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What A Day: Bragg Racing by Julia Claire & Crooked Media (03/20/23)

2023.03.21 13:44 kittehgoesmeow What A Day: Bragg Racing by Julia Claire & Crooked Media (03/20/23)

"Now I'm retired. I'll pray for him though!" - Ali Alexander Stop the Steal’s #1 guy, just not feeling it anymore!

Can't Contain The Indictment

Could it be? Could disgraced former president Donald Trump actually face legal consequences for his myriad crimes and misdeeds?
But wait, there’s more!
For perhaps the first time, it appears that even Trump can see the writing on the wall. He’s trying to exploit his impending arrest for political gain and fundraising, as he is wont to do, but he just doesn’t have the juice that he did two years ago. Even his legions of loyal adherents now feel like protesting in support of him is a waste of time. Will all of the charges come down on him? Probably not. But it seems highly unlikely at this point that none of them will. You don’t have to be a statistician to know that the odds are finally stacking up against him.

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

Join Ben and Tommy as they mark the 20-year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq with a bonus episode of Pod Save the World and attempt to answer the question: how did the Iraq war change America and the world? Joining them for this conversation is journalist and Iraq war supporter turned vocal opponent Peter Beinart, and Congressman and Iraq war veteran Ruben Gallego.
Listen to this special episode of Pod Save the World and catch new episodes every Wednesday on your favorite podcast platform.

Under The Radar

Conservative lawmakers and anti-choice advocates are scrambling ahead of what could be a wave of ballot initiatives coming their way. Chairman of Oklahomans for Life Tony Lauinger recently wrote a letter to Oklahoma state lawmakers urging them to amend the state’s near-total abortion ban to add exceptions for rape and incest, arguing that without such exceptions, there is a significant chance that a citizen-led ballot initiative to make abortion legal will eventually succeed. This is part of a larger strategy by the anti-choice movement to prevent voters from restoring abortion access by popular vote. State legislatures in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma are all debating bills that would impose much stricter requirements for ballot initiatives and increase the vote threshold to pass an amendment. So now we have Roe overturned by an unelected body from a conservative majority appointed by two presidents who lost the popular vote, and conservative state legislatures trying to prohibit ballot measures from passing with majority support. Gotta love this anti-democratic turducken!

What Else?

Wyoming became the first state to explicitly ban abortion pills on Friday.
A GOP-proposed bill in Florida would ban girls from talking about their menstrual cycles in school. Great, now instead of “aunt flo” or “the red wave” girls will have to refer to their periods as “the event which legally I’m not at liberty to discuss.”
A new major climate report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that without drastic and immediate changes to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, earth will cross a critical global-warming threshold by the early 2030s. Will this be the warning Republicans and Joe Manchin finally take seriously? Probably not!
European lenders seemed to recover today, as did U.S. banking stocks following last week’s bank run March Madness.
The New York Times finally nailed down the Reagan campaign conspiracy with foreign regimes to keep U.S. hostages imprisoned in Iran until after the 1980 election, reminder #6384958495 that Trump is just a recent symptom of GOP corruption, not the cause of it.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s government barely survived a no-confidence vote in the country’s National Assembly today after the government bypassed the lower house to ram through deeply unpopular changes to the French pension system.
A bunch of pro-Russian accounts used Elon Musk’s new pay-to-play Twitter verification system to disseminate misinformation about the Ohio train derailment last month in an effort designed to provoke fear and distrust.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for dinner at the Kremlin on Monday, referring to Xi as his “dear friend,” just days after the ICC called for Putin to be arrested for war crimes against Ukrainian children.

What In The World?

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich came under fire after a speech he delivered at a conference in France on Sunday. “Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There is none,” he said, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.” Yep! That’ll do it! Smotrich, who heads the religious-nationalist party of the most far-right coalition government in Israeli history, made these comments on the same day that Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Egypt for de-escalation talks ahead of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh immediately condemned the remarks and said they are effectively an incitement of violence, while deputy U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq called the statements “completely unhelpful.” Egypt, the first Arab nation to sign a peace deal with Israel, rejected the statements as well.

What A Sponsor

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Light At The End Of The Email

President Biden issued the first veto of his term today to kill Republican legislation that would ban federal government benefit administrators from considering environmental impacts when making investment decisions for American retirement plans.

Enjoy

BuccoCapital Guy on Twitter: "Every time"
submitted by kittehgoesmeow to FriendsofthePod [link] [comments]

2023.03.19 20:05 RapGamePterodactyl 2022 midterm hot takes revisited: how'd you do?

Thought it would be fun to revisit some hot takes posted here before the 2022 midterms and see how y'all did with your predictions. No shame if you missed the mark, just thought it would be interesting to see how attitudes were here before the actual elections.
Threads used for this:
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/xzr9cc/my_top_5_most_controversial_hot_takes_of_2022/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y06z9c/my_2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y04tpy/my_2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/vyyjt8/2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/xbuviz/what_is_your_biggest_2022_midterm_hot_take/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/rwahr4/what_are_some_of_your_hot_takes_on_potentially/
https://reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y0txpo/2022_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/vps7x8/what_are_the_sleeper_races_that_you_think_might/
Spot on:
That most in this thread, are actually engaging in Republican hopium and Nov just isn't gonna go to their best of dreams, or what was in 2021. You can talk platitudes about this or that, how "Fetterman is just x", or X is overated. But sometimes there's a little more backing up those claims then what is actually being witnessed in the environment and electorate. Fetterman might be overrated, if he still didn't maintain an error-proof polling lead, and wasn't packing events, leaving people outside and unable to get in(happened today).
theboyonthetrain calls out the Fetterman doubters and gets validated by his big win.
Republicans are doing amazing in deep blue states. Swing states not so much
Big_Size_2519 gets the dynamics of 2022 correct. Dem underperformances in deep blue states, GOP underperformances in swing states.
Pretty good:
Cuomo scandal, a potential for a divided primary between Hochul, deBlasio, Williams, and Suozzi. A lot of us are also concerned with taxes, covid restrictions, and some of the crime laws here. Could end up as a surprise 9-14pt win.
epicnoober1233 gets NY gov pretty close way back in Jan 2022. Almost spot on except they actually underestimated how close the margin would be.
Control of the house will be determined by under 7 seats
Taprman612 gets pretty close, although not that hot of a take.
There’s a decent chance that Hawaii Governor is likely blue (like D+14)
Zeldin had around a 20% chance of winning New York
Tim Ryan has a better chance at winning Ohio than Don Bolduc has at winning New Hampshire
Although not competitive at all; Brad Little’s margin in Idaho will be 5 to 8% lower than the typical Republican as Ammon Bundy will take 5 to 8% of the vote
Mandela Barnes has a better chance of flipping the Wisconsin Senate seat than Tim Michels has at flipping the Wisconsin Governorship
Way off on Hawaii, but Zeldin did pretty well (although 20% chance was an overstatement), Ryan outperformed Bolduc, Ammon Bundy got 17%, and Barnes got much closer than Michels. Pretty good Kamchatka1905.
Mine is that Adam Laxalt will lose by 2%. He lost by 4% in his last election.
BigHorse1972 was right on result, about 1% off on margin.
Mixed:
Washington: I don't think Washington's senate seat will flip, Patty's approval is still over disapproval and will probably at worst be a 3% margin of difference.
Colorado: I would say the Colorado senate seat and House races are all very vulnerable, with the Senate seat could be decided within 5, even 3 points. I could also see 1-2 Dem CO seats flipping b/c of a more heavy Biden-sceptic voter population there than in Washington.
California: I think many LA area House seats in California are vulnerable and GOP can probably pick up from 2 to even 7, depending how much abortion or inflation might play. I think either the Comptroller or the other finance-related seat will be very close and could be picked up by the GOP in a 51-48 kinda race
Minnesota: At least 1 seat will probably flip, both state legislatures will probably go GOP and I think the Governors race will be decided in a lean margin, perhaps closer to 1 than 4 especially with a strong 3rd party. Could even be a flip if the third party PLUS a very weak Walz performance blows Dems up.
Maryland: I think Dems could end up fighting tooth and nail for the governors' race even if Hogan isn't on the ballot. Similar conditions to 2014 when MD elected a GOP governor and perhaps financially-oriented dem voters will either stay home or vote for the GOP candidate. I don't think it's flippable entirely for now, but definitely can end up being within 1-5%.
New York: I think Chuck Schumer will not win more than 60-62%, especially if Dems direct Senate inaction to him (which he ~55-65% deserves). It could end up being 57-38. Governor wise I think Hochul will still end up finding difficulties against Zeldin even if he's a Trump-nominee. Probably the flopping gun regulation laws and growing N/S NY divide will have her win by closer, if not less than 15%. I can definitely see her only winning ~3-4 counties above the NYC area.
Too GOP-optimistic for WA/CO/MN/MD. GOP did do better than expected in CA and NY, with Schumer actually getting 57% as predicted. Deleted user (shame shame).
My hot take is that the republicans will still win. I think the house will be very close but I think the senate will go democratic. I don’t think Tim Ryan will win at all, at best he loses by 9 points. Marco Rubio’s election won’t be cakewalk but it won’t be as narrow as polls show. I think Alaska was a fluke and that in November it’ll flip back Republican although I hope I get proven wrong on this one. Also I think Grassley will win by a smaller margin than usual, it will still be a landslide tho.
House/Senate predictions correct, but Rubio's election was indeed a cakewalk and Alaska wasn't a fluke RealJimyCarter.
I think Florida is gonna be very close, under 3% for both governor and senate.
On the flip side I feel the New York governor race is gonna be under 15. I don’t think Houchle or whatever is very strong
Horrible misses for FL, spot on for NY. Deleted user though.
Wisconsin won't be above 1.5% either way in either race.
New Mexico has a higher chance to be likely blue than to flip red.
Betsy Johnson will win more Republicans than Democrats. If you actually look at her political positions, she's pretty conservative.
Illinois and New York aren't going to have competitive governor races. Period.
North Carolina will be closer than New Hampshire.
Kentucky will vote to the left of Indiana.
But for my real core-of-the-sun take, DeSantis won't win by more than 5 points.
WI, NY, KY/IN, and FL takes were wrong. NM, IL, NC were pretty good. Mixed marks Doc_ET.
Ryan will loose by 10.5%
kingllama10 has the right result, but Ryan only lost by 7%.
1) Polarization will make Mastriano and Dixon do much better than expected. I think Shapiro and Whitmer will win by like 2-3% rather than the likely margins some are expecting. Remember PA is a state Biden won by 1.2% and MI by 3%. For these states to be likely D, Shapiro and Whitmer would either have to flip some Trump voters or GOP turnout would have to decrease significantly.
2) Kemp will push Walker over the edge and Walker will narrowly lead the first round over Warnock, but Warnock will scrape by in the runoff by a very slim margin.
3) Ohio Senate will be Likely R, but Vance will slightly underperform Trump. The polls suggested Ohio would be near even in 2020 and Trump still won by 8.
4) Pennsylvania Senate will be decided by a tilt margin and could go either way
5) McMullin will lose by at least 15. Trump won Utah by 21 points in 2020, and I can't see that many Trump voters flipping for McMullin. McMullin couldn't even beat out Hillary in 2016.
6) Oregon governor will go Democrat regardless, and Washington Senate will not be competitive
ncpolitics1994 got Georgia almost right (Warnock wins in runoff but by a decent margin and leads in first round), Ohio Senate pretty spot on, and Oregon/Washington correct. Massive whiff on both Pennsylvania races and MI-GOV, smaller miss on Utah.
1.) Both Brian Kemp and Raphael Warnock will manage to narrowly avoid runoff's (more likely Kemp but I think (and hope) both will).
2.) Adam Laxalt and Joe Lombardo will win Nevada by around 1-1.5%. Additionally a Republican will manage to win one of the lean d Nevada house races (likely district 3).
3.) Mark Kelly will win by 2-3% while Kari Lake will win by 1-.5%.
4.) Laura Kelly and Tina Kotek will manage to win their closely contested governor races in Kansas and Oregon.
5.) John Fetterman will win in Pennsylvania by between 1-3 %. Thus securing a technical Democrat majority in the senate (50-50) although effectively allowing Sinema and Manchin to continue being the Kingmakers in Washington.
6.) Ron Johnson and Tim Michels will win close races in Wisconsin. Personally I have a hard time seeing Johnson and Evers win considering how similar the polls have looked in the state. (Let me know if y'all agree)
Awkward_Concern8027 was pretty close. Misses were Lake, Michels, and Laxalt. But got a lot of winners correct and was decently close on margins.
Mark Ronchetti will win.
Gretchen Whitmer will win by a similar margin as she did in 2018.
Ohio won't be very competitive and JD Vance will come very close to matching Trump's performance.
nhdtx gets MI and OH pretty close but big miss on NM.
Thinking Wisconsin or North Carolina or Florida go blue is coping. Same with Ohio.
Republicans will win the House with at least 240 seats.
Drazan has a good shot at Oregon.
Right about WI/NC/FL/OH but WI was close enough that a Dem prediction wasn't really coping. Drazan had a shot but lost, and way off on House numbers.
Oopsie woopsie I made a fucky wucky:
Nevada will probably be within 10
Idaho will be safe R
Fetterman might not actually win by 400 points
Florida won’t be safe R
John Kerry probably won’t win a write in campaign in Arkansas
leafbou tried to make a meme post but still didn't predict Rubio and Desantis winning by safe margins.
Wisconsin Senate will vote to the right of Ohio senate
Betsy Johnson beats both Drazan and Kotek
Nope and nope Tribal-Goofy95.
Shapiro isn't a lock to beat Mastriano. Pennsylvania is a Biden +1.2 state, and Biden's approval has collapsed since then. The anti-Biden energy and national environment will likely make this race extremely close, and I think it will be within 2 points.
This is going to be a very close one, and it's Shapiro's race to lose. And arguably, he's the stronger part of the Democrat ticket in PA. Fetterman is a progressive, in a year that is bad for Democrats and worse for progressives in a swing state. His last statewide race was on Tom Wolffe's coattails in a blue wave year. Supposedly he has a lot of appeal to the white, rural working class, but thus far he's completely untested in that regard. Pwning Oz for living in New Jersey will not be enough.
Big oof ncpolitics1994 and TheAngryObserver. Turns out it was not a very close one.
Not enough people are paying attention to AK-Gov. It has the potential to be very close with Bill Walker running again.
Doc_ET predicts a close race, but Dunleavy wins before the runoff with Walker finishing in third.
Fettermans gonna lose
No context, just making this sub mad that a career politician that looks cool will lose
He’s literally just a progressive who last won in 2018, which doesn’t prove much. This sub keeps saying “he has the wholesome wwc appeal!!!” But never explain why he has it. I currently have it as tilt R, but it’ll be really close.
Shamefully deleted user and Different-Trainer-21 did not believe in the Fetterman hype.
I think Warnock is gonna lose to Walker.
Another deleted user. Shame!
DeSantis will win by like 3-4 points. People act like he’s some sort of electoral juggernaut when in reality he struggled to win back in 2018 besides the fact that Desantis isn’t really THAT popular outside of Daytona.
Nope RealJimyCarter.
Barnes will win by 1% and im going to get slaughtered for this but dems win 219 in the house
I wish progout1.
John Fetterman is very overrated. I don’t know where this Fetterman hype train came from, but he is just the average basement dweller Bernie bro. Assuming he does win, he’ll probably just lose in 2028.
Uncut_Pasta1 thinks Fetterman is overrated, but he ends up winning by 5% in an open senate seat in a swing state. We can revisit the second part of this in 2028.
Yeah, Laxalt lost by 4 in a blue wave year where Dems won the Generic Ballot by 8.6%. The fact that Nevada only shifted left by 1.6% instead of 6.5% (the amount the NPV shifted to the left) in a big blue wave tells me that he is actually a really strong candidate.
Anyway, one of my hot takes is Kari Lake wins by 3 and Oz wins narrowly, although that last one is subject to change.
ThatBeatleFanatic misses every single result here. Tony Snell type of numbers.
Mandela Barnes will win and progressives will do great
Sorry ctnfpiognm :(
Ohio will vote to the right of Florida and Arizona will vote to the right of Nevada.
Oopsie TheAngryObserver.
Mastriano outruns Oz
I can see why this person deleted their account.
I have a bad feeling that DeSantis will lose given that he might have gone too right, too soon.
DeSantis has introduce a bill to ban Professional-Dot6472 from Florida for excessive wokeness.
People think “Vermont is strong democratic state in national elections so it has to be on the state level”
That’s wrong, in a year trump lost by 36% Scott Milne only lost by 7.2%
And he’s running for the senate against Peter Welch, so he definitely has a small small chance, he’s came close to governor in 2014 losing by 2k votes, and even did good against a popular leahy in 2016
While he will still lose, I have him at 21% loss, it’s not gonna be a huge win for dems
Welch won by 40% and that dude didn't run.
Arizona Senate will be lean Republican. Kelly has lost the most in polling among suburban voters out of any of the "competitive" senate races and Arizona is naturally a conservative-tinted state. Kelly has a 95% Biden voting record and Mark Brnovich is a very good nominee and Blake Masters is a decent nominee. With it being a Democrat midterm with Joe Biden being decently deep in approval and not really bringing anything to Arizonans (more so suit to Kelly than Biden), it doesn't look good.
SunBeltPolitics whiffed on sun belt politics. Masters was a pretty bad candidate and Kelly won comfortably.
One I think Masters will be a stronger option compared to Brnovich, the wave year will naturally sway Maricopa suburbs back towards the GOP, the real question is getting the base to turnout and Masters will be stronger in that regard
downnice also likes Blake Masters.
So I was reading this Politico piece from earlier this week about how Washington Senator Patty Murray's already spending over $1M in her reelection campaign against Washington state Senator Tiffany Smiley who seems to be a great candidate, as well as the Democrats'(failed) attempt to elevate election deniers in Colorado. That to me indicates that they are seriously worried about those races and I was just thinking about what races in blue states that may be competitive are flying under the radar because of the state's electoral history.
That article definitely got my attention because following the money is the easiest way to see which states the respective party apparati are concerned about. If they're worried about Washington and it ends up being competitive, there is a much better likelihood Republicans can get to the 54-56 range. It'll be a heavier lift to win that race and I don't see it likely because of its partisan and ideological lean but there are usually 1 or 2 surprises every wave year so it's not out of the question.
AustisticHistoryLover thinks something is brewing for Tiffany Smiley.
MN Gov: Tim Walz is definitely a favorite, although I could see this race getting closer
CT Gov: from what I’ve seen Stafanowski has moderated since 2018, and gubernatorial races in this state are always close for whatever reason
OH Senate: JD Vance has essentially stopped campaigning, and Tim Ryan has good ads
CO Senate: Mark Udall was seen as a heavy favorite to win re-election back in early 2013, but he ended up losing in 2014 to Cory Gardner as the wave grew in size. I could potentially see the same thing happening to Michael Bennet, although the chance of that happening is very small
RyanAKA2Late misses in both directions here, as none of these races were super competitive.
Random states that could potentially become competitive:
Missouri Senate - Greitens + strong third party performance could cause a tight race
Oklahoma Governor - not the most popular governor in a generally competitive seat
Ohio Senate - strong campaigning by Ryan could cause this to become tighter than we expect
Minnesota Governor - depends on size of wave + third party performance
Florida Governor - weird fucking state, very pro-choice, tends to not follow wave years
I doubt these flip, but they’re just ideas.
DoAFlip22, not to be outdone, also misses every race.
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2023.03.19 12:33 CaptainsEyePatch Her 1919 update. We moved to a tripple 13.5" and pushed her speed up to 25kts

Her 1919 update. We moved to a tripple 13.5 submitted by CaptainsEyePatch to ultimateadmiral [link] [comments]

2023.03.15 00:16 mywifemademedothis2 Mock remaining offseason?

