As a new gun owner, so far I've noticed a large majority of gun owners are Conservative and more often than not, anti-maskers. Every gun range I've been to here in Virginia Beach has the staff either not wearing a mask or wearing it half way.

When I come in wearing my mask, I'm sometimes the only one wearing one, and everyone definitely stares. I can even sense the condescending tones in the voices of the people working there. One time a guy in the lane next to me even said, "why are you wearing a mask? Dude, nobody here is wearing one." My response was, " true, but it also seems everyone here is minding their own business, you should too."

It's no secret that in this era the mask has become a political statement. It feels like an even bigger statement in what is normally a haven for Conservatives.

I can only imagine people's reactions if they learn I'm part of my state health department's epidemiology operations. I go to the range every other week and most people are friendly. But still, sometimes you can feel the tension.

Or maybe I'm just carrying the stress of work into the range? As you can imagine the bulk of my work right now is directed at COVID instead of the STIs and isolated vaccine preventable infectious disease cases we did prior to 2020. Each day I encounter at least a few angry COVID deniers all of whom preach the same Conservative rhetoric from Facebook.

For the past few days there has been a huge amount of misinformation regarding COVID testing and as a healthcare worker I’d like to shed some light on the process and possibly answer some questions.

Turn around times for PCR tests are getting longer every day for a few reasons.

1. PCR is a complicated, lengthy, multi step process that requires trained staff to complete all the way through. The equipment used for PCR testing was not meant for the volumes that are required at the moment, and as such, we have had to find ways around these limitations. First of all, pathologies started batching samples to cope with the frequency of testing that was required during the lockdown a few months ago. This method essentially boils down to mixing multiple samples together and testing them as one unit. If the test comes back negative, all samples in the batch are resulted accordingly. If the batch comes back as positive, we can run each sample individually to single out the culprit(s). This is all well and good when the percentage of positive results is low, however it all starts to fall apart when this percentage increases and every other batch we test is positive and requires individual testing, deleting any further testing until the positive samples are identified.

2. Anyone working in healthcare will know that at any given time, the staffing situation is dire. Most wards have enough workers to just get by, and anybody calling in sick or even taking their annual leave can spell trouble for the remaining staff, requiring them to take on extra shifts, double shifts and overtime. This is no different in pathologies. As the pandemic grew, so did the strain on clinical services. Many of my colleagues quit due to the impossible workload, stress, poor compensation and inhumane treatment by our management. Pathologies had barely just gotten over the hurdle that was the prior lockdown, with very few resources and dwindling staffing. New hires are not yet up to speed, and are expected to process double the amount of specimens with the same amount of resources.

3. We are currently at the absolute limit of testing, there is literally no more equipment available, let alone staff, in the country to process more samples. Let me emphasise that the largest analysers that I’ve come across can hold maybe a few hundred samples at any given time, which need a few hours to actually process those specimens.

4. Data entry and resulting are huge time sinks that cripple some labs. Lab

TL;DR: The US will not be in conventional war with itself. If anything, it is going to Balkanize. It will be ugly and not a good time.

Few people want to read books on reddit so I am going to keep this one short(er). If you want the long version, I wrote^1 them^2 here.^3 If you don't like reading, Robert Evans' podcast "It Could Happen Here" is a good introduction to these concepts. All sources are linked at the bottom.

Anyway, the term "civil war" has been in mainstream new cycle as of late. Of course many people balk at this idea because they cannot imagine this happening. It must be impossible in today's modern world with all its complexities. The problem is that those people still view "war" in the way it happened in the 1940s: two big sides, attacks and counter-attacks over lines on a map, money and fuel and infantry on the ground trying to outlast each other, etc. It doesn't work like that. War hasn't worked like that for at least the past 50 years.

The signs of a coming civil collapse can be watered down to four indicators:

1. Freedom and rights are disappearing.

The two wings of our neoliberal political system have refused to return liberties to common people and have only intensified their assault on the unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Healthcare, the right to one's own body, a living wage allowing one to own a house.

2. Polarization, hate, and violence are on the rise.

The 2024 presidential campaign started on January 20, 2021 at 12:00. White supremacy is now mainstream.^4

3. Access to information is limited.

An information silo is a business management term for information that is self-contained and walled off from everything else. I'm not getting into business jargon here, so think of it like a grain silo. Yes, that giant tube with a dome on top next to a barn. It's full of grain and on the top you can even stand on it (don't do that). It looks good, sturdy, stable, just like a new theory you are exposed to. But if you start poking around, there are a lot of holes, cavities, voids. If one of those collapses, then you go do

Hi Reddit!

