep when not busy with supporting my systems- and presented findings whenever feasible. A big project for me at the time was taking on a two-factor authentication implementation project. Back then, it was RSA KeyFobs and BlackBerry soft tokens that integrated with a SaaS application my employer developed. Once I knocked that out, and given the above- a full time security role was created (accompanied by a nice paycheck.) And hence, I was slowly vectored into a full-fledged information security role. Before I knew it I was implementing ISO 27001. 27001 was a fantastic way to truly transition into a security state of mind. It requires: developing policies, procedures, and implementing other technical controls required by the Annex A. Executing tasks, and monitoring activities to ensure the electiveness of our processes to ensure the CIA (Important, the C I A triad!) of assets. Importantly, conducting risk assessments to find gaps that required control (protections). ISO 27001 is very broad, and covers many areas of security. It contains sections (domains) regarding: risk assessments, security awareness training programs, access control processes, business continuity plans, penetration testing, vendor risk assessments- and was a fantastic way to get an inch deep- but a mile wide experience lesson into security. From here, find a niche within the space that you like. Sources to learn will be easy as you now have some fundamental experience. Keep in mind, info/cyber security is extraordinarily broad- just like any field. For example- If you wanted to be a lawyer, while it's possible to be a general attorney that covers multi practices, you typically specialize in one area. (e.g. Business law, contract law, bankruptcy law, securities law, copyright law, criminal defense law, etc.) Security is exactly the same. Find a niche in the area that you like the most, and learn that niche as much as you can. If you like poking at platforms/applications/programs/systems to find holes, and development- research reverse engineering techniques and vulnerability analysis and research. Reverse Engineering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6mVIos-S2M If you like Information Security Management, look into Security Operations and frameworks like ISO 27001. 27001 Basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJbK3jH677k If you like discovering and exploiting known vulnerabilities, look into vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. Using Tenable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x87gbgQD4eg Using Metasploit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lR27r8Y_ik If you like identifying and managing Risk, look into Risk Assessment Frameworks like ISO 31000 31000 Basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi9EsdKOlAE If you like Security Compliance, become an auditor (best gig in the game imo) Security Auditing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW7W_6stSh0 Enjoy developing? Well, learn how to assess code against the OWASP Top-10 Intro to OWASP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO_sqXb-gKE If you like passive/active cyber defense, learn about Incident Response, or Security Engineering Log Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw536W7kbDQ Threat Hunting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmKSnRMW_6w Incident Response Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BOOl8_nwjQ Firewall configurations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb1pTs7XamA If you like it all- you can be a generalist like me :-) Just keep in mind, It's hard for me to be an expert in one area, as I'm required to cover so much in my current role. Fortunately I do have a great security/network engineering team who basically maintain my entire network security stack (firewalls, VPN, network segmentation, server hardening, etc.) Granted- in my spare time, and when my employer gives me time for continued education- I hone my skills. My real interest lies a little beyond the standard scope standard cyber security, in SIGINT: SIGINT Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdJQo__vY8U Universal Radio Hacker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuubkTDAxwA Fun Stuff: https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/log-wi-fi-probe-requests-from-smartphones-laptops-with-probemon-0176303/ More Fun Stuff: https://fadeproject.org/?page_id=34 Even more fun stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAWHGEB8HI	Marc: This is great advice. The only thing I would add is don’t discount how easy it can be to get real practical experience. Not only does it give you a chance to put some of what you learn into use but it makes it way more interesting and easier to keep in your head.
​	Even volunteering to do cybersecurity work is valid experience. Some of the best practitioners I know started out by doing cybersecurity work for NGOs or small businesses that couldn’t afford a dedicated person.
​	As mentioned above, fond what interests you and dive into it. All the best cybersecurity people LOVE what they do. For those luck few its not a job but a calling.
the below is a reply to the above reply	​
So you're the guy who is responsible for my employer requiring 2FA via SMS every few ducking days! I must say duck you sir! (small /s)	Marc: Guilty as charged.
What is the most common, non-phishing vector?	Allan: Remote Desktop Protocol, either through credential reuse or credential stuffing attacks
​	Allan: There are something like 8 BILLION username/passwords available for sale or free on underground markets at any given time and that doesn’t even take into account the number or organizations that just use poor password management for internet-exposed infrastructure
​	Marc: Yeah I'd say insecure credentials. Insecure credentials into infrastructure, systems, or accounts that can be used to pivot.
It’s easy to get the impression from these recent events that infrastructure is fairly easy to attack. What do you think is the likelihood that either a state or a rogue group takes down some critical infrastructure for a long period of time that severely disrupts life—something that would be equivalent to essentially destroying infrastructure in a war?	Marc: Very likely as many ransomware groups have seen that high risk infrastructure is both out of date and backed by organisations that will rush to pay because of the impact when it goes down. As a result many of them actively look for vulnerable, exposed infrastructure associated with these kinds of organisations because they know there is a high chance of a good pay-out.
​	Jen: This scenario doesn't feel far-fetched at all. We've already seen infrastructure be a target in several countries, and this is only likely to increase without intervention. Even when the attacker offers up the keys as they did with the attack on the Irish healthcare authority (HSE), it can take a long time to get ops fully back up and running. HSE is saying they think full recovery will cost them $600m, so think of all the work that's paying for and how long that will likely take. https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/ransomware/costs-from-ransomware-attack-against-ireland-health-system-reach-600m/
​	Allan: It has already happened in Ukraine and other places, so 100%
​	James: This question is one I think about often. It’s more nuanced than simply thinking about the ease of the attack.
​	For state actors, this very well could result in war. NATO, for example, recently said that cyber attacks would also be covered by the alliance, resulting in the possibilities of joint responses to cyber events. This may serve as a deterrent to state sponsored destructive activities. Use of cyber capabilities are almost assured in wars. This is simply part of modern war for those countries with appropriate capabilities. War is always a concern, and cyber events will be another component to that concern, so this likelihood is roughly the same as the threat of war. It is more likely, imo, that domestic or foreign terrorism would result in destructive attacks. It’s also possible that organized crime or individual actors could have a large impact to daily life. This is reasonably likely to happen in my opinion, as the ease of attack is generally there and the motivation to cause legitimate harm is there as well. Intelligence teams track these groups to stay ahead of them and hopefully prevent attacks from happening, but no intelligence efforts are perfect, and no one catches everything.
​	Bob: They may not make all the headlines like the pipeline incident but there are semi-regular cases of various types of critical infrastructure being impacted or having near misses. It really is just a matter of time before it happens.
Please list the top 5 things corporations, business entities and people can do that they currently don't to better protect themselves from cyber attacks and ransomware?	Allan: 1. MFA, 2. Patching, 3. Endpoint protection AND monitoring, 4. scanning of remote infrastructure, 5. threat hunting for attackers.
​	Bob: There are many safe configurations for workstations and servers that organizations either do not know about or have been reticent to deploy. Just shoring up configurations on Active Directory and SMB servers alone can do wonders to help thwart attackers from being able to move laterally and encrypt or lock-out at scale.
the below is a reply to the above	​
Good list, I've often thought that remote VPNs from end users would be a big attack vector. Given people homes generally have pretty crappy endpoints. Any thoughts here?	Allan: Home routers are scanned continuously and are often targets of attack. Most people get their high speed routers from their ISP, plug them in and then never touch them until they are replaced several years later. That means no updates, no configuration checks or anything like that. So, yes, they, can be used as attack vectors which is why it is important to have a home firewall behind the router you get from the ISP, to protect your actual network.
​	Marc: VPN infrastructure has been a huge target since the move to working from home. You just need to look at the number of VPN infrastructure vulns disclosed or dropped to get an idea of how much focus there is on it.
​	Also many companies have huge amounts of technical debt with hastily cobbled together VPN solutions that skipped the usual careful rollout processes. Attackers know this and are targetting these too.
the below is another reply to the original answer	​
1. Fund your goddamn infosec team. ________________________ Nothing ever goes wrong, why do we pay these guys so much!? Cuts budget We just got hacked, what are we paying these guys for!? Cuts budget _______________________ No CISO == no representation at C level. If the CTO is your representation, then you have a conflict of interest. If your Director of infosec is your “acting CISO,” you have no CISO. Gtfo. That acting title is just to have someone to throw under the bus when the headlines roll. ______________________ Why would the CTO have a conflict of interest? ______________________________ CTO is ultimately responsible for the budget and the systems that you are in charge of auditing / protecting. It’s possible the CTO wants to cover their ass by hiding the problems from the board. It’s also possible that they are incompetent and will side with IT over infosec.	This is a very good way to look at it.
Currently in school at an online college located in salt lake city ut. I'm in the CyberSecurity program but I feel like the program is kinda dated and the information does not line up very well with the test. Can I land an entry-level cyber job without finishing my degree if I have all Comptia certs related to cybersecurity?	Bob: While some jobs may require certification, many employers are looking for folks with the "curiosity gene" combined with the knowledge of where to go to find information and solve problems. I'd highly suggest gravitating towards organizations who look for those attributes over those who are just looking for a certification stamp.
​	Marc: You don't need a fancy degree to build a cybersecurity career. you need experience and knowledge. Even knowledge that seems old and minor can be incredibly useful. Take the opportunity you have and build on it by studying more current cutting edge stuff yourself. go to events like DEFCON and connect with the community. the more knowledge you can gain in your "learning" stage the better. However the best next step is to build experience, use what you have to take on volunteefree/part time roles so start getting those hours of experience. there is no substitute for learning in a job.
​	protip: I have found charities/NGOs/ low income organisations a great place for this. they are desperate for the help and will welcome your donated time. Even if all you can do is keep them up to date on patches you will be doing them a huge favor and in turn that gives you cybersecurity experience and your first solid cybersecurity reference.
​	Marc: Its also really hard because the smaller the org the smaller the budget (if there even is one at all) to pay for security. Working in the CTI-League we ran into small medical facilities ALL THE TIME that lacked resources and personnel to help tackle even the simplest problem, This is definitely a huge challenge and something a lot of us are thinking about. we have to make sure that SMBs don't get left behind as we work to build a more secure ecosystem.
​	Jen: Employers in security are increasingly looking at hiring models and trying to break away from conventional hiring-from-schools models. Often landing a role is more about showing interest and making connections than what your resume says. As I said above, I recommend getting involved with local meet ups, attending free online events, that kind of thing will help build your knowledge and network.
​	Allan: You can, I don’t have a degree and have managed to grow my career. However, advancing in this field, as with many fields, is A LOT easier with a degree and there have definitely been job opportunities I missed out on because they wanted that degree. Keep up the good work and connect with us on LinkedIn so we can help you as you continue to grow.
What can a regular person with no cybersecurity or coding knowledge do to help?	James: A large part of effective security is up to the users, not the security engineers and administrators and the most important things are the most basic things too! Three things come to mind: 1) Use strong passwords that are unique to each site / service (a password manager can help!) 2) Keep good backups, and consider using more than one backup device where both devices are never plugged in at the same time. 3) Be vigilant! If something strikes you as odd, alert your corporate security team. Did you click a link and think it might be bad? Report it! Most ransomware actors take time to inventory networks after the initial compromise, so there may be time to still protect your network and your device! Time is of the essence here though!
​	Marc: Ransomware is a spectrum but most is opportunistic and relies on poor, fragmented security hygiene. Any contribution to up-leveling hygiene in a consistent manner makes an organisation stronger against many types of ransomware.
​	Marc: So every user from the lowest level intern all the way up to the CEO can make a big difference by working to support a consistent information security program. By challenging things that "look wrong" or which are suspicious, from always being skeptical with email links to reporting security flaws and operational issues. The best defense for a company against ransomware is that company's workforce itself.
​	Allan: Pay attention during security awareness training, know what the threats are and be cautious about emails your receive (especially if they have a warning flag).
the below is a reply to the above	​
Do you recommend Dashlane as a password manager? I've recently started using it.	I do not have any specific recommendations for password managers. I would generally look for audits / reviews that confirm the encryption is suitably strong and one that works for you! Find something that is convenient to your purposes and use case.
What is the largest sum one of your clients ever had to pay?	Allan: Our clients make the ransomware gangs pay ;)
​	Jen: The biggest demands we've heard of are in the $40-50mill buckets, but they are definitely outliers.
What type of software would you recommend against ransomware and things of the sort?	Allan: Unfortunately, there isn’t a single software solution that will solve the problem of ransomware (or other types of attacks). It really does require a holistic approach to security. Not just software, but the right policies, people and protocols in place to quickly identify and stop threats
​	Marc: agree - theres no single bullet, however theres a strategy (see the IST Ransomware Taskforce Report) that shows how organisations and industries can make themselves hostile to ransomware. Most ransomware is opportunist, just by toughening yourself up to become a much less attractive target. by strengthening security hygiene and turning on things like MFA you make lateral movement much harder. solving ransomware is a step by step journey, not a shrinkwrapped piece of software.
​	Bob: There is no path to purchasing your way into ransomware defense.
How can an end-user or consumer can protect him/herself? There are too many security products, like Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Sophos, etc, and one can check received emails or the sites which he/she can visit, but even sometimes that is not enough. Years ago, on a Windows 2012 server I saw a hacker running his apps as a built-in service user from remote desktop services. No AV found that malicious at that time. So, what can we do? Which software / hardware shall we use? How can we protect ourselves? I am aware nothing is %100 bulletproof but we have to start from somewhere.	Bob: Keep your home router patched and consider replacing every few years. Limit the use of "smart" devices in your home. Scrutinize every email and every link in social media. Limit the number of browser extensions you use and consider using an iOS device for more "risky" web activity. Keep your systems and software patched. Have regular, offline, backups handy. Much of this is the same advice folks have been giving for a decade or more.
​	Bob: Also use a password manager, preferably one that is plugged into services like "have i been pwnd?" so you know when you need to reset credentials (but you should be using services that offer or mandate 2-factor authentication).
​	Marc: String security hygiene is one of the best defenses we have. Patch exposed systems, turn on MFA and implement best practice like endpoint protection and you'll create a network thats hostile to ransomware.
​	Jen: Be suspicious of emails or texts from people you don't know, or that include links or attachments. Don't give out sensitive info, particularly your passwords. Use a password manager and use two-step verification wherever you can.
If you had to choose between paying a cyber ransom in gum or pizza, which flavors would you choose to increase your bargaining potential?	Jen: Obviously pineapple
There is an argument often made that if "the military" and "law enforcement" begin to crackdown on infrastructure in a much more forward leaning manner, that these gangs will still be able to persist, regroup, reattack - i.e., that even working with private sector partners, there isn't enough data/insight available to really take it to these networks. Agree? Disagree?	Jen: There is definitely a huge challenge in that these criminals often operate in nations where the government either can't or won't stop them, and that makes it super hard for law enforcement to be effective. We need governments around the world to collaborate to crack down on these so-called "Safe harbor" states. This was actually one of the commitments that came out of the recent G7 Summit, but it remains to be seen how the G7 members will follow through on it.
​	Marc: While its absolutely true that to really hit the ransomware gangs hard we have to take the fight to them, we mustn't loose sight of how important it is for us to toughen. up and work together to make our whole ecosystem hostile to ransomware. By addressing the low hanging fruit many of the opportunistic gangs will get shut out, by improving our detection capabilities we will increase the data and forensic material needed to attribute them. There's a huge amount of stuff to be done at both ends of the fight and its my firm belief that we can only achieve it in partnership.
​	Allan: Right now, ransomware is the most profitable form of cybercrime, aside from possibly BEC. So, yes, even forward leaning efforts by law enforcement won’t necessarily stop ransomware attacks. Ransomware groups have been good at adapting and evolving their attacks to evade defenses. However, a more aggressive law enforcement stature will scare away a lot of the 2nd and 3rd tier ransomware actors (we’ve seen this already with Avaddon and other actors who “retired” this year). That reduces the number of groups law enforcement has to focus on.
​	Bob: To riff off of Alan's answer, the massive proliferation in attacks has been led, in large part, from Ransomware as a Service offerings which enable low-skilled attackers to get in on the action. Curbing that activity will be a huge help.
​	James: There is a tendency to sometimes reduce success to a simple “yes” or “no” question. With ongoing defensive efforts, the objective is to improve and adapt.
​	With the offensive efforts, the point is to take the attack to the attackers and make them have to adapt, change techniques, and generally be less comfortable in their belief that they can operate with impunity. The IST’s Ransomware Task Force report recommends using many different capabilities to help address the threat in a holistic way. Part of that multifaceted effort is to go after attackers and disrupt their capabilities.
What is the best path to start a career in cyber security?	Allan: The best path is the one that works for you, everyone is different, I started in the helpdesk which was great because I got to learn about the problems that people had and it allowed me to be more empathetic as I progressed in my career.
​	Marc: The best cybersecurity people come from the ground up. Get a good baseline of knowledge in technical areas - often working low level IT jobs as an intern or first job can be a great start. Then work on building your base of cybersecurity knowledge. At some point you have to start getting cybersecurity work experience. Experience doing cybersecurity jobs is better than any piece of paper alone. Sometimes this can be gained from low level jobs by taking on cyber responsibilities - by being that IT guy checking patches and ensuring upgrades are done you can build cybersecurity experience.
​	Almost all the best cybersecurity people come from backgrounds like this. few have specialized degrees. I am one of them. I gave a more fuller answer in /cybersecurity
​	Bob: Cybersecurity has become a diverse field with many areas you can specialize in. Learn as much as you can about each area and see which one appeals the most, then dive in! You don't need permission to start learning a particular topic, and there are tons of local security meetups all across globe, plus many online communities that can help you get started.
​	Once you truly settle into some area, there are numerous pathways to more formal education (all the way up to PhD level). Just be curious and don't be afraid to keep asking "why" and "how".
​	Jen: Look for ways to educate yourself on what's going on and meet people that are working in security or have similar interests. Going to local meet ups, attending free online events, that kind of thing will help you build your knowledge and network. You can also look at open source security tools and free cyber ranges to try building your skills without having to spend a lot of money.
Should we ban ransomware payments? Alternatively, should we just ban coverage of ransom payments in insurance policies?	Marc: We should NOT ban ransomware payments. Many organisations find themselves in a difficult position where they feel they are trapped between their shareholders, their customers and law enforcement. This gets even worse when you consider healthcare. If someones life hung in the balance would you want a hospital prosecuted for paying a ransom to bring a surgical suite online?
​	let's not forget who the criminals are and not criminalize the victims. It only drives payments underground and destroys our chances of collaboration. Instead we should work to make ransomware payments more attributable, organisations hostile to ransomware and work on the world stage to eliminate hiding places where these cybercriminals can operate with little recourse.
​	Marc: Additionally I believe that we should work WITH ransomware insurance companies to make ransomware insurance more expensive for companies that aren't doing the basics. Insurance has been an excellent level for eliminating safety issues throughout history and it can be here too. Eliminating it removes one of the levers we have to influence how we fix this.
​	Jen: The reality is that both Bob and Marc are correct, and that's why this is hard.
​	From an idealistic point of view, I think a lot of people agree with Bob - ransom payments fund organized crime which is responsible for some pretty heinous things, including child exploitation and human trafficking. Also, if ransomware is primarily profit motivated, so the expectation is that if we take away the attackers chances of getting paid, they will eventually stop.
​	This is where Marc's more pragmatic position comes in. Because as we've said here, there is little risk or real expense or friction for attackers today, so before they give up on ransomware as a revenue stream, they are very likely to pay a big ol' game of chicken with victims. To tip the odds even further in their favor, they will likely focus on organizations that have the least resilience, which is either SMBs who face losing their entire business, and critical infrastructure providers that have no tolerance for downtime due to the criticality of their service. That's what we've seen when hospitals or fuel pipelines have felt they had no choice but to pay.
​	Even if a government tries to shore up these organizations, there is no such thing as an entirely bulletproof organization, and recovery always takes time. So we could end up seeing business leaders make payments in secret, which puts them in an even more vulnerable position.
​	So the net of all that is that we should figure out how to get to a state where banning payments could work in practice without causing a lot of unintended harm, but we're certainly not there today.
​	Bob: We should totally ban supporting child and sex trafficking through ransomware payments
Question - Is email tracking by invisible pixel or visible still possible in 2021? If impossible, do you know of anyway to track the geolocation of the person opening the email without them knowing and without their email application preventing this process from occurring?	Bob: Pixel tracking is alive and well and one of the most-used techniques. If your mail client stops images and will not execute javascript (or load external resources of any kind) then you're not going to be able to be tracked.
Isn't there a better payment/effort ratio to be on the side of the hacker? You guys are playing goalie right where you have to block all the shots 100% of the time and the hackers only have to get it right once. Illegality aside.	Marc: A yes, the age old question "but couldn't you make more as a criminal?" the answer is yes I probably could. However what stops me is morals, ethics and laws. I have a family i want to see grow up in a safe country and I love my community (the hacker community) so I want to protect them. I can't do that as a criminal.
​	I also hate bullies and fighting cybercrime is the ultimate bully takedown. Especially when the bully you take down is an entire country.
​	James: Valid question. Yes, criminals have the easy path, no doubt. They prey on innocent victims from all walks of life.
​	But where is the challenge in the easy path? Attacking is way way way easier than defending. Hollywood glorifies the hacker / attacker, but most attacks are very trivial. No challenge.
​	Morals and ethics is a good answer too, and that’s certainly part of my personal decision.
To defend myself from mal/ransomware: Can you recommend a firewall to use for my homelab? Is a hardware firewall better than a software one (using proxmox to virtualize).	Marc: "can you recommend a firewall?" - personally I use pfsense at home because its easily customised, runs on a lot of easily obtained consumer devices and has a solid feature-set and performance. remember though a firewall is only as good as the way you use it. a lot of sophisticated attacks jump things like firewalls by relying on the user to bring them inside the protected network.
​	Get a good firewall but if you are really interested in being secure look at all the ways you can up-level your security hygiene (ensure everything is kept up to date even that 7 year old IOT tv, ensure that you have segmented networks for untrusted devices like that laptop the annoying person brings when he visits, and be careful with what you connect, plug in or run. DONT CLICK SHIT.)
​	Bob: Using a firewall is one, small portion for defense. Without knowing your setup it is difficult to make recommendations. Keeping it patched, and the configuration as diminutive and tight as possible is almost more important then the "brand"/"flavor".
​	Allan: Given the proliferation of phishing as an attack vector for ransomware a firewall alone is not going to protect you. As to whether or not you need a hardware or software one, it depends on how comfortable you are with managing the underlying operating system and how much time you have. I use a hardware firewall at home because I have enough to do at $dayjob that I don’t need the headache of dealing with underlying OS issues on my home firewall.
Is the Anonymous group real, and do they fight for good?	Allan: Anonymous is real. I don’t think they define themselves by good/bad.
​	Bob: They are a real group.
the below is a reply to the above	​
Silly questions aside, in your career what has been the best highlight of your time fighting cybercrime? Is there more the general public can do to help people like you fight against them?	Marc: Probably the hi-light of my career as a cybercrime fighter was watching 2,000 security professionals, law enforcement personnel and other government staff come together to fight cybercriminals attacking hospitals during the pandemic as part of the CTI League.
​	James: For me, it is all about influencing the overall security of the world. There is no other work for me that compares to being able to enable human freedoms and a free exchange of ideas on a global basis.
​	Individuals and companies are constantly protected from threats by altruistic efforts of public and private sector defenders who mostly go nameless and without any fanfare. Getting to sometimes contribute to those efforts is truly rewarding.