I've been very satisfied with Poles' moves so far. I think he's shown good discipline and not overspent so far. Here is what would turn a good offseason into a great one, IMO:
Trade: Round 5, Pick 136 for Austin Ekeler, RB - I'm not sure what Ekler will fetch in a trade, but it feels like a 5th round pick is fair compensation for him since he's entering the last year of his contract. Perhaps I'm undervaluing him, but I'm not sure I'd trade more than that. (Cap hit $6.125 (I think))
Additional Free Agent Signings:
Samson Ebukam, Edge - An under-the-radar option in a stacked free agent class, Ebukam fits the athletic profile that Poles likes with an elite RAS of 9.8 I feel like it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when and for how much the Bears sign him for. He has a smallish frame, but can provide depth as a rotational player on the edge. He's also still a relatively young 28 at the start of the season. 2022 stats: 15 GS, 36 combined tackles (7 tfl), 5 sacks, 13 AB hits (Projected contract: 2 years, $12M). Other potential options: Leonard Floyd (would he come back under a new regime?), Frank Clark
Taven Bryan, DL - Another athletic guy with an elite RAS, Bryan is versatile and can play all along the long, including 3T. This move would also make a lot of sense and would provide insurance in case the Bears can't find a good 3T in the draft (although I am praying Carter drops to us). 2022 stats: 16 GS, 26 combined tackles (2 TFL), 3 sacks, 6 QB hits. (Projected contract: 2 years, $8M) Other potential options: Larry Ogunjobi (if he isn't still salty about last year), Greg Gaines
Sean Murphy-Bunting, CB - Would be an intriguing option to add to the CB mix without having to spend draft capital. He has an elite RAS and will still only be 26 when the season starts. He's struggled with injuries, has a lot to prove and should be motivated to earn his next contract. He had his best season from a coverage perspective last year. 2022 stats: 12 G (5 GS), 31 combined tackles, 2 int, 7 PD, 59.6 QBR allowed. (Projected contract: 1 year, $2M) Other potential options: Draft, probably
PFN Mock Draft: Round 1, Pick 9 - Broderick Jones, T, Georgia - Phenomenal athlete that can take over LT immediately.
Round 2, Pick 53 - Gervon Dexter, DT, Florida - Big bodied athletic freak that would be a great addition to the IDL. Can fit into a 3-4 or 4-3 base scheme.
Round 2, Pick 61 - Jordan Battle, S, Alabama - Another great athlete who can add depth to the safety position. I wasn't looking for a safety here, but he seemed like the best choice based on scheme fit and could eventually replace E-Jax.
Round 3, Pick 64 - Jaelyn Duncan, OT, Maryland - A bit of a raw but athletic tackle prospect that can add depth to the OL and develop into a potential future starter.
Round 4, Pick 103 - Luke Wypler, C, OSU - Athletic but undersized center who would be a good fit for the Bears zone run offense.
Round 4, Pick 133 - Isaiah McGuire, DE, Missouri - Another rotational piece for the defense. While I would have preferred to address the edge earlier in the draft, the board just didn't fall that way for me. Still a good value here.
Round 5, Pick 136 - Traded above.
Round 5, Pick 148 - Jonathan Mingo, WR, Old Miss - Twitchy receiver with a good frame that can slot in well to compete for a backup role. I think he has a lot of upside and can play a versatile role that Velus Jones has failed to do well, thus far.
Round 7, Pick 218 - Malik Cunningham, QB, Louisville - Good athlete who they can develop to eventually be Fields' primary backup. He kind of fell in my lap here and I would envision that he'd eventually be Justin Fields' Tyler Huntley.
Round 7, Pick 258 - Ikenna Enechukwu, DE, Rice - Another pass rusher to add to the mix.
Depth chart after moves:
Offense: QB - Fields, Siemian, Cunningham (R) RB - Ekeler (Trade), Herbert, Ebner WR1 - DJ Moore (Trade), St Brown WR2 - Claypool, Mingo (R) WR3 - Mooney, VJJ, FA/re-sign Pringle TE - Kmet, FA LT - Broderick Jones, Duncan (R) LG - Davis (FA), Borom C - Whitehair, Patrick, Wypler (R) RG - Jenkins, Borom RT - Braxton Jones, Duncan (R)
Defense: LDE - Gipson, McGuire (R), Enechukwu (R) DT - Bryan (FA), Dexter (R) DT - Walker (FA), J. Jones RDE - Ebukam (FA), Robinson, Enechukwu (R) WLB - TJ Edwards (FA), Sanborn MLB Edumnds (FA), Sanborn SLB Morrow LCB - Jaylon Johnson RCB - Kyler Gordon/Murphy-Bunting Nickle - Murphy-Bunting/Gordon SS - Brisker, Battle FS - Ejax, Battle
I know it’s not particularly flashy, but I think it is realistic. Overall, the roster would still be dramatically improved.
submitted by mywifemademedothis2 to CHIBears [link] [comments]

2023.03.12 22:49 SabineRitter [ROUNDUP] possible ufo report from the last week. Includes a couple pilot sightings, including one with NORAD response. Thanks to everyone who posted!

.1 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jg9vj/what_could_these_three_spheres_be_spotted_in_san/ video, daytime cloudy sky, threelights, three dark objects moving, triangle, San Diego California, spheres observed, big debunker energy "birds", spheres, op deleted https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jg9vj/what_could_these_three_spheres_be_spotted_in_san/ reposted, zoomed in video, still big debunker energy
.2 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jdj8z/fighter_aircrafts_following_a_shadow/ sighting description, Spain 🇪🇸, daytime, single dark object, pacing plane, two jets, an oval made of "shadows" almost like smoke, but different, like a "dark" cloud, which edges were moving constantly, observed vanishing
.3 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jg0ut/ufo_testimonies_from_around_the_world/ art 🎨, tapestries of ufo craft, multicolored 🌈, planet earth 🌏
.4 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jzc7f/im_a_believer_since_my_own_experience_in_2017_im/ sighting description, fleet, orange 🟠, silent, dancing, sudden departure, zoop
.5 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jiqlh/ufo_quickly_traverses_the_daytime_sky_ove photo, daytime sky, single light object moving straight, faceted, Northern Virginia, two witnesses, contemporaneous report, downvoted to zero but the comments are nice.
.6 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11joxth/bright_blue_light_in_sky/ photos, nighttime cloudy sky, blue 💙 light, diffuse
.7 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11k4ls2/my_dad_thinks_he_saw_a_ufo/ photos, father of OP, "lens flare" but observed by the witness , OP deleted
.8 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jugsfootage_taken_last_year_in_oak_hills_ca/ video, oak hills California, repeat visitor, nighttime sky, twolights or threelights, possible triangle
.9 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/11jr3gn/ufo_over_hamilton_ontario_canada_2012_what/ sighting description, Hamilton ontario Canada, three witnesses, triangle, threelights, nighttime, silent, duration 5 minutes, first object joined by 3 more, circling the witnesses, similar sighting in comments
.10 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11jpop6/can_someone_please_explain_what_the_thing_in_the/ video, nighttime cloudy sky, black smoke ring, predebunked as Disney, no location information from OP https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11jt2m9/saw_this_moving_ring_in_the_sky_does_anyone_know/ photo, still no location information
.11. https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11jo3gk/ball_lightning_my_experience_what_is_yours/ sighting description, ball lightning, single light object, blue 💙, near home, entered building, animal reaction dogs barking and chased it, flareup, daytime cloudy sky, physical effects It was almost like a vibration from my core and like someone was next to me., low to the ground 5-6 feet high, similar sightings in comments, [GOODPOST]
.12 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11jk6c9/weird_encounter_i_experienced_back_around_2007/ sighting description, nighttime, single light object, grayish, a giant sphere, with just these crazy tentacles surrounding it. It had this fog or smokey type appearance, but it was all condensed into this ball, and the tentacles looking things were moving around., three witnesses, electronic effects staticky voice-mail, witness has a family history of flashing lights outside home
.13 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11jmxj4/dream_where_it_all_went_dark/ dream description, everything went dark, I look up to see things rapidly deleting before my eyes, similar sightings in comments
.14 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/11jqcdh/why_am_i_hearing_a_very_high_pitched_sound_in_my/ audio, high pitched sound, in bedroom, repeat visitor,
.15 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11kav6e/spoke_to_a_fighter_pilot_on_sunday_about_his/ sighting description, from airplane, pilot, single object, not seen visually, on airplane radar, not seen by atc radar, approach, sudden departure, sudden stop, trajectory change
.16 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jmbg6/sighted_in_rural_nsw_australia_in_july_last_yea video, nighttime sky, Australia 🇦🇺, single light object, moving erratically, duration 2 hours, 3+ witnesses, emotional reaction strange deep feeling of discomfort, animal reaction sheep went crazy making lots of noise
.17 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11juxiu/so_just_made_this_account_to_share_something_a/ video and photos, nighttime sky, Minas generales Brazil 🇧🇷, orange 🟠 lights, venus and Jupiter? , twolights
.18 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11jzpmt/ufo_or_planet/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, the Caribbean
.19 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11kanub/ufo_sighting/ video, daytime sky, providence Rhode Island, single light object moving erratically
.20 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11kbx3t/my_ufo_story/ detailed sighting description, two witnesses to a single light object, pacing car, nighttime, repeat visitor recently, OP also witnessed a craft, blimp shape, low, silent, fast, dark matte gray color and there were these very, very fine looking “lines”or seams scattered across this thing
.21 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11ki5cf/ufo_oregon_coast_march_5_23_833pm/ video, from airplane, Oregon, near water, pacific ocean, single light object, observed descending from above, duration 35-40 minutes, [GOODPOST]
.22 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11khrcy/ive_seen_3_ufos_over_the_last_30_years/ sighting description, giant black triangle. Lights at every corner pointed straight down like bright spotlights, red 🔴 light in the middle. 200 feet off the ground, witness drove under it, silent
.23 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11klrt6/reformat_of_the_magonia_catalog/ DATA, excel file of reports from Jacques Vallee's Magonia Catalog
.24 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11l9w93/frequent_sighting_above_the_uk_sorry_about_the/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, the UK 🇬🇧, repeat visitor, jumpy movement observed
.25 https://old.reddit.com/RBI/comments/11kx0wl/green_lazer_lights_in_sky/ sighting description, no craft, green lights in the sky, Eugene Oregon, geometric moving thing like a square twisting around, duration 30 minutes
.26 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11l56aa/blinking_white_orb_spotted_moving_fast_in_fog/ sighting description, daytime cloudy sky, fog, single light object moving fast, low, very bright reflective blinking white orb flying faster than a plane and close to the ground in a patch of fog, Belmont California, has anyone seen?
.27 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11l48nv/dream_about_a_nuclear_explosion/ dream description, contemporaneous report, nuclear explosion, similar sightings in comments
.28. https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11ka8jq/strange_blue_light_that_husband_and_i_both_felt/ experience description, no craft, blue 💙 light, two witnesses, nighttime, flew overhead, light shining in eyes, As it goes over our heads, at the same time, we both cry out “omg what the fck!” and both jerk our heads and shield our eyes as if someone had pointed a laser pointer or something like that right into our eyes, physical effects shielded eyes, similar sighting in comments
.29 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11kzsdb/i_need_to_put_this_somewhere/ sighting descriptions, three separate events
.30 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11kcrec/to_those_who_have_seen_or_experienced_a_ufouap/ discussion of paranormal events associated with ufo witnesses
.31 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11lewzc/ufo_stops_near_white_light_in_the_sky_and_then/ video, daytime sky, Duesseldorf Germany 🇩🇪, single light object, fleet observed, wiggling
.32 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11lhd2x/noticed_over_wh_in_dc_right_after_sunset_hovered/ video, nighttime sky, fleet, stationary, duration 1 hour , Washington DC,
.33 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11lhe1g/wtf_is_this_in_the_sky_i_used_a_telescope_and_it/ photo, daytime sky, single light object, triangle shape
.34 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11m9q48/weird_light_orb_in_sky_roxborough_colorado/ video, nighttime sky, single light object moving, Roxborough Colorado
.35 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mdiaq/in_person_this_looked_like_an_object_rocket_that/ photo and link to similar sighting, single light object, diffuse tail, "contrail", stationary, lake Ontario Canada 🇨🇦
.36 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mw6t7/we_seen_this_on_break_only_pictures_i_have_i_got/ photos, daytime sky, single light object, possible disk shape, observed metallic, flipping, moving straight and at a constant speed, multiple witnesses, similar sighting in comments
.37 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mifnf/anyone_else_in_central_san_diego_see_a_ufo_about/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, single object, flashing, flew overhead, has anyone seen?, similar sighting in comments, San Diego California , possible military response
.38 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mlt2me_and_my_friend_were_walking_till_we_saw_a_ufo/ photo, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, kings county California, triangle observed, two green lights and a red light 🔴🟢, speed change, loud noise wobble bass, two witnesses, downvoted to zero but the comments are nice
.38 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mtxri/two_lights_one_solid_one_blinking_solid_one/ video, nighttime sky, twolights, moving, one solid and one blinking, solid one observed vanishing, Buffalo Grove Illinois
.39 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mx2in/january_3rd_auburn_ma/ painting 🖼, [GOODPOST], flying saucer, overhead, auburn Massachusetts, silent, duration 30 seconds
.40 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mm0uthe_weirdest_thing_i_have_ever_seen_in_the_sky_in/ sighting description, single object, irregular shape, blocky, flipping, metallic, moving fast, looks like a bunch of triangles connected together making a much bigger shape that was almost a triangle but there where no edges
.41 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11mrvno/six_ufos_sighted_above_sarajevo_bosnia_not_sure/ video, daytime cloudy sky, prior to storm, fleet, six objects observed, two witnesses,moving erratically and circular flight path, downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted, Sarajevo Bosnia 🇧🇦, duration 2-3 minutes
.42 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11n1orq/north_las_vegas_2010/ sighting description, no craft , has anyone seen?, Las Vegas Nevada, nighttime, blue 💙 light flash, the entire sky lit up blue to the point where it scared the hell out of me, emotion of fear, second witness in Arizona
.43 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11n3crs/my_personal_experience_as_an_abductee/ abduction experience, repeat visitors
.44 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11myisl/photos_taken_from_a_telescope_of_strange_object/ photos, from telescope, single light object, blue 💙
.45 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11n64db/what_was_your_personal_sighting_of_a_ufouap/ sighting description, two witnesses, nighttime, single dark object emitting smoke, low and close, perception discrepancy
.46 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11n1inj/orbuap_cincinnati_ohio/ photos, single light object, low, "moon", orange 🟠, Cincinnati Ohio, two witnesses
.47 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11nafgw/military_chopper_chased_a_ball_of_light/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, single light object, moving straight and fast, possible military response, helicopter, similar sightings in comments including this deleted post https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11m0khblackhawk_chased_something_over_my_house_last/ video deleted but there's discussion in comments
.48 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11nbeq0/im_currently_on_a_long_bus_home_from_the_airport/ sighting description, single light object, observed moving and stationary, sudden departure, similar sightings in comments
.49 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11nfzzpossible_ufo_i_dont_know_what_it_is/ photos, daytime sky, single dark object, cigar shape, Mesa Arizona
.50 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/11n76cw/saw_my_second_ufo/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, single light object moving and stationary, similar sightings in comments
.51 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/11ljhps/possible_sighting/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, new Orleans Louisiana, single light object moving erratically, similar sighting in comments
.52 https://old.reddit.com/UF0/comments/11n92tm/orb_ufo_sighting_raw_video_may_24_2020_northern/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, Catskill mountains new York state, flashing
.53 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11nu2w0/uap_flyby_while_filming_drone/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single light object moving fast
.54 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11n7tvw/close_encounter_of_the_first_kind_here_whos_got/ sighting, triangle, other sightings in comments
.55 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11n8pn9/i_adjust_settings_in_pictures_to_get_a_bette photos, daytime cloudy sky
.56 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11mwy2c/ufo_xenia_ohio/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, xenia Ohio
.57 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11lp411/possibly_saw_a_grey/ sighting description, entity, in bedroom
.58 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11mejbx/what_are_these_lights_my_camera_picked_up_while_i/ video, nighttime sky, from home security camera, twolights moving, human initiated contact
.59 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11kx6co/i_think_i_had_my_first_alien_experience/ sighting description, entity, contemporaneous report
.60 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11nt2r7/guess_i_just_want_to_see_if_anyone_else_had_this/ sighting description, repeat visitor, white orbs
.61 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11mzvf5/alien_dream/ dream description, entities
.62 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11lzzc3/i_had_a_ufo_experiencein_my_sleep/ dream description, V shape
.63 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11lrbtk/weird_fog/ sighting description, no craft, localized fog, Argentina 🇦🇷
.64 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11nq588/anyone_see_anything_strange_over_sunset_yesterday/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, st Petersburg Florida, single light object moving fast
.65 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11nvzod/this_is_a_live_photo_on_my_iphone_when_you_play/ photo, nighttime, single light object, green 🟢, observed moving and stationary , trail , op deleted
.66 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o07e6/airline_encounter_with_ufos_in_canadian_airspace/ sighting description, from airplane, fleet, duration 25 minutes, multicolored, one of the objects made three approaches, shined a blue 💙 light in the cockpit, very bright, pilot reported to Canada 🇨🇦 ATC, pilot communicated with NORAD, sudden departure of fleet, possible reaction to being observed, [GOODPOST]
.67 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o0m1x/looking_for_similar_sightings/ sighting description, nighttime, single light object moving and stationary and moving, sudden departure, trail, has anyone seen?
.68 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o1ltq/something_i_saw_about_5_years_ago/ sighting description, nighttime, oval shaped, engulfed in flames, two witnesses, perception discrepancy, other witness saw windows
.69 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o6xpw/is_this_a_drone/ video, nighttime sky, Oregon, single light object, blackwhite, stationary, descending, zoop
.70 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o7naw/do_all_military_planes_have_flashing_lights/ video, nighttime sky, twolights, one flashing
.71 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o7bj2/triangle_ufo_at_the_top_right_in_beginning_then/ video, hard to see, nighttime sky, triangle observed , contemporaneous report
.72 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o03jj/this_is_a_get_if_off_of_your_chest_post_my/ sighting description, cigar shape
.73 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11o7biy/friend_and_i_were_ufo_hunting_watched_vid_back/ video, nighttime sky, hard to see, green 🟢 light observed , downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted
.74 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11ofwyo/talk_to_me_about_the_tr3b_i_may_have_seen_it/ sighting description, triangle, downvoted to zero, the UK 🇬🇧, silent, pacing car, red glow 🔴
.75 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11oh8m1/super_weird_bright_light_in_the_sky_in/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, orange 🟠, observed vanishing and blinking, Switzerland 🇨🇭
.76 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11ohzpg/witnessed_a_orb_that_appeared_to_teleport/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, single light object, observed vanishing and reappearing, three times, two witnesses, Perth Australia 🇦🇺
.77 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/11o3nlg/an_unidentified_flying_object/ photos, nighttime sky, single light object, irregular blocky shape, two witnesses, Scotland
.78 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11oqheo/ufo_over_sweden/ photo, daytime sky, single light object, Sweden 🇸🇪
.79 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11oj67g/possible_meeting_with_valiant_tho experience description, entity, Valiant Thor
.80 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11o98eq/bright_non_flashing_object_trailed_by_3_military/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, possible military response, jets observed, duration several minutes, silent, flew overhead, departed when the jets showed up, possible animal reaction dog became ill
.81 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11ovvmx/what_is_this/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single dark object, blackwhite, possibly flipping , submission statement issues
.82 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11ovil6/guthrie_kentucky/ video, daytime cloudy sky, two dark objects, twolights, barbell, splitting, Guthrie Kentucky
.83 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11oha87/saw_this_red_object_in_the_sky_looked_way_too/ video, daytime sky, single object, blackwhite, stationary, pacing car, flipping, red 🔴 observed
.82 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11p0a6m/i_walked_outside_this_huge_ball_orange_to_the/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, from home security camera, also observed by witness, video shows appearing and vanishing, flareup observed, very bright, silent,Bonita springs Florida , orange 🟠 observed
.83 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11p0eu5/flashing_ufo_and_zooming_objects/ video, from night vision camera, nighttime sky, single light object moving, flashing erratically, possible other objects
.84 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11ov1hb/paranormal_activity_on_mt_ranch/ experience description, blue 💙 lights, livestock mutilation
.85 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/11p1jmm/saw_this_over_pittsburgh_pa_march_1st_no_clue/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single light object, tictac, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
.86 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11p49yl/odd_light_spotted_in_sky_over_philadelphia/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, zigzag movements, moving back and forth, orange 🟠 observed, Philadelphia Pennsylvania
.87 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/11p8311/outside_honolulu/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, single dark object, Honolulu Hawaii, cubensphere, observed rotating
.88 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/11p17oj/sighting_over_zoo_miami_at_3am/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, descending slowly, Miami Florida
.89 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/11p7gf7/teleported_while_driving/ experience description, no craft, missing time, two witnesses , anomalous location change
.90 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/11hq0so/i_teleported/ experience description, no craft, nighttime, anomalous location change
.91 https://old.reddit.com/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/11lfqzt/i_went_to_school_one_hour_too_early/ experience description, time anomaly
.92 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11pkodb/odd_object_i_saw_flying_over_stlouis_today/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, contemporaneous report, st Louis Missouri, single dark object, elongated, possible cigar or boxcar shape, observed stationary from car, possible pacing car, duration 2 minutes, two witnesses. OP comments downvoted
.93 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/11pgxpn/i_was_taking_pictures_of_the_moon_when_i_saw_this/ photo, single object, similar sightings in comments, [GOODPOST] for checking flight radar and stars
.94 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11pnk8i/two_ufos_flying_near_my_house_salem_o video and sped up video, nighttime sky, twolights, Salem Oregon ,silent, red/orange observed 🔴🟠, duration 8 minutes
.95 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/11po1kh/astroturfing_and_smear_campaigns/ information, smear campaigns, manufactured outrage, bot activity on the subreddit , [GOODPOST]
submitted by SabineRitter to UFOs [link] [comments]