We are a team of former and current political operatives working on a project called Not Who We Are, which focuses on elevating the voices of everyday Americans who are most at-risk by Donald Trump's rhetoric and policies. You can like us on Facebook here or follow us on Twitter here.

/u/JoshHendler: Josh Hendler is a long-time politics and technology nerd. He was formerly the Technology Chief for the DNC and Organizing for America, and is his day-job is CTO at Purpose, a public benefit corporation that accelerates social movements. His favorite organizing project was convening fans around Battlestar Galactica.

/u/HectorSigala: Hector Sigala is a digital media nerd who spent the last 15 months eating enchiladas as the social media director for the Bernie Sanders campaign. Now he is a digital consultant helping implement cool digital ideas in different progressive movements (and is spending a lot of time making sure little Donnie isn’t out grabbing people just because he thinks he can).

/u/RosyKalfus: Rosy Kalfus is an engagement strategist with more than a decade of experience in digital and grassroots campaigning, strategic partnerships, and organizational transformation. Rosy specializes in leveraging technology to build large-scale engaged communities of supporters, and has previously worked for Obama for America and MoveOn.org.

/u/DamienLaVera: Damien LaVera, a veteran progressive political strategist with more than 15 years experience in communications, is the communications director for the Not Who We Are campaign. LaVera previously served as the Deputy Communications Director leading rapid response during the 2008 presidential campaign, led press and media relations for at the U.S. Department of Energy during President Obama’s first term and communications director for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Questions about the Nats are also welcome.

/u/LibbyBK: Libby Babbott-Klein is a Brooklyn-based producer. She got her start working in reality TV and then decided she’d rather affect the real world. She doesn’t like Trump because of his deplorable racism, sexism, elitism, and of course, his awful hair.

Our team has also launched several microsites (listed below), which call attention to other troubling elements of Donald Trump's campaign.

• ImWithSexist: a site that we launched just the o

Hello, long time lurker, first time being brave enough to post. This is a story that's been floating in my head for years, I hope you like it, and I hope I wrote it well enough. If I messed up with the formatting, please let me know.

---

“Beacon?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t feel good.”

“I know, I know you don’t”

---

There was a knock at the Admiral’s door, a young NCO stood in the doorway.

"Sir, the last evacuation ship from Tertius has just jumped in."

"Well good, but why the personal visit?" The older Admiral spun in her chair to stare at the Warrant Officer.

"The captain of the transport is saying he has information regarding a scout or something, sir?"

All traces of emotion drained from the Admiral.  "Bring them here, now."

"Aye Sir."

---

The Admiral placed the holochip the ship’s captain had given her into the computer on her desk.

"Chief, simply by knowing about this chip, you are privy to some of the most classified information Alliance Command has."

"Uh, my apologies Sir. I will leave, also I'm not a Chief."

"You are now. As my personal assistant you'll need to have the clearance.”

“Sir?”

“You're going to help me make sense of what we're about to see. We’ll talk about OCS later."

The admiral indicated a seat for the now surprised Chief Warrant Officer.

"Promotion and transfer are filed. Now, hopefully, we can figure out why Beacon-36 malfunctioned and also figure out who this Scout is." the Admiral looked the Chief directly in the eye and continued.  "The first secret to know: our evacuation plans had a fatal flaw.  There was no safe way to bring the villagers outside the central city to the transports. During the initial invasion, the Praxitans had too many of their soldiers on the ground.  They were destroying rescue ships, medical ships, and executing every human they found. Scout resolved that problem for us, in a way.  The Praxitans became more focused on finding Scout than they were on destroying transports.  Where Scout got Beacon-36, how Scout knew all our protocols; that's been a mystery this whole time. Beacon-36 would only transmit refugee locations, and calls for evacuation. The suit would not let us issue remote commands. We wanted to find it ourselves, but we couldn’t pinpoint it long enough to track. We also knew we couldn't afford to not accept their help.  Those people needed out, and Scout with that Beacon suit, got them out."

“Uh, Sir? Why is a suit malfunction that important?”

“Press play, hopefully we’ll

TOP 10 BEST NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR HOPELESS MODDED MINECRAFT MEME ADDICTS (CAN YOU GUESS NUMBER ONE!??)

