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https://www.thedailybeast.com/vladimir-putins-army-forces-ukraines-frontliners-into-fight-or-flight-hell ...there is now little doubt that the Russian president will make the earth-shattering decision to invade neighboring Ukraine, according to multiple reports citing NATO and U.S. officials that emerged on Friday. Meanwhile, the U.S. and its allies have been working on getting “the mother of all sanctions” ready to deter Russia from an invasion. It is still unclear what exactly these measures will look like, but they’re expected to include personal sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, as well as the closure of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Europe.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alt-right-podcaster-joseph-paul-berger-charged-over-arsenal-of-machine-guns Joseph Paul Berger, a 32-year-old Navy veteran who lives with his parents in Bethlehem Township, was arrested Feb. 7 by federal agents who say they found 13 unregistered machine guns and 12 illegal silencers in a locked room in the basement of the family’s home...On his show, prosecutors pointed out, Berger goes by the moniker “GlockDoctor1488,” which begins with what appears to be a nod to the 14-word slogan used by neo-Nazis Another right-winger piece-of-shite white supremacist who thinks a few guns will help overthrow the USA... can we just lock him up and throw away the keys please!! Of course his liars lawyers are already arguing "freedom of speech" blah blah

I fully support investing into education and resources, 100%! I also fully support investing into space technologies which have innovated our world - my favorite example is GPS which was primarily developed by NASA and the USAF Honestly, I think the priorities of many people is, shall we say "skewed" - here in the USA over $100 billion is spent on sports annually. And yet, people are complaining that nurses, you know the people that save lives, are getting paid too much...

Loved Eternal Darkness! Easily one of the best Lovecraft games out there (and there have been many)! I will not spoil anything, but I will say you will need to replay it a few times to get the "true" ending - worth it

Phew, if only it were easy... People have done research and we know psychopaths have "different" brain chemistry, but here's the catch. He's likely not a psychopath, and in fact not all psychopaths are violent. Here's a statistic for you, studies show that about 1% of non-institutionalized males in the USA are psychopaths which translates into over 1 million psychopaths out there - but again, that does not mean they're all violent and about to burst! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4059069/ Also, how do you go "fixing" someone that may have different brain chemistry? Is that even ethical? I think the best we can do at the moment is try to help as many people suffering from mental illness, and we need to isolate the ones that show violent tendencies rather than letting them freely repeat criminal behavior.

I think this country greatly needs to work on addressing mental health - that said the vast majority of such people are not violent. However, the violent ones need to be identified and removed to protect the public. You could say every murderer in history has had "mental illness" and whether someone truly is "mentally ill" or not is difficult and sometimes impossible to determine - there's not even a clear cut definition on what constitutes mental illness and to what gradation. While some people truly do not know right from wrong, again the VAST majority of criminals know what they're doing is wrong, and they do it for numerous reasons - the notion that they're "just hungry" is of course pure BS, more often violent criminals get some pleasure out of hurting others. All that said, I think it's a tragedy that this repeat offender has had such a violent record and was not behind bars. Now he faces up to 12 years in prison. The woman he attacked is undergoing surgery and who knows how her life might be impacted - and yet he'll get no more than 12 years unless she dies - this is SNAFU

Horrible! this piece of shite is a "repeat offender"... what a surprise. Until he kills someone, he'll just go through the revolving door called prison "rehabilitation"

ho-hum, so another Olympics, another Russian doping scandal... yawn 2022 Olympics: IOC confirms Kamila Valieva's failed drug test. Here's what happens now. https://news.yahoo.com/2022-olympics-ioc-confirms-kamila-090217621.html Russian figure skating superstar Kamila Valieva did test positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, the International Testing Agency confirmed Friday on behalf of the International Olympic Committee, and her case will be considered at an expedited hearing of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) before the women's individual competition begins Feb. 15. The International Test Agency explained Friday that a Swedish lab found trimetazidine in a sample taken from Valieva on Dec. 25, after she won the Russian national championship, but for reasons not yet disclosed, the lab only reported the positive result on Feb. 8. The Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA immediately suspended Valieva from the Games, but a disciplinary committee lifted her suspension on appeal Wednesday. I like that, "for reasons not yet disclosed" - here's the reason: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Bowser sentenced to 40-month prison sentence for video game crimes https://www.engadget.com/gary-bowser-sentencing-220648450.html A US federal court has sentenced Canadian hacker Gary Bowser to 40 months in prison for his involvement in Switch hacking group Team Xecuter, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday. Not to be confused with Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser (or Mario’s nemesis, for that matter), Bowser was part of a collective that developed and sold devices people could use to play pirated games on their consoles.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-bought-none-of-the-200-billion-it-promised-from-the-u-s-in-phase-one-trade-deal-study-reveals-11644505449 Even on the day two years ago that the trade deal was inked, there was skepticism that China would live up to its pledge to spend $200 billion more on U.S. goods and services. But a new study finds China didn’t even spend an additional dime on U.S. products. China must think we're idiots... apparently so! After all, making this deal with China and thinking they would do anything that might assist someone other than themselves = joke!

These pieces of pure shite deserve to spend their lives in jail. I see no way to rehabilitate anyone that would try to murder a person because their hamburger did not arrive fast enough. I hope they literally rot away.