2023.03.09 05:15 wahwahwoowahwah The Real Story in East Palestine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMXLmtLddbI&t=678

The Case Against Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern drenched this adorable village in the most toxic chemical ever tested - Dioxin.
​
  1. We start by exploring the history of Dioxin the Toxin and Train Derailments
  2. Next we outline the corporate decisions leading up to this disaster.
  3. After that, we’ll break down the chain of events sparked on February 2nd
  4. Finally we’ll wrap up with my recommendation to these Attorneys General to immediately arrest and prosecute Alan Shaw, CEO of Norfolk Southern, for crimes against humanity, as defined under the geneva convention, as he has clearly demonstrated himself to be an urgent and present threat to the very fabric of our society. By taking clear action, the Attorneys General will establish a clear precident for the next corporate executive who drenches thousands of civilians in the most toxic chemical created by man - Dioxin.
  5. 1897, Herbert Dow discovers how to produce chlorine from salt, creating a new industry of chlorine-based products. Chlorine is toxic, and chlorine reactions are the only known source of dioxin.
  6. 1949, A chemical plant erupts in Nitro, West Virginia, resulting in a collossal dioxin release.
    1. The disaster was cleaned up by unfortunate first responders, and rabbits were placed in the allegedly clean area, those rabbits died immediately.
    2. Other rabbits were placed further away from the scene, they died in a matter of hours.
    3. These tests were hidden from government, and the public. Internal memos confirm they knew plenty about the danger of dioxin, as early as 1949.
  7. In 1971, one resident hired a business to spray oil on the dirt roads in Times Beach, Missouri to control the dust in their air. The motor oil was contaminated with dioxin the toxin, from a nearby Agent Orange factory. In 1982, high levels were found in soil samples, prompting permanent evacuation of Times Beach. The town was declared as a Superfund site, indicating it as one of the most toxic sites in the United States. The cleanup was overseen by the (EPA.)
  8. January 1979, a Norfolk wreck in Sturgeon, Missouri spills octochlorophenol, exposing the community to just one single teaspoon worth of dioxin. Everyone was forced to leave town. Monsanto denied dioxin the toxin was part of the spill, later testing documented extremely high levels. During the trial lawyer Rex Carr, performed legal miracles, resulting in a court order for Monsanto to reveal its secret dioxin research files.
    1. Monsantos chemical engineer, testified that, for seven years, they dumped 40 POUNDS of dioxin into the Mississippi River EACH DAY from their plant. This continued through 1977.
    2. Monsanto secretly tested corpses from dead locals, the test results showed every. body. contained dioxin in its tissue.
    3. Dioxin was the active ingredient in Lysol disinfectant and other cleaning products. One chemist testified that they knew Lysol is recommended for cleaning baby toys with direct human contact, while also knowing it was extremely toxic.
    4. Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act, giving power to the EPA. This law required companies to report dioxin contamination to the government if they discovered it.
    5. Despite this, testimony revealed in 1978 that all Monsanto products were contaminated with dioxin, completely unreported to the EPA, because they didn’t discover it, because they didn’t test for it, because it was, quote, “dangerous to work with dioxin”.
    6. They testified further that the EPA didn’t need to be notified of their dioxin products because the EPA already knew dioxin was dangerous. This type of Broken Logic can be found throughout nearly every environmental lawsuit thats ever been brought to court. Seriously.
    7. “Monsanto sold dioxin products for fifty years.” said their chemist.
      1. Why did Monsanto lie and fail to notify the world about dioxin? He testified that it was “profitable for Monsanto to not inform anyone their products contained dioxin the biotoxin.”
  9. 2005: Norfolk Southern trains collide. Nine killed, 250 treated for chlorine exposure.
  10. In 2013, A dozen tank cars ignite in North Dakota. Thick black smoke rolled from the wreckage as five explosions rocked the town. The collision occurred after a train derailed, and a train hauling oil ran into it. 📷
  11. In 2019, Railroads and unions start arguing about Precision Scheduled Railroading.
    1. PSR resulted in staffing cuts; companies enact strict attendance policies. These policies eliminate free-time requiring workers to be on-call for weeks on end. Workers complain of stress and fatigue.
    2. Due to precision scheduled railroading, Shippers complain about poor service and delays. Workers are concerned with safety due to reduced inspections.
    3. TWENTY THOUSAND railroad workers were laid off in 2019. Large railroads employed 30% fewer workers in 2022 versus 2018.
    4. PSR also impacts safety due to increased train length, up to three miles in many cases. This leads to derailments as well as crew stress and fatigue; due to the enormous difficulty of operating trains at this length, for which the North American railroad network was not designed.
  12. February 2022: Unions representing 17,000 workers threaten to strike, Burlington Northern sues and wins a restraining order preventing the union strike.
  13. March 2022: Norfolk Southern announces $10 billion in stock buybacks and raises its dividend, while refusing to provide its workers with basic benefits such as paid sick leave.
  14. August 2022, The Netflix movie White Noise described
    1. a Train Derailment
    2. an Evacuation
    3. an Airborne Toxic Event
  15. September 15 2022, Biden announces a deal to solve a railroad strike. The deal was announced before being ratified by the unions.
  16. November 30 2022, after firmly rejecting his deal, Biden told congress to pass the agreement into law. the House passed the agreement along with an amendement requiring 7 days paid sick leave.
  17. December 1 2022, the next day the Senate passed the agreement with only 1 day of sick leave.
  18. December 2 2022, President Joe Biden signed the agreement (or disagreement, really) into law. A McGill University Professor described his message to rail workers as: "shut up and get back to work." The Biden administration's disagreement was condemned by over 500 labor historians in an open letter to Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.
  19. January 2 2023: precisely 1 month before East Palestine explodes, the CDC releases an updated toxic profile for Vinyl Chloride, 17 years after their previous update. This update removes information about dangers to human health. 📷
  20. Train Passes through Cleveland ~8pm
    1. The train left Madison, Illinois heading to Conway, Pennsylvania.
    2. The crew started their shift in Toledo before the train passed through Cleveland.
  21. Train on Fire in Salem, Ohio ~8:12pm
    1. Surveillance footage from a factory 20 miles from the crash, shows flaming wheels as the train passes. Not Hot Wheels, Not Flaming Cheetos, but dioxin the toxin in these cars.
  22. Train derails in East Palestine, Ohio ~8:54pm
    1. The moment of impact can be seen lighting up the area on surveillance camera from Cardinal Welding.
    2. 38 cars derail with fire damaging 12 more.
  23. Evacuation order 9:53 PM February 3, 2023
    1. 1 hour later, a shelter-in-place order was issued, alongside an evacuation order for the 1-mile area around the railroad crossing.
    2. A shelter is made available at EPHS.
  24. Local Emergency Proclamation Issued 9:29 AM February 4, 2023
    1. The Village of East Palestine declares an emergency the next morning, describing the event, as well as the evacuation zone and shelters.
    2. 50 cars derailed, with what are described as: “various products,” instead of calling them “toxins,” which they are.
    3. They pulled the firefighters out, leaving unmanned water hoses to fight the fire
    4. Air monitoring is going on with quote “no dangerous reading to report at this time,” failing to explain what chemicals are involved, nor explaining which chemicals they’re monitoring in the air, while claiming that there are “no dangerous readings to report.” >Cut to firey train<
  25. Village News Conference 1:30 PM Feb 4 2023
    1. Village Officials and EMS hold their first conference, 17 hours after the wreck.
    2. Ex. 31
    3. strange how they keep refering to the Vinyl Chloride as “the product” instead of “toxic biohazard”
  26. NTSB holds first news conference 2:30 PM February 4, 2023
    1. The National Transportation Safety Board holds a news conference, describing the train.
    2. Ex. 32
    3. They refuse to release information about the chemicals involved, despite having them. They instead cite “air monitoring” which says “all good” >Cut to firey train<
  27. East Palestine officials give second update 12:00 PM February 5, 2023
    1. Village officials give an update with state and federal EPA.
    2. Ex. 33
    3. James Justice with the Federal EPA steps into the scene with a strong wind of “air monitoring is a valid excuse for not evacuating a large radius around the collossal dioxin spill.” Looks like he’s done this routine a few times.
  28. February 6th Norfolk Southern offers 25,000
    1. In a press release later scrubbed off their website, Norfolk Southern plainly offers just $25,000 to the town for exploding toxic biohazards in the heart of their community.
    2. Despite removing the article, you can still find the original copy on this website that records historical snapshots of other websites.
    3. Looks like Norfolk Southern learned the hard way, you can’t scrub a toxic spill off the internet either, because every action leaves residue.
  29. Gov. DeWine issues evacuation order, deploys national guard 12:00pm February 6, 2023
    1. Governor DeWine issued an evacuation order due to "potential of a catastrophic tanker failure" that "could cause an explosion” with “the potential of deadly shrapnel traveling up to a mile." He also "activated the National Guard to assist authorities.”
    2. Ex. 36 sequence
  30. Norfolk Southern crews performs a 'controlled release' 4:20 PM February 6, 2023
    1. Scientists would later confirm that this was a vent-and-burn, not a controlled chemical reaction.
  31. Smoke plume visible on weather radar 5:00 PM February 6, 2023
    1. 40 minutes later, the toxic cloud was identified (visible) from High Resolution Radar
  32. Gov. Shapiro gives update 7:00 PM February 6, 2023
    1. Governor Josh Shapiro gives an update on the vent-and-burn on the Pennsylvania border, after immediate public concern throughout the region.
    2. Ex. 40 sequence
  33. Press Release from Railroad Workers United Tuesday, February 7th, 2023
    1. They wrote that "the root causes [here] are the same ones that have been singled out repeatedly, stemming from the hedge fund-initiated operating model known as 'Precision Scheduled Railroading' (PSR).
    2. The group noted that the "immediate cause" of the wreck "appears to have been an 1800’s-style mechanical failure of the axle on one of the cars—an overheated bearing—leading to derailment and then jackknifing tumbling cars.”
    3. "There is no way in the 21st century, except for a combination of incompetence and disregard for public safety, that such a defect should still be threatening our communities," wrote RWU, which supports nationalization of the U.S. rail system.
    4. "Forty percent of the weight of NS 32N was grouped at the rear third of the train, which has always been bad practice," the statement continued. "This fact made the wreck dynamically worse. Increasingly the PSR-driven carriers, driven to cut costs and crew time by any means necessary, cut corners and leave crews and the public at risk.”
    5. The crash in Ohio "has been years in the making," the group added. "What other such train wrecks await us remains to be seen. But given the M.O. of corporate railroads, we can no doubt expect future disasters of this nature.”
  34. Evacuation order lifted 4:16 PM February 8, 2023
    1. Governor DeWine announced the evacuation order was lifted and residents are allowed back home, just two days after the evacuation. The order was lifted after “air samples” quote showed safe readings, governor DeWine claimed. Ex. 41
    2. It’s just eerie how something that should be triumphant, you know, “Hey we saved the day, avoided the explosion,” you’d think they’d be at least slightly upbeat… if they really did everything in their power to save the people.
  35. NewsNation reporter arrested during news conference 5:20 PM February 8, 2023
    1. During the news conference announcing the lifting of the evacuation order, reporter Evan Lambert was arrested by Major General John C Harris during a live report. TWELVE officers would follow General Harris to confront Evan Lambert, and General Harris is clearly seen assaulting Mr. Lambert. Charges were filed against Lambert for “Resisting Arrest” and “Criminal Tresspassing.”
    2. Ex. 42
    3. Ex. 41.b
  36. Asked about the Evan Lambert arrest, D.O.D. press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said this: February 10 2023
    1. Ex. 47
    2. Still no charges have been filed against Major General John C Harris Jr. For violating Mr. Lambert’s constitutional rights.
  37. On February 10th, Alan releases his clean-up plan.
    1. This document confirms On February 8, 2023, when the evacuation order was lifted, all rail operations resumed
    2. This suggests, heavily, that “vent and burn” allowed Alan to resume making profit very quickly.
    3. This document also provides ZERO detail about what chemicals they are testing the air for.
  38. West Virginia water utility takes precautionary measures 5:20 PM February 12, 2023
    1. West Virginia American Water said that it’s installing a secondary water intake in case they need to switch to an alternate water source. Read the full story here. This is a large investment for what the EPA claims is basically not a problem at all.
  39. Alan announces an additional One-Million-Dollars of support to East Palestine, or roughly $212 per resident. Maybe they realized the initial offer of $25,000 looked a little stingy.
  40. EPA releases list of hazardous materials on train 6:00 PM February 13, 2023
    1. 11 days after the crash, The EPA finally released a list of the biotoxins on board the train provided by Norfolk Southern, providing zero guidance or confirmation about combustion byproducts, such as, you know, Dioxin.
  41. Gov. DeWine gives 3rd update since derailment 3:00 PM February 14, 2023
    1. Gov. DeWine provided his third news conference on the subject, for the first time revealing that the Norfolk Southern train was not classified as carrying highly hazardous materials, because “only some of the train cars were carrying toxic chemicals.”
    2. Ex. 50
    3. Gov. DeWine said he has no idea what happens when the plume goes up. Seems like something he might want to figure out.
  42. PA Gov. Shapiro calls out Norfolk Southern for 'inaccurate information' 6:05 PM February 14, 2023
    1. In a letter to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro expressed "serious concerns" over the company's handling of the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio—located less than a mile away from the Pennsylvania border. Full story here. My opinion is that this sounds like the Governor blindly followed the guidance of Norfolk Southern to conduct the “controlled burn,” and after reviewing the aftermath versus what they sold him, he felt lied to.
    2. Ex. 51
  43. Ohio AG drops charges against NewsNation reporter arrested 11:00 AM February 15, 2023
    1. 7 days after his arrest, The charges against Evan Lambert, the reporter arrested during Gov. DeWine's news conference, were dropped by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. No update was provided on charges being filed against General John C. Harris.
  44. Gov. DeWine says municipal water safe to drink 4:30 PM February 15, 2023
    1. Test results in East Palestine's five water wells that feed the city's municipal water system showed no sign of contaminants as of Feb. 15, according to Gov. Mike DeWine.
    2. Ex. 54
  45. Lawsuit filed against Norfolk Southern 9:30 PM February 15, 2023
    1. Morgan & Morgan filed a lawsuit against Norfolk Southern allgeging they “dumped 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride into East Palestine, Ohio"
    2. “I’m not sure Norfolk Southern could have come up with a worse plan to address this disaster,” said attorney John Morgan. “Residents exposed to vinyl chloride may already be undergoing DNA mutations that can linger for decades before manifesting as terrible and deadly cancers.” The lawsuit alleges that Norfolk Southern made it worse by quote “blasting the town with chemicals" as they focused on restoring train service and protecting their shareholders.”, according to the highly regarded law firm.
    3. The complaint goes on, saying, rather than taking safer, and more expensive efforts to properly clean up the spill, Norfolk Southern chose a cheaper, less safe method — ………. setting the spilled chemicals on fire, creating a 1-million-pound-plus chemical burn pit, and releasing toxic gas into the atmosphere.
    4. The firm has successfully litigated against major corporations in cases such as the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
    5. Ex. 55
  46. State Fire Marshal says firefighters likely didn't know about train's toxic cargo 7:00 PM February 17, 2023
    1. First responders rushed to put out the fire in East Palestine, but the Ohio Fire Marshal stated they were clearly unaware of the chemical weapon burning in the air around them, as nobody was in hazmat suits. Because the train was not classified as “Highly Hazardous,” none of the authorities had a list of the chemicals involved. Firefighters often do not know what they will encounter, so its our responsibility to keep these innocent heroes prepared for whatever fresh hell corporate america serves up this week, and take the necessary precautions. We already have heard from fire chief Keith Drabick they were fighting the fire until Norfolk Southern arrived and told them to stop. Notification of the material being transported is essential, it can provide advance notice during the dispatch before anyone leaves the fire house. Firefighters obviously need to be in hazmat suits when working in toxic smog. This is a very bad piece of the puzzle for Norfolk Southern.
  47. Gov. DeWine announces FEMA to deploy to East Palestine 8:00 PM February 17, 2023
    1. 15 days after the wreck, a week after opening the 1-mile-radius back up and telling everyone it’s safe, Governor DeWine and FEMA Administrator Thomas Sivak announced FEMA will deploy an Incident Management Assistance Team (IMAT) and a Senior Response Official to support ongoing assessments of potential long term recovery needs according to a joint news release.
    2. Ex. 57
  48. 8:00am February 18th: JD Vance demands dioxin air testing, 16 days after the wreck no tests for dioxins have been conducted.
    1. The EPA's handling of this is highly concerning. Despite the known presence of dioxin the toxin, the EPA failed to conduct any testing for it, effectively covering up the potential danger to public health. This lack of transparency and responsibility is unacceptable, and the EPA must be held accountable for its inaction.”
  49. Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw visits East Palestine 11:00 AM February 18, 2023
    1. 16 days after the wreck, Alan Shaw, president and CEO of Norfolk Southern, showed up to East Palestine where he met with people including local officials, according to a press release from the rail company. Read more here.
  50. Beachwood Athletics forfeits girls high school basketball playoff game due to proximity to East Palestine 5:50 PM February 18, 2023
    1. The Beachwood Athletics Department decided to forfeit the girls basketball playoff game against Crestview High School due to the "health and safety concerns" given the proximity to the train derailment in East Palestine, 8 miles away.
  51. Cincinnati water utility reported no detectable chemicals in Ohio River 12:00 PM February 20, 2023
    1. Greater Cincinnati Water Works is reporting there are no detectable chemicals in the Ohio River intakes as contaminated water from the East Palestine train derailment reached the Cincinnati area. This would imply that the chemical slug had fully dissolved into the local ecosystem by that point, or they didn’t have the ability to test for the full spectrum of leaked contaminants.
  52. February 20: Norfolk Southern Announces a total of $5.6 million to East Palestine for the inconvenience, roughly $1,200 per resident. This is 224 times more money than their initial offer of $25,000, yet still not close to enough to compensate for derailing 4700 lives.
  53. 12:00 Noon, February 21: EPA top man Michael Regan holds a press conference
    1. Ex. 57
    2. The EPA is very obviously dodging information about dioxins throughout this presentation
  54. February 21 A former official at the Federal Railroad Administration confirmed ECP brakes could have minimized or prevented the damage from the East Palestine derailment.
  55. February 23 an independent environmental tester arrives with a grim warning
    1. Ex. 64
  56. February 23 NTSB releases their preliminary report, calling the wreck “Completely Preventable”
    1. Here’s the NTSB’s statement
    2. She was very clearly NOT on board with the Vent-and-Burn
  57. February 23 River Valley Organizing
    1. Ex 62 (a)
    2. Ex 62 (b)
  58. February 24 Erin Brockovich arrives
    1. Ex. 66
  59. February 25 FEMA and Department of Health field questions about Dioxin the Toxin
    1. Ex.
  60. February 26 Residents of east palestine grow outraged
    1. Ex.
  61. February 27
  62. February 28
    1. Michael Regan addresses east palestine high school
    2. Michael Regan addresses east palestine
So we have a high-quality source that says East Paluhsteen was both preventable and deliberate negligence, yet nobody responsible is behind bars, or even held slightly accountable in any meaningful or significant way, for this crime. against. humanity.
I’ve reported diligently on this topic because it lights me on fire to hear news reporters talking with zero business expertise. The kind of intuition only earned through real life dealmaking.
Until one of these fellas in a suit-coat, gets to spend a serious amount of time in a place that looks like this, the safety of all innocent citizens, will not ever be properly “valued” in their quarterly profit and loss statement.
I’d say, in fact, every time we can point to a “Completely Preventable” crime against humanity, especially one obviously directly tied to corruption at the highest levels such as “ECP Brakes” and “Precision Scheduled Railroading,” I’d say several of these gentlemen in suitcoats could afford to spend a fair amount of time thinking about their actions.
Especially when their initial response amounted to $5.31 per resident in exchange for derailing their whole lives for a month now, and suddenly weeks later we’re learning they lied and drenched everyone in dioxin. Clearly these executives are out-of-touch with the consequences of their actions.
Let’s just do some simple math shall we?
If you get a drunk and disorderly in a bar, say it takes 15 minutes for them to have you in squad car.
Alan Shaw drenched East Palestine in dioxin nearly a month ago and still walks as a free man.
The drunk in a bar disrupted maybe 50 people for 15 minutes, that’s a total of 12 hours.
Alan Shaw disrupted maybe 5000 people for a month, that’s a total of 416 years, so far.
The drunk gets thrown in the drunk tank overnight and society calls it even.
So 30 years a piece for these chemical terrorists, and maybe society can call it even.
So yeah, that’s my recommendation to the States Attorneys General, 5,000 counts of gross criminal negligence, then, for a total of 30 years jailtime per Norfolk Southern Executive.
That would be a fair place to start, in my opinion. But this is a democracy, so instead let’s put it to a vote, then, what do the residents of East Palestine think?
If you don’t know what to think, I asked the superintelligence ChatGPT for answers for you, here’s what it said:
q.1. which dioxin variant would be suspect at the scene of a vent-and-burn of 10 tank cars full of vinyl chloride A.2. The most likely dioxin variant that would be present at the scene of a vent-and-burn of vinyl chloride is (TCDD)
The vent-and-burn is a significant event that would likely produce a large amount of TCDD and other dioxin variants as byproducts of combustion process. It’s important to take appropriate measures to protect the health and safety of first responders and nearby communities in the aftermath of such an event.
q.2. What are the least and most toxic dioxin variants?
A.2. The least toxic is OCDD, and the most toxic is TCDD
q.3. Norfolk Southern and the EPA failed to test for dioxin at the site of a vent-and-burn of tank cars full of vinyl chloride. Might this be considered criminal, and which laws might that have violated.
A.3. The failure to test for dioxin at the site of a vent-and-burn of tank cars full of vinyl chloride could be considered criminal if shown that they acted with gross negligence in violating applicable laws and regulations. The following laws or regulations may have been violated:
​
  1. The RCRA is a federal law that governs the management of hazardous waste from cradle to grave. If the vinyl chloride released from the cars is classified as hazardous waste under the RCRA, Norfolk Southern and the EPA may have violated the law by failing to properly manage and test for the presence of dioxin at the site.
  2. CERCLA, aka Superfund, is a federal law providing for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. If the vent-and-burn site is determined to be a hazardous waste site under CERCLA, Norfolk Southern and the EPA may have violated the law by failing to properly investigate and clean up the site, including testing for the presence of dioxin.
  3. The Clean Water Act is a federal law regulating the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters of the United States. If the vent-and-burn released pollutants into nearby bodies of water, Norfolk Southern and the EPA may have violated the CWA by failing to properly test and manage the pollution.
If criminal charges are pursued, it would be up to the prosecuting authority to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution and whether the evidence meets the legal requirements for charging and convicting individuals or organizations of criminal offenses.
Q4. The EPA is defending their actions by saying dioxin is an everyday chemical released by regular human activities such as a bonfire. Is this fair or does it grossly misrepresent the relative difference in different dioxin variants?
A4 The EPA's defense that dioxin is an everyday chemical released by regular human activities such as a bonfire is not entirely fair, as it ignores the fact that different dioxin variants have vastly different levels of toxicity. While it is true that dioxins can be formed as byproducts of certain types of combustion, such as the burning of wood or garbage, it is also true that some dioxin variants, such as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), are highly toxic and can cause a range of serious health effects, even at very low concentrations.
Comparing the toxicity of TCDD to that of other, less toxic dioxin variants, such as octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD), reveals that the EPA's defense does not accurately represent the relative differences in toxicity between different dioxin variants. While both TCDD and OCDD are technically "dioxins," the toxicity of TCDD is orders of magnitude higher than that of OCDD, and exposure to even very small amounts of TCDD can have serious health effects.
It is important to accurately characterize the toxicity of different dioxin variants and to take appropriate measures to minimize exposure to those that are highly toxic, such as TCDD. This includes proper management of hazardous waste and pollution, as well as monitoring and testing of potentially contaminated sites to ensure that appropriate cleanup and mitigation measures are taken.
Q.5 is it fair for the government to conveniently not address dioxin, in order to avoid public fears about the widespread release directly into the atmosphere?
No, it is not fair for the government to conveniently not address the issue of dioxin in order to avoid public fears about the widespread release directly into the atmosphere. The government has a responsibility to be transparent with the public about potential risks to human health and the environment, especially in situations where hazardous substances have been released into the environment.
Failing to address the issue of dioxin and its potential health effects would be a disservice to the public, as it could prevent individuals from taking appropriate precautions to protect themselves and their families. In addition, it could lead to a loss of trust in government and other regulatory bodies tasked with protecting public health and safety.
Q6. how far will the dioxin spead over 5 years after vinyl chloride being vented and burned
It is difficult to predict with certainty how far dioxin may spread over a period of five years after vinyl chloride is vented and burned. The spread of dioxin will depend on many factors, including the amount and concentration of dioxin released, the environmental conditions in the surrounding area, and the extent to which the dioxin is transported through air, water, or other media.
Dioxin is a persistent organic pollutant that can travel long distances through the air and water. Its movement can be influenced by factors such as wind patterns, precipitation, and temperature. In addition, dioxin can adhere to soil and other surfaces, where it can persist for years and be transported through runoff or erosion.
Given the persistence and mobility of dioxin, it is possible that it could spread over a wide area over a period of five years after a release event. However, the actual extent of the spread will depend on many factors, as mentioned above. It is important to note that the health effects of exposure to dioxin are cumulative and can take years to manifest, so continued monitoring and testing may be necessary to assess the long-term health impacts of a dioxin release.
submitted by wahwahwoowahwah to IntellectualDarkWeb [link] [comments]