With a brand New Year arriving tonight, I'm sure many of you are looking back at your empty lives and asking yourselves, "god i'm so sad and empty i wish i could be better..."

WELL, AREN'T YOU LUCKY THAT I'VE GOT THE ARTICLE FOR YOU!!!

With these TOP 10 FULFILLING AND ATTAINABLE NEW YEAR'S TIPS AND TRICKS you can become happier, healthier, funnier (we all need help with that oh my god none of us are funny), better memers and better modded players! It's all so easy that even you can do it!!! 😄😱😄😱😄

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

TOP 10 HOT TIPS FOR MAKING YOUR LIFE NOT SHIT FOR MODDED PLAYERS:

#10 : Avoid repetitive and boring meme formats

Are you tired of the same meme formats appearing over and over again? All online activity suffers from a lack of originality, whether that be downloading the sixteenth copper ore mod or posting the sixhundredth virgin vs chad meme, it eventually gets tiring.

Admittedly you lot are actually kind of alright at this, with the exception of the occasional recursive "WE ARE NOT THE SAME" trend, but even that wasn't that bad. But despite that, you are all actually terrible and need to improve your comedy. Before posting something, decide if it's actually original. Of course, for originality you will need a list of predefined meme formats...

That's why you need is our TOP 10 HOT AND NEW ORIGINAL MEME FORMATS:

• 10)ss.jpg

• 9. The drake meme but with some random modded boss! - funny the first time!
• 8. Random Image with a caption - Arguably a format!
• 7. The expanding brain meme but each brain is replaced with a stage of Mekanism ore processing - this actually sounds mildly humorous
• 6. Random GIF with a caption - Like 8 but animated!
• 5. XKCD Edits - Allow for lots of creativity!
• 4. Virgin Vs Chad - A classic!!!
• 3. The drake meme but with some random modded mob! - funny the second time!
• 2. Cover yourself in oil - It was funny the first time, it was funny the second time, I'm sure if we do it another fifty times it will still be funny!
• 1. A black square with text on it - Infinite possiblities!!!

If some those actually sounded kind of decent, don't worry, I was surprised too! Anyway be sure to use these (and properly credit me or else i will autocraft lawsuits) and ONLY these, if you use anything beyond these 10 formats you are bad and unoriginal!!!

You may

After the USSR's dissolution, the administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton undertook considerable diplomatic efforts to prevent the Soviet Union's collapse from increasing nuclear proliferation. At that time, Ukraine inherited the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world: at least 1,900 strategic nuclear weapons. Then, the sole threat to Ukraine was the Russian Federation. Not NATO or the United States.

Ukraine's Nuclear Disarmament in Exchange for NATO-member's Assurances of Security

In exchange for Ukraine's agreement to disarm, the United States brokered a deal between Ukraine and Russia known now as the Budapest Memorandum. Parties to the Budapest Memorandum were Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and the United States. The obligations were for Russia and others to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as the borders were currently drawn. The teeth were NATO's, even if implicitly.

Though not a formal defense pact between NATO and Ukraine, the sole reason Ukraine agreed to disarm was based on the United States' and other NATO members' readiness to provide security assurances. So, if the agreement was ever violated, NATO (and particularly the United States, who brokered the deal) would have to enforce it --- because there was no one else. Then as now, Ukraine lacked any viable defense against the Russian military --- other than that nuclear arsenal, which it gave up in reliance on the word of the United States.

But at the time, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin were of the belief that a new era of friendship between the United States and Russia had materialized and would represent the future of US-Russian bilateral relations. Vladimir Putin has since falsely claimed that a component of those negotiations was something like an implied covenant that NATO would not expand. George H. W. Bush made no such concessions. Nor did Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright or anyone else.

Why Ukraine Matters

Nuclear Proliferation

If Russia invades Ukraine, Iran's nuclear hardliners will be emboldened and Iran may never dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Consider Libya. Recall that Libya voluntarily dismantled its nuclear program.

• Gaddafi stated repeatedly that the Administratio

A Fox News article has recently made the top of r/politics. Fox News is generally a very Conservative news piece, more or less echoing the rhetoric and interests of the Republican Party. That's what makes it shocking that a generally liberal subreddit would send it to the top of the page.