Hey everyone, Telcontar, Chazem, and I are here to say we’re releasing an update soon with all the below changes and a lot of bug fixes and balance changes. Now I’ll hand it over to my lackeys to tell you about Shanghai and Scandinavia before I show you a bit of Uruguay. First up on the list is Telcontar’s changes to Shanghai, take it away.
First up on the list is Shanghai - the Legation Cities tag after bankruptcy has thrown the Mandate into chaos. As already happens, Shanghai becomes a puppet of either Germany or Japan. If both countries are AI, the Shanghai player can choose their fate here. Once a new power rules Shanghai, the city must be stabilized before pursuing a political path.
If the Japanese defeat the Germans, the player follows a path of Japanese servitude in China, with many focuses similar to the Japanese branch from the original tree. Once Chinese civilian control is restored, social liberal popularity starts to tick up, and once that is high enough, Shanghai reunites with Fengtian.
If the Germans defeat the Japanese, the player can choose either to reinforce western rule over the cities or restore Chinese civilian government in collaboration with German interests. If following the path of western rule, Shanghai gets bonuses to naval invasion and defense, aiding Germany in the eventual fight against Japan. If the Chinese are trusted with control of the city when the Weltkrieg breaks out, they can choose to support a nationalist and republican Chinese faction, and eventually join them in the struggle for China.
Both Chinese and German paths can abolish the Volunteer Force and implement conscription, and both Chinese and Japanese paths can take government action to deal with the Triads (either creating evidence or destroying it all for an intelligence service).
And here is the Shanghai tree.
Up next we will be looking at Uruguay with Zim telling you all about it.
For the second part of the MM we’re going to look at Uruguay! That little country South of Brazil that’s trapped between two powers that probably are looking to gobble it up…
Uruguay’s trees have gotten a nice new polish up, first off are its politics tree. Uruguay has been ruled via a directorial system for some time though when Black Monday hits this will prove to be a poor decision with the Council unable to decide how to proceed eventually calling its capability to rule into question. Its pretty simple and you can decide whether to maintain the Council or abolish it in favour of a restoration of the presidency. If you opt to maintain the council you’ll more or less go on the status quo and have to debate various Black Monday decisions and then you can either maintain the bipartisan nature of the council or have one party gain a slight majority. If you opt to abolish the Council, Gabriel Terra will become president and set about solving Black Monday through fiscal austerity or reforming the country’s ambitious welfare state. Later on as a little bonus you can also elect the RadSocs and Emilio Frugoni. Should the right chain of events play out, Terra may declare himself dictator in a self-coup.
Economically, Uruguay begins the game in the final stages of building the Rincón del Bonete dam before Black Monday strikes and the project will just eek out. Once you’ve solved things politically you go down your appropriate path and then you can begin down your regular economic tree, upgrading Uruguay’s agrarian economy or opting to industrialise it later on both with their own benefits.
Military wise Uruguay will mostly be reacting to the ongoings of its neighbours, specifically the coup in Buenos Aires, and rely on support from Brazil though this isn’t essential. Path wise, Uruguay can opt to take an approach of a static defense and centralised high command, grounded in the breakthroughs of the Weltkrieg or in focusing its army around stronger firepower to obliterate its enemies. Finally, you can also opt to build up various defensive lines to defend Uruguay from invasion should foreign enemies attack. And here is the army tree. and ainavy tree.
And here is the full tree
And next Chazem will tell you all about our changes to Scandinavia. Take it away!
And Finally, to end this minor monday we travel to Northern Europe, and in particular the Nordic Federation. Long forgotten and a unicorn to behold the Nordic Fed was underwhelming to see and even worse to try to play as, lacking any military or economic buffs along with the inability to join any faction made the nation worse than any of its constituent parts. In order to rectify this the Nordic Federation, while not taking on any new foci, has received many new focus effects, icons, decisions, and other QoL changes.
Among these many changes are some much needed military tree buffs for the Great Northern Giant. The Federation has a choice between three different military plans with two variations each. Along with the changes to the army tree the Nordic Federation has seen buffs to its air and navy trees as well. Upon finishing the Army tree the Federation receives a fairly significant bonus to its land and air volunteer limit so a player may make use of their new found strength in conflicts abroad in some ‘Peacekeeping’ actions.
Also new to the Nordic Federation are a series of decisions unlocked at the end of the political tree focusing on bringing prosperity to the entire nation. These decisions reflect what you own as the Federation so having a larger union with Iceland and Finland as members will allow you to improve their states as well. As you complete the developmental reforms for the nation you will unlock higher improved versions of the national spirit to show off how peace brings prosperity and with that true economic might to not only Europe but the world.
And that's all for us today. See you soon whenever that may be!