2023.03.09 00:19 FumiKane Miniguide to Groningen & Hayate for FXP/Coal

It's almost time these ships change resources and while some are already decided, this is a guide for those that are still on the fence, this one will be a mini-guide to see if any of these ships are worth it for you for any of those two resources. Guides for these ships will arrive in due time.
TL;DR at the bottom so skip ahead if you just want to see if you need these ships.
I'll also be listing ships for RB and coal before and refering to this list if you want to compare which ships you really want to get and which ones will take longer depending on your resource of choice.
Coal DDs: T9 Black (296k), T9 Neustrashimy (296k), T9 Z-44 (228k), T10 Marceau, T10 Forrest Sherman, T10 Alvaro de Bazan, T10 Tromp and T10 Khabarovsk all go for 236k
Other ships for coal: Carnot, Kearsage, Marco Polo, Pommern, Iwami, Malta, Napoli, Moskva, Salem, Yoshino, Grosser Kurfurst, Max Immelman
Research Bureau DDs: T9 Paolo Emlio (43k), T10 Vampire II (55k), T10 Druid (56k)
Other RB ships: Siegfried, Hector, Colbert, Sevastopol, Gibraltar, Slava, Ohio
With that said let's begin with Groningen.
Groningen right now costs 1 million free experience and will go for 228K Coal later
Is she worth it overall? Yes, she is a good T9 Premium ship, with a focus on her fast firing guns, you can farm some good damage if you don't have ships like Missouri or Alaska if you want a consistent credit earner.
Even if you don't like DDs that much, her focus on guns and having no torps makes her easy to play, with a low skill floor for a DD and a moderate high ceiling, you need to watch out for radars and be sure to keep someone to spot for you. She is also one of the few DDs with access to actually good AA that might be fun under the right circunstances if you want to make CVs feel miserable.
Overall recommended to any player, you can skip on her if you already somehow have Friesland, since both are the exact same ships, or another gunboat like Smaland, and even if T9 right now has its issues she hardly minds due to her high RoF and fires per minute.
With that said... for coal or fxp? That's a tricky question, T9 freemiums are not that overpriced in terms of fxp, sure Missouri was 750k and now these are 1 million but it's just a 33% increase and fxp got easier to earn before the economic rework. But that's the thing, fxp is harder to come by now and it directly translates now to Research Bureau so the question is if you value Gronin over about 36k research points (Asuming you reset with Haru and using fxp)
I'd say if you have more than 2-3m fxp and you don't mind waiting a bit more for a RB ship you can pull the trigger here or maybe you want that coal on another ship. See above list for ships for earch resource.
Groningen for coal? There is a large demand of DDs for coal and a direct competitor from Sherman at T10 (missing the massive AA power though) so unless you want any of the other coal DDs first or you are short on this resource, go for it.
Tiny disclaimer though, in my experience from last year I managed to get ahold of a total of 4 coal ships (Sherman, Alvaro, Tromp and Malta) despite how time gated the resource is. I didn't count my supercontainers but I got all 3 resource containers daily and about 150k from the snowflakes event. Take into account coal might be easier to get than you think, now more compared to fxp after Narai and economic bonuses nerf.
Now for the complicated one... or not depending on your point of view
Hayate right now costs 2 million free experience and will go for 236K Coal later
Ah the overpriced Hayate and the less succesful free exp DD of the two that we got (Smaland), she is not a bad ship but she isn't good either, she is very complicated but thankfully most players can avoid her completely.
So is she worth it overall? Short answer, for the average player: no. Even if you play a lot of ships and classes, including DDs I find extremelly hard to recommend this ship, she is one of those premiums that just doesn't feel good to play with.
Hayate is a mix of IJN and US DD design, her hull is similar to Shimakaze with 6 guns and an AXY gun layout. She gains a shorter reload on IJN DD guns, which if you don't know have a high HE alpha, the reason they are not good DD duelist is because of the stock 6s+ reload. Shima herself has a 5.7s reload and Hayate enjoys a 4s reload. With upgrades Hayate can close that time to about 3s, which has a high DPM for this type of ship, her canons also turn faster.
However she gives up a lot for that compared to Shima, having an awful minimum concealment of 6.1km, worse turning circle, worse turning radius and losing 1 torpedo tube while keeping the same reload as Shima.
This is why she is hard to recommend she is not a gunboat at all, nor a torpedoboat, she is very into hybrid DD and plays mostly like a normal DD because she has gutted down torpedo perfomance compared to Shimakaze. That is unless you swap her smoke for torpedo reload booster allowing you to dump 20 of Shima's 12km torpedoes (Her only torpedo option and the best one tbh)
As you can see she is a very unique ship, she has the tools but in the end she is not good at something in particular.
I can only recommend her fully to maybe 3 type of players, IJN DD enjoyers that want a premium Yugumo with better guns for worse concealment and spam those torpedoes, DD mains that can and will make this DD work like me or collectionists who just want to see the poor thing gather dust in port.
With that said... for fxp or coal?
She is extremelly overpriced for fxp for a quirky DD 2 million xp is about 58k RB worth of fxp, almost for 3 resets so I'll be blunt, unless you have every single RB (or not care for the ones remaining) or a surplus of 7 or more fxp, pull the trigger for fxp.
Otherwise if she follows T10 pricing she will go for extremelly cheap for coal, that's maybe around 3-4 months worth of saving coal and even if you want another coal DD (Understandable since she is the weakest of all coal DDs) you can leave her for last, you are not missing on anything and if for the above reasons you want her in your collection, coal is the better option.
I will repeat 2 Million free experience is a lot for a meh ship.
Finally to close this thread I will go ahead and put the tl;dr
Groningen is good for fxp or coal, depending on what your plans are for those resources and is a very good ship. Recommended.
Hayate is better for coal and only if you are extremelly sure what this ship is capable off. Mostly not recommended.
submitted by FumiKane to WorldOfWarships [link] [comments]

2023.03.08 06:02 ruKawin Wednesday, 8th March 2023

Wednesday, 8th March 2023
The Daily Spin. Jerome Powell Wednesday Edition. The biggest news of the day lies with Jerome Powell’s testimony to the Senate, in which he made Hawkish remarks towards the need for further quantitative tightening and also voiced his concerns toward permissionless distributed ledgers. BTC breaks out of range down to the $22k support level, the DXY breaks up over the 105 resistance, and open interest on Bitcoin futures spikes its highest level since the collapse of FTX. What’s further concerning, is the SEC’s “Operation Chokepoint” using coordinated attacks to the crypto industry which began with issuing enforcements against centralized exchanges – has disrupted the ability for liquidity to enter the market (Silvergate being a major factor for US-based crypto on-ramping) and has resulted in the lowest level of liquidity for Bitcoin since 2015…
Circle drops ACH withdrawals for Dapper Labs, the developer behind Cryptokitties and other hugely successful web3 projects. Amazon’s plan to launch an NFT market and possible token is rumored to be deployed on their own private blockchain network. NFT trading volume remains high as it approaches pre-Terra collapse levels. Binance FUD is everywhere, with rumors that they even tried to approach Gary the Gensler himself to hire him as an advisor to the firm. Ongoing allegations to Binance.US as an illegal exchange offering unregistered securities is rebuffed by the SEC. vs LBRY case precedent, and a Proof-of-Reserves balance of over $63B alleviates any immediate concern around Binance’s viability.
New Ethereum L2 Scroll hits a new valuation of $1.8B without having any token sale. Optimism and Arbitrum battle it out as their transaction volumes surpass that of ETH’s, analysis showing that over 70% of ETH transactions are NFT-related (and inflated by the recent entry of Blur.io NFT marketplace with widespread wash trading and airdrop farming). An alternative to Tornado Cash is deployed on Optimism, USDT stands out as the leader in the stablecoin market after the collapse of BUSD, and Visa & MC reaffirm their support to include blockchains in their forward-strategy. Algorand faces criticism over failing to react to an ongoing hack on the MyAlgo wallet. China’s Tencent makes a big move to start accepting CBDC with their super-app, WeChat.
TL today we take a look at ETH liquid staking, ERC-4337, the impact of airdrops on NFT marketplaces; a February summary of happenings by Lars0x and a report on Coinbase’s Base by Delphi Digital… here is our round-up of curated news and opinions (surely biased) from the world of Blockchain, keeping you informed into the market news with the most trending, in-the-know, and controversial topics. In the name of transparent, dissemination of information to keep you curious, inspired, and clinically sane…
Ongoings at Coinweb
The Coinweb Monthly Spin - Coinweb Project's Monthly Round-Up and Curated News & Events From The Bleeding Edge of All Things Web3 https://coinweb.beehiiv.com/p/coinweb-monthly-spin-fifth-edition
A Leading Layer 2 Platform Looking To Tackle Crypto's Interoperability Issue https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/23/02/31067514/a-leading-layer-2-platform-looking-to-tackle-cryptos-interoperability-issue
Toby Gilbert takes the stage at the Thai Technology Investment Summit 2023, “On the future of Web3” and Ain Mohd represents Coinweb on a panel discussing “The Role of Women in Web3”
“The Reality of Large-scale Enterprises Adopting Blockchain Technology” an article by Toby Gilbert for CityAM Magazine https://www.cityam.com/the-reality-of-large-scale-enterprises-adopting-blockchain-technology/
Coinweb Labs is proud to unveil LinkMint ⛓️🍃, our groundbreaking Cross-Chain Tokenisation Platform and DeconX, our integrated native DEX! Live Walkthrough Demonstration for the Community by Toby, Knut, and Alexander. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSKA3cAB15U
“A Thread on Guaranteed Liveness and the Coinweb Routing System” by Anton on Twitter https://twitter.com/CoinwebOfficial/status/1630052477579169793?s=20
“A Thread on Rollups, Monolithic, and Modular Blockchains” by Kawin on Twitter https://twitter.com/rukawin/status/1616342851507613696?s=46&t=BjBOK3soH3kOMbsWEa_jlg
Coinweb to Deliver Cross-Chain Smart Contract Architecture and Blockchain Loyalty Programme to BMW https://cryptoslate.com/bmw-to-bring-blockchain-loyalty-program-through-coinweb-and-bnb-chain/
KuCoin Labs launches incubation program to accelerate builders (Coinweb, DoraHacks, Ava Labs) https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/kucoin-labs-launches-incubation-program-to-accelerate-builders
Toby’s full presentation at Token2049-London https://youtu.be/pdtKx3vAs9c
​
On the Radar
Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade, Mar 10 (On-chain) Institutional ETH-Staking Post Shanghai, Mar 14 (Virtual) https://streamyard.com/watch/wM8YwWjJ37yd
Optimism Bedrock Upgrade, Mar 15 (On-chain)
Coinweb’s digitALL event, Mar 16 (House on Sathorn) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digitall-innovation-and-technology-for-gender-equality-tickets-556391992427?fbclid=IwAR09j-V1VJ40DjEI0kTFb6SsQbQmZhEQ9C-znofJ29dS-v9FM0TNCGhvwR8
Blockchain Africa Conference 2023, Mar 16-17 (Johannesburg) Polygon zkEVM Launch, Mar 27 (On-chain) WOW Summit, Mar 29-30 (Hong Kong) ASEAN Web3 Summit, Mar 30-31 (Singapore)
Consensus 2023, Apr 26-28 (Austin, Texas)
AIBC Asia, Jul 19-22 (Manila)
TOKEN2049, Sep 13-14 (Singapore)
​
On the Block(chain)
Silvergate suspends Silvergate Exchange Network as company reels from crises https://www.theblock.co/post/217098/silvergate-suspends-silvergate-exchange-network-as-company-reels-from-crises?utm_source=telegram1&utm_medium=social
Failing bank Silvergate and FDIC are discussing recovery plans https://cryptoslate.com/failing-bank-silvergate-and-fdic-are-discussing-recovery-plans/
Dapper Labs Ruling Dunks on Private Networks https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/02/28/dapper-labs-nft-ruling-dunks-on-private-networks/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines
Circle Dropped Automated Clearing House Payments: Dapper Labs https://blockworks.co/news/circle-dapper-labs-automated-clearing-house
Amazon NFTs Will Be Tied to Real-world Assets, Token Possible https://blockworks.co/news/amazon-nfts-real-world-assets-token
NFT Market Roars Back from Pre-Luna Crash with $2 Billion in Trading Volume https://dappradar.com/blog/nft-market-roars-back-from-pre-luna-crash-with-2-billion-in-trading-volume?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Texts From Crypto Giant Binance Reveal Plan to Elude U.S. Authorities https://www.wsj.com/articles/texts-from-crypto-giant-binance-reveal-plan-to-elude-u-s-authorities-3a17ddeb?mod=hp_lead_pos7
Binance’s PoR system shows over $63B in reserves backing 24 assets https://cryptoslate.com/binances-por-system-shows-over-63b-in-reserves-backing-24-assets/
​
Competitive Landscape
Ethereum L2 Scroll reaches $1.8 billion valuation in new funding round https://www.theblock.co/post/217340/ethereum-scaling-scroll-50-million-funding-round-1-8-billion-valuation?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
An Overview Of Crypto Bridges https://route2fi.substack.com/p/an-overview-of-crypto-bridges?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Optimism vs Arbitrum: the battle for Ethereum layer 2 supremacy https://twitter.com/DefiIgnas/status/1630367270072467458?s=20&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
BUSD Risk Recap https://medium.com/gauntlet-networks/busd-risk-recap-ee2832b5d65c
An alternate to Tornado Cash: v0 of http://privacypools.com is live on Optimism https://twitter.com/ameensol/status/1632083054272430080?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Yes "Counter-Strike 2" Is Real And It's Round The Corner https://richardlewis.substack.com/p/sources-yes-counter-strike-2-is-real
Visa Reaffirms Crypto Strategy, Mastercard Touts Blockchain https://blockworks.co/news/visa-reaffirms-crypto-strategy-mastercard-touts-blockchain
Algorand blasted over inaction on ongoing wallet drain hack https://cryptoslate.com/algorand-blasted-over-inaction-on-ongoing-wallet-drain-hack/
Research: Tether shines as leading stablecoin in evolving market https://cryptoslate.com/research-tether-shines-as-leading-stablecoin-in-evolving-market/
​
World
Powell Testimony: DXY breaks 105, BTC down to 22k as support, new peak rate of 5.60% in futures market https://cryptoslate.com/insights/powell-testimony-dxy-breaks-105-btc-down-to-22k-as-support-new-peak-rate-of-5-60-in-futures-market/
Fed Chair Powell addresses concerns over permissionless distributed ledgers in Senate hearing https://cryptoslate.com/fed-chair-powell-addresses-concerns-over-permissionless-distributed-ledgers-in-senate-hearing/
China’s WeChat starts accepting CBDC payments https://cryptoslate.com/chinas-wechat-starts-accepting-cbdc-payments/
New legal opinion paper looks into the legality of staking services https://cryptoslate.com/new-legal-opinion-paper-looks-into-the-legality-of-staking-services/
Missouri passes crypto mining protection law https://cryptoslate.com/missouri-passes-crypto-mining-protection-law/
Machine money gains traction among EU regulators; stablecoins under consideration https://cryptoslate.com/machine-money-gains-traction-among-eu-regulators-stablecoins-under-consideration/
​
Thought Leadership
February Summary https://twitter.com/lars0x/status/1630937818728988682?s=20&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
The ultimate guide to the future of ETH Liquid Staking https://twitter.com/crypthoem/status/1630962579676823553?s=20&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Beyond Hype: Understanding the Impact of Airdrops on NFT Marketplace Performance https://rabbithole.mirror.xyz/s1BFIgK1oIDAiQnUpyIJtsfx18zvN0U6tWh4fW76DV8?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
ERC-4337 is an order-of-magnitude improvement with respect to the usability of Ethereum https://twitter.com/Zeneca/status/1632006505821003776?s=20
Base by Coinbase: Delphi Digital Report https://members.delphidigital.io/reports/base-by-coinbase?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
​
https://preview.redd.it/mnlpxw5j6gma1.png?width=838&format=png&auto=webp&s=cfe5a006206912ebcf32b502d6625751f38a4e0e
submitted by ruKawin to CoinwebDailySpin [link] [comments]