The answer is simple. Bernie Sanders, and the fact that it is mid-term election year. (Or perhaps far-right actors uploading their own content). Bernie is and was a much loved Democrat candidate in two elections. In both elections, Bernie was defeated in the primaries by a moderate Democrat candidate. However, many came to say that it was unfair, and that there was even r/bernieblindness, the idea that media outlets were ignoring his success and popularity. Progressives like him much for his policy on workers and old-school 'socialist' or 'social-democrat' values. At the same time, many Progressives do feel disconnected from the current Democrat party. Some feel that Biden is not doing well enough on reasonable and unreasonable expectations.

Fox News doing stories on Bernie isn't new. However, the context of it is important. Is Fox News really trying to side with progressives? Or are they trying to manipulate people to sit out? Can a person I hate be right? Is Bernie still speaking the truth even if it's under the guise of a Fox News article? Is this Republican obstructionism, and a feeble attempt to split the party in two? Find out as Fox News makes a bet on whether the moderate or progressive horse will win out.

WTF, we love Bernie now! - Fox News

Fox reporting this like the Republicans are the Messiahs of the people.

He's right, Fox. But the answer is not the Republican party no matter how hard you jerk them off.

Or the users here suggesting we just fall apart and let Republicans have their fascist dystopian dreams come true.

[The stark reality is that Democrats are a party with a spectrum of political beliefs and many are not progressives. You can either compromise until new blood is voted in, or you can cave to Republican rule.]

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

Righty oh then. Time for yet another chapter. And we have a new cover today! I do hope you enjoy it. Plan is for it to become the cover for book two but we will have to see how that goes. That's the future though and today we must praise the editors admire the pretty picture and get on with a this little... situation we have unfolding. I do hope you will enjoy.

ko-fi Patreon for the purpose of getting poor Danish students drunk and getting more awesome stuff made for the story

Cover 2 by Favetoni

Wiki Discord

First Previous Next

Chapter 138: Unfair Negotiations

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Anybody home?” the black dragon had questioned from outside. It sounded female to Tom, but that was sometimes rather hard to tell with their deep voices and all. Said voice was calm and silky smooth though, and they sounded very pleased with themselves right now. “Knock knock.”

“Yes, we are home alright. What might I be able to help you with?” Rachuck shouted in reply. He was watching the brigands from an arrow slit in one of the covers that had been put over the windows. The Guard captain had been wanting to keep an eye on Tom and Linkosta, seeking to know just what to expect from their little counter attack. Not to mention what weapons they actually had. He had not been pleased to hear that they were down a considerable amount of shotgun shells. Then again, it didn’t look like this was going to be a drawn out engagement. Tom certainly planned on putting on a show, but engaging that red high above was gonna be a touch tricky.

Linkosta was working on the land mine prototype. She had been so damn busy over the last several weeks with the vault and Tink and all the other shit that had been going on that she hadn’t managed to get the detector to work yet. The manual detonat

Tonight's debate on Fanatiq's panel has actually made me feel so doomed on the state of this pandemic, how it will play out and how it could have ended so long ago. These were just some of the reasons why.

Dishonesty

When Destiny challenged gootecks to answer the question regarding whether drink driving should be illegal, both gootecks and Geisha were completely unable to engage with the question. When pushed on it, the most common answer was that drink driving was already illegal so this was not analogous, followed by handwaving about how 'it's just different'. The stark hypocrisy of the two positions is so obvious that it hurts.

I'm sure that many people have heard of Hanlon's razor [1] but this instance seems to far gone for me to be able afford the charitability of their potential ignorance.

Anti-Intellectualism

At a point during the panel, gootecks claimed that by using DuckDuckGo you can return wildly different results compared to what you would return via a Google search. Destiny spoke about how this isn't as true as he implies it to be.

At one point in my life, I spent a period of time obsessing over what search engine and browser I was using. Due to this, I learned a decent amount about how DuckDuckGo works and how it compares to Google. The biggest variation between the two is actually how the results are sourced. It is well known that Google will advertise within their results, as does DuckDuckGo [2]. Where they differ: the sources. The main thing is that it doesn't source from Google itself. However, it does source from 400 other sources, including but not limited to Bing, crowdsourced sites like Wikipedia, and their own crawler DuckDuckBot [3]. All of this is to say that in totality, DuckDuckGo is not providing the user with the hidden archives of the internet, just the internet with a little less tracking.

