Ironhold

I work for a newspaper IRL. Over the last several years there have been a number of big issues regarding invasion of privacy, up to and including lawsuits. This includes the infamous lawsuit between Hulk Hogan w/ Peter Thiel versus Gawker Media. Generally speaking, making real-time information available regarding where celebrities, CEOs, politicians, and others of such caliber are is indeed putting them in danger as their high profile makes them high-profile targets. Thus, bits like Gawker's infamous "Gawker Stalker" where they were *paying* for this information was pretty broadly denounced even before the lawsuit. These reporters should have known better, and if memory serves some of these same reporters were aghast at similar privacy leaks regarding Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn, and others during the Gamergate bit in 2014 and 2015. That's what it all comes down to. So yeah, I'm with Musk on this one.

The issue is that Byte Dance, the owner of TikTok, is basically a wholly-owned subsidiary of the mainland Chinese government. There is concern that China could be using the app as a tool of espionage, accessing everything from GPS coordinates to personal information stored on whatever device it's being used on. The United States military has already prohibited service members from having or using it, and I think a number of contractors have already implemented similar bans. So I'm not initially surprised by this, no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine A few months ago, I saw a lot of people whining about the abolition of the FCC's Fairness Doctrine. According to the pundits - including cartoonist Stephen Pastis of "Pearls Before Swine" - the Doctrine purportedly required that American networks broadcast the truth and only the truth. In reality, 1. Radio stations were required to give "equal time" to opposing sides in a controversy, not broadcast "the truth and only the truth" 2. Television stations were never under the same level of mandate, and are only required to give equal time to political candidates 3. Back when JFK and LBJ were in office the Democrats made it a point to weaponize the doctrine by having operatives identify stations that lacked the resources to fight "nuisance" FCC complaints and wait for them to violate the doctrine (that is, for them to air a right-wing or pro-GOP host without a left-wing or DNC host as counter-weight) 4. This tactic led to the decade-plus of legal action that caused the FCC to conduct an internal review in the mid-1980s, the same internal review which found that the FCC may not have had the actual legal authority to issue the mandate in the first place. Thus, because the Democrats were using it to suppress smaller, weaker radio stations, the Fairness Doctrine went away. Rush Limbaugh's show went national the very next year, and right-wing hosts would ultimately dominate talk radio within a decade. Oops...

Also... why was David back at the capitol when his people were at war? Back then, kings and queens typically led from fairly close to the front lines.

The simple truth of the matter is that people are putting weed, cannabis, and CBD oil in just about everything. A few weeks ago I was live-streaming some radio station from a good distance away (the station I listen to in Canada?) and there was an advertisement on where a CBD shop was advertising its wares. I remember that the offerings included CBD - based pet products and a number of other things.

Speaking as a former branch finance clerk? Under the old system, it was possible for someone to be flagged as being "exempt" from the requirement to tithe. I never had to put it through to make someone exempt, but the tithing settlement reporting window for the MLS computer software the church was using back then had that as one of the four options (full, partial, non, exempt). So... it's entirely possible that this could be a moot point here...

The people with Midnight's Edge are (in)famous for the fact that they generally have their receipts in order when they go to make a statement. If they say there's smoke, get a bucket of water ready just in case.

Follow-up to a video I posted earlier and a continuation of the discussion about Disney: Kamran Pasha is a Hollywood insider - turned - whistleblower, and has proven fairly reliable like the rest of the Midnight's Edge crew. Based on both his knowledge of the industry and information he has received from contacts within Disney, he suspects that the current Bob was a patsy. In short, he believes that Disney got itself involved in cryptocurrency, got hammered when FTX (that cryptocurrency group) collapsed, and is now in such a bad way that the company as a whole could easily be in danger. Thus, the chief financial officer and the board conspired to oust current Bob for some nebulous reason, bring previous Bob back, and prepare the company for sale to or merger with a financially stronger company - like Apple - to cover the losses and fix the books.

Charmander -> Charmeleon -> Charizard My youngest nephew is big into Pokemon, so I've been trying to bone up on everything. He's special needs, and it's one of the few things that really has his interest.