2023.03.06 17:31 BobW212 Mid-Major Round-Up - Sun Belt and Southern Finals Tonight, Looking At Mid-Major Teams That Have Clinched Automatic Bids Into The NCAA Tournament - Plus, First Thoughts on First Five Teams Who Have Punched Tickets

Sun Belt Championship (Pensacola, Florida) (8) South Alabama (19-15, 9-9) vs. (2) Louisiana (25-7, 13-5)
A regular season finish of 16-15 doesn’t usually translate into a fanbase that thinks their team is going to make it to the Big Dance. But, South Alabama is now just one win away from going dancing for the first time since the 2007-2008 season. Joining the Jaguars in the Sun Belt conference championship are the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana. While Louisiana played very good basketball all season, it still seems, in my estimation, that they have done so under the radar of most college hoops fans.
The overall picture of South Alabama’s barely over .500 regular season isn’t the best to look at, but if you break it down into a “what have you done for me lately” situation, it begins to look really good. On January 26th, the Jaguars were 7-14 with two of those wins coming against non division one opponents. Then, something clicked.
The reeled off eight victories in nine games, including a February 16th win against Southern Miss, who was the top seed in the Sun Belt conference. All told, they finished the regular season with an 11-2 record over their final 13, and have obviously won three straight to make it to today’s championship game.
Jaguars senior guard, Isaiah Moore, has played well all season, averaging 18.5 points per game, and is really embracing his leadership role. Additionally, seven foot center, Kevin Samuel has turned into a defensive monster, averaging 2.4 blocks a game, and is a double-double machine, averaging 10.1 points, and 9.1 rebounds a game.
The top four scorers on USA, Moore, Samuel, Greg Parham II, and Owen White, are all seniors, but all four transferred from other programs. It seems that it may have taken a while for them to gel, but they say timing is everything, and in 40 minutes time this group of seniors may be punching their ticket to the NCAA tournament.
Louisiana has been pretty steady all season. Their longest losing streak of the season was three games, which they followed up with a 10 game winning streak. They lost three of four between February 9th and February 18th, but rebounded to win their last two games of the season, including their season finale against South Alabama, 74-64. The Ragin’ Cajuns have earned their championship spot mainly by having the best offensive efficiency in the Sun Belt. Jordan Brown leads the way with his team high 19.6 points per game and 8.4 rebounds.
UL enters this game as only 1.5 point favorites. Louisiana holds the season series win over South Alabama, 2-0, but they say one of the hardest things to do in college basketball is to beat the same team three times in one season. It seems even harder to beat a team that seems like they have destiny on their side. We will find out tonight at 7:00 PM on ESPN2.
Southern Championship (7) Chattanooga (18-16, 7-11) vs. (1) Furman (26-7, 15-3) (Ashville, NC)
I could almost just take the first few things I said about Southern Alabama and replace their name with Chattanooga here. Weaker overall record, weaker conference record, etc. But there's one big difference with the Mocs, literally, and that’s seven foot center Jake Stephens returning. Stephens missed six weeks with a hand injury, but was able to return just in time for the Southern conference championship, much to the chagrin of the rest of the league.
Stephens missed 11 games between January 18th and March 3rd and the Mocs went 4-7 during his absence. It’s not that Chattanooga was rolling before his absence, but when a team loses a 7 footer who averages 21.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, it’s easy to miss his presence. Very early in the history of the “We Have Fans” blog we pondered that it would be great for Stephens to get his “one shining moment,” having never made the NCAA Tournament. For six weeks I thought that moment had come and gone. Now, it’s just 40 minutes away.
Furman enters this one with a lot of things going for them. They have both the top defensive and offensive efficiency in the conference. They not only have the best offensive efficiency in the conference, it’s also the 34th best in the nation. They beat Chattanooga both times they played during the regular season, including Stephens last game before missing six weeks. Four players score in double-digits for the Paladins, led by senior Mike Bothwell’s 18 points a contest. Jalen Slawson is second in scoring for Furman with 15.6 a game, while adding 7.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks, and 1.6 steals a game.
Having gone 2 and 0 against Chattanooga and being only about an hour drive from campus to Asheville, it makes sense that Furman are four point favorites tonight. It will be interesting to see how Jake Stephens stamina holds up, as this will be his fourth game in as many days. Heck, it’s interesting to see how anyone’s stamina holds up playing four games in four days.
Quick Thoughts, Teams Who Have Punched Their Ticket To The NCAA Tournament
Five teams have already earned their way into the Big Dance by winning their conference tournament. They are as follows -
Ohio Valley Champion - (5) Southeast Missouri State (19-16, 10-8)
Northeast bid (Not championship, as Merrimack isn’t eligible) - (2) Fairleigh Dickinson (19-14, 10-6)
Big South Champion - (1) North Carolina - Asheville (27-7, 16-2)
Missouri Valley Champion - (2) Drake (27-7, 15-5)
Atlantic Sun Champion - (2) Kennesaw State (26-8, 15-3)
I’m gonna play a quick game and just write my first thoughts about each of the five teams that have already made their way to the NCAA Tournament.
Southeast Missouri State - What a run! Four wins in four days is an impressive feat. The Ohio Valley is the 29th ranked out of 32 conferences, so a 16 seed is most likely inevitable, as is the play-in game.
Fairleigh Dickinson - My first thought isn’t about FDU at all, but instead about their Northeast championship opponent Merrimack, who can’t make the NCAA tournament even if they win, because of transition rules. Merrimack is on a ten game winning streak and won the Northeast conference by two games. What I can say is if FDU wins tomorrow night, then they certainly deserve it. Northeast is ranked 32 out of all 32 conferences, so the 16th seed play-in game is their likely landing spot, win or lose.
UNC-Asheville - I'm still bitter because I’m a Radford fan, but because I’m a Radford fan I have watched quite a bit of UNC-Asheville this season. The Big South is ranked 22 out of 32 conferences, and UNCA won the regular season by four games. UNCA is probably a 14th seed, and what a dangerous 14th seed they will be. I checked Lunardi’s bracketology, and he has them as a 16th seed. I genuinely think they deserve better, and will probably be better when it’s all said and done. Drew Pember on a national stage will be fun.
Drake - Drake was the second best team in the 16th best conference during the regular season. Tucker DeVries is a treat to watch, and is going to give some five or sixth seed team a nightmare of a time. The MVC was a great conference to watch all season long, actually sort of feel for Bradley not making it after leading the conference in most offensive and defensive metrics, but Drake certainly earned their spot with a 77-51 drubbing of Bradley in the conference finals.
Kennesaw State - I thought, you thought, and everyone thought Liberty was going to run away with this conference. All the Owls did was go 2-0 against Liberty this season, win the ASUN regular season championship, and win the ASUN championship. Their overall NET rankings stands at 113, and KenPom at 129. I’m really torn on where I think they will end up seeded, as the ASUN stands as the 19th best conference out of 32, and Kennesaw State has been undervalued most of the season. Lunardi has them as a 15th seed, and I can’t really argue with him. Either way, it’s cool to see Kennesaw State silence the doubters every step of the way this season.
Join us tomorrow as we review the two teams that will make it the dance tonight and the FOUR conference tournament final games tomorrow.
If you are enjoying this content, please subscribe at “We Have Fans Too” on the Substack network. Additionally, you can follow me on reddit at Bobw212 and on twitter at RWJones212.
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2023.03.04 06:33 SNMBrandy Is this good?

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2023.03.01 23:51 green477 90 hp Druid trying to survive Missouri's radar

90 hp Druid trying to survive Missouri's radar submitted by green477 to WorldOfWarships [link] [comments]

2023.03.01 23:18 IronHammer67 My theory of the Phenomenon

Curious hear what you all think. Going to a sectional basketball game tonight so I won't be able to respond until tomorrow. Cheers! [edited for formatting]
Nature and Purpose of the Phenomenon
This article details my personal analysis of the publicly available data regarding the Phenomenon which I've been following off and on for decades. I have read Hopkins, Hynek, Fowler, Strieber and Vallée's Dimensions trilogy. Eventually I read Taken by Dr. Karla Turner which I found thoroughly bizarre yet entirely credible. I've been spending a LOT of time recently watching/listening to the content posted by the mysterious but apparently well-connected Eyes On Cinema (EOC) channel on Youtube. It has become obvious through the literature and EOC’s work that the Phenomenon has been active in nearly every country of the world for a very long time. Particularly interesting is EOC's collection of vintage audio/video of people like Charles Hickson, Joe Simonton, Frank Mannor, Lonnie Zamora, Travis Walton, Valerie Benson, Leah Haley, Woodrow Derenberger and the gentleman from Climax Springs, Missouri who called to report beings in three spacecraft "paralyzing" him against his will just outside his home (where his extended family were only a dozen feet away) and staring at him like he was a museum specimen. From all over the world normal, ordinary and highly credible people who couldn't care less about UFO's are suddenly thrust into life-changing experiences that are bizarre and sometimes horrifying.
While a percentage of the accounts are likely hoaxes/mental illness, not all of them can possibly be... not seven decades worth of data from around the world.
In my research, I have established the following facts about the Phenomenon:
Some examples, I believe, of the Phenomenon throughout history are:
The Phenomenon changes in physical appearance (these are real, physical manifestations that are often detected by multiple sensors [radar, heat signature, etc] and multiple witnesses) so drastically over time one has to wonder what is the purpose of always manifesting just ahead of the current technology. Perhaps it keeps the entities “grounded” enough in their chosen manifestation so as to elicit fear and wonder from the human observer. Or perhaps by manifesting ahead of current technology they can ensure their craft cannot be overtaken by ours.
What are they trying to tell us?
The “aliens” have told experiencers that they are, variously, from Venus, Mars, Saturn, the Moon, Rigel, Sirius, etc…ad nauseum. The “aliens” have been quoted by experiencers as predicting many things that never came true. For this reason alone, their words (and the visions they show people) must be completely discounted. Even the things seen by the experiencers themselves should be tossed out entirely. The Phenomenon is interested only in telling lies, half-truths and deceptions. In fact, I believe that nothing about them at all can be construed as fact except that they are here, have been for decades or longer and they like to torment us.
Reported abductions, implantations, impregnations and sexual violence/activity make things even more murky as to the agenda/purpose of the Phenomenon. As Karla Turner asks, why would a supposedly advanced alien species travel light years across the galaxy only to use crude, painful and bizarre medical techniquess/instruments with the intent of terrorizing their captors?
A recent phenomenon (small-P) is the so-called “hitchhiker effect”. These reports indicate that a real, residual effect is experienced by people after an event. To my knowledge this was never reported until recently. This, in my opinion, is another example of the Phenomenon changing it’s modus operandi once again. Another part of the data.
What are they made of?
Several experiencers have reported that the “aliens” told them their craft is operated by consciousness. While the things said by the entities should never be taken as evidence, this actually lines up well with anecdotes that the US government cannot figure out how the craft work because they find the craft has no wiring, no plumbing, no engine. It’s as if the craft operates by an outside force (thought?). Other stories report that the bodies of the aliens have no reproductive organs and seem to be made of the same mundane stuff as their craft. There is evidence that the Phenomenon has manifested in the form of black helicopters and even humans (MIB, CIA, military people, etc). For example, the mother of one of the girls from the Varghina, Brazil case said that three very strange, pale, sweaty men in black suits (MIB) came to her house after her daughter and a friend encountered one of the oily, brown aliens and offered her a suitcase full of cash to convince the girls to not talk about the incident. When she refused, they promptly exited her house and when she immediately went after them, they had inexplicably and completely disappeared, no car in sight. The Phenomenon can manifest as wolf-men (like at Skinwalker Ranch), robots (like in Pascagoula), reptilians, light beings, Nordics and grays among many, many other reported creatures. Many researchers consider these to be separate alien species but I believe they are all manifestations of the same entities. The story of Leah Haley and Karla Turner are just two of many examples of the Phenomenon masquerading as military officials to convince (terrorize) experiencers into believing their own government is in league with the “aliens”. The Phenomenon is capable of manifesting as literally anyone and anything. This is part of the data.
The Phenomenon is very careful to not allow incontrovertible evidence of it’s existence to be obtained. Many reports exist of experiencers trying to take some proof of their experience with them but they are prevented from doing so by the entities. We know from the data that the Phenomenon is not interested in revealing itself to all of humanity… only to humans individually or in small groups. Although it has been known to reveal itself to large groups of people it only does so when there can be no incontrovertible proof of the event… only hearsay. Fuzzy photographs and blurry video seem to be permissible as well.
Could they be extraterrestrials?
I have ruled out extraterrestrials primarily because of the trickster-like aspects. Why would aliens travel such vast distances merely to toy with us, impregnate us, take tissue samples, etc? It is highly likely that real alien biology would be entirely incompatible with human biology anyway. Additionally it is highly unlikely that any form of space travel exists that would allow visitors from another star system or galaxy to reach Earth, even if they somehow knew we existed and were so inclined to come and “bother” us for thousands of years.
Could they be demons?
I rule out demons for two reasons. 1) they are able to control our will so completely that the experiencer loses the possibility of choosing their own actions. This directly contradicts everything we know about demons from theological sources. 2) the “aliens” have been reported to simply laugh and brush aside the exhortations of religious believers calling on their god/gods for assistance. Again, this contradicts theological sources.
Could they be time travelers?
Could they be time travelers from the distant future who have evolved and developed mind controlling/altering abilities? Scientifically I find this hypothesis untenable because time travel backward in time is impossible according to physics. But physics aside, why would advanced humans travel back in time over and over again to pester and torment their ancestors for thousands of years? Sorry, I don’t buy this explanation.
Could they be from here then?
I suppose they could come from another dimension but I feel it is much more likely they come from within our dimension but above and outside our perception. Consider the analogy of a colony of fish who are super-smart and have their own language, scientists, etc…but all they know is their own watery world. They hear reports of some fish being plucked from their world into a strange dimension of light where there is no water but these fish are discounted and ridiculed. There are still other reports of large, whale-like craft gliding through the water that is neither a whale nor is it living. Suddenly entities appear (humans in diving suits) from another “dimension”...a dimension the fish theorize exists but cannot confirm because, well, they are fish.
Recent advances in physics have indicated that there is more to our reality than we intuit. Quantum wave/particle duality, quantum tunneling and quantum entanglement are weird but all of these indicate there is something fundamental to our reality that we don’t see in day-to-day life.
What If there is more to our universe than what our five senses tell us. What if consciousness is key to this greater perception of the universe but because we are so 3-d oriented and, like the fish, trapped in our day-to-day physical reality that we cannot conceive of how to use the full power of our consciousness. Perhaps there are intelligent beings here, with us, in our universe, beyond our perceptions… beings who can also, if they choose, step down into our physical reality. Beings who have been here all along but are largely unconcerned with humanity, Perhaps it is a small faction of their kind who are interested in us but only in the way humans are with rats or children are with ants. If consciousness is the key and these beings are masters of consciousness that would explain their ability to manipulate our minds and our environment so easily, like magicians manipulating an audience. It would also explain the random absurdity in the things they say and do. Like a child that torments an ant hill, perhaps it is only their young and demented who bother to concern themselves with humans.
Why do they hide?
This intelligence is here with us and yet outside our perceptions (until they decide to allow us to perceive them), what explains the trickster aspect of the Phenomenon? Do these extra-dimensional beings have some rule or law in their society that says they cannot reveal themselves fully to us? If so, why? What would happen if we “found out” and all of humanity learned once and for all about this intelligence from another dimension that can neither be controlled or stopped?
Why do the experiencers of the Phenomenon run in families and even friends/associates of that family? Perhaps the reason is that a family shares the genetics that make them more easily manipulated. Or perhaps an experiencer is just in the wrong place at the wrong time and becomes embroiled in the drama of the Phenomenon. It could be that once a person is “found” by the Phenomenon, it fixates on that person and all the people they know or associate with, even down into their family tree. Maybe the Phenomenon can’t just randomly pick somebody to pester, the person has to notice them or become aware of them. One fact that contradicts this view is the fact that many experiencers report feeling compelled to, for example, look out the window or go outside when they normally would do nothing of the kind. This implies that “they” are controlling and compelling the experiencer to notice them.
What does the government know?
I definitely believe the US government (as well as other governments) have recovered “craft” and even “aliens”. I believe they arrived at the same conclusion long ago… that the craft shouldn’t work but somehow do, that the aliens are merely puppets or automatons constructed from the same stuff as the craft. They probably surmise that the Phenomenon is largely harmless but is completely unstoppable. The government may have recovered some technology from the craft but not as much as they would like. I think the government keeps it all hidden in the hope that they might eventually obtain some superior technology they can use against our enemies. I think Phenomenon is playing them the way they do us common folk. Giving them just enough to keep them interested but not enough to gain new, cutting-edge technologies.
What, then, is the purpose of this activity?
Judging from the data, the Phenomenon is not here to enlighten us, give us knowledge that will help us advance as a species nor guide us toward becoming members of a galactic utopia. No, I believe the Phenomenon is merely toying with us like a cat does with a mouse. Simple as that. I’m not even entirely sure they care whether we all know about their existence or not as it wouldn’t matter if we did because we couldn’t do anything about it. The most any of us can really hope for, is that their gaze doesn’t fall on us.
Cheers everyone
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2023.03.01 11:29 Captn_Thatch Ranked Tier 7: An Editorial

Ranked Tier 7

Surprising genuinely and absolutely no-one here, follows a continuation of this editorial business I've been mucking about in for the last short while. Furthering no one's surprise, is the next step up in the ranked fiasco and without further ado, arrives the Tier 7 review.
As always, all numbers and statistics are current to the best of my knowledge, though reader beware these numbers may change. This guide EXCLUDES Carriers. For now.
What was at one point the pinnacle of the game, tier 7 has seen some unusual fluctuations in this game and as a result has left some of those old growth scars etched through some of her ships and their balancing. With the addition of Tier 8 (guide soon to follow), Tier 7 has found some breathing room.
This guide follows the same outline as its predecessor.