Another point that was a cause for concern was when gootecks spoke about how he understands the position of pro-vaxxers but he doesn't subscribe to it because he sees beyond just one perspective. This is the same level of justification used by religion, 'you can't understand it because you don't know'. Make no bones about it, the anti-vax movement is pseudo-religious in nature. A steadfast inability to critique your own positions and introspect upon them. This is worrying specifically because of the fact that someone who is like this will never be moved by anything because they can always default back to calling you

It's the best I can offer, but I have a little present for everyone. It's another excerpt from the book that I am absolutely writing. I just hope I leave a little something to the imagination by the time I finally publish it. We are getting to the end, however. Any words or encouragement you might have for me will only help me work faster and harder. Any criticisms you have are also highly appreciated. Take care and please let me know what you think.

Very Respectfully,

Andrew Second

...

Breifing

In the morning, Steven and his new friend Harumith left their cabin together to join the rest of the diplomats, VIPS, and mission support specialists in one of the HMS Terror’s wardrooms. They would meet for their long anticipated but undoubtedly boring final State Department briefing. The night prior, he had gotten to know the affable little Dyrantisa fellow. Though a middle aged man, he reminded Steven of a precocious preteen boy who took advanced classes at university, not because his parents had pressured him into it, but because he genuinely loved learning. The three piece suit he now wore, a different three piece suit from the one he wore a day prior, the child-sized shaded spectacles, horn-rimmed and round, and his pitifully small stature- though somewhat tall for a man of his own kind- didn’t help change that appraisal.

As they entered, still early, Steven saw both of the man’s remaining wives waving in their direction. A sideways sort of hand gesture beckoning him to sit with them. Harumith waved back, smiled in the dyrantisa fashion, and nodded at Steven to follow before making his way over. He trailed behind and took a seat across the trio, although it was clear that the women, sitting at either side of their husband, viewed him somewhat as an interloper and would rather he had sat elsewhere. On a different ship, most likely. The way they glared at him when their husband wasn’t looking could strip the chrome off a truck bumper.

He had known since he met Arrinis that dyrantisa women could be a little protective at times, but seeing how they related to one of their own really drove home the point. For as much as Arrinis claimed she made no distinctions between humans and dyrantisa, it hadn’t been her banging on their cabin, insisting that Haramuth’s bunkmate defy ship regulations and surreptitiously switch room assignments so she could keep her man safe through the night.

Of course, that might have just said more about Har

There was an essay (referred to as OP from now on) posted to this sub recently that got quite a number of things wrong about Fodlan and its political situation (ironically, in a post that claimed to address misconceptions), and so I have risen from my reddit dormancy to correct the record. I will start with a discussion of the state of Fodlan and the crest system, move onto the role and power of the Church in all this, and end with a discussion of Edelgard and her partnership with the murder muppets.

All quotations are sourced from https://fedatamine.com/en-us/. The location of the quote (explore chapter, battle, or event name) will be provided for reference.

The Aristocrestocracy

The OP makes the argument that because Crests are not uniformly and consistently a requirement for a person or family to be noble, they are not intrinsically tied into the aristocratic power structure of Fodlan. This is laughable considering how much of the game focuses on Crests and their impacts on characters and power. Just because an exception exists does not mean that a consistent pattern is invalid. For instance, to argue that the Victorian era was not a restrictive time to be a British woman because the monarch of the time was female would be idiotic.

Starting off at the Kingdom, there are seven major families listed in the Register of Kingdom Nobles – Blaiddyd, Fraldarius, Gautier, Charon, Galatea, Rowe, and Kleiman. Of these, Blaiddyd, Fraldarius, Gautier, and Charon have always held significant power in the Kingdom, and all of them have crested bloodlines. Galatea defected from the Alliance with a Major Crest and a Relic and was instantly granted land and status in the Kingdom. Notably, they brought no land and were given some, showing the importance of a crested bloodline. The two major houses without crests essentially bought noble titles through the addition of land to the Kingdom (through deceit or outright murder) – Rowe with Arianrhod and Kleiman with Duscur.

If this isn’t enough to show the overwhelming dominance of Crests over Kingdom politics, we have two families where the secondborn crested son was made heir over the firstborn crestless son, explicitly because of his crest – the Blaiddyds and the Gautiers.

>Dimitri (Crests: The Good and the Bad): It’s far from uncommon for someone to lose their ability to lead their house because they don’t bear a crest. Just like Miklan. It happened to my uncle as well. The

<20: Ignorance is really deadly. Or dramatic irony is really fun. Or both.

Tatsumaki impaling Orochi with the compressed remains of the base was one badass move, and it looked like the monster had truly been put paid to:

https://preview.redd.it/eqsxm3l4vp681.png?width=540&format=png&auto=webp&s=34be0ee3db97ec537519743a788534d841f5b284

But by drilling all the way back down to the altar, it looks like the nourishing liquor of the magma has revived him. Look at all those veiny roots back at it spreading everywhere they can.