Fellow Apes,
AMC is OUR Investment! Below is the Official AMC Investor Checklist:

1. Upvote ALL factual AMC posts!
2. Downvote negative posts/comments that are misinformation, bots, and hedgie shill users
   • Bankruptcy is completely off the table so any negative comments about the CEO downvote. He did a great job and we support his bonus of less than 1% (0.00375) of the billion he helped raise to pay off debt!
3. Report misinformation (mods will remove those posts and comments)
   • Hedgies love to create negative fiction to drive the prices down and get out of short positions cheaper such as using fake propaganda to scare people about Wanda. Wanda sold a stake to Silver Lake and AMC paid Silver Lake off. It's in Wanda's best interest for the price to go higher!
4. Encourage other AMC Investors to support each other! This is OUR investment!
5. If you qualify to attend the Annual Shareholders Meeting, send a proposal to AMC to present a plan of action to make the theater experience far exceed that of the home experience.
   • State of the art resolution
   • Dynamic smart lighting to enhance effects such as lightning flashes, explosions, darkness, and other effects
   • Is it a coincidence the annual stockholder meeting was announced in Item 8.01?
   • Post your suggestions for AMC's future roadmap in the comments!
6. Follow AMC on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms! Invite all your friends to like AMC! Like, share/retweet, and write relevant comments on their posts (e.g. I can't wait to see this!! )
7. Download the AMC Theaters App and give a 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review! Make it #1 on the App Store!
8. Do not subscribe to HBO Max since Warner Bros decided to skip going to theaters first
   • Additionally, switch from AT&T/Verizon to T-Mobile since AT&T/Verizon owns Warner Bros
9. Send a quick email to [ann.sarnoff@warnerbros.com](mailto:ann.sarnoff@warnerbros.com) CEO of Warner Bros kindly asking her to play WB Movies in theaters first. Once WB makes the announcement to go to theaters first, subscribe back to HBO Max if you want. You can just copy/paste this template:
   • Hi Ann, kindly play your Warner Bros movies in the theater first. Thanks! [First Name]
10. Watch a movie at an AMC Theater!
11. If there is anything I left off the checklist, please comment below and I'll be sure to add it.

Reasons I like the stock:

1. Just in the last few days, 22 new institutions "smart money" bought into AMC stock, this is usually a positive sign of growth and higher prices!
2. BANKRUPTCY IS COMPLETELY OFF THE TABLE! Thanks to CEO Adam Aron who helped raise $1B!
3. SSR Rule Violation possibility which could trigger SEC investigation and prevent further downward manipulation. Question - What is the penalty for violation of SSR Rule 201? [If you know please post in the comments and I will be sure to add your answer here.]
4. It appears that Hedgies have already started to employ their Jedi Mind Trick strategy trying to paint a FICTIONAL negative picture regarding the state and future of AMC utilizing their media influence (e.g. Motley Fool and others sites posting negative do not buy AMC articles). Hedgies are trying to scare retail investors to walk away and turn diamond hands into paper hands so they can cover their current short positions and more easily reverse into long. Don't fall for this, they're desperately trying to drive the price down to cover their short positions cheaper because they made a big mistake thinking AMC would file bankruptcy but thanks to CEO Adam Aron BANKRUPTCY IS COMPLETELY OFF THE TABLE!
5. >93 million shares shorted right now by hedgies and many of them are naked shorts! Do not let the hedgies that were betting on AMC to go bankrupt make up for their mistake by cheating/manipulating getting shareholders to walk away in order to drive the stock downward further not obeying the rules, using short ladder attacks, SSR violation.. Let the hedge funds buy calls to offset their shorts and further compound the squeeze thereby reversing their positions with us causing further northern price movement!
6. Technically, a beautiful cup and handle is forming and will complete above $10-11 that could trigger automatic buying as well as buy signal alerts for day traders and other investors, "more buyers/buying = higher price!"
7. We surpassed our goal and closed Friday at $8.01! This has set us up for Gamma Squeeze cycle starting Monday and compounding as the price moves higher, more calls are needed to offset short position risk then exercised, and repeated until the shorts are converted into long positions!
8. People are ready to get out of their homes after COVID to enjoy an IMAX Theater Movie! There are over 14 blockbuster movies this year! Free Guy, Cruella, F9, Top Gun: Maverick, BIOS, Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, The King's Man, Death on the Nile, A Quite Place, No Time To Die, The Last Duel, Mission Impossible 7, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story, and Avatar 2 next year!
9. Celebrity Support and even more anticipated!
   • Chamath may buy AMC? Tweeting "Long live Hollywood!"
   • Tim Dillon posted a video about AMC recently
   • Johnny Sinns video!
10. Third stimulus check passed the House which retail investors could once pass the Senate use to purchase more AMC stock with!
11. AMC Theaters added tendies to the menu and advertised them! AMC is behind us!
    • Tendies and a Movie would make a GREAT DATE for couples!

These are the current facts to the best of my knowledge based on other's as well as my own DD. Upvote and reward if you found this post helpful to you or for other investors!
This is not financial advice, I'm not a financial advisor. Make your own decision whether to buy the stock at your own risk. This is not a guarantee! I believe in the company and I like watching movies and purple crayons!
Apes Together Strong! 💯🦍💎✋🍿🚀🌕

Hi all! So like I said in the title, I moved to NC (Piedmont Triad region) pretty recently and while I'm passionate about supporting local craft, due to health concerns for myself and my girlfriend, I'm trying to avoid all preventable avenues of potential exposure to COVID (which sucks, considering I'm within a couple miles of multiple brewpubs).
So I'm coming to you for some tips: what are the best breweries and beers I'm likely to find on the shelves of local stores (grocery stores slightly preferred since I need to go to them regularly anyways, but I'm happy to drop into a bottle shop for better selection as well). I am pretty much style-agnostic; I love hop bombs, sours, porters, blonde ales, witbiers, craft lagers, and everything in between. My biggest desires are to try new things and get to know the NC beer scene as best I can.
So far since moving down here I've tried one or more offerings from each of Natty Greene's (which just filed for bankruptcy due to consequences from the pandemic), Carolina Brewery, Sycamore, Foothills, Birdsong, and the AB-owned Wicked Weed. None have been bad by any means (they've all been quite good, actually) but the variety in flavors and styles that I've seen hasn't impressed me. So I'm coming to you folks: where should I look and what should I buy?
Thanks in advance!