The Basics

Ships are bigger, tankier, punchier, healthier, better protected, with better weaponry and now more widespread is the application of surveillance consumables. Advances in both armor and weaponry push this tier forward a bit with the core values remaining the same, destroyers tend to be the more influential, more fragile playstyle that rests the fulcrum of balance quaintly upon its shoulders. Cruisers drive home some dangerous damage per minute, while improving many of the armor issues of the previous tier, oft armed with things like Radar and Sonar, intent on area control and denial. Battleships tend to find themselves with several improvements around the board, including improved armor schemes, AA, and gunnery improvements.
The meta follows the same ideal curvature of the tier below, with the added caveat of a narrower margin of error. Skill floor becomes more of a baseline "guard-rail", where skill ceiling starts to yield some truly gifted upsets and talent driven engagements.

Destroyers

Destroyer play is largely the same from Tier 6 to 7 with some considerations. 1. Sonar is more widespread. 2. Radar was an emerging threat; it is now a strategic keystone. Most destroyers are still incredibly influential, with the added caveat that many more things put effort into hunting and killing you. There are 4 major strategic niches each complete with several sub-strategies and capable builds; duelist (cap-control), swashbuckler (flank/ambush), support, spotting. Gunboats tend to do well in flanking, hybrids in cap-control and support, with torpedo heavy destroyers leaning into support and spotting, lacking any real gunnery to dive into swashbuckling or deuling.
  1. Lightning
  2. Östergötland
  3. Black
  4. La Fantasque
  5. Kirisame
Lightning
Östergötland
Black
La Fantasque
Kirisame

Cruisers

Finally free from the grasp of the Washington Naval Treaty, cruisers on the whole packed on some gains from Tier 6 to 7, with many now supporting heals, sonar, better AA, better ballistics, and actual armor. The more influential competitive builds here tend to lean into radar, for obvious reasons; anti-destroyer focus playstyles tend to win games. There are several major niches here, the dominant two being area-denial and ranged with some flanking sprinkled in as a third, somewhat lesser option.
  1. AL Baltimore
  2. Edinburgh
  3. Mainz CE
  4. Ochakov
  5. Azuma
AL Baltimore
Edinburgh
Mainz CE
Ochakov
Azuma

Battleships

Many battleships size up nicely in between T6 and T7, where many battleships are designed beyond the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty, seeing major improvements to gunnery, armor, anti-air and HP. These evolutions do impact the performance of the ships in a large part, where the strategies are able to somewhat flex more around the ship, than the ship being subject to the strategy. That being said, there are three major niches: tanking, support, and brawling.
  1. Lenin
  2. Jean Bart
  3. Georgia
  4. Tirpitz
  5. Lion
Lenin
Jean Bart
Georgia
Tirpitz
Lion

Summary

Here we are again, into another season of Ranked. Next up is the Tier 8 and Legendary Tier guide for that eventuality.
Lightning and Östergötland, both readily and free in game are my go-to choices here. Both bring the combination of skills and weaponry id look to bring into Ranked.
Martel didn't make the cut, the choice between MBRB or Sonar knocked her out of the ranking. (Why not give her both separately slotted?) and Bayard hasn't left my port much since coming in and I don't see that changing unless it's for 7v7 clan battles, and even then...Baltimore, Mainz will likely be the way to go with a hint of Edinbow sprinkled in for good measure.
Then we get to the battleships, all of which tend to be those rare and hard to acquire ships of updates gone by, almost as if a cruel joke. Let's hope we see some return soon.
As always captains, Fair Winds and Following Seas!
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2023.02.26 23:10 B3SOz Rate my build pls

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2023.02.23 20:43 Objective_Campaign82 Sins of the Father Ch12

First/wiki/Patreon
Officers Meeting
The first flight of her newly repaired ship had gone swimmingly, and Astarte couldn’t have been more pleased to feel the Astaroth beneath her feet. The Astaroth had been due for some yard time for a long while, there were patches of armor that had been damaged and hastily repaired that had to be replaced, electronics that had blown and needed the fully stripped out, and coolant pipes that were reaching the end of their life span. There were also glaring problems with the original design, like having the Med-bay and medical quarters so far apart. Or how Engineering didn’t have their own dedicated storage, or an easy way to directly restock when they pulled into port.
Not to mention the catastrophic weakness of having all their sensory equipment exposed on a conning tower just because that’s how the original Missouri did things. Or other major flaws on the Astaroth’s upper deck. They weren’t a navy ship, they were a spaceship. Which meant they didn’t need to keep the upper deck clear for people to traverse. The previously open bridge wings that allowed people to walk from bow to stern had been rarely used since the crew of the Astaroth had little reason to be above deck. The new design took apart the walk way and filled that now empty space with more sophisticated anti-missile counter measures.
The old anti-missile system was just rapid fire twin railgun mounts, resembling the old CIWS guns. But they had proven to be less than effective at neutralizing missiles with advanced anti-tracking measures, which was how some Draxori missiles had made it through the Astaroth’s countermeasures. The added Chaff and flare systems were old tracking countermeasures adapted for space combat, they worked by launching canisters filled with radar reflective metals that would burst a set distance away from the ship to confuse enemy tracking. The old railguns also received a secondary targeting computer that would activate after enemy projectiles entered a certain range, this secondary targeting system was equipped with visual tracking AI that would adjust the guns aim just like a human marksman. It was more CPU intense and less effective than traditional tracking, but it should be able to cover enemy counter measures.
They had also completely replaced the old reactors, this time they had ordered a new power plant from an up and coming company Astarte had invested in. Their previous contractor had been using standard Union parts to build their products, and had the unfortunate flaw of melting down like a nuclear bomb. Which was apparently abnormal for fusion reactors. The new company, Helion Power, had taken a different approach to building fusion reactors meant for spaceships. Instead of scaling down reactors meant for entire cities they took inspiration from old nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines and built upon that technology for a compact system perfect for high performance spaceships like the Astaroth.
The difference was like going from huge diesel based generators to powerful high octane formula-1 engines. They were far better suited for the kind of output the Astaroth needed out of them. Their cruising speed was now a little slower than before, but their mid-combat power production was on a whole different level. They had already tested these engines on some of the newer Fiend class destroyers and had fantastic results, now they were installing them on the Astaroth as a test bed for the other Archdevil class cruisers before making the fleet wide shift.
Astarte had considered using the old reactors on the Obama since it had more space for cooling pipes and heat syncs. But the Igrathoth had recently finished its long journey to Pandemonium and it offered a rare opportunity. The Hellworlders had captured the Igrathoth from the Aunviry pirate Kazlum during the Battle for the Confederacy, and they had been planning to retrofit it into the Hellworlders first battleship. Unfortunately over the course of the Igrathoth’s return to Pandemonium the Hellworlders had discovered that converting the ship would be far more difficult than expected. The ships exterior was very much like a battleship, unfortunately the interior didn’t reflect that.
It was more like a mobile palace, and flew like a brick with some oversized cannons strapped onto it. The armor was equal to what they used on Union battleships, but the original frame had been for a super freighter and its internal ribbing wasn’t able to handle the extra mass. The return crew had to be extremely careful about how they maneuvered it because one wrong turn could snap the ship under its own inertia. In a combat sense that made it useless, less than useless actually, because it was a huge liability that would need over 4000 trained crewman to man it. If the Astarte ever tried to crew a ship like that then she would be condemning 4000 men and women to a pointless death.
She wasn’t sure why Kazlum had sunk so much time and credits into something like that. Kazlum was a monster, but he wasn’t an idiot. He would have known that in a straight up battle his prized ship wouldn’t be able to stand up to a Union Cruiser, let alone a main sequence battleship. Maybe he knew that and was banking on the prestige such a ship gave him, he was nothing if not prideful, even to the end.
The Igrathoth did have one asset that Aster couldn’t wait the use. Its Anti-matter reactor core, and hundred-year supply of the extremely expensive fuel source. Anti-matter was the kind of stuff used to power entire core worlds and superstations. even if Astarte had the money to afford some, she still couldn’t buy any because of how tightly controlled it was. And Pandemonium was still two hundred years away from having the industrial capacity to make a single gram.
It felt like a bit of a waste to use that kind of substance on the Obama, but Astarte didn’t have anything else that handle something that potent.
Astarte had just finished signing the order to strip down the Igrathoth when the first person arrived for the meeting. Karega had been outside in bright morning sun greeting the crew as they entered and had a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. But if he minded the heat his face didn’t show it. He was grinning ear to ear, just as Aster had been before another headache came up. they had just finished a week long space trial for the Astaroth, and both of them couldn’t contain the pride they felt for their ship. She outperformed every metric they had come up with, and even exceeded her previous FTL record by hitting 8.01 kilo-lights. Meaning in one year of straight travel they could reach 8000 lightyears. It wasn’t much compared to the Milky ways 100.000 lightyears, but was still an incredible feat. Sure there were faster ships out there, but none of them were the size of the Astaroth.
“Everyone’s been handed their assignments” Karega said cheerily.
Aster glanced to the clock and saw that it was only 1320. She nodded to herself and began to look over the rest of her reports before the meeting started. Heizer was convinced that with some time to dial in the new reactors he could maximize their energy output by an additional twelve percent. The new Helmsman, Li Fan from the Dagon, reported that there was slight tendency to pull a little starboard. Aster guessed that one of the small port engines was putting out more power than the starboard ones. EM thrusters and gyroscopic correction kept the Astaroth from spinning out, but were limited in their ability to correct unequal thrust. The Fiend class destroyers had a slightly different thruster layout and correction systems, so Fan wouldn’t have been familiar with this particular quirk of the Archdevils.
Astarte still felt a little uncertain about promoting their previous Helmsman Kathrine ‘Wildcat’ Fager. Kat had been a highly experienced and daring Helmsman, and had been at the Astaroth’s Helm since Astarte promoted Jackson Daniels to his own ship. They would have died many times over if Kat hadn’t been there to fly them out of danger, her daring maneuvers and level head had been an amazing asset to the Astaroth. However it was those exact qualities that made her the perfect candidate to captain the latest batch of destroyers.
Fan was okay, and had plenty of potential, but those things couldn’t compare to real experience. It was a choice Aster had to live with and something to work on in the future.
The rest of the reports were pretty boring, and in the blink of an eye 1400 rolled around and the various division heads began to arrive. Highland, her trusty Bosun and self-appointed uncle figure, was the first to arrive as always. One would guess from his hulking figure and brutish persona that Highland would be a very irresponsible person, but they would be wrong. Most people only saw the garish tartan patterned robes, his wild unkept orange beard, and the god-awful heavy Scottish accent and assumed he was just a walking stereotype. They never noticed that all those things were a fastidiously kept disguise he wore for all the world to see, that all those exaggerated features were meant to put a pre-established fear and respect into people. Underneath all that Highland was a very organized man, with a soft spot for young women trying to make their way in a cruel world.
He had been the first person to help Astarte’s adoptive mother, Saint Mary the Maiden, in her quest to bring her abusers to justice and create a safer New-Mombasa. He had also been the person who taught Astarte how to throw a punch, and more importantly how to create a reputation that would win more fights than bare knuckles ever could. He let Aster peer behind his mask to see just how much his stereotypical Scottish brute act won fights before anyone threw a punch. And more recently he had taken a liking to Alwen Djani, and had secretly helped her grow into her full potential. Not by teaching her how to fight, but by subtly lending her a bit of his authority to help her grow the confidence she would need to thrive amongst the Hellworlders.
Next was Samuel ‘Data’ Seamus, a soft spoken man who ran the digital warfare side of things. He didn’t make his presence known very often, and generally went unnoticed on a day to day basis. But he was exceptionally competent in his job, and commanded his reclusive and anti-social division well.
Captains Gato Negrito and Alice Fidelis were next, arriving exactly five minutes early. They hadn’t been apart of the trail run since they were the CO’s of the Astaroth’s attached Marine contingents. Many of their old members had been transferred out like the rest and they had been working to train up their new recruits for months. Alice and Gato had a contentious history, and had once been Aster’s biggest concern. The two had once been a couple until Alice’s twin sister had been murdered in a cowardly sneak attack. After that, they had nearly divided the crew in the aftermath of their breakup, Astarte had managed to mitigate the worst possible solution to the problem but hadn’t been able to mend the rift. But since Alwen and Gato began dating things have changed between the two Felinoid Marines, they got along better, and were more cohesive as professionals.
Heizer came through the door a couple minutes before 1400 without looking up from his data pad. Probably finding ways to maximize their engines potential. He sat in the open chair next to Highland and blindly reached for a glass of water just as Highland set one down for the distracted Snipe. The pair were a classic odd couple, though with the traditional roles reversed. Highland was a loud, strong, blue-collar man through and through, but he was fastidiously clean, and very well organized in his day to day. While Heizer was a wiry, often distracted man, with several PHD’s in advanced fields of engineering and physics, and had a bad habit of leaving things wherever they landed, and often lost himself in his work. Their divisions had a playful rivalry, and the two of them did nothing to stop it, in fact they often threw fuel onto the fire.
Next was Li Fan to represent the command division, though Astarte and Karega were directly in charge of that. Then Adela/Butch their head cook and rumor monger, her role would be limited in this meeting, and she was just glad to be invited. Mister Famine of the ships legal division stalked through the doors, casting the room in a gloomy shadow before he took his seat. After the previous Mister Death had been murdered by Ah’ared in his sneak attack on Femeri, Famine had taken Death’s place as the leader of the ships four lawyers, nicknamed after the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. A new associate had been hired to take the place of Death, this time a women of Haitian decent who taken the death motif to the extreme with bone and platinum jewelry and a macabre outfit.
The last to arrive at 1400 on the dot was their newest officer Doctor Alwen ‘Bones’ Djani. The young Torweni girl had changed much since her first day aboard the Astaroth. Before she had been painfully thin and skittish, now she was a lean muscled women who approached life with an unassumed expression. She had worn her swords to the meeting and quickly unslung her belt to hang from a hook by the door. The long Katana, Makaze, had once belonged to a Marine named Wraith, who had inherited it from Alice’s sister Wendy. The shorter Wakizashi had been given to her when she finally took the mark of Astaroth and fully joined the Hellworlder fleet.
Alwen glanced around the room and scowled “Am I the last one here?”
Aster chuckled “You’ll learn this sooner or later, but early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable.” There was round of chuckles around the table, and Alwen shot a glare at Gato. He had been guiding her in the responsibility of an officer and had probably let this one slip.
Alwen walked around the table to the empty seat at the Bosuns right and frowned “Interesting choice of décor.” She said wryly as she took in the black marble table with a gold inlay of the Seal of Astaroth.
It looked more like a sacrificial alter than a meeting table, and it had once been something Aster was very embarrassed about. A miscommunication with the shipwrights of MDY had left them with a lot of strange quirks that Astarte had grown fond of. Aster grinned “Yup, and its stain resistant too. We could sacrifice a goat without it leaving a mark.”
The a set of pale white eyebrows rose as Alwen gave Aster a concerned glance, the doctor shook off her concern and sat down without any follow up questions.
Aster felt a little disappointed that Alwen had let the matter drop, she had an excellent quip about only sacrificing goats when they needed to divine the stock market. Oh well, she’d have to save it for later.
Kar cleared his throat “Now that we’re all in attendance lets get things started. The Astaroth’s first week of trails went better than expected, there’s always room for improvement of course. But for the time being we’re in a good position to get back out there and do what we do best. However; while we’ve been in port under repairs things have changed. Our operations are no longer dependent on an Archdevil’s assistance, and the smaller ships are far better suited for doing the dirty work.”
Aster nodded “That’s right, we were already starting to run into this problem before the ambush, but we don’t need the Astaroth to hit cargo freighters or drug runners. In fact doingso would actually cost us more in the long run. So we’re switching to more diplomatic missions.”
There was a round of nods around the table, with only one confused face. Alwen put her hand up and Aster gave her a nod, “Pardon me, but how do you define diplomacy?”
Highland turned to face the young doctor “Remember our trip to dea canfederacy?”
Alwen blinked “the one where we showed up, became the catalyst for a coup, killed the most powerful pirate in the galaxy, fought off a huge fleet of Draxori, and inadvertently got the old king killed while also making Domnall Clancy the king of the pirates?” she asked, her voice dripping with snark.
“Ya, dats diplomacy.” Highland answered with a wide grin.
“I feared as much” Alwen muttered as she turned back to face the table.
The brief detour turned back to Astarte. “Jokes aside the Bosuns not to far off the mark. After the Battle of the Confederacy we were finally able to achieve one of our long-term goals of purchasing some insanely expensive terraforming equipment to begin restoring Earth’s climate. We let the Revivalists handle the fine details since they were planning to use the terraforming equipment to help their party’s popularity and maybe win a majority of seats in the Martian Parliament. About a month and a half ago the Company that built and shipped the equipment, Equara, reported that it had been stolen by pirates. We found that to be an unlikely possibility.”
“Damn right” Heizer scoffed “Equipment like this is highly specialized, not much point in stealing it since its worthless to anyone but us.”
Astarte nodded, “Exactly, the Revivalists thought the same thing and had an insurance claims company look into the disappearance. Two weeks into their investigation an unknown force swept through their office building and wiped out everyone, a complete slaughter. We were trying to keep the fleet away from the affairs of the Revivalists, but now we have no choice but to ready a beachhead operation.”
A round of grim nods, with one confused face. Aster once again nodded for Alwen to ask the question she plainly wanted to ask. “What’s a beachhead operation? It wasn’t mentioned in my officers training.”
Alice perked up and turned to Alwen “I told you about it once, back on your first day aboard. You probably don’t remember it. We’re going to act as an armed escort for our legal divisions, the Astaroth will be the one to lead the charge with other ships soon to follow.”
“Right” Astarte said with a nod. “The enemy has already proven that they’re ready to eliminate anyone who gets in their way. We’re hoping an armed warship full of well-trained Marines will act as a deterrent so that our lawyers can do their jobs. We’ll also begin our own independent investigation, this one will contact some of our underworld connections to see what they can uncover”
Alwen pursed her lips and looked directly at Astarte. “Should I prepare my division for a fight?”
Astarte drummed her fingers along the black marble table. “We don’t plan on it. But prepare for the worst, hope for better. Ideally we solve this entirely within a courtroom, but the enemy has already proven how far they’re willing to go to bury this.”
Mister Famine cleared his throat and spoke for the first time “This is not some backwater sector capital like Femeri. Nor is this a barely literate confederacy of pirates and slavers. This is Unity, heart of the Union. We’ll be bumping shoulders with trillionaires and councilmen if we make noise there. Are you sure this is the wisest course of action?”
“Wise? No. But it is the only option we have available, the moment we pull into port they’ll know there’s more to us than meets the eye. But it’s a risk we have to take, I can’t understate how important this equipment is. Its importance is equal to Pandemonium.”
Famine nodded, “As long as we’re certain.”
“Besides” Astarte said with a wolfish grin “Trillionaires and Councilman die just as easily as anyone else. Their money and influence wont stop a bullet.”
That got a round of dark chuckles out of the assembled officers, including Alwen.
Previous/Next
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2023.02.21 18:57 BasenjiBob How did a 15 yr old from Missouri become the first (alleged) AIDS victim in 1969?