Consider the original 1985 movie. Maverick was living under the shadow of his father, an absolute professional who was thrown under the bus to cover up the fact that a legally dodgy mission had gone wrong. This pressure, combined with his not having a father in his life for most of his formative years, helped contribute to the irresponsible and aggressive behavior he displayed in the original. This is why he was given a reputation as being "dangerous" even compared to other fighter pilots who played as hard as they worked and why Goose was the only person willing to fly with him on a regular basis. This mix of aggression and irresponsibility collided with Iceman's aggression and irresponsibility to create the fatal accident that killed Goose. Yes, in real life the F-14 did have an issue where under certain circumstances the engines could potentially stall. This is what killed Lt. Kara Hultgreen, the Navy's first female combat aviator; she used a prohibited banking maneuver to try and correct after overshooting her aircraft carrier, causing her engines to stall and her plane (ironically, one of the two planes involved in the incident that inspired the first movie) to hit the ocean. Maverick wasn't the victim of his own irresponsibility. It was his best friend. And oh by the way, he's now slowly realizing that Cougar suffered because of him as well. The shock of everything finally hitting him has left him devastated to the point that he's on the edge of handing in his resignation. Sundown, Iceman, and most of the other pilots are content with this turn of events, seeing him as a liability. ...Only for Wolfman, Charlie, and Jester to recognize the inherent good still left inside of Maverick and, in their own way, call him out for his actions while encouraging him to rise above. This, combined with him learning the truth about his father, turns him into an actual professional like his father was, to the point that he specifically requests Merlin to be his back-seater as an apology for what happened with Cougar. By the time he's done, even Iceman has begun to respect him again. In short, the original movie is a redemption tale with a military setting. Yes, most people back then went nuts for the action scenes and the soundtrack, but there was something real at the core of it. This is why it's lasted where other movies of a similar nature started becoming forgotten (like the "Iron Eagle" franchise...).

People can say what they want about Midnight's Edge, but they have receipts for everything they discuss and are even more credible than many mainstream entertainment publications.

Information is confused, but it seems that Bob Iger has been invited to come back as his replacement. Ultimately though, it's all a mess it seems.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/18/texas-border-military-armored-vehicles-operation-lone-star/ Story: Governor Greg Abbot of Texas has sent 10+ M113 armored transports to the Texas / Mexico border, likely for anti-cartel purposes as the armor and .50 machine guns they have are far more than what the average cartel soldier will have. Story becoming a story: Many media outlets and pundits are referring to these vehicles as "tanks" or "tank-like vehicles", generating outrage and confusion among people who don't know the difference between a main battle tank and an armored transport. So yeah, instead of talking about the news story, people are talking about the botched handling of the news story.

I'm hearing different things as to what's going on and why. There is, however, a general pattern to the reports I've been hearing - 1. Twitter employees were using much of their official on-the-clock time to indulge in various luxuries and perks provided by the company instead of actually working. 2. Musk tried to require everyone to actually *work* when they were at work, possibly including some employees doing weekends on a rotating schedule 3. No one seems quite certain about what a work week under Musk would be like beyond 1 and 2, but the prospect of "less time on wine tasting, more time on selling ad space to wine producers" was purportedly enough to begin causing employees to walk out in protest. 4. As these employees started to walk out, they pressured other employees to join them.

I just remembered something. Late last year / early this year, I projected that professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling would purchase rival promotion Impact! Wrestling, noting that a crossover story arc between the two had very similar vibes to what was going on between the World Wrestling Federation and Extreme Championship Wrestling before the former bought the latter. Well, in April, All Elite Wrestling did, indeed, purchase... Ring of Honor, a third wrestling promotion. Turns out that the TV deal Impact! has going with AXS Television was enough to keep them going during the Covid lockdown, but Ring of Honor's finances were primarily structured around in-person attendance for their various shows (tickets, merchandise, et cetra) rather than their TV deal (only an hour a week and only on Sinclair Broadcasting - owned stations) and so the lockdown left them teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

The "Red Wave" predictions were based on then-current voting patterns, which presumed the usual apathy among under-30s. This time they actually bothered to come out and vote.