There's what doesn't kill me makes me stronger and then there's whatever this is

Who could have known? It's not a rhetorical question. Despite OPM featuring fantastic situations, ONE is as strict as any police procedural in who has what information when.

Drive Knight may have taken as much information as he could, but Orochi's magma-sipping habit is one provably known to only one character, Saitama. Not even Psykos knew about it:

https://preview.redd.it/j3dtcdp47q681.png?width=502&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b8d063ed90b84ea8c99ffc42c33b02406804fed

None of the heroes on the surface had any way of knowing that they were just giving the Monster King a helping hand... and yet another near-death experience to come back stronger from. Not that it matters: even if he came back as a literal Jack Russell terrier, Tatsumaki hasn't the energy to so much as roll up a newspaper with which to hit him.

I've said it before, but the most terrifying about the Monster Association is that they operate on the sundew principle and just outlast the heroes. It's a sad reality that friendly fire has accounted for more of the cadre than the heroes* have and besides Orochi 3.0, Evil Natural Water is on its way back, stronger than ever.

The only reason this isn't a cause for existential dread is that Saitama is here now. Whatever ructions happen, when he's had enough, he'll end the noise.

*Wait, now that I think about it, both collectively and individually, the heroes haven't killed a single cadre, Saitama excepted. Nyan has been deliberately left alive by Drive Knight, but yeah, it's not been a good day for Class S.

"Let me start from the beginning," Tovin said as he turned his gaze up at the ceiling as though trying to remember something specific. "I can't say for certain when without my notes in front of me, I don't have freak-memory like Gill does."

"Offense taken," I grumbled.

"Offense intended," he responded sharply. "But the year before last, I began to notice that things weren't quite right around here. There had always been sudden expulsions, the reasons for which were none of our collective business, but... then came the expulsion of Liliana Wanaley."

"I actually remember her," Axle interjected. "Yeah, she was a really solid student. Powerful verbal caster, always at the top of the charts when test scores got posted. I considered you and her my academic rivals."

"There was no rivalry," Tovin clarified. "When one person always comes out on top, it isn't called a rivalry, you were merely competing for third place."

"I know a row of scorched lockers who would tell a different story," I said with a grin.

If looks could kill, the stasis field would've had its work cut out for it. I didn't look directly at him, but I could feel his eyes burning a hole in the side of my head. I wasn't necessarily worried; with Fena on my arm, he pretty much couldn't touch me. Having a scary girlfriend had its perks.

"That aside," he said turning his attention back to Axle. "Yes. You remember her correctly. She was brilliant; had plenty of promise. I considered her to be a great asset to Galgia's military intelligence. The only reason her name never climbed over mine on the charts was that my last name came first alphabetically. I couldn't count the number of times both of us scored perfectly. We never spoke to one another, but we would frequently make eye contact in front of the postings. She was the closest thing to a friend I had at this place."

"And you never even spoke to her?" Fena laughed. "Wow. You gotta learn to let people in."

"Agree to disagree," Tovin asserted. "The fact that we never spoke was part of what I enjoyed about our relationship. It was purely competitive. She wasn't interested in friendship; only in bettering herself, only in pushing herself to be the pinnacle of what she could aspire to be. One could say I greatly admired her in that aspect."

"And they expelled someone like that?" Atlas asked. "Why?"

"That's the question now, isn't it?" Tovin asked rhetorically, letting his eyes fall to the steamy spring water. "I felt..." he said befor

Ah yes, it's time once again for that most cherished of holiday traditions when we pull up a chair by the fireplace, comforting beverage in hand, Minky blanket over our legs, and pause for a moment to reflect on TSCC's past year . . . then immediately spill our drink all over the carpet as we fly into an uncontrolled rage at the sheer amount of nonsense we just witnessed.

Some years it feels like an accomplishment just to make it to the end of the year, and 2021 certainly feels that way. It was a year defined by choices: masked vs. unmasked, vaxxed vs. unvaxxed, return to church vs. worship at home. With so many clamoring voices, it can be hard to know what's best, which is why we always default to the tried and true: no, not the still small voice. We are referring, of course, to loud laughter and evil speaking of the Lord's anointed. It's never let us down yet, which is why we're eager to jump right into . . .