Warning: Mild Spoilers for Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, as well as its second season Against All Odds.
In a Discord server I mod, one of the bots has an option to gamble with a virtual currency. You gain coins by scoring in a coveted top-three spot for any given artist. The gambling is limited to a single channel, fittingly called #gambling-den, and while at the start I have observed people gambling some of this fake currency, lately it’s full of users simply gambling “all”. I don’t have the channel muted, even though I should have, and I like to gamble all as well - just to see myself lose. Every time I return to the channel - not that this happens worryingly often, simply once in a while - I gamble with the intent of losing everything I got. Maybe this time, I tell myself, I will quit for good. Maybe this time, I will learn my lesson. After all, everything should be in moderation, and I always lose with these things (I was thinking of the gambling moments in the designated city in Pokémon games), and anyway, gambling is haram. Yet I never mute the channel, and I feel a low current in myself, the tip of a dynamite ready to spark: a sliver of a hope to raise the white numbers on a black background. A fuse kicks off when I do, and a cold wind blows out my flame when I don’t. Tough luck, I tell myself. Maybe next time.
Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, and its successor Kaiji: Against All Odds tap into this vague rush of luck and unfold it into its extremes: innocuous games develop to sprawling plans of strategy and a deathly corrosion of empathy and selfishness; debt-riddled characters, beginning from the protagonist Itou Kaiji, that put their hope into said games, regardless what happens to their minds and bodies; and lastly, the owners of the devious games that enjoy the sight that presents itself. You could watch Kaiji and thank God your sense of gambling isn’t as severe as his -- but you could also watch Kaiji and see a millennial suffering through the uncaring systems of this world.
The first thing we know of twenty-one-year old Kaiji is that he’s just lost a gamble among friends. “The future is in our hands”, doubling both as opening title and poster in Kaiji’s single-room apartment, quickly unhinges on one side as if it sensed the viewer’s presence or realized the sheer crookedness of this statement. The narrator quickly adds with a grave voiceover that Kaiji lives in Tokyo for three years, hasn’t been employed since New Years, and that he is a bum. He spends his money on beer and gambles and likes to hang stolen emblems of foreign cars like trophies to be won in order to release the pent-up resentment. “Anyone who drives this car can’t be a good person, anyway,” Kaiji says with a petty smile on his face, but moments later, the reality of his situation crushes him: “It’s all about money,” he mutters, lying on the ground while a silent tear runs over his cheeks. Seasoned loan shark Endou pays Kaiji a visit moments to remind him of a debt he cosigned, its crushing interest raising it to unmanageable levels, all of which Kaiji has to pay for alone now. The only way out of it is to enter a ship named Espoir (French for “hope”), alongside an accompanying game: it will either clear his debt or put him into underground work for a year or two. Kaiji seems against it - he won’t pay the debt, and to hell with the ship. But Endou is quick to remind him that the worst possible outcome is to continue living like he does. The cruise could be a great opportunity to rid of this “loser” mentality that Kaiji has: his resignation to this life, as unhappy as it is. After all, the things Kaiji wants are always behind display cases, and could he ever think of buying the foreign cars he likes to mutilate? “You’ve given up from the beginning and are satisfied by the little pranks you play,” Endou says as a choir and organs wail dramatically behind him. “If you had ten million, would you do shit like that? Of course you wouldn’t!” Kaiji grunts, all too aware that Endou is right. Must be funny in the rich man’s world, ABBA have aptly sung in Money Money Money. almost four decades ago. Kaiji spends two seasons proving them right.
Early on in the first arc and in the game provided in the ship -- an adult men’s card game involving stars, money, a ticking clock, and rock-paper-scissors -- Kaiji mentions the desire to be better multiple times. “Once we get out of here,” he says, “let’s turn our life around. Let’s really try our best.” The game itself requires a hand of luck or the confidence to make his own choice, but as Kaiji fails to have either -- his cunning is reserved for self-interest at the morally purest level, and he’d rather have someone else choose for him -- he’s quickly scammed by the sly Funai. Kaiji finds himself two new friends to survive the game with, convinced that they wouldn’t betray him, and determined to get all three out of the ship hell or high water. The early winners enjoy the game from above with champagne flutes and stars pinned on their chest; the early losers find themselves doomed behind the game room, stripped bare both literally and mentally, dubbed as “hell” by both Kaiji and the narrator. As the four-hour time and card counters tick down ominously, an uneasy, tense electricity passes through the viewer and Kaiji’s face, which usually alternates between a worried face slick with sweat or wet with tears. To win three stars each for the three with a limited amount of cards and money proves itself a tightrope act, requiring Kaiji to plan on the fly as they are thwarted over and over. It comes as little surprise that the visual metaphors in this show usually revolve around abysses, darknesses, lighthouses, and bridges; red, violet, and blue swirls of dark thoughts and evil intent; monstrous hands that claw and pull at the characters; stretches of zawa, translated as “uneasy atmosphere”. Kaiji stops mentioning this elusive better life in progressing episodes, more focused on friendships and winning for their sake, but he doesn’t deny others of their dreams: in the climax of the first arc as well as one of its tensest moments, Kaiji hears the calls of a teary-eyed man and saves him from the literal hell that awaits him. Ironically, it is preceded by a betrayal of the earlier mentioned friends.
The show is about as subtle about its observations on capitalism as a sledgehammer flying your way. The ultimate antagonist is Hyoudou, an old and rich conglomerate head who admits he likes to see poor people like Kaiji struggle, that the only form of sincerity is in the face of crushing debt and pain; two henchmen act as players opposite Kaiji, both in season one and season two; the second season’s first game plays out in a prison for debtors, its second in a casino run by the conglomerate, while the Espoir is a sponsored affair. The second card game involves slaves that can win against emperors; a character aptly surmises that the poor don’t care about overthrowing the system, simply about being rich themselves. Kaiji has a difficult relationship with society, leading him to unemployment, but he needs to have money somehow. Unsurprisingly, he circles back to gambling, and back into the conglomerate’s hands. But there’s also Kaiji’s fellow debtors that work against him, equal in Kaiji in every way barring their moral stance: while Kaiji will think of a collective - two losers that could help him out on a ship, say, or a group of workers that owe the local kingpin money - these debtors are driven by a selfish sense of survival. Empathy, kindness, and respect: these are the coordinates that Kaiji operates in such high-risk situations, rewarded by men that believe in Kaiji’s good graces and help him the best they can. However, these virtues are juxtaposed with Kaiji’s vice to simply win: a gamble involving tissues that he thinks of on the fly; an accusation of theft that Kaiji seizes as opportunity to offer a gamble; the pachinko game that nobody can beat. “The fucking pigs that thought of this system, where everyone is taken advantage of, are laughing their asses off. The more we think about loss and gain, the more obsessed we become, the more we play into these fuckers’ hands!” Kaiji shouts; the next episode, he regrets that he’s helped out anyone to begin with; the episode after that, he starts crying at the prospect of (literally) pushing aside someone to win. By the second season, he actively begs for a new gamble, anything to rid of his broke state and clear his debts as swiftly as possible. He’s led by vague beliefs of reaching for the stars, but a moment later the narrator flips around the hopeful image: “Kaiji is back into the darkness of gambling, where the light of stars never reach.” But in the darkness, he finds the light of fellow men, ultimately able to dispel the fog for even a single moment.
“Kaiji, fated to lose, loses; Hyoudou, fated to win, wins,” recaps the narrator in the second season. It’s crucial that only Hyoudou is mentioned here; as much as capitalism favors companies that own as much as possible as fast as possible, there is always a single man behind the company, the ruler over the rulers. We like to think of this singular owner in order to relay it to us, to give ourselves motivation and despair both; this trick involving carrots and sticks is one frequently brought up in the show as well, by the people that think they can claim a part of capitalism’s cake. Tonegawa admonishes Kaiji until the game turns in on him, calling him trash and belittling his ability to strategize. He berates another character, Sahara, for even asking more than a fake ticket meaning nothing: “Whether you’re a salaryman or a bureaucrat, everyone is risking their lives for money!” The show makes no illusions on ordinary life: to work up, suck up to people they dislike, and barely save with money - that the characters that are racked up with debt have no way to mingle with that league. In one of the most emotional moments of the show, it draws a link between money ruling the solitary person, the solitary person’s isolation, and how connections are all that we have left. It ceases to be about the debts made, gained, regained, and cleared: as two characters ask one another if they’re okay, that they’re here, they can make it to the other side. I am reminded of a moment of Korean future classic Parasite (2019, dir. Bong Joon Ho), in which the poor driver asks the rich man if, despite her lack of cooking, cleaning, or maintaining the house, he loves his wife. The rich man hesitates for a second, then starts laughing. “Of course I do,” he says with a conviction that love has no materialistic gain. It only propels the poor character to scam the rich some more.
The best arcs of Kaiji are the ones where he has some control in the games and said control isn’t pulled out of thin air. Ostensibly, it’s because an active protagonist makes for better stories, a far more engaging watch than a protagonist simply pulled from one moment to the next. But as the show personifies capitalism, gives him a name and an unseemly appearance to match, Kaiji’s control gains a second and third dimension. Because to talk about capitalism is to talk about control: who gets to have control, who can exact control on you, who bought the game and rigged it. So then, Kaiji seizing the means means a pushback, a rebellion: in a system within a system, he can thrive and win -- and maybe get the people around him to win, also. When Kaiji is able to tell the opponent’s card, it is not by sheer deus-ex-machina, but by observation and planning in the game’s long term. When he can accurately call out a scam, it’s with the additional knowledge that Kaiji himself has a counter plan. “We don’t care about your rules,” Kaiji’s VA sings in the first opening. “We don’t care about your morals / We weren’t born to lose.” The rebellious attitude manifests best when Kaiji has something to rebel against, and if it’s in his means. Conversely, the most crushing moments of Kaiji are the moments where the chance of him destroying himself irreversibly seem greater than him winning, when his life is on the line and his irises have shrunk far into his wide eyes. In those moments, it’s impossible not to think of the pain of Kaiji’s temporary friends; as if he could hear the viewer’s thoughts, Kaiji frequently cries for the same reason. Absolute despair, chants the narrator.
In her excellent essay collection Trick Mirror: Reflections of Self-Delusion, Jia Tolentino observes that, now more than ever, surviving can look a lot like a lottery. “As wealth continues to flow upward,” she continues, “as Americans are increasingly shut out of their own democracy, as political action is constrained to online spectacle, I have felt so many times that the choice of this era is to be destroyed or to morally compromise ourselves in order to be functional -- to be wrecked, or to be functional for reasons that contribute to the wreck.” For one and a half episode, we see Kaiji’s moral compromise in order to function in society: he pushes aside the people that are friendly to him and presents himself as difficult on purpose. But in the gambles and against morally compromised people, his own moral compass shines through. He can only control when it’s a system within a system, a rigged game he can work against, be it by its design or the opponent’s cheats. In the workplace, he admits he can’t suck up to others and that he hates others that do; in the gambling ship, he berates others that they didn’t care about friendship, about the promises he’s wholeheartedly believed in. His sole sore spot, expertly pushed by Endou over and over until its breaking point, is when he points out to Kaiji that he can’t make choices on his own, and thus control his own life. Control, then, becomes both the bridge the characters crave and the abyss that they all fear. It manifests in the darkness and the hands that seizes hold of the characters. It’s Kaiji’s obsession of gambling, and its lack the empty feeling he senses in ordinary life, desperation and economic bankruptcy beckoning at every corner. Control, simply put, hides in the games of the show, the gambles that Kaiji takes, over and over: the fleeting moments where Kaiji doesn’t cry or feels despair, where he takes the scam head-on and has a retaliation, where he can take care of others and of himself. The outside games showcase compulsion -- the lack of control -- but even then, it’s hard to admonish Kaiji, who genuinely seems like a good person compromised by the world he’s in. In the second opening’s second half, Hyoudou’s wide and joyous face twists and turns to a roulette that Kaiji runs on like a ball to someone’s game, money bills blowing past him. He stretches out his hand to a bird of light; in the next shot, it flies high above the air and Kaiji chases on concrete. He falls, scraped and bruised, and gets up, eyes wide and then narrow as the viewer takes the bird’s place and flies off to the distance. “I can do it,” sings the vocalist of Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas. “Stretch out your hand.”
There’s a message pinned to the #gambling-den channel in our Discord server, dated 23rd December. “there is a command called !gamble all alt that will gamble an extreme amount of your coins, and result in gains or losses of up to 25x”. I tried it out and promptly won, totalling my fictional currency to around 100k and, more importantly, got myself a spot in the top 20 currency holders of our server (a proud #13). I tried out the command again, but mixed up the prefix; this was while watching a Kaiji episode, and I felt in my gut that I would lose. I tried again and, as I had predicted, lost all of my currency. A fellow user, one that is very fond of me, sent 500 my way, and right away I felt the embarrassment I always do when receiving presents. “It’s not that serious,” I wrote; but in truth, I still glance at the channel, waiting for the moment when I feel ready to lose it all again. Or, maybe, possibly, gain some more. You know, just so that I can lose it all.
Credits: Title is a lyric from ABBA’s Money Money Money, off the 1976 album Arrival.
Translations to the first season are provided by the sub group Triad, the second by Nutbladder (if the file names don’t completely fail me). The translation to zawa has been found by urbandictionary. If there is a mistake in the translations provided, please let me know.
Parasite (2019) is a movie directed by Boon Jong-Ho, distributed in the US by Neon.
The excerpt off Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion is in the essay A Story of a Generation in Seven Scams. The book is out via Random House and on all bookstores.
Translations to the second opening, Chase the Light, provided by Musicmatch.
Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor and Kaiji: Against All Odds has no licensors available for legal streaming (according to MAL).
Also thank you to DutchPeasant, Chariotwheel, and theangryeditor for their initial insights and comments.