NOTE: I was not sure what to tag this. It doesn't really fit any of them. I chose "phenomena" because it wasn't a murder and his death definitely wasn't unexplained.
If you ask somebody when the AIDS epidemic started, they will probably tell you the 80s. In fact, the timeline on hiv.gov starts off in 1981. Most people would be shocked to learn that it is believed that the first AIDS-related death in the US happened in 1969 in St. Louis, Missouri.
Robert Rayford was a 15 year old African American boy living in St. Louis. He checked himself into a hospital in early 1968 with a number of very concerning symptoms. He had lost weight, had shortness of breath, and upon examination, it was discovered that he had a severe case of chlamydia that had, very unusually, spread throughout his body (a tell-tale sign of immunosuppression). Further supporting this, his white blood cell count was extremely low. He claimed to have been suffering from these symptoms since 1966.
He was in and out of the hospital for the next year, growing sicker and sicker until he died of pneumonia on May 15th, 1969. At autopsy, lesions were discovered on his legs that were determined to be Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that up until then was most often seen in elderly Ashkenazi Jewish men. At the time, the discovery was baffling; many years later, Kaposi's sarcoma would become a well-known sign of HIV infection.
Rayford had never left the Midwestern United States, nor had he ever received a blood transfusion. He had never been to New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, the cities which would become the focal points in the fight against AIDS.
Here are the big outstanding questions:
As compelling as the list of symptoms is, before rewriting the history of the HIV virus, we have to consider the fact that Rayford may not, in fact, have been suffering from HIV. Occam's razor, after all.
In fact, various tests have been performed to determine if Rayford did actually have HIV, and the results have been mixed.
In 1984, tissue samples belong to Rayford were tested for evidence of HIV infection, and the result was negative (I assume this was an antibody test, but I can't find mention of what they actually tested). In 1987, a researcher used a more-sensitive Western blot test on the samples and discovered antibodies for HIV, indicating Rayford was in fact HIV positive. In 1999, it was announced that researchers had located HIV RNA sequences but this result was never published or peer-reviewed. In 2005, the last known samples from Robert Rayford were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, making further testing impossible.
It is my opinion that Rayford did indeed have HIV. I don't know why the DNA result was never published, and it's a crying shame that the tissue samples were lost, but Western blot tests are incredibly sensitive and Rayford tested positive for all 9 known HIV antibodies (at a time when the Red Cross tossed blood that was positive for any 3 of 9).
Well, this is the really sticky question, isn't it? Rayford told hospital staff that his symptoms started after he had sexual contact with a neighborhood girl. Notably, he flatly refused a rectal examination and was described by staff as quiet and uncommunicative.
I found several articles that reported that his autopsy found evidence of "anal scarring," but have not found a primary source for the claim. Not to mention that determining sexual abuse from an autopsy is a crapshoot, so I take this claim with a grain of salt.
Since he had never gotten a blood transfusion, the sad and uncomfortable answer is that Rayford probably got HIV in the most typical way: via sex. It's been suggested he was possibly a homosexual sex worker (St. Louis was the hub for Trans World Air at the time, so travelers from all over the world came through the city). Or he was possibly being sexually molested by a person who had HIV. Given that he started having symptoms in 1966, when he was 12, it doesn't seem likely it resulted from a consensual encounter.
The earliest known sample of HIV in a human is from 1959 from a man living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For many years, a Quebecois man who worked as a flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas was blamed for introducing AIDS into North America, but this has been proven definitively false after researchers analyzed a sample from him and other infected individuals from 1978 and '79: individuals who, for many years, were considered the first infected in the US.
We don't know who patient zero was. But given the case of Robert Rayford, we know HIV was in the US by the mid 1960s. It likely spread slowly and under the radar until it reached the "hotspots" of New York City and San Francisco, where the lifestyle of many gay men at the time gave it the perfect setting to mutate and spread like wildfire.
In the end Robert Rayford was a child, and likely an abused child. And he deserves to not be forgotten as a victim of the awful AIDS epidemic.
More resources:
edit: some typos and formatting
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2023.02.20 22:12 309Bourbon Equipment recommendations?

Equipment recommendations? submitted by 309Bourbon to ModernWarships [link] [comments]

2023.02.19 12:34 benjumi Someone please explain.. ?

Question Asked and (sadly) answered.
How is it possible that this player can have these stats and ships when he registered on the 1st of October 2022?!
They have played 5.5k battles since October 2022 and they have ships that pre-date that registration and sooo many steel and RB ships;
They clearly had Kutznetzov as a commander. Turns up into the battle, doesn't radar until 9 minutes in when being spammed for it in chat and radio commands. YOLO's around corners. All in gold league.
I know WG would never do it as it would remove a revenue stream for them but there needs to be a better ranked punishment and incentive system. Only players 2FA authenticated, tangible punishments (in game ban time, Tier access restricted play for AFK and troll behaviour (remove the ability for them to play high tier ships for constant abuse, reduced economy.).
I'd happily sign up to a system that punished me for AFK, abuse and troll play in ranked. I wish this game wasn't so shit, because when it isn't, it's really fucking fun to play. Sadly those days continue to diminish day after day.
Right, back into the queue with CVs in 6v6, Shimakaze players with F3 torps and players bringing Minnesotas and broadsiding Moskvas.
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Aaannnndd now I feel better. o7
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2023.02.18 18:50 Ok_Childhood_5410 2024 Senate Predictions (In no particular order)

2024 Senate Predictions (In no particular order)
​
Assuming Dems get their ducks in a row.
Republicans get their ducks in a row, and don't nominate someone insane in AZ
Would love to see this, it won't happen. But I can dream.
Explanation for Texas: in the 2020 presidential election, Biden did over 3 points better than 2016. Beto did 7 points better in 2018. I mean it's not controversial to say that the Lone Star state is trending blue. But I think that with a good candidate, like Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28) or Joaquin Castro (D-TX-20), and a hell of a lot of funding it could be done. Now, if the GOP nominates Trump in 2024, I see a much clearer path. Trump won Texas by a lot less than he should've. Furthermore, Ted Cruz is an incredibly easy target, he's incredibly popular, especially among GOP senators, and he's done a lot of stupid shit. It will be very easy for calling him out on flip-flopping about running for a third term, or about stupid comments he's made about school doors, or that ridiculous 'racist baby' rant he went on during the KBJ senate Judiciary hearings. Furthermore, it's very clear the guy has ambitions of higher office, and that could be used against him as well. Not even to mention the whole Cancun debacle.
Florida: I mean who knows if it's a swing state, but without DeSantis on the ballot, I don't see as massive of a Republican wave that 2022 did. Scott has frequently advocated for cutting medicare/social security, which might not play well with Florida's older voting population. If Dems get a good candidate there, I could see a path to victory. Once again, if Trump is nominated I see that path being clearer. If DeSantis wins the primary, well then I guess Florida is staying red for the time being.
Missouri: Oooo a controversial one! So here's the deal, we can pretty much attribute Claire McCaskill's loss in 2018 to her for whatever reason, not focusing on turning out black voters. That was an incredibly stupid move. If a good candidate (maybe Lucas Kunce) can turnout black voters and get enough swing voters, I do see it happening again. I don't really know how Trump or DeSantis being on the ballot might impact this race. DeSantis probably better for Hawley, Trump probably worse. I'm not putting too much stock in Dems flipping this seat, but I bet it's at least on their radar.
MT & OH: popular incumbents, like really popular incumbents. If Tester doesn't run the seat is gone, simple as that. Though I feel like he could be persuaded to run again, if only for the good of the Republic. OH, Brown is almost certainly running again, he's very popular. Depending on who the GOP runs, the OH race could get closer, but I do think that Brown has the edge, and he connects very well with blue collamiddle class voters. He's a populist for them, but progressive for the Dems. He's also an incumbent, which is almost always good.
Lemme know what y'all think!
Byeeeee
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2023.02.17 18:24 jbvann05 2023 32 Teams/32 Days: The Indianapolis Colts

Link to hub
Thank god it's over. The 2022 Indianapolis Colts were a team with high expectations, but they ultimately fell flat. The offense regressed at almost every position. The organization suffered a complete meltdown. In one season, the Colts fired HC Frank Reich, hired Jeff Saturday as interim, changed quarterbacks an amazing four times, and ended the season with a loss to the Texans on a two-point conversion. All this culminated in a 4-12-1 record, the #4 pick in the draft, and a shiny new coach: Shane Steichen.

Season Overview

Record: 4-12-1 (.265)
vs Division: 1–4–1
vs AFC: 4–7–1
Playoff Result: Did Not Qualify
Pro Bowlers: G Quenton Nelson
Offensive DVOA: 32nd
Defensive DVOA: 14th

Offseason Review

Notable Trades

Washington Commanders
Indianapolis Receives: 2022 second-round pick, 2022 third-round pick, 2023 third-round pick
Washington Receives: QB Carson Wentz, 2022 second-round pick, 2022 seventh-round pick
This was an obvious move after the end of the 2021 season. The late season collapse drew Jim Irsay's ire and he sought to get Wentz off of his team. It is likey that Irsay was also mad with Wentz's lack of leadership skills and his COVID-19 scare also contributed to this decision. In the weeks after the trade, Irsay painted Wentz as a scapegoat. In reality, the entire team contributed to the collapse. While Wentz was clearly not the guy at QB, painting him as the sole problem meant that the rest of the team flew under the radar.
Las Vegas Raiders
Indianapolis Receives: DE Yannick Ngakoue
Las Vegas Receives: CB Rock Ya-Sin
This was a very interesting trade, as Ya-Sin had been getting better and had continued his development, so it was surprising to see him go, but in return, the Colts got Ngakoue, who played under DC Gus Bradley in Las Vegas, allowing him to align with our defense. Ngakoue played pretty well for us as well as giving a veteran presence to our young DE room. The front office should look to re-sign him in free agency but he's not the highest priority since Paye and Odeyingbo should be serviceable.
Atlanta Falcons
Indianapolis Receives: QB Matt Ryan
Atlanta Receives: 2022 third-round pick
The Carson Wentz experiment obviously ended poorly, and we were still in win-now mode, so this trade was obvious. Matt Ryan was a very good player and he, in theory, should have been able to elevate this roster. Unlike Wentz, Ryan is a leader and he is very calculated, so we were unlikely to see any boneheaded moves like we did last year. The compensation we gave the Falcons was pretty good for what we thought we were getting. During the season, he led some impressive game-winning and game-tying drives and got us wins Wentz wouldn't have gotten. Unfortunately, Matt Ryan was not as good as we thought. His inability to move with the ball proved costly due to our bad o-line, and he constantly got sacked. He fumbled the ball a lot, 15 times to be exact. Add the fact that our receiving room was just okay and that we fired our two main offensive minds (Reich and Marcus Brady) and Matt Ryan just did not work out. Expect him to be cut this offseason so we can save some cap money.
Buffalo Bills (Midseason)
Indianapolis Receives: RB Zack Moss, 2023 fifth-round pick
Buffalo Receives: RB Nyheim Hines
From what I can tell, this trade was a win for the Bills, but the Colts still got some good out of it. The compensation we got wasn't great, but we were able to get Hines off the books and get another running back. Moss turned out to play pretty well for us during the season in the absence of Jonathan Taylor. He and JT will make our RB room pretty good going into next season, giving more options for our rookie quarterback.

Free Agency

CB Brandon Facyson - Las Vegas Raiders
This was another Bradley signing. Facyson gave us depth in the cornerback position and ended up starting for a while. He was not good, missing tackles and being generally inefficient against the run. Eventually, the CB job was given to Isaiah Rodgers, meaning Facyson is not likely to be on the team next year.
S Rodney McLeod - Philadelphia Eagles
With us drafting Nick Cross and Rodney Thomas II at safety, we needed a veteran at the position, and McLeod exceeded expectations. He should definitely be kept on the team if we can afford him while Cross and Thomas continues to develop.
CB Stephon Gilmore - Carolina Panthers
Signing Gilmore was one of the best moves, if not the best move, made this offseason. He was a beast for us and helped us win a few games. He was one of the big reasons why our defense was good this year, and he will be crucial these next few seasons to push us into the playoffs.
OT Dennis Kelly - Green Bay Packers
With Matt Pryor being hot garbage, Kelly should have been played more, but he wasn't until midway through the season. He was decent, better than Pryor, but that's really not saying much.
QB Nick Foles - Chicago Bears
Foles came to Indy to reunite with his offensive coordinator from Philly in Frank Reich, but as he put it aptly, "Frank's not here." He was part of the QB carousel this season, as he swapped between QB1, QB2, and QB3 this season more times than I can count. He wasn't any better than Ryan or Ehlinger in his two starts.
P Matt Haack - Buffalo Bills
Longtime Colts punter Rigoberto Sanchez tore his achilles in practice so the Colts desperately needed a punter. After being released in favor of [redacted], Haack made his way here. He got a lot of usage this season and was one of our best players.
K Chase McLaughlin - Cleveland Browns
After Rodrigo Blankenship was (probably) personally released by Irsay, the team needed a new kicker, and McLaughlin delivered. He should be our long term answer at the position.

Draft

Round 2, Pick 53: WR Alec Pierce - Cincinnati
Pierce was brought on to give our receiving room more strength. He impressed quite a bit this season despite his QBs not being very good, making the game-winning catch against the Jaguars as well as generally playing decently. He should end up being a good WR2 behind Pittman.
Round 3, Pick 73: TE Jelani Woods - Virginia
Following the retirement of Jack Doyle, the Colts were looking for someone to partially fill his shoes. Woods might up being the answer. He showed he had a solid foundation this year, and is apparently going to be working on his blocking this off-season, so look for him to be a threat in the coming seasons.
Round 3, Pick 77: OT Bernhard Raimann - Central Michigan
Finding a left tackle was one of our biggest needs, and Ballard seems to have found the answer. Raimann looked good for a rookie in the position during his starts, and should get better with time. Most of the o-line is getting worse, but Raimann is getting better.
Round 3, Pick 96: S Nick Cross - Maryland
As I mentioned earlier, Cross has developed well. He played okay this year and should get better next year to hopefully complement McLeod and Thomas.
Round 5, Pick 159: DT Eric Johnson - Missouri State
Round 6, Pick 192: TE Andrew Ogletree - Youngstown State
Ogletree was very impressive during training camp but unfortunately tore his ACL. The hope is that he can return to form next year.
Round 6, Pick 216: DT Curtis Brooks - Cincinnati
Round 7, Pick 239: S Rodney Thomas II - Yale
Thomas turned out to be a good safety for us and has done that immediately out of the gate. He played alongside McLeod for most of the season and will start going forward regardless of what McLeod does in the offseason.

Week By Week Review

Week 1: @ Texans T 20-20 OT

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
The Colts were desperate to break their Week 1 curse, and it seemed all but likely that they would do just that against Houston. Unfortunately, the offense came out of the gate looking flat. The first two drives ended with Reich getting outcoached and Ryan getting picked off. The Colts just could not capitalize on their drive in the first three quarters. Matt Ryan fumbled four times and lost one of those four. Rodrigo Blankenship shanked his kickoffs out of bounds. Taylor, Pittman, and Paye played well, but it took three quarters for Matt Ryan to start playing, his comeback and a surrender by Lovie Smith allowing us to tie this game. If we lost, we'd be picking third.

Week 2: @ Jaguars L 24-0

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
The Colts were desperate to break their Jacksonville curse, and it seemed all but likely that they would do just that. Unfortunately, the offense came out of the gate looking flat. Sound familiar? This time, there would be no comeback. The Colts laid the most abhorrent and shocking goose egg that left fans reeling. Matt Ryan was picked off three times. Jonathan Taylor was stuffed. With Pittman out, the WR corps suffered. Not that they would be passed to anyways the the o-line kept allowing pressure. Trevor Lawrence had so little pressure that an ant cloud climb all the way up his neck and the pocket would be wide open.

Week 3: vs Chiefs W 20-17

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
…and if you don't like that, you don't like Colts football. I'm not too sure I like Colts football. Matty Ice came through for us for the second time in two weeks as he led a comeback against the eventual Super Bowl champions. Were there still fundamental problems with this team? Absolutely. The o-line was still bad and Matt Ryan still couldnot handle the pressure. Mahomes and the rest of the Chiefs offense made plenty of mistakes and the defense made them pay. Our rookie receivers in Pierce and Woods played well and Woods picked up the game winner. Yes, the Chiefs screwed themselves over, and the Colts don't win without those mistakes, but the Colts did win this game.

Week 4: vs Titans L 24-17

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
Back to reality. The o-line sucked once again and Matt Ryan kept fumbling the ball. It became obvious that the Kansas City game was a fluke and nothing more. Taylor once again kept getting stuffed. The only bright spot was that tight ends Mo Alie-Cox and Jelani Woods played alright. The worst part about this was that the Colts almost came back, allowing Frank Reich to make excuses about this team. Four weeks into the season, and the Colts were 0-2-1 in the AFC South. It was clear things needed to change.

Week 5: @ Broncos W 12-9 OT

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
My deepest apologies to anyone who watched this game. I would suggest contacting Amazon for a refund. Both offenses played so poorly in this game that fans left before overtime started. The defense played well and didn't allow a touchdown. Gilmore came up clutch once again, blocking the game-winner. Gus Bradley at this point has put together a somewhat decent unit. I could go on about the offense but it's just the same old story. At least Pierce played well to solidify his role as WR2. Also McLaughlin played well.

Week 6: vs Jaguars W 34-27

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
After the brutal loss in Duval, a win against the Jaguars would be exactly what the Colts needed for their season to be saved. With just under three minutes left, the Colts got the ball down by 1. And Matt Ryan, that crazy man, executed yet ANOTHER game-winning drive, capped with an Alec Pierce touchdown. Dennis Kelly came into the game and Braden Smith and Matt Pryor were moved around, making the o-line a little better. Crazy what Matt Ryan can do with a competent o-line. Our receivers played well and soo did Deon Jackson who filled in for our injured running backs.

Week 7: @ Titans L 19-10

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
And we're back! The Colts gave up three turnovers and the o-line was once again bad. There were a few positives though. The defense was good enough and the receivers once again exceeded expectations. At this point, the Colts are at a crossroads. They are now 1-3-1 in their division and it's clear the coach has lost the locker room. The Colts at this point need to decide if they want to contend or if they want to take.

Week 8: vs Commanders L 17-16

Quarterback: Sam Ehlinger
Matt Ryan was benched and Sam Ehlinger was the next guy up. He played fine enough. Unlike Ryan, he was able to scramble in the pocket and extend a few plays, giving the Colts more opportunities. On the potential game-tying drive, he threw a dime to Pittman that would've put us near field goal range, but Pittman dropped it. It was a refreshing change of pace. But the Colts still wasted their red zone chances when it mattered and blew the lead late. Shaq Leonard came back and made a pretty solid impact. Overall this was a good game for the Colts but good doesn't matter when you lose. Also after this game, our OC Marcus Brady got fired, and Frank Reich took over his duties.

Week 9: @ Patriots L 26-3

Quarterback: Sam Ehlinger
Apparently Marcus Brady was not the problem. Ehlinger didn't play too well in his second start, but the same can be said about most players on the team. The defense was a little better than the offense but the usual suspects acted up on the offense. The receivers didn't even play that well. I really think the score speaks for itself. The Colts really showed they were a directionless franchise.

Week 10: vs Frank Reich

Quarterback: Jim Irsay
Jimmy finally got pissed and pulled the plug. Frank Reich was unceremoniously fired much to the delight of the fanbase. This was a lost season but the fact that this franchise was finally going in a different direction was optimistic. In Frank's place was the legendary, almighty, tank commander Jeff Saturday. Bizarre decision sure, but we needed to do something different, and this was indeed different. Parks Frazier, assistant QB coach, was declared the new play caller.

Week 10: @Raiders W 25-20

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
Looks like Jeff was right. Matt Ryan was reinstated as QB and he did pretty good. He even had a 39 yard run! Jonathan Taylor was also back and he put on a beast of a performance. Stephon Gilmore once again clutched up and got us the win. Most importantly, we finally got our revenge over the snake Josh McDaniels.