January

After banning the word "Mormon", cutting church to 2 hours, modernizing the missionary dress code, and cozying up to other religions, church leaders look forward to taking TSCC even more mainstream in 2021 . . . only to turn on the news six days into the new year and see Captain Moroni waving the Title of Liberty at an illegal attempt to overturn a democratic election and overthrow the U.S. government. Although the Book of Mormon Captain Moroni was very much in favor of democratic elections and defending the sitting government against a group who wanted to overthrow it, Pres. Newsroom explained that today's Captain Moroni -- like the church itself -- had regrettably grown much more hardline conservative and quite a bit kookier in his old age.

Originally enthralled with the idea of God choosing a doctor to lead them during a pandemic, TBMs quickly turn on Dr. Prophet Nelson after he releases a photo of himself receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. TBMs attack Nelson's photo op in online forums, accusing him of falling for the lies of the deep state, and worrying that Bill Gates could now follow Nelson through a secret microchip. However, independent observers rated this last fear as "Highly Unlikely" after Bill Gates himself said he'd rather use Windows ME as his operating system for life rather than follow the prophet in any sense of the word.

February

Despite claiming for years that it supported the civil rights (OTHER than marriage, of course) of LGBT individuals, TSCC nevertheless issues a formal statement opposing the Equality

Do your worst!

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

Your 10-minute Monday briefing in 2656 words.

##Pashinyan cabinet discussed plans to implement universal healthcare in Armenia

For context read this. Around 61% of Armenians support the idea. 73% are ready to pay 2-6% of their paycheck for UHC. The exact amount of deductions is yet to be determined.

On Monday Pashinyan and ministers discussed the progress towards UHC.

Healthcare Ministry: We examined various models. We need a sustainable financing system that will provide the main healthcare services to all groups.

The package is still being discussed in various agencies. When it's done, a bill will be drafted and submitted. Here is what's being discussed:

• Financial sources

• Cost-effectiveness

• Recipient groups

• Quality of services

• Ensuring social solidarity & justice

• Risks

For UHC to be successful, we need to simultaneously develop the infrastructure, e-healthcare, and strengthen the capacity of primary care facilities. //

Pashinyan: UHC will be an important reform. The primary goal should be disease prevention. Therefore, it's necessary to adopt a model that will ensure quality and cost-effective services. Consult and make the necessary amendments and submit the proposal for final discussion. //

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1072597.html

##public sector workers can now use their "social package" for dental care

Additionally, the package covers more family members. The government adopted the changes last month. Details in November 2 post.

https://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/297741/

##war on smoking

Starting January 1, shops aren't allowed to publicly display cigarettes. In a few months, there will be a ban on smoking in public areas [cafés and restaurants]. But there are also tax hikes.

Excise taxes on cigarettes are increasing from $22 to $27 per 1000 units. Despite the hike, cigarettes remain significantly cheaper in Armenia than in Europe.

A similar excise hike went into effect for alcohol.

www.1lurer.am/hy/2022/01/10/Հարկերի-փոփոխությունից-ո՞ւմ-աշխատավարձը-կավելանա/639980

##facilities at National Center for Infectious Diseases will be renovated with modern standards

Healthcare Ministry: As part of the government

Because she wanted to see the task manager.

I enjoy this sub, although I think it suffers from the rhetoric of urgency. The position I want to put forth is this: Institutions are designed to operate extremely inneficiently and do not just collapse. They will sputter along for the longest time with an increasing inefficiency but most roles can be filled with warm bodies and just chug along. There is a momentum inherent to institutions that will propel them far beyond their last good worker. We will pretend things are working for many, many years before it is actually not working. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Yours?

They’re on standbi

One of the largest misconceptions we have as a community, at least in my eyes, is that KMA, or the Korean Popular Music Awards, is one award show that awards the ACTUAL best of Korean music, and is somehow very quality. This might be true, but I very very strongly disagree with our kpop community's rhetoric about them, and how they somehow are the true indicator of what's quality of Korean music.

I did a search on the big 3 kpop subreddits to see what people think about KMA, and these are some of the things I saw:

• "we should deep the reasons why kpop acts are rarely nominated… could it be that when stacked up with all the other artists in Korea and measured on quality alone, they just… don’t match up?"
• "Koreans don’t actually appreciate idol music because it’s not artistic and focuses more on visuals"
• "All I know is that the KMAs is based solely on music quality"

I have to ask here, what IS quality in music? Is that not inherently subjective? How can we hold an award show to high regard just because they don't award idols often? But anyways, continuing...