[CALL LOGS]
“On behalf of everyone here at Brighter Futures I want to take a moment and thank you all for signing up and becoming a part of our growing family!”
The lights dimmed as I entered the room and a crusty old Midwestern man pushing a projector likely from the 80s shuffled me into a desk alongside two other pencil pushers.
The woman on screen had a painfully fake cheeriness to her voice. When she turned sideways I half expected to see someone holding a gun to her back. Out of all the employees who applied to speak in this video this was who they went with?
"Thank you for applying to the Brighter Futures Suicide Hotline! Welcome! I'm here today to help make you give someone a brighter tomorrow.”
“My name's Gloria Morning. Brighter Futures was a dream of my Granddad after he lost a brother to suicide. It was made into a reality way back in 1913 and has been responsible for saving hundreds if not thousands of lives since then.”
The screen shifted to show grainy images of office buildings in different parts of the country.
“We have four Global branches but we're hoping to expand in the future by adding more locations! Here at Brighter Futures we’re always looking forward!”
She smiled in a way that told me she had likely said the same thing about a dozen times just during that video shoot alone.
“The rules here are simple: Always answer the phone, never be the first to hang up, always a make a difference and always be happy to help. There are some others you'll learn from your supervisors along the way! We’re all here today to help you make it through tomorrow!”
The screen shifted to what looked like a picturesque scene of beaches.
“Here at our corporate headquarters in Melbourne we make it our effort to follow the vision set forth by our founder Isaac Carlin; who said it first and said it best: ‘Here at Brighter Futures, today we can make tomorrow!’”
The projector froze as the image started to warp. Gloria repeated the last phrase again and again in a slow but distorted way. Then a small spark of fire started to spread across the screen until a flame likely hotter than hell consumed the film.
All of us sat there in the dark quietly like school children as we waited for our instructor to do something.
“Does this mean we get to go home early?” one of my coworkers quipped to break the long awkward silence.
Our instructor finally got up and switched on the lights, giving us all a stern look like we really were acting childish.
"All that information is twenty years old anyway,” she muttered with a shrug as she started to pass out employee handbooks.
"My name's Sandra; and as crazy as this sounds this is actually my first day too so we’re gonna go over this material together. I scratch your back, you scratch mine; mkay?”
She said as she went around the room with the pamphlets.
Once back at the front of the room, she was about to start reading section one when the door to the training room burst open and a young blond haired man wearing a double breasted suit walked along with several other equally snappy dressed men. It was immediately obvious that these were the big wigs. Sandra jumped to attention as the doors slammed closed and nervously went to shake the first man’s hand.
“M-Mister Albright… this is a surprise! What… what brings you here sir?” she asked. She looked as white as a ghost.
The man ignored her open hand and instead addressed us as a group.
“Hello everyone. My name is Daniel Albright. I’m the Chief Executive Officer and President here at Brighter Futures. Yes that’s right I sign your paychecks,” he paused in his speech, clearly expecting all of us to laugh at the dry joke.
After another short silence, a few in the group appeased him with stiff chuckles.
“Sorry for bursting in unannounced like this, but since I’ve taken over this company there have been quite a few changes to how we run things; and that starts with me and my staff not being shadowy overlords that you feel you can’t approach on a day to day basis.”
He gestured toward the three people who had accompanied him and slowly introduced them.
“This is Marcus Culdare, our local branch overseer, Elizabeth Snow, our new Outreach and Community coordinator transferred from New Beginnings and Lucas Farmer; our new head of security. We want you to feel comfortable asking us any questions!” Daniel explained.
The triad were now standing, smiling awkwardly and waiting for someone to speak up. Sheepishly I rose my hand.
“Yes, you there near the back? Stand up and say your name,” Albright ordered me.
“Kenneth, Kenneth Giddens,” I said doing exactly as I was told.
“And what question did you have for my team, Mister Giddens?”
“I guess I was just wondering, seeing as this is a new facility; how soon will we be fully staffed?”
“An excellent inquiry! Many hands make light work!” Daniel declared and looked toward one of his managers to respond.
The woman adjusted her glasses. “As it turns out, we have actually sent out a mass email to other branches across the United States to offer them a good bonus if they choose to transfer here. Our goal is to be fully staffed before the end of the week. You know what they say, there’s no rest for the wicked!” she laughed in a strange sort of way.
This news caused a few employees in front of me to mutter a few things, but if they hoped that Mister Albright wasn’t listening; they were sorely mistaken.
“Speak up! If you want to share something please do so! There’s no need to hold back!” he said with a slight grin.
The middle employee, a pudgy man wearing wide-brim glasses stood and remarked, “Begging your pardon, sir. But a few of us have also been hearing rumors that a majority of the company’s assets were liquidated in order to provide for this property. Now you’re telling us that you’re paying employees to relocate and I’m just wondering, where is all the money coming from? How does Brighter Futures hope to balance all its debts?”
Albright’s lip twitched. But he didn’t miss a beat in his answer.
“It’s no secret that this company has had hard times. All of you are likely familiar with the rumors that surrounded our Salem location before it was torn down. Hidden adoptions, massive rise in suicides. Even articles claiming that satanic cults were taking over our board of directors! So you have every right to be concerned, especially given how much we invested in this property,” Daniel paused and opened up the blinds, giving us all a view of the bland landscape beyond.
“From a limited perspective it probably seems like any company that is buying land in the middle of nowhere is just digging their way to bankruptcy with a shovel in each hand.”
“But that would be the old way that Brighter Futures was managed. I bought the unincorporated town of Paradise to become a trailblazer. To move forward and learn from the past and build a brighter future!”
He turned toward the man who had made the inquiry with a serious face and added, “One of the ways that I have accomplished is by negotiating a merger with a former competitor.”
“Did you want to announce that here sir?” Matthew asked in a hushed tone.
“I don’t see why not. Brighter Futures isn’t going to be keeping anything from its employees anymore. We’re all in this together,” Daniel responded.
“What is going on?” I asked in confusion.
“The paperwork hasn’t been finalized yet but starting Monday we’ll be a proud sponsor and business partner with Auset Pharmaceutical,” the CEO explained.
“What would a drug company have to offer a Suicide prevention center…?” one of the others in class muttered.
“Since things are going to be happening so rapidly; this means a chance for all of you to shine and show your loyalty to the company. We can only make our future bright together you know!” Elizabeth said in a sing-song voice.
“But that still doesn’t answer my question. Where is the money coming from?” the middle coworker muttered.
“What’s your name?”
“Jeremy sir, Jeremy Avander.”
“Let’s discuss this more in my office, Mister Avander. I have a conference call to make in thirty minutes and I can resolve all your questions afterward. Does that sound fair?” Albright asked.
Before Jeremy got a chance to say that worked for him Albright clasped his hands together and turned back toward Sandra.
“Again, I’m so sorry for interrupting. I hope I didn’t take up too much of your time!”
Then he waltzed out with his four lackeys, and when he did it almost felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room.
No one saw Jeremy for the rest of the day. In fact the next morning I ran into him at the bus stop and he looked like he had been out all night drinking.
“Hey man, how did the meeting with the big wigs go?” I asked as I sat down alongside him.
He seemed to be staring off in the distance at something as though he were lost in thought.
“Hey… you okay?” I asked.
Finally he spoke. “They fired me… can you believe that? All because I asked a couple of simple questions,” he muttered.
“What? They can’t do that! Did they even give you a reason?”
“Something about we’re an at-will employment agency and how they needed workers who could fit the mold. I was too steamed to really listen. And my wife was three times as angry!” Jeremy stammered.
“Jeez, that is bad. What are you going to do now?” I asked in shock.
“Don’t know. My wife and I gave up everything to move out here. Start a new life. Now what do we do? I’m stuck at a run down motel until I can get an uncle to wire me some money. It’s insane!”
I shook my head, trying to think of something to reassure him. “What hotel are you at?” I asked.
“The Old Gateway Inn, right off the highway… why?” he asked.
“I’m gonna go right up to Mister Albright’s office and demand an explanation. If he can’t give me one, I’ll expose this pyramid scheme to the news media!” I declared.
“Shit Ken you can’t do that! He’ll just fire you too!” Jeremy said worriedly.
I reassured him that I knew what I was doing and jotted down his info in my smart phone before catching the bus.
When I got to the office, as promised I marched right to the CEO’s office. His secretary buzzed me through and I soon found myself face to face with a man that could determine my own future as well.
“Mister Giddens, I’m glad to see this you’re taking advantage of our open door policy. So tell me… what’s on your mind?” Daniel asked as he adjusted his tie and looked out the window.
“Sir. It’s Avander. I think you’ve made a mistake in firing him,” I said.
“Have I?” Albright asked raising an eyebrow.
“Are you two acquaintances?”
“No it’s just… you said it best yourself. Brighter Futures is supposed to be making people’s lives better. I’ve done my research and I know that scandal surrounded our predecessor for years. You want to have a better reputation, and firing people just for asking simple questions isn’t going to accomplish that,” I said, somehow managing not to choke on any of the words.
Daniel’s lip twitched and he nodded knowingly.
“You seem to have a very solid grasp on what this company needs Ken. Have you ever been in management yourself?”
“No… no sir,” I said nervously waiting to hear his response.
“That’s surprising considering you know how to tell me to run my company,” he mused. He turned toward the window and waved his hand dismissively.
“But you can tell your new friend I’ll give him one more chance. We need all the help we can get after all,” he muttered dismissively.
I swallowed and thanked him before leaving.
Later that day I tried to call Jeremy to tell him the good news but the hotel said he wasn’t answering his phone.
Must be out trying to apply at different jobs.
On my break, another of the managers stopped by to check on all of the trainees; and pulled me aside.
“I have a message for you,” Missus Snow declared.
“Mister Albright wanted me to tell you that we haven’t received a response from your friend all day. And that if you’re interested, we might be willing to assist you in reaching a more supervised role in this company,” she said, her green eyes gleaming.
I nodded, anxious to find out what had happened to Jeremy. Had he decided to skip town? That seemed ludicrous given that I had told him I would fight for his job. I knew he didn’t know me, but I was just trying to help someone out.
I resolved after work to drive to the Gateway Inn and give him a piece of my mind. His disinterest was making me look like I had stuck my neck out for nothing.
When I got to the hotel, I asked the front desk clerk which room he was in and the old woman muttered something about how Avander had failed to leave his room all day. That struck me as odd but I shrugged it off as I approached the door.
That was when I noticed the smell. It was strong even with the door closed. Like it had been there a while. And there were soft streaks of red on the carpet as I stepped into the dimly lit room.
Flicking on the lights told me that it was actually blood and it stretched over toward the edge of the bed.
That was where he I saw him, his body contorted and broken. Jeremy. There was something stuck in his head, like some kind of dagger; made of the finest silver. And it appeared that whoever had killed him had used the blade to carve a symbol of some kind into his forehead.
I covered my mouth and stumbled out of the room in shock before running down stairs.
_______
Police told me that Avander had been dead for nearly 13 hours, hence the reason for the smell; and that it appeared that he had been stabbed at least nineteen times. There were no prints or anything to determine who might have been responsible for the crime.
All I could do was stumble back into work the next day; confused and frightened by what had happened. Jeremy’s death was immediately a hot button topic.
Everyone wanted my opinion on the state of his body. I repeated the story at least a dozen times. It just made me feel robotic to sum up a man’s life by the brutal act that had ended it.
“Sounds almost ritualistic,” a voice said one time when I mentioned the tale during my final break.
It was Mister Albright. He stepped into the break room to grab something from the fridge.
“I suppose this news should give us a chance to go over safety precautions while working here at Brighter Futures,” he remarked as he opened a drawer and took out a piece of silverware to cut apart his sandwich.
My mouth felt dry as I saw a silver knife just like the kind I saw lodged in Jeremy’s skull just sitting there in the utensils.
“Is everything all right Ken…?” Daniel asked, slowly slicing the meat open.
“Sorry sir. I just… don’t like talking about it anymore,” I mumbled.
Daniel nodded and finished what he was doing before giving me a soft smile and remarking, “Relax Ken. I’m sure the worst is behind us now.”
I nodded and watched him leave before opening the drawer to get a better look at the knife.
It was definitely the same type of weapon. The unique craft told me that the killer had to be one of my new coworkers here at Brighter Futures.
And that told me that Mister Albright was wrong.
The worst… was yet to come.
______
NOW HIRING

The story of the Hartford Whalers is a particularly interesting one to me. From their very beginnings in the WHA, to joining the NHL, to being the perennial underachiever, to finally being moved to North Carolina. Obviously there is a lot more to this story than "they were bad and they moved", much, much more. The Hartford Whalers started life as the New England Whalers, a franchise in the World Hockey Association, a rival league to the NHL, that challenged the NHL's hold on Hockey and their reserve clause(basically meaning: You play with us, until we trade you or you retire). Over 67 players jumped to the WHA, including names such as Gordie Howe or Bobby Hull, with the WHA also going onto sign more European players and having young stars such as Wayne Gretzky. The New England Whalers started playing in 1972, led by ex-NHLers, Tom Webster(Red Wings), Ted Green(Bruins)(Inaugural Captain too) and many others, the Whalers first season was an incredible one for them, finishing First in their division and winning the Avco Cup. At the same time though, they had to play around the schedules of every other team playing in the Boston Garden, which led to scheduling issues for the Whalers, they essentially got the shortest end of the stick, because they were seen as a joke.
Enter Hartford, Connecticut, one of the richer cities in North America, they had just finished building the Hartford Civic Center, a multipurpose arena in the heart of downtown Hartford. The City had been hoping to attract an ABA Franchise to the city, but when that failed they had settled on the Whalers, giving them a home for their rest of the franchises existence(...ish). On January 11, 1975 the Whalers played their first game at the Civic Center, in front of a sold out crowd, where they defeated the San Diego Mariners 4-3 in Overtime. The next few seasons were pretty good for the Whalers, although they never quite achieved the success they had in the first season, they made It back to the Avco Finals in the '78 season, losing to the original Winnipeg Jets, although this came at the cost of losing their new arena, due to a roof collapse they were forced to play 26 miles up the road in Springfield, MA at the Big E Coliseum and the Springfield Civic Center(home to the AHL Thunderbirds and NCAA Yellow Jackets), for the remainder of their two WHA Seasons.
After 8 years of operation, the WHA merged with the NHL, with most of the clubs outright folding, save for the Whalers, Oilers, Jets(final Avco Cup winners) and Nordiques. Unlike the other clubs, the Whalers were allowed to keep the NHLers they had on their roster, rather than sending them back to their original team, as the other “new” teams had to do. This allowed the Whalers a slight advantage over many of the other NHL Teams, especially being able to keep players like Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe and Andre Lacroix(WHA All-Time Leading scorer). This advantage helped them become the first expansion team in NHL History to make the playoffs in their first year, a feat which would not be broken, until the Vegas Golden Knights joined. This merger was far from smooth however, as the Bruins who held a firm grasp on the New England market came close to(or did?) suing the league over admission of the Whalers, finally settling allowing the New England Whalers to join on the condition they change their name to the Hartford Whalers.

• Attendance for the Whalers was never great, the only time it was really full was during Rangers or Bruins games, because of how close in proximity they were to NYC and Boston(5 hours..ish combined) and how well both fanbases traveled, it was usually a guarantee that you would see a sea of Blue / Gold. Hartford was a smaller market, but had the potential to be something incredible. Hartford for all of their existence were bottom five in attendance, it was always just a smaller arena, at their lowest they drew around 9854 fans, in their first NHL season, even with the improvements it wasn’t enough, Hartford just wasn’t a big major league market.
  