Week 11: vs Eagles L 17-16

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
The Jeff Saturday era was almost off to a 2-0 start, but the Colts bit themselves in the butt and couldn't get it done. They couldn't capitalize off of their opportunities, including not getting a touchdown on a turnover just outside the Eagles' redzone. The o-line once again sucked. The defense got two turnovers and the offense only gave away one, and yet the Colts still lost the game. That is the story of our season. The rest of our losses were basically the same, so I won't bother repeating myself anymore.

Week 12: vs Steelers L 24-17

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
Jelani Woods played well for 98 yards, the pass rush was shockingly bad, and the Colts made costly mistakes including a redzone fumble. Jeff Saturday also seemingly forgot how to use timeouts and the Colts lost valuable time on their final drive. The tank rolls on.

Week 13: @ Cowboys L 54-19

After three quarters, the Colts were down 21-19. Now look at the score again. The Cowboys scored 33 points in the fourth quarter. Tanking has taken an entirely new meaning. Alec Pierce played well, but he was barely on the field because of our incompetence on both sides of the ball. The Colts allowed a maximum of three touchdowns a game before this game. They allowed five in the fourth quarter. But at least we got Scorigami!

Week 14: BYE

Everyone breathed a deep sigh of relief as they did not have to watch Colts football.

Week 15: @ Vikings L 39-36 OT

Quarterback: Matt Ryan
The Colts immortalized themselves into the record books as they choked a 33-0 lead, surpassing the time when Frank Reich led a 32-point comeback. The Colts played well in the first half, especially the special teams. They got a blocked punt and stopped a fake punt. Everything unraveled in the second half when the defense started breaking down. This was truly a masterful tank job that not even George Patton could pull off. Jeff Saturday's performance brought tears to my eye. You can decide what type of tears.

Week 16: vs Chargers L 20-3

Quarterback: Nick Foles
The Colts switched things up again, this time installing Nick Foles as the quarterback. He was somehow worse than Matt Ryan, because he could barely make his throws and he was the same statue that Ryan was. But that ok, because the tank continues on. Blah blah offense sucked defense did well. It was the same Colts football we've seen. Luckily for Colts fans there was only two weeks left of incompetence and Saturdays and then we could finally be free.

Week 17: @ Giants L 38-10

Quarterback: Nick Foles, Sam Ehlinger
New year, same Colts. Perhaps the most shocking moment of the season came when Foles got completely massacred by Kavyon Thibodeaux, who starting making turf angels next to a lifeless Foles. No one did anything. The man stayed laid down on the field for a good 15 seconds before he finally got up. No Colt made an effort to stop him. Now sure, you can say that Thibs didn't know Foles was hurt and I'd be inclined to agree with you, but if you are a Colt you have to defend your quarterback. The lack of effort there highlights the laziness everyone showed all season.

Week 18: vs Texans L 32-31

Quarterback: Sam Ehlinger
With 3:33 left in the fourth quarter, Chase McLaughlin kicked a field goal to put the Colts up by seven. All hope seemed lost for the tank. When, suddenly, the Texans creep closer and closer to the goal line. They score a touchdown. They go for two. They make it. They win the game by one point and hand the Bears and the Colts the number 1 and 4 pick respectively. Lovie Smith is welcome in Indianapolis anytime. And with that, the season ends. Colts fans everywhere rejoice, screaming from the rooftops of Indianapolis. Jeff Saturday, the Tank God, has led us to the promised land. In terms of actual game takeaways Moss looked good with 121 yards and Rodney Thomas balled out again.

Roster Review

The Colts were supposed to be good. The addition of Matt Ryan was supposed to elevate the Colts to contenders, due to him having Jonathan Taylor, a good o-line including Quenton Nelson, and a solid defense, led by new DC Gus Bradley. Instead, the Colts defied expectations and were a shockingly bad team.
The QB room was a complete mess. The Colts couldn't decide on who our QB should be, with Matt Ryan starting, then getting benched in favor of Sam Ehlinger, then coming back, then getting replaced by Nick Foles, before Sam Ehlinger started the final game of the season. Quenton Nelson and Matt Pryor got contract extensions, but it didn't work out as the offensive line was shockingly bad. The Colts allowed 60 sacks, the second-most of any NFL team. The rushing game was heavily impacted by the ankle injury to Jonathan Taylor and trading Nyheim Hines to the Bills, but Zack Moss, who they got in return, and Deon Jackson, were able to somewhat fill the void and be serviceable. The receivers werw widely criticized but they didn't turn out to be half bad. Definitely not a top ten unit but Pierce and Woods looked like studs while Pittman continue to play well as WR1. With a young QB, I think this unit will really start to grow.
The defense was a different story. Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo continued their development while Ngakoue looked good for a veteran. Grover Stewart was one of the only consistent players all season, and was most Colts fans' player of the season. DeForest Buckner continued to play well and hopefully will not be traded to the Bears. With Shaquille Leonard out for most of the season, Zaire Franklin and E. J. Speed were able to somewhat fill in, but the linebacker unit will be much better with Leonard back even if we let Speed walk. Stephon Gilmore willed this team to multiple wins and was one of the most valuable pieces we had. Isaiah Rodgers also played well at CB but the Colts will need to bolster this position as Facyson is likely to walk and Kenny Moore II will probably be traded out. Rodney's McLeod and Thomas played well at safety and should be the next two years at that position.

Staff Review

Starting with the head coach, Frank Reich looked like he had completely lost the locker room. He was outcoached in nearly every game and Irsay quickly got frustrated with it. Scapegoats kept getting blamed, from Rodrigo Blankenship to Matt Ryan to Marcus Brady, but nothing worked. For the first time ever, Jim Irsay fired a coach in the middle of the season. Jeff Saturday was a head scratching hire and no one could figure out why Gus Bradley and Bubba Ventrone weren't hired. I won't try and say that Irsay is a 5D chess player with this hire but I will say that those two coaches will likely stay on the staff next year, something that may not have happened if either of them became the interim. Jeff Saturday was not a good head coach but we didn't exactly set him up to succeed
The offensive staff is likely to be cleaned out. Marcus Brady was fired midseason and was not replaced when Reich was fired. Chris Strausser, the o-line coach, is apparently likely to be hired by the Texans, which is good for us. The only bright spot on the offensive staff was receivers coach Reggie Wayne, who made our on paper bad receiving room look pretty good. Hopefully he will be retained.
Expect Gus Bradley to be retained by Shane Steichen. Despite a slow start, his unit played good this year and was a complete 180 from our offense. Bubba Ventrone should also be kept since his unit is always great, but it's unclear what will be done there.
Shane Steichen is a breath of fresh air for this franchise. He is a commanding leader and he's worked with so many quarterbacks, the latest of course being Jalen Hurts, so I have faith that he will bring the full potential out of whoever we draft. Jim Bob Cooter has been requested for an OC interview and I think he'd also help with a rookie QB.

Offseason Outlook

Notable Free Agents

Draft

Needs: QB, WR, OL, TE, CB
The Big Question is whether or not the Colts should trade up to the top pick for a quarterback. I personally think that if the Colts have a specific guy they want like Young or Stroud, they should trade up. That being said, they also should not overpay just to get a quarterback this year. They should not trade Pittman or Leonard to take a gamble on a relatively weaker QB class. The top two quarterbacks to me are Bryce Young and C. J. Stroud, but Colts fans are also high on Anthony Richardson because of Steichen's coaching ability. The fanbase is low on Levis even though mock drafters have us taking him at four.

Conclusion

This year's Colts were a dumpster fire from start to finish, but there is still room for optimism as our young guys shined and our defense played well. Shane Steichen will hopefully provide a winning atmosphere in Indy and a new QB to break the cycle will be important for resetting the franchise. This is one of the most important drafts we've had in a long time, so we will see if Ballard can continue his drafting magic.
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2023.02.14 17:36 BobW212 Mid-Major Round-Up Charles(ton) in Charge, At-Large Chances? MAC and MWC in Action Tonight

Charleston Cruises Past Northeastern, Examining At-Large Chances
A Look at MAC’s Full Schedule
Due to traveling yesterday, I was unable to write a weekend wrap-up, so my apologies for that. I was traveling for my birthday, and while doing that I attended a mid-major game of my own, Navy (15-11, 8-6) versus Army (14-13, 8-6). My birthday was this weekend, and I grew up going to tons of Navy basketball games, so to be able to see them defeat Army by the final of 70 to 53 was a really cool birthday present.
I’m obviously being a bit of a homer, but Navy is actually playing some of their best ball of the season, now winners of four straight. There are only four games remaining in the Patriot League schedule, and Colgate (19-8, 13-1) has all but wrapped up the league as they are four up on Leigh (14-11, 9-5). However, Navy can still climb to the two seed, as they are only one back being Lehigh for that spot. That’s important because the Patriot League conference is played at the campus of the higher seed. So, they could have home games all the way to the championship game, theoretically. We will know a lot more tomorrow, as Navy travels to Lehigh tomorrow.
Also, as I cherish the opportunity to crossover two of my favorite things, college basketball and wrestling, I met former World Championship Wrestling Champion, Diamond Dallas Page while waiting for coffee on Saturday morning. So, between that, and Navy picking up the win, it was a pretty cool day.
BANG!
Charleston Moves to 25-3, Good Enough?
Charleston (25-3, 13-2) defeated Northeastern (8-17, 4-10) last night by the score of 99 to 63. The victory keeps them tied with Hofstra for first in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Cougars were able to empty the bench fairly early in this one, as 15 different players got at least a minute of play. Charleston sophomore Ante Brzovic led the way with 23 points and five rebounds in just 20 minutes of action. Senior Pat Robinson added 14 points, five rebounds, and four assists off the bench.
Charleston could of course just win the CAA tournament (Held in Washington D.C. this year) and the following question could be a moot point. Is Charleston an at-large team? If they were to win out and only lose in the conference tournament that would give them a 31-4 record. If they didn’t make it, it would give them the highest winning percentage in NCAA history without making the Big Dance, with the exception of the 1991-1992 UNLV team that went 26-2, but that team was suspended from postseason play for recruiting violations. Utah State went 25-3 in 2003-2004, and also missed the tournament.
I think they are on the outside looking in, in the above scenario. If they lose any of their three remaining games (Elon, Towson, Stony Brook) then that would all but seal their fate. If they lost to Hofstra in the finals of the conference tournament, that would give them a loss against the 92nd ranked team.
Charleston has zero wins against teams that would be at-large bids today (unlikely to get into at-large territory). Their best wins are against Virginia Tech and Kent State (61 and 73 in KenPom). After that their best win is against 111th ranked Colorado State. Their two losses are against 92st ranked Hofstra and 203rd ranked Drexel. They are 0-1 in quad one games and 6-2 in quad three games. It would be wild to see a team finish with an 88.57 winning percentage, but I truly think that’s the case we are looking at here. What may help them is that they have spent a decent time in the AP and Coaches poll this season, so they could be on the radar of the committee more than other bubble teams, but in a blind resume situation (and most other metrics) , it seems the Cougars need to win the CAA tournament to make the NCAA championship tournament.
Random CAA note I feel worth mentioning and don’t really have anywhere else to put it. Elon (7-20, 5-9), Charleston’s next opponent on Thursday, has won five out of their last six games. Additionally Monmouth (6-21, 5-9) have also won five of their last six. Those two teams were among the worst ranked in the nation for most of the year. Now they have a very real opportunity - it appears - to cause some shake ups in the CAA tournament in a couple weeks.
All 12 Mid-American Conference Teams in MACation Tonight!
All 12 teams are in action tonight, but unfortunately none of them are premier match-ups. On paper, anyway. By that, I mean, there isn’t one of the six games that feature two teams that are both over .500. What that means though, is that the top teams are going to look to avoid the upset bug before the start of the conference tournament, as these teams will have just five games left of their regular season schedule after the games tonight. Here’s a look at the games for the top four teams, tonight..
Up top there is a two way tie for first place between Kent State (20-5, 10-2) and Toledo (19-6, 10-2). Kent State will travel to play Western Michigan (6-19, 2-10). While WMU is struggling, they put up a good fight against Kent State on Kent State’s home floor back in early January, losing by just eight. That eight point loss was among the better efforts of away teams against the Golden Flashes this season, as they are a perfect 12 and 0 at home. WMU enters this one on a nine game losing streak, however.
Toledo will host Miami (OH) (8-17, 2-10). Toledo beat Miami (OH) by only three points in their first season in Ohio. Despite their record, the Redhawks are usually very competitive, as 11 of their 17 losses have come by 10 points, or less. Toledo has won nine straight.
Ball State (18-7, 9-3) remains the team in the MAC that just keeps hanging around. Tonight they put their five game winning streak on the line against Northern Illinois (11-14, 7-5) who are only three back in the conference. Ball State handled Northern Illinois in Illinois by 18 in their first meeting. But, overall NIU has been playing much better. They’ve won six of eight, and remain in the hunt for one of the top seeds in the MAC.
Along with Ball State, Akron (17-8, 9-3) will look to stay at a minimum one game back behind the leaders with an away victory against Eastern Michigan (6-19, 3-9). Akron handled EMU by 37 in their first match-up. Emoni Bates (20.5 points per game) only scored three against Akron in their first meeting. If he gets hot, Eastern Michigan will be able to hang around, like they have done in most of their games lately.
Three Mountain West Games Tonight, Must Win Territory For Aggies, Lobos
Utah State (19-7, 8-5) are now hanging on by the skin of their teeth on the bubble, as most projections now have them as one of the “next four out” after losing their last two. Tonight they hope to get by Air Force (13-13, 4-9) who just scored an upset over another bubble team in New Mexico this past weekend, ending a six game losing streak. Including tonight, the Aggies have five games left in conference play. Two of those are against Boise State and Nevada, both on their home floor. There might have been a time not too long ago they could have split those games, but after losing to San Jose State, these are now absolute must wins.
New Mexico (19-6, 6-6) is 11th in most projections, but they are trending the wrong way, and fast, having lost three in a row. Tonight they look to get off the schneid with a win at home against Wyoming (7-17, 2-10). Wyoming lost to NMU by just one point back on New Year’s Eve. Wyoming is also on a three game losing streak.
Tomorrow’s slate features a Big West game between UCSB and UCI, the top two teams in the conference. Also, 10 of the 12 teams in the Missouri Valley are in action. Finally we will take a look back at tonight’s action, specifically to see where the MWC and MAC are after the dust settles.
Sorry for the delay in content. Looking to be back in full force as we draw ever so close to the start of conference tournaments.
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2023.02.10 15:12 kittehgoesmeow What A Day: Ron Appétit by Julia Claire & Crooked Media (02/09/23)

"What should the penalty for people that purposely lie, mislead, propagandize..." - Sean Hannity seemingly calling for his own imprisonment??

Primary Concerns

Donald Trump may have been the only Republican to officially toss his hat in the 2024 ring so far, but the coming GOP primary is going to be the kind of car wreck that we absolutely will (and should) rubberneck.
So, who do the big Republican donors and fundraisers want instead? We’ll give you three guesses.
All of that said, if Trump does become the Republican nominee for a third time, the pearl-clutching from GOP mega-donors will cease, and they will do everything they can to push him over the finish line, just like they did in 2016 and tried to do in 2020. All of the options are horrifying, and none of them would be “easy” to beat, per se. The only comfort we could take in a DeSantis vs. Biden 2024 race is that the shorter candidate historically always loses.

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

We’re excited to announce the return of Stuck with Damon Young, an original podcast from Crooked and Spotify. On this show, award-winning author Damon Young has returned for more off-the-cuff conversations inspired by today’s most culturally relevant headlines and round ups of Damon-approved listener-submitted questions. He’s joined some of the brightest minds and bold voices of the Black community including Kiese Laymon, Roy Wood Jr., Elaine Welteroth, Nikole Hannah-Jones and more.
The trailer is live right now and the first episode drops on February 16th! Listen to Stuck with Damon Young for free only on Spotify.

Under The Radar

A new analysis conducted by The Associated Press and Stanford University’s Big Local News Project unearthed the contours of a phenomenon in K-12 education that teachers and administrators across the country have seen for some time now: Thousands of students dropped off the radar during the pandemic, and never came back. An estimated 240,000 students in 21 states have absences which could not be accounted for. They didn’t move out of state or enroll in private school or homeschooling; they're just “missing.” And in the years since 2020, when the pandemic first hit, urgency to reach and re-engage these kids has dissipated. The staggeringly-high number comprises kids who may have dropped out of school or missed out on the basics of reading and school routines in elementary school. As so often happens in the American education system, the conversation about how children will recover from pandemic learning losses has centered largely around test scores and performance, not the impact on their overall development. Some students fell so far behind developmentally and academically that they no longer know how to behave or learn in a school setting. States where kindergarten is optional were more likely to have large numbers of unaccounted-for students. The true number of missing students is likely much higher than the 240,000 estimate, as the analysis doesn’t include data from 29 states, including those with large populations like Texas and Illinois. It’s clear that the United States and its social systems will be grappling with the consequences of learning loss and development loss for years to come.

What Else?

Former Vice President Mike Pence received a subpoena today from the special counsel in the January 6 investigation.
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) was assaulted in the elevator of her Washington, DC, apartment building early this morning.
As the Kansas City Chiefs head to the Super Bowl this Sunday, Native American groups have renewed their calls for the team to change its name, logo, and extremely racist/embarrassing “tomahawk chop.”
The death toll in Turkey and northern Syria from a major earthquake and subsequent aftershocks has surpassed 20,000 and is expected to keep climbing.
The Biden administration announced today that the PRC balloon shot down by the United States last weekend was equipped to collect intelligence signals as part of a sweeping military-linked aerial-surveillance program.
A new Republican-backed bill in Montana would prohibit schools in the state from punishing students who intentionally misgender or deadname their transgender peers.
The Republican-controlled Missouri House of Representatives blocked a proposal last night that would have banned children(!) from openly carrying firearms on public land without adult supervision.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized last night after feeling lightheaded while attending a Democratic retreat. Fetterman’s Communications Director said today that MRI results confirm that the episode was not another stroke.
A former Memphis, TN, police recruiter confirmed that in the years leading up to the killing of Tyre Nichols, the Memphis Police Department lowered its standards to facilitate filling hundreds of slots on the force.
The Florida High School Athletic Association walked back a proposal that would require female high school athletes to disclose their menstrual histories, following severe backlash from students, parents, physicians, advocacy organizations, lawmakers, and basically anyone with more than 10 brain cells.
Burt Bacharach, the hit-machine pop composer whose career spanned more than half a century, has died at the age of 94.

Be Smarter

Our favorite whiny coal-baron centrist is whining again. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was instrumental in passing the Inflation Reduction Act (because he bitched about it so much that it almost died). Now, Manchin has introduced a bill that would halt credits for electric vehicles until Treasury Secretary Jane Yellen implements strict requirements for E.V. battery sourcing. In a sentence that has been said probably one-million times over the years: Unfortunately for Democrats, they still need Manchin. He hasn’t decided whether to seek re-election next year in a state that may determine control of the Senate, and he’s the Chair of the Senate Energy Committee, so he could wreak havoc on a lot of Biden’s plans. He also dislikes that the Inflation Reduction Act is seen primarily as a climate change-fighting bill, and working in accord with the Biden administration is simply not popular in his deep red state. Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has been dispatched to the front lines to try to patch things up with Manchin. Here’s hoping the two Joes can smooth things over in the name of a livable planet.

What A Sponsor

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Light At The End Of The Email

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) defended President Biden’s decision to shoot down the Chinese surveillance balloon. Two days in a row with Mitt in the Good News column…what is happening?
Mainers are embracing electric heat pumps (kind of like reverse air conditioners) despite the fossil fuel industry fighting electrification with great force in New England. No clam chowder for you, fossil fuel industry!
Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) told a CNN reporter that he would vote to expel fellow Republican Rep. George Santos (R-NY). I bet he and Mitt Romney have a lot to talk about.

Enjoy

moustafa on Twitter: "i love asking 7 different ppl for advice then do what i want"
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