• I mean if it's based on quality KPOP groups don't stand a chance. this all Korean acts we are talking about. I love kpop, but hearing the other k-singers content, ESPECIALLY lyrics, Kpop doesn't stand a chance"
• because kpop groups don’t win there. in it’s 16 years of existence, only 3 kpop groups have been awarded the Grand Prize (Song Of The Year (Bigbang, SNSD, Bts), Album Of The Year (no groups have won), Artist Of The Year (Bts)). doesn’t sound too good right... turns out, the judges and kpop stans have different ideas on “quality”. but this is what you’re going to get if you want songs and artists to be awarded for actual quality and impact, as analyzed and chosen by the industry professionals"
• the fact that groups that have won at the KMA'(main awards) have been some of the most popular k-pop groups or well known with the GP"
• if you want a show that is critically acclaimed and is only judges look for the KMA's. Many kpop stars do not get on the nomination list due to their songs not having much musicality"

There's a lot of negative perception about idols and idol music in Korea. Only specific songs chart well, and even then it's only modest success, rarely ever chart-topping. In the words of Seventeen's leader S.Coups:

>Just because we are idols, even CARATs who likes us are getting ne

In two conversation here over the past week or so, I've noticed a pattern that's probably familiar to all of us by now.

> Basically, this -- is the "if you call me a fascist sympathiser, it's because you're a mean leftist lib feminist wokeist antifa BLM terrorist nazi who hurt my fragile white feelings"!

Edit: Link above now points to the correct post. :)

In two recent Reddict convos specifically, it's become clear that many less-blatant misogynist/racist people actually don't realise how bigoted they are, which protects them from any realisation that they might need to change those racist/misogynist/fascist views.

Those individuals operate on a spectrum, from "innocent" ("white pride/white chauvinisim/white nationalism isn't racist and misogynistic"), to "homicidal maniac" ("if you look past the genocidal parts, Nazis did amazing things for the German economy!").

No amount of facts or reason will change their minds, because they live inside an ideological bubble. Every fact they come across is accordingly forced to fit within the bubble, or it is simply rejected outright.

Inevitably, if you state this plainly to them, their response is the usual "on both sides" defense, which is hilarious given that only one side of society has begun advocating banning and burning books, while systematically dismantling and gerrymandering democracy in the name of "election integrity", so that that their party wins in perpetuity (in case this isn't clear, Republicans and "conservatives" are the only ones using these tactics).

There are two main strategies used by "shy fascists" to reject logic, reason and facts. After you've destroyed their arguments, revealed their bad-faith rhetorical games, and cited several reliable sources to demonstrate their incompetence, they will simply do the following;

1. Claim that they disagree with you anyway, but thank you for taking the "effort" to have a pleasant conversation. This is a form of condescension, when a person would otherwise be forced to realise that they have no reasonable alternative but to change their mind. In this approach, there are no such t

Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 1,364,000+ words long! For more information, check out the link below:

What is the Cryopod to Hell?

Join the Cryoverse Discord server!

Here's a list of all Cryopod's chapters, along with an ePub/Mobi/PDF version!

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...................................

(Previous Part)

(Part 001)

...

Half a day after the Grand Assembly.

Founder Unarin silently strides into his core offices, the key floors of the Founder's Thumb, one of the five towers comprising the Founder's Fingers. Not far from the topmost levels, his core offices rest on the 341st through 350th floors.

The number of personnel inside this highly restrictive zone are few and far between. Unlike the largely insular towers of the other four Founders, a variety of Volgrim subspecies work here, consisting primarily of Technopaths, Psions, and Changelings. All of them are high-level leaders of various factions in the Volgrim Empire, and possess an incredible amount of pull with their respective organizations, as they answer directly to Unarin himself.

However, among these executives are also a few of The Ascended, the same subspecies as Unarin himself. While nearly the entirety of the Ascended live inside of simulation pods spread across thousands of worlds, a few designated ones work inside the First Finger. Muuxunuu counts among them, but she is not the only one.

Unarin strides up to one of the few and far-between Ascended, a male with obsidian-black skin manipulating holograms in the air which show a battle taking place around one of the Outer Rim worlds in the 'northwest quadrant' of the Milky Way.

"Commander Randis." Unarin says. "How are things looking?"

Even as he asks, Unarin's eyes flick to the numerous highly classified readings hovering in the air, the red and blue 'blips'

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.