• It was around this time that “Brass Bonanza” was introduced. Originally a B-Side on an album of team radio-broadcast highlights, it was composed by Jacques Ysaye under the pseudonym Jack Say. It gained popularity pretty fast, becoming the team’s theme song, being played during warmups, the team walking out, goals and victories. It is the one thing people think of when you say “Hartford Whalers”. It’s still used today by the Hartford Wolfpack of the AHL(more on them later). During Brian Burke’s short tenure(literally a season), he got rid of the song saying “the players are embarrassed by it." It came back the next season, after Burke got fired.
  

Their first NHL season was one of their best ever, finishing with 73 points, the best of the former WHA Teams. In the first Round of the Norris Division playoffs however, the Whalers fell 0 Games to 3 Games, to the Montreal Canadiens, the reigning champions went on to lose to the Minnesota North Stars. That however proved to be their only playoff run for about 5 seasons, as they lost their stars in Howe, Lacroix and Lacroix, all announced their retirements, although this was not Howe’s final time playing professional hockey as he later signed a contract to play 1 game, 1 shift, with the IHL’s Detroit Vipers(the IHL was the NHL’s previous farm league before the ECHL). Losing their stars, combined with the aging WHA roster and a management making bad trades to try and stay afloat, led to a 5 season long drought. Despite the drought, attendance rose at the Civic Center and would continue rising until the 88-89 season, where attendance finally began falling off.
The 1981 Draft was a great time to be a Whalers fan, they had just missed the playoffs, but had gotten Fourth Overall, leading them to draft Ron Francis. Francis made almost an immediate impact, with multiple point per game seasons, though it wasn’t enough to lead to the Whalers to a playoff berth, that wouldn’t happen until the 85-86 season. 85-86 was a magical time to be a Whalers fan, things began looking up, which seemed fair. In Game 1 of the season, down 3-0 to the Buffalo Sabres, Kevin Dineen led the Whalers in an incredible comeback, scoring 2 goals, which ultimately led to the Whalers winning 5-4. The following night was their home opener at home against the Rangers, with goals by Francis and Ferrao, the Whalers decimated their opponent with a score of 8-2, in front of an incredible crowd of over 15,142 fans. October was a pretty good month for them, beating the Canadiens 11-6 and going 6-4-0 for the month of October, leading to them sitting in third place in the Adams division. It cannot be stated enough how much these Whalers seemed like they were a playoff team, goalie Mike Liut was having a spectacular first few months, after being acquired late last season from the Blues for Greg Millen and Mark Johnson.
November was a different story! Their first three games they lost by over 20 goals total, scoring only 7 total in this time. After trading for Defenseman Dave Babych, they looked legit for at least one game, against the Jets where they won 8-1, with Francis getting a hat trick. The fun didn’t stop there though! They went onto win their next two games with a combined score of 25-6(and 1 shutout of the Kings). After falling to the Oilers though, things went back to normal, they fell out of their playoff spot, dropping it to the Canadiens, who also were barely holding on. November ended with a record of 5-7-0.
The rest of the season had its ups and downs, Francis was incredible, Dineen was an incredible player, while goaltending could be better, it could be much worse. They barely got into the playoffs, but it didn’t matter to the fans, they were going to the Adams Final this year! ...Where the Canadiens proceeded to destroy them in 7 hard fought games. All in all it was considered their best season ever at this point and to be fair, it was the best the Whalers would ever get, even though they finished 1st in the Adams the following year, they lost in the first round to the Nordiques(Hartford was cursed to lose to Quebec), this was the first and only season the Whalers had finished above Fourth in the Adams. To be honest, they were never “worldbeaters”, they were a smaller market team, which meant it was harder to attract great players, let alone trade for them, in many ways it’s the curse of location.
The 80’s Whalers didn’t bring us much playoff victories, but they brought us...Whaler Mania. Sung by the one and only “Whaler Maniacs”. This video features a Hall of Fame cast, inspired by the likes of "the Bears Shufflin Crew’ Crew or the LA Rams “Ram It”, this summed up the 80’s in a nutshell, music videos from sports teams.
The next few seasons were about much of the same, making the playoffs only to lose to Montreal, minus the two years where Boston beat them, it was usually just Montreal kicking them out of the first round. The 80s came and went, in what could be considered semi-successful, they got out of the first round once, they made it to the Adams Final, finished 1st in the Adams, but just couldn’t beat Montreal, Quebec, or Boston, to make a real run.
Their best playoff run ever was celebrated with a Whalermania Parade, where over 40,000 fans attended. You might be wondering why a parade? Honestly who knows, it was probably to get more eyes on the product.

• March 4th, 1991, the trade that in effect killed a franchise:

The Hartford Whalers, trade forward Ron Francis Defensemen Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings to the Pittsburgh Penguins, in exchange for Forwards John Cullen, Jeff Parker and Defenseman Zarley Zalapski. You may be asking “Why did they trade Francis!?” Well, so did the fans. The Hockey News reported the Whalers got the “better end of the deal”, leading many fans to question what these writers were smoking and where to buy some of that shit. To their credit though, Cullen was the Penguins leading scorer and the other two were no jokes, they were good players the Pens gave up, Mario wasn’t that great at the time, he needed someone like Francis to compliment his abilities.
The Penguins went onto win the next 2 Cups, cementing Mario's legacy as one of the top five players to play in the NHL. Francis cemented his legacy as one of the best as well, not top five, I don't think though. Francis even had a hat trick in the '92 playoffs against the Rangers.
(I can't find anything with Francis from the '91 Finals, so enjoy this clip! of him scoring on the Caps!)

• Why was Francis traded? Well let’s rewind a bit back to December of the previous year, the Whalers stripped Francis of his “C” and gave it to Forward Pat Verbeek(current AGM to the Wings). Why did this happen? Well, Head Coach Rick Ley felt that Francis was too “laid back”, while Verbeek was seen as “more intense” and he had been the team’s leading scorer prior. It seems Francis was traded, because he was seen as expendable, they needed help with the Defense and decided Francis could go. Unfortunately, Parker had suffered a career ending injury months after the trade, leading fans to just shake their heads and sigh. The Whalers were falling apart, their GM had no real power and was basically a figurehead to the shitty owner. Ley left the following season to join the Canucks as an Assistant Coach, before becoming their Head Coach later. The Whalers hired Jimmy Roberts as his replacement.
  Penguins GM Craig Patrick was asked about this trade, responding with: “Certainly, we weren’t a championship-caliber team, in my opinion, until we made that deal to get Ronnie and Ulf and Grant Jennings,” also saying, “We had made a lot of changes that whole season, but that was the icing on the cake.”
  
• The Penguins needed help and this was the trade that got made them into a Dynasty and helped further cement Mario Lemieux as one of the greatest players ever. Funny enough, Whalers GM Ed Johnston, left the organization two years later to join…The Fucking Penguins. From what I've read this wasn't so much a move Johnston wanted to make, ownership had more or less forced his hand. Gordon meddling constantly in hockey ops, meant Johnston had no real power. He later joined the Penguins(3 seasons later)
  

Despite this, they made in the playoffs in 91-92, losing to the Canadiens, who despite looking like favorites to sweep, blew it, the Whalers responded by winning Games 3 and 4, Montreal won Game 5 due to crease violations(these weren’t enforced at the time), but Hartford tied it in Game 6, 24 seconds in Overtime thanks To Yvon Corriveau. Heartbreak happened though as usual, as they lost Game 7 in Montreal. During the offseason Coach Jimmy Roberts was fired, alongside GM Eddie Johnston, who just took his talents(???) to Pittsburgh as a Coach instead.

• That same mediocre Summer:

The Hartford Whalers announce the hiring of Brian Burke, naming him the 5th General Manager in franchise history. Burke had most recently built the Vancouver Canucks who had gone onto a Cup Final(You know how that ended..). GM Brian Burke announces the hiring of Paul Holmgreen, the 10th Coach in franchise history. Holmgreen had most recently coached the Flyers, through a crazy playoff run, they had beat Lemieux's Penguins 4 games to 3, winning Game 7 in Pittsburgh. They then missed the playoffs twice, before he got fired. Holmgreen proceeds to name Pat Verbeek the team’s new Captain, counting the carousel of Captaincy. He got to play with up and coming stars, Andrew Cassels and Geoff Sanderson though, which was nice.

• The Whalers also introduce their newest assistant coach, Pierre McGuire(Yes, that Pierre, the annoying one).

Burke’s first trade as a GM came quick: The Hartford Whalers trade Forward Bobby Holik, a 1993 Second-Round Pick and a conditional draft pick in 94(I can’t find anything on the condition) to the New Jersey Devils for Goaltender Sean Burke(no relation to Brian) and Defenseman Eric Weinrich. Burke had been playing internationally for Canada’s national team and for the Devils’ IHL affiliate. To say the least, he was a rookie sensation for the Devils, he had previously helped Canada(Junior) win a Silver Medal and from there went straight to the NHL, where he seemed...good. In the ‘89 season he was even named to the All-Star Game, being one of the few rookie goaltenders to make get named to the game. He was quickly becoming the face of the franchise, becoming the first Devil to be on the cover for The Hockey Digest. However by 1990 he became unhappy with the team and sat out 91-92, playing for Team Canada instead. So this was a seemingly good trade that Burke made, a change of scenery could do him well. He was even voted Whalers team MVP from 94 to 97, so it worked out for him, even though this team never even so much as sniffed the postseason again.
Behind the scenes, things were...rough. Brian Burke didn’t last long in the role as GM, he quit after one season. Head Coach Paul Holmgreen stepped into the GM Role as well as staying head coach, until November 16th when he stepped down as coach, citing a “lack of effort from the players” and “wanting to focus on being a GM”. Pierre Mcguire(again that Pierre) became the new Coach and...he was pretty hated actually. To quote the Hartford Courant: “He fancied himself two-parts Scotty Bowman and one-part Bob Johnson. It was a super-human leap of faith on his part.” Basically he tried to act like Scotty Bowman, being cold and distant to the players, while at the same time trying to be ``friends” with them, like Bob Johnson tried to do more of. He was so hated that Whalers Captain Pat Verbeek(amazing he lasted this long as Captain!) was quoted as saying: “the best thing that could have happened to the Whalers.” Yes, the team captain is literally shitting on the ex-coach, because he was that goddamn awful. Nobody liked Pierre, he mocked other coaches and drove away players, even the fans were happy he was gone. He later went onto be the annoying guy NBC trots out to torture us, because they hate all of us.
You might be thinking, “Can’t get any worse than Pierre,right?” Well it does. March 30th, 1994(before Pierre got fired), GM Paul Holmgren was arrested for driving drunk in Simsbury, Connecticut. From there he went to the Betty Ford Center for treatment / rehab, where upon Whalers owner Richard Gordon tried to fire him, being stopped by Bettman himself and Connecticut Governor Lowell P. Weicker Jr, who convinced him to not. Aka Bettman told him “Do it and you’ll get a fine” most likely and Weicker probably say “Don’t do it please!”. He later became the coach again because the players were ready to either kill Pierre or hitchhike out of Hartford, if it meant not playing for him again. Seriously nobody liked Pierre, he got the job because he was an assistant under Scotty Bowman.
The Whalers finished that year with only 63 points, 5 points better than last, but nowhere near good enough.
Summer of 1994. The Whalers announce the team has been sold to Compuware(They specialize in equipment for IT) CEO Peter J Karmanos, the cheap bastard himself, alongside partners Thomas Thewes and Jim Rutherford(Pens GM). Rutherford quickly became the new GM of the Whalers, succeeding Holmgreen, whom went back to being a coach. Karmanos wanted a winning team, which made Rutherford to get Jimmy Carson and Steven Rice, in Free Agency. During the draft Rutherford selected Right Winger Jeff O'Neill with their First Rounder, O’Neill was a highly touted player, who had put up over 329 Points in only 3 Seasons with the Guelph Storm, so this was a smart decision. He never really lived up to his potential though, especially in the early years where he bounced between the Pros and Minors. Among other trades Rutherford made, he traded Chris Pronger(they weren’t happy with him not developing fast enough) for Brendan Shanahan, who was incredibly unhappy about this trade. Did it matter? Hell no! He was named Captain before even skating a single practice, the whole time he wanted out of Hartford, he felt it was too small of a market and they had an “uncertain future”.
To Karmanos’ credit, he wasn’t new to owning Hockey, he had previously owned the OHL’s Windsor Spitfire, back in 1984 along with Thomas Tewes(longtime business partner) and Jim Rutherford. The Spitfires never won a Memorial Cup with Karmanos as owner, but they came close. Karmanos eventually sold them to someone who pledged to keep the Spitfire in Windsor, so long as the OHL granted him an expansion team in Plymouth, Michigan. It was that or he’d move the Spitfire to Plymouth, so he got the Plymouth Whalers.Karmanos’ group tried unsuccessfully to get an expansion team in St Petersburg, Florida. Eventually getting his hands on the Whalers.
That’s right, behind the scenes, the Devil himself, Karmanos was trying to move the Whalers out of Hartford, unless he got a shiny new arena built by the taxpayers. At this point, Hartford was starting on an economic downswing and the Government didn’t care that much about the Whalers, to pay for a new arena. Can you blame them though? Karmanos didn’t want a new arena, he never wanted Hartford to begin with, he was eyeing another market. It was easy because the Whalers were bad, had they had good management, things might have gone differently.
The team was bad and it was even worse behind the scenes, but they had recently re-acquired Kevin Dineen who was a fan favorite and helped boost morale at the least, along with mentoring the young players. It...didn’t really help though, attendance was down and they had missed the playoffs yet again. Due to his comments, Shanahan eventually got stripped of the “C”(why give it to a guy who didn’t want to be there I don’t know), due to fans and the media attacking him for his comments. Dineen was given the Captaincy instead, but it was another season lost. Shanahan finally got traded to a big market though, Detroit. The Detroit Red Wings acquire Forward Brendan Shanahan from the Hartford Whalers in exchange for Keith Primeau, Paul Coffey and a first-rounder. It actually helped the Whalers at first, as they started the 96-97 season with a winning record(that wouldn’t last).1996 was good for them, 1997 turned awful as losing kept happening, the playoffs slipped further and further away, until it was another season of no playoffs.