Voice actor Kevin Conroy (long-running voice of Batman in animation and video games) also just passed away.

You also have to consider that people have to *want* to be helped, and some people who are victims of substance abuse, poor mental illness, or so forth either don't want to be helped out of their plight or don't even realize they're in a bad way to begin with. That's a big part of the problem.

I'm known locally as someone who gives to various charities in the lead-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas, to the point that the workers at some stores that routinely do collections anticipate my arrival. One place that does collections is the local multi-screen movie theater, where if what you bring in meets certain criteria you'll get a reward. Right now, for example, if you bring in 4 canned items of 12 ounces or larger it's either a free $10 gift card to the arcade or a free small popcorn. I've gotten enough canned pasta from the store for myself, both parents, and a family friend who will come with us to "Black Panther" is able to bring in a bag of four cans apiece. My parents and I will claim gift cards that we can use when my brother brings his family up for Thanksgiving, as there isn't a lot for them to do up here compared to where they live. Is it really charity if I know I'm getting a reward? Hardly, especially since that reward doesn't cost the theater that much (and they likely get a tax break for it anyway). But that's still canned goods for a local food pantry, and given the often low number of individuals who do donate (the collection bin is kept up front next to a display, so you can see when it is or isn't full) this is likely what it takes to get most people to open their wallets anyway.

4-Chan is a *lot* more complicated than this. The forum likes to brag that the collective mass of users represents "Weaponized Autism", in that once they set their minds to something they can get significant results. The trade-off, however, is that 4-Chan allows itself to be the internet's last remaining "Wild West", with limited moderation and no real breaks to discourage users from engaging in what would typically be regarded as anti-social behavior. In some instances, 4-Chan has been motivated to use this power for good. For example, there are numerous reports of users coming together in order to track down criminals and pass the information they've gathered on to law enforcement. They've also used this power to cause considerable mischief, such as finding the various hiding sights for Shia LeBeouf's "He Will Not Divide Us" flags and live performance areas. And as I noted before, they'll sometimes conduct what they regard as "sting" operations in the belief that they're exposing flaws or problems within a system. The problem though is that 4-Chan also has a significant reputation for hooliganism due to the same "target acquired" mindset, leading to a lot of users engaging in inexcusable trolling and other behaviors that themselves occasionally rise to criminal levels. Most long-time internet users who are aware of 4-Chan treat it as the internet's version of Mos Eisley from "Star Wars", giving the forums a wide berth and carefully evaluating any and all reports regarding the forums.

Allegations are starting to surface that individual Twitter employees were soliciting and receiving bribes to give the blue checkmarks to individuals who didn't otherwise meet the previous requirements, and an investigation is purportedly ongoing.

A few years ago, members of controversial internet forum 4-Chan came to question whether or not a number of media outlets that identified as politically progressive were actually doing their due diligence or if they were just reporting whatever came their way as truth. To this end, they decided to test matters by fabricating a story - the use of the "OK" hand gesture as a white power signal - and feeding it to several of these outlets to see who would take the bait. The Root, an outlet that focuses on producing content for black audiences, grabbed it hook, line, and sinker. Once they ran their piece on the story, other outlets picked up on it and ran it as well, seemingly no one questioning the story or what was happening. By the time anyone at 4-Chan publicly revealed what had taken place, *actual* white power groups had adopted the symbol.

It's the philosophies of men at work. Many people who identify as culturally and politically "progressive" consider religion a hurdle to be overcome, a wall that needs to be broken down, because old-time religion serves as a check on what these people want to do. So rather than ask "why?" old-time religion is opposed to something, they just assume that the opposition is borne of evil intention.

They weren't at their usual spot this past Sunday, so either they've been told to knock it off or they've moved to a different part of town.

Carano's firing was under such dodgy circumstances that there were questions as to whether or not she had grounds for a "wrongful termination" lawsuit. When someone asked about that during a public meeting of investors, the Disney representative got a rather unmistakable look of shock that seemed to indicate they knew they had to answer very, very carefully or else bad things would happen to them. So yes, her firing did have an impact on Disney that extended for months beyond what happened, this above people losing interest in Disney Star Wars again once she and Baby Yoda were written off.