• More behind the scenes chaos: The 96-97 Season was horrible, Karmanos announced unless the team sold 11,000 tickets he would move the team. If that didn't make things hard, he also eliminated ticket package deals, so you couldn’t just buy a package for 4 games and be good, you had to buy Season Tickets. That was literally the only option and helped Karmanos’ case of moving the team. His reasoning for moving them? Poor attendance and no corporate support(this one is fair, it’s been said that could be an issue with a Quebec team. I am not smart enough to say if this is a real issue or not). Despite Governor Rowland publically saying the state will not use public funds to build Karmanos a new arena, they were negotiating just that behind the scenes and talks were going well, until Karmanos wanted an additional $45 million to cover the team’s losses during the three years it would take to actually build the arena.

To be fair here, it wasn’t all because of Karmanos that the team moved. Yes he ultimately is the one who pulled the trigger and moved him, but this tale goes back to previous ownership and people no longer in charge. A lot of this can be blamed on Richard Gordon, the former owner who bought Donald Conrad’s(the other owner) stake in the team, in the later 80s, but this story goes well into the 90’s. Donald Conrad didn’t have the money needed to equal Gordon’s investment and had to get the help of Benjamin Sisti and Colonial Realty. In the end, Conrad had to sell his share to Colonial Realty and Gordon got the control he ever so desired. It doesn’t end there, Colonial Realty then declared bankruptcy because it turns out, they were a massive ponzi scheme. This gave a ton of uncertainty to the Whalers, since now it was they didn’t meet the financial terms of Conrad’s exit, which could also lead to Conrad being back in the ownership picture. Gordon pressed the NHL to investigate Colonial Realty, but this was the 90s NHL, they let a broke guy briefly own a team, they didn’t do their due diligence. For the first time, the 90s brought the word “relocation” to the Whalers, with Blockbuster owner Wayne Huizenga trying to buy the Whalers to move them to Florida, he later got awarded an expansion team in Miami. (this is a complicated mess I'm still trying to understand)
To Gordon’s credit, he refused all relocation offers. But this was a long standing issue, people blame Karmanos, but it’s far more than just “Karmanos moved the team because he hated Hartford”, he did. Gordon’s micromanaging seems to be the reason for some of the baffling 90s trades, like trading Francis, or then trading Liut for Corriveau, who was nowhere near as good. Liut led the league in shutouts the year he was traded to Washington, while Corriveau was...bad, he bounced between the pros and minors constantly. Gordon was just as bad an owner if not worse in many ways, than Karmanos. It didn’t help that in 92, there was a player strike(it lasted 10 days) while Colonial Realty was going bankrupt. All in all it was a mess, I could write up a novel detailing all of this, but that would be boring. Gordon sold the team to Karmanos knowing Karmanos wanted to relocate a team, so please blame him more.
Fun fact: Dallas, Minneapolis(Well ok, Minneapolis never did, but Minnesota got another), Las Vegas, Anaheim and Miami all tried to get the Whalers to move to their city. All of these cities later got an expansion team, or in the case of Dallas, a relocation.
It also didn’t help that former Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry(or Hat Lady) was anti-Whalers. Famously saying “Hockey is for White People”(She’s not totally wrong though, unfortunately) and this was in a time when concession sales were becoming a much bigger deal. She didn’t want to play ball with the Whalers, she didn’t want to re-negotiate on the lease, I think she may have just wanted them gone to be honest. She wasn’t well liked by many, Aetna(they previously owned the Whalers) threatened to leave Hartford if she won a fourth term as Mayor.
I won’t go into further details on who to blame, or it’ll be forever.
With talks of the Whalers leaving, fans were livid. A “Save the Whale” Campaign launched, buying up just over 8,563 tickets, in under 45 days, despite the Whalers doing everything possible to get people to not buy tickets, fans bought up tickets to save the Whalers. It wasn’t enough though, even with the people wanting to save the team, even with everything else, Karmanos announced they were leaving. Karmanos had discussed moving to Norfolk VA, but the only arena they had, The Scope, was too small to house an NHL Franchise and the city wouldn’t build them an arena. (Norfolk is a great minor league market I think, but I’m heavily biased). Rowland’s offers weren’t good enough for Karmanos, since he was trying to move the Patriots to Hartford(spoiler: that didn’t work), he wasn’t really trying to please the Whalers, but would have bent over backwards for the Patriots. It’s a lot of bullshit.
The relocation proposals: The Move. On April 17th, 1997, the Whalers played their final home game in Hartford, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1, with Captain Kevin Dineen scoring the final goal. On May 6, Karmanos announced the team would be relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina to become the Carolina Hurricanes. Despite years of trying and the Government doing what it could, they left and that was the last time a major league team had come to Hartford. In many ways this was the final nail in the coffin for Hartford, they were beginning to struggle and the 2000’s made the cities downswing much worse.
On October 1st, 1997, the new Carolina Hurricanes played their first game in North Carolina, losing in front of a sellout crowd to the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-4. Unfortunately, things didn’t improve, crowds were regularly drawing below 10K, the new arena wasn’t ready yet forcing them to move to Greensboro, as it was the only NHL ready arena in the state. Triangle area fans didn’t want to drive down I-40 to Greensboro, as it was an 80-Mile drive, while fans from the Piedmont Triad refused to support a lame-duck team and one that displaced the popular minor league Greensboro Monarchs. This was for all intents and purposes a stupid move, the arena was still 2 years out and fans in the area refused to support it, Karmanos had effectively killed a team that was at least getting 10k+ people to watch the games, in favor of an area that wanted nothing to do with them. It didn’t help the Greensboro Coliseum held over 20k+ seats for hockey, making it the biggest at the time in the league, but made it worse when nobody came to their games. It was so bad that sections had to be curtained off so that it wouldn’t look so awful on TV. It didn’t help only 29 TV Games were shown and radio broadcasts were often preempted by basketball, leading many to wonder “Why move them if nothing was ready?” Even Karmanos later admitted Greensboro was a mistake. The Whalers weren’t doing well in Hartford, yes, but moving them without a plan was just the best way to fuck up a relocation quickly.

• In the end there were many guilty parties for “what killed the Whale?” Karmanos, Gordon, Weicker(the Governor at the time), Sisti(ran the Ponzi Scheme), they were what killed the Whalers in the end. It wasn’t a “lack of fan support” or “corporate support”, yes the latter didn’t help with the Whalers issues, nor did them being in the smallest NHL market help. But to blame anyone but these three you would be crazy to do so. The Government was incompetent, they wanted the Whalers to stay, but they were looking ahead at getting the Patriots and spending taxpayer funds to build them a stadium, you would probably see the Whalers in Hartford still, had the Governor not tried to flirt with the idea of an NFL team in Hartford. But realistically the only circumstance a new arena should have been built was if there was a guarantee that the Whalers would stay and that Karmanos would fit good portion of the bill as well.
  
• After the Whalers left town, the Rangers moved the Binghamton Rangers to Hartford and renamed them the Hartford Wolfpack, playing in the same building as the Whalers played in, meaning NHL Hockey was gone, but AHL Hockey was here to stay. Unfortunately, even with hockey still in Hartford, not many attend Wolfpack games. But minor league teams are never that popular, so it makes some sense. For 3 seasons(2010-2013) the Wolfpack became the Connecticut Whale, paying homage to the former Whalers.
  
• The Carolina Hurricanes won the cup in 2005, with only one Whaler left on the roster, Defenseman Glen Wesley won his first and only Stanley Cup. I’ve always considered the Hurricanes one of the weirder cup winners, they missed before and after their win. 04-05 was cancelled due to the lockout, but they missed in 02-03 and 03-4, missing again in 06-07 and 07-08, before coming to a conference final, where they were swept by the Penguins. That was their last playoff appearance for a full decade. Why did they miss so much? It’s simple: Karmanos. He refused to spend on the team after the cap became a thing, he stopped spending, he was content with the Hurricanes being awful and being a laughing stock of the NHL. Calls to move them were more common because of Karmanos, because nobody went to games, because they were losing money.
  
• Could Hartford somehow get a new team? No, the answer is no. It’s too small of a market for the NHL to return to and the city is one of the poorer ones in the country as of now, with 1 in 10 citizens living in poverty, it wouldn’t be the right move to bring in a new team. Like the MLB, the NHL has a small market issue, free agents don’t want to go there, your gms can’t do much to fix anything, because nobody is giving up good players, unless it’s a cap dump and you get the picture. People in Hartford want a team, sure, but it’s mostly a minor league town, that’s what it can support, not every city can host a major league team. At the end of the day, Hartford just wouldn’t make any money for the NHL.
  
• Jim Rutherford is regarded by many Canes fans as a terrible GM, he didn’t help much. He eventually ran off to Pittsburgh, turning them into a back to back cup winner and then wrecking any momentum they had, by signing some mediocre players to long term deals. (Jack Johnson.) He was replaced by franchise legend, Ron Francis who got replaced by Don Waddell, Francis is currently GM for the unnamed Seattle expansion team.
  
• The Hurricanes are looking to rebound, after a decade of nothing-hockey, they look ready to make a comeback. The question is, was last year a fluke? or was it the start of something new? I hope it's the latter, I want this franchise to succeed, I want Hockey to succeed in North Carolina.
  
• The Hurricanes also honored their heritage with a Whalers throwback night, where they beat Boston,(a feat the original Whalers didn't manage to do much) in front of a bigger home crowd than the Whalers ever had. Dundon's philosophy seems to be honoring the Whalers, instead of treating them like something shameful.
  
• Karmanos finally sold the team in 2018, to Texas Billionaire, Tom Dundon who so far hasn’t done much of note, but enjoys talking about the Hurricanes. At the very least, it seems like he might be the owner the Hurricanes have needed.
  

The story of the Whalers isn’t a very happy one, in fact it’s pretty depressing when you realize this franchise never really had a chance, due to ownership, due to being a small market, due to a lot of factors. In the end, the Whalers are remembered for Brass Bonanza, for their run to the Adams Final, that had them a goal away from a Conference Final.

• Further reading: "MAKING A RELOCATION: Who killed the Whale?"

I'll probably cover the North Stars and everything that happened with them next, I dunno yet. I omitted a few things I know, like talking about the logo or mascot, but I covered the major events. Special thanks to the mods, who I didn't have to harass this week, because the bot deleted a post. And thanks to jacoobz for linking me to the Whalers article, I read through it and enjoyed it.

You might notice that Hong Kong is currently protesting against the Extradition (to China) Bill and our situation has become dire. In the protest on 13th August, some of the protesters have disrupted your visit. The last thing we want is to affect your travel plans.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Please forgive us, for that we are doing this for a better brighter future for Hong Kong.
This fight for democracy has sofar claimed 6 lives, more than 700 arrests and countless injuries. Many students are on their rim of bankruptcy. Pro-democracy protesters were severely assaulted by the police and the Triad on different occasiond. On 11 August, a female first aider was shot by the police in her eye when offering humanitarian aid; while a young man broke his front teeth after being pressed on the ground by the police. On the same day, the police fired tear gas inside a metro station and shot civilians in very close distance on top of a moving escalator.
Witnessing the structutal violence imposed by the authority and police brutality, we know that we must stand firm on our grounds. The Hong Kong International Airport is the lifeline of Hong Kong, being the central hub of connection with the world. It is our last resort to force the government to respond to our 5 principle demands including the implementation of universal suffrage.
This whole campaign has no leader. Every protester is on one's own initiative. We won't know what's next in line. And we also don't know whether the person standing right beside us, is a police undercover or not. We, however, choose not to cut ties with anyone. Please forgive us, for that we have nowhere else to turn to. But truthfully, we don't have a consensus on all actions. Despite already having caused you inconvenience, we should try our best to aid all those who have been held down due to flight cancellations, with sincere regrets.
During the regular press conference, the police said recent "violent protest activities" affect public's relation with the police and some civilians have "strong emotions" towards the police, which affects police's emergency services. For example, when the police was handling a suicide case at Tai Po Tai Wo Estate, residents questioned why the police was able to enter the estate, scolded them, and interfered by meddling with the elevator buttons. At peak, about 50 to 60 people surrounded the police vehicle. The police showed a short video showing residents scolding and shining a laser pointer at the vehicle.
However, residents of Tai Wo Estate uploaded security footage and videos taken by other residents, and condemned the police taking the incident out of context by "using a short video to fool Hong Kong civilians" and seriously damaging the reputation of nearby residents. Residents emphasised that "We respect the work of Hong Kong Police, however, we will speak the truth when it comes to intentionally damaging reputations and false accusation of our residents. We will not remain silent." Source: Stand News

Serenade of the Shadow Aristocracy
Recap, Session 0
Prologue: Serenade of the Shadow Aristocracy
In the beginning, there was the continent of Galirath. A continent dominated by the three elemental dragons, Fire, Earth, and Water, it was always destined to be to be torn asunder. When civilization finally took hold, a coalition of elves, men, and the other races tamed the three dragons, who retreated to slumber in their respective Dragontowers. It took sacrifice--the sacrifice of three sons and the sacrifice of the three Regalia.
Now, it is spring of Year Two.
Of course, two years ago was not Year Zero. It was Year 3,872 by the full calendar, Year 27 of the reign of Her Eminence, the Regent Claudia, third of her name. But when she died and her heir assumed the Small Throne, they did not reset the small calendar nor continue the full calendar. That was because they were both hung from a street lamp. Their entire family were hung from street lamps. Everyone within 8 degrees of a claim to the Small Throne was hung from a street lamp. The sycophants, the leeches, the nobles, the aristocracy, their loyal retainers. Hung. From street lamps. This was the Ambrosian Revolution.
To be fair, not everyone was hung. SOme were beheaded by blunt axes. Or ripped apart by the bare hands of the mob. Or bludgeoned by blocks of stone. Or imprisoned and forgotten until they starved, because, shockingly, when you purge the government of people that know how it works, there is no one left that knows how it works.
Republicanism was invented by lawyers and sold by merchants to the rubes who think that murdering the Regent will bear the “fruits of freedom”, which, when translated out of obscure Republican legalese means the price control of bread so that bread costs less than the wheat used to make it. The economy ground to a halt, and many sympathetic merchants were impaled on spikes as a result.
To have survived the last few years of ‘enlightened’ Republican despotism, enforced by the very real threat of murder or slavery, means one learned to keep their head down and mimic the words of their bloodthirsty idealism, find a niche in an upside-down world that makes one more valuable alive than as a testimony to Republican patriotism. Or they went underground, joining the network of the Shadow Aristocracy, a group of likeminded nobleman willing to risk everything to return the world to its natural order.
But, of course, a greater context is needed still. The Kingdom of Galirath had stood for thousands of years, goods coming in front the port city of Mytileni, crops and livestock plentiful in the valley of the rivers Thimor and Ebritter, and laws decreed from the capital of South Alkamn. There, the royal stewards had ruled for generations since the foretold disappearance of the presumptive ruling family to the Dragontowers. The Regents, the Dhassa family, ruled with an iron fist of human supremacy while also upholding elven styles and virtues. This was also a source of contempt for some humans, as well as other races, especially in the lower-class, racially-diverse capital.
Seasons of draught and family and decades of worsening repression led to the eventually Ambrosian Revolution. The lawyers wanted political presentation, the merchants wanted a reduction of tariffs and taxation, the rest wanted bread.
Opposing the so-called Ambrosian Triad is the Shadow Aristocracy. It exists in a state a flux, claiming itself openly to be the legitimate government of Galirath, while remaining secret society of assassins, mercenaries, and idealists dedicated to restoring the regency of the Dhassa family, restoring elven-influenced human rule, and ending the Age of Culling, as it is starting to be called by those on the wrong side of the noose and axe. Surviving nobles, along with merchants escaping bankruptcy from Ambrosian price controls, meet in secret basements, exchancing code words and hand gestures, and fight against the revolution.
Some want to restore the Dhassa family to the regency. Some want to build a new, better system than the Ambrosian Triad is building. Some want gold or justice. All want at least some personal vengeance.
And finally, there are the Dragontowers, dominating the story from a far just as they dominate the skyline. There are three Dragontowers, and with them, three heralded Regalia of Galirath. These regalia mark the birthright and divine right of the Galirath. A flute, said to inspire the masses. A mirror, said to reveal truth. And a sickle, said to alleviate need. They have been lost for generations, when the heirs of the Galirath royal family took them as tokens to tame the Dragon, their sacrifice ushering in civilization and the Regencies of the Dhassas. This is documented in innumerable historical documents.
While these events did happen--there were three regalia, there were three princes of Galirath, there are three Dragontowers--the meaning has been disputed. The clerics of the Old faith say routine sacrifices of the noble family is necessary to keep the Dragons at rest. Others say their sacrifice brought a Golden Age to the kingdom that may soon be ending. Others say the dumb decisions of superstitious nobleman from centuries past isn’t worth scholarship.
The Shadow Aristocracy has taken huge interest in the Dragontowers and their Regalia. Their current plans seem to rely on taboo knowledge about the Dragontowers. Long-help assumption holds that the three regalia were sacrificed in the Dragontowers, but some codices hint that they were hidden in secret locations to be found if ever needed. Is now not clearly the time they are needed? Is the Ambrosian Revolution, the Culling, and the famines and droughts that preceded it, not clearly the work of the waking dragons?

Serenade of the Shadow Aristocracy
Recap, Session 0
Prologue: Serenade of the Shadow Aristocracy
In the beginning, there was the continent of Galirath. A continent dominated by the three elemental dragons, Fire, Earth, and Water, it was always destined to be to be torn asunder. When civilization finally took hold, a coalition of elves, men, and the other races tamed the three dragons, who retreated to slumber in their respective Dragontowers. It took sacrifice--the sacrifice of three sons and the sacrifice of the three Regalia.
Now, it is spring of Year Two.
Of course, two years ago was not Year Zero. It was Year 3,872 by the full calendar, Year 27 of the reign of Her Eminence, the Regent Claudia, third of her name. But when she died and her heir assumed the Small Throne, they did not reset the small calendar nor continue the full calendar. That was because they were both hung from a street lamp. Their entire family were hung from street lamps. Everyone within 8 degrees of a claim to the Small Throne was hung from a street lamp. The sycophants, the leeches, the nobles, the aristocracy, their loyal retainers. Hung. From street lamps. This was the Ambrosian Revolution.
To be fair, not everyone was hung. SOme were beheaded by blunt axes. Or ripped apart by the bare hands of the mob. Or bludgeoned by blocks of stone. Or imprisoned and forgotten until they starved, because, shockingly, when you purge the government of people that know how it works, there is no one left that knows how it works.
Republicanism was invented by lawyers and sold by merchants to the rubes who think that murdering the Regent will bear the “fruits of freedom”, which, when translated out of obscure Republican legalese means the price control of bread so that bread costs less than the wheat used to make it. The economy ground to a halt, and many sympathetic merchants were impaled on spikes as a result.
To have survived the last few years of ‘enlightened’ Republican despotism, enforced by the very real threat of murder or slavery, means one learned to keep their head down and mimic the words of their bloodthirsty idealism, find a niche in an upside-down world that makes one more valuable alive than as a testimony to Republican patriotism. Or they went underground, joining the network of the Shadow Aristocracy, a group of likeminded nobleman willing to risk everything to return the world to its natural order.
But, of course, a greater context is needed still. The Kingdom of Galirath had stood for thousands of years, goods coming in front the port city of Mytileni, crops and livestock plentiful in the valley of the rivers Thimor and Ebritter, and laws decreed from the capital of South Alkamn. There, the royal stewards had ruled for generations since the foretold disappearance of the presumptive ruling family to the Dragontowers. The Regents, the Dhassa family, ruled with an iron fist of human supremacy while also upholding elven styles and virtues. This was also a source of contempt for some humans, as well as other races, especially in the lower-class, racially-diverse capital.
Seasons of draught and family and decades of worsening repression led to the eventually Ambrosian Revolution. The lawyers wanted political presentation, the merchants wanted a reduction of tariffs and taxation, the rest wanted bread.
Opposing the so-called Ambrosian Triad is the Shadow Aristocracy. It exists in a state a flux, claiming itself openly to be the legitimate government of Galirath, while remaining secret society of assassins, mercenaries, and idealists dedicated to restoring the regency of the Dhassa family, restoring elven-influenced human rule, and ending the Age of Culling, as it is starting to be called by those on the wrong side of the noose and axe. Surviving nobles, along with merchants escaping bankruptcy from Ambrosian price controls, meet in secret basements, exchancing code words and hand gestures, and fight against the revolution.
Some want to restore the Dhassa family to the regency. Some want to build a new, better system than the Ambrosian Triad is building. Some want gold or justice. All want at least some personal vengeance.
And finally, there are the Dragontowers, dominating the story from a far just as they dominate the skyline. There are three Dragontowers, and with them, three heralded Regalia of Galirath. These regalia mark the birthright and divine right of the Galirath. A flute, said to inspire the masses. A mirror, said to reveal truth. And a sickle, said to alleviate need. They have been lost for generations, when the heirs of the Galirath royal family took them as tokens to tame the Dragon, their sacrifice ushering in civilization and the Regencies of the Dhassas. This is documented in innumerable historical documents.
While these events did happen--there were three regalia, there were three princes of Galirath, there are three Dragontowers--the meaning has been disputed. The clerics of the Old faith say routine sacrifices of the noble family is necessary to keep the Dragons at rest. Others say their sacrifice brought a Golden Age to the kingdom that may soon be ending. Others say the dumb decisions of superstitious nobleman from centuries past isn’t worth scholarship.
The Shadow Aristocracy has taken huge interest in the Dragontowers and their Regalia. Their current plans seem to rely on taboo knowledge about the Dragontowers. Long-help assumption holds that the three regalia were sacrificed in the Dragontowers, but some codices hint that they were hidden in secret locations to be found if ever needed. Is now not clearly the time they are needed? Is the Ambrosian Revolution, the Culling, and the famines and droughts that preceded it, not clearly the work of the waking dragons?

1. pointing out he's pathological liar in order to discredit him (as we should). No voters want to be lied to, especially by politicians. And Trump likes CONSTANTLY. Destroying the credibility of Trump: o****nce voters become distrusted of him, people won't believe what he says. Whatever "great" policies he proposes or "accomplishments" he touts on daily basis, people won't believe him.
2. attacking his gross incompetence throughout his life, from bankruptcies, and countless failed business adventures to ignorance just about everything.
3. attacking Trump on bad policies. Many of his policies are unsound, from building the wall that's just too expensive, to reducing necessary regulations and crippling government agencies, to allowing authoritarian governments having nuclear weapons, just to name a few.
4. pointing out Trump constantly tries to scam people and doesn't keep promises, from trying to scam students for their money, to refusing to pay lawyers the fees that he should have paid.
5. pointing out Trump is utterly ignorant just about everything, including the things that Trump needs to know to become an effective president. There are many examples. And his inability to learn. He was asked the same question about nuclear triad weeks earlier, but he still couldn't answer the same question in the debate.
6. pointing out Trump frequently breaks the law. Point out the government and civil lawsuits that he and his companies have faced. And he makes business dealings with and is associated with criminals or organized crimes.
7. pointing out Trump is utterly corrupt. Trump brags that he knows the inside game of money in politics, but does he have the guts to fix it? Or does he perpetuate the same game? By pointing out his corruption (for example, donating money to local government in order to get tax breaks for his real estate), people will become more distrustful of his claim of "draining the swamp".
8. he's just a horrible human being in general. How he treats people like pawns for his own gain.

Of course, all of this hinges on the fact that people trust the media that report on these things. And Trump's constant attack on the media for this very reason: if people don't trust the media, they won't believe the reports on the horrible things things that Trump has done. The distrust of the media is actually a more thorny problem than attacking Trump himself.

Note that I leave out his support for tariffs, personal improprieties, racism, narcissism, misogyny, xenophobia, authoritarianism, being petty, impulsivity, and ill-temper. These things are what his voters either don't care about or actually like about a political candidate. Attacking these points may not be as effective as you would like, and they may be even counter-productive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxE-0Tt33Vg
TYT: The Best Way To Attack Donald Trump