Where’s Liz Cheney? The Wyoming Republican’s Exile From Wyoming Republicans https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/us/politics/liz-cheney-wyoming-republicans.html Cheney hasn’t appeared at a state Republican Party function in more than two years and hasn’t been to an in-person event for any of the party’s 23 county chapters since 2020. Her vote to impeach Trump last January and her decision to take part in the House investigation of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 have forced her into a kind of exile from Wyoming’s Republican Party apparatus, in a state where Trump won 70% of the vote in 2020, the highest percentage in the country. “She speaks about her conscience, but you weren’t elected to do what you think is right, you were elected to do what the people want you do to,” said Sam Eliopoulos, a Cheyenne businessman and Republican who is running for a seat in the State House. “She didn’t do what the people want her to do. At the end of the day, that’s it.” I find this whole attitude of "do what you're told, not what you think is right" to be bullshite. Especially when what you're told to do is against our democracy and rule of law. Good for Cheney for having the guts and character to actually make the right decisions here!

Wouldn't surprise me one bit if they're financially supported by US right wingers. However, it sounds like protesters themselves are Canadian https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/world/canada/who-are-canada-truck-protesters.html A key organizer of the “Freedom Convoy” that arrived in Ottawa last week is Tamara Lich, who was previously secretary of the relatively new Maverick Party, a right-of-center group that was started to promote the separation of Canada’s three western Prairie Provinces from the rest of the country. Another main organizer of the truck convoy is a group calling itself Canada Unity, which has published a “memorandum of understanding” calling on Canada’s appointed senators and Canada’s Governor General (the representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Canada’s constitutional monarchy) to abolish all Covid-19 related restrictions and to allow all unvaccinated workers whose employment was terminated because of vaccine mandates to get their jobs back.

You gonna open this baby up and play??

Chicago’s carjacking task force to be staffed 24 hours a day amid rise in violent crime https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicago-carjacking-task-force-staffed-220900211.html Over the past two years, Chicago has experienced major spikes in violent crime. The city recorded more than 800 homicides in 2021, its worst year in at least two decades. Carjackings in Chicago rose about 135%, to 1,415 in 2020 from 603 in 2019, according to a Tribune review of police information. The 2020 tally was the highest figure recorded here since 2001, when Chicago logged only slightly more with 1,422, the city statistics show. The department has found that half the arrests made in relation to stolen vehicles are teenagers and children under 18, some as young as 11, and many are repeat offenders. “On it! I will call you back myself as soon as I get a break from meetings, but I have been worried about this, consistently asked about it, and was told by CPD that they had a collaborative plan with the burbs,” Lightfoot said in response. “I will make sure this gets renewed focus.” In January 2021, South Side aldermen partnered with private security to watch gas stations — a program they called “Operation Safe Pump.” But despite their efforts, crime remains high. On Monday, Brown said the city wants to reduce carjackings to pre-pandemic levels. In summary, here is Chicago I will give them points for "Operation Safe Pump"! When your "program" sounds like a 70s porn film, you did something right. Or wrong

Warning - amazon is SHIT. You might add three games, then go to checkout, only to find that even though all your games said "Get 3 for the price of 2" one does not count for some unknown reason although you DID add it from the list of 3 for 2. Yes, this has happened to me basically every single time I've seen this promotion. Hence, amazon is shit, and they know it, and they don't care. Caveat emptor.

A Kansas officer shot a girl while aiming at her dog. Can he claim self-defense immunity? https://www.yahoo.com/news/kansas-officer-shot-girl-while-234507599.html First off, the officer did NOT shoot her - freakin' BS reporting here. What happened was the bullet ricocheted and struck the girl. Fortunately she is fine. Lower court rulings in favor of the officer have already been used as reasons not to charge other law enforcement officers in use-of-force cases...Dexter Betts responded to a domestic violence call. He shot at a dog, missed, and bullet fragments hit a girl who was in the line of fire. Maloney conceded that Betts felt threatened, but he said the officer never articulated a fear of imminent death or great bodily harm, which is what justification for deadly force requires. Since the ruling will apply outside of law enforcement scenarios, Biles said, the court should consider the effect on hypothetical scenarios. His example was a crowded concert where a person faces a reasonable threat. "If they've got a gun, they can just start shooting," Biles said of the statute. "And regardless of how many people drop, they're going to have immunity, as long as you can show the threat was there while the trigger's being pulled." Betts fired two shots at the dog. Both bullets missed their mark. At least one ricocheted off the floor, and fragments hit a 9-year-old in a toe and above her eye. The girl had been sitting on the floor behind the dog. The miniature English bull terrier, named Chevy, was also hit by bullet fragments. "Here we are four years later," Hoeme said. "It's really easy for us to talk about ... he could have done this, he should have done that." The court took the case under advisement. A decision from the justices is likely several months away. Mike Tyson said "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

To be fair, Pelosi is saying do not speak while in China. Freedom of Speech is one of the great things about the USA, but it does not apply once you leave the USA. If an athlete speaks out in Beijing, they could easily be arrested and tortured.

Wow... And then, still apparently fuming over their mayo fight, Erlbacher mowed Solberg down with his pickup truck. After running him down once, he left — and the first strike was not fatal. But Erlbacher then decided to turn back to run over his pal again two more times. Erlbacher then called Pryor, Solberg’s brother, to inform him that he'd killed his sibling. "'It was just another bar fight in Harrison County,' until it wasn’t any longer," Pryor said during the trial, according to the Register. Erlbacher had claimed that he did not intentionally kill Solberg and his lawyers attempted, unsuccessfully, to reduce the charge to second degree murder. He also tried to blame alcohol for his actions that night. I wonder how that went - "Your honor, I was just trying to help him into my car when he fell under the tires. Then, he fell under the tires again... and again! Also, Mr. Beer was driving the truck your honor, I'm just a fist-fighting Harrison County type o' guy..."

Konami... that name rings a bell. Oh yeah, didn't they make games at one point, decades ago? Dracula Best is not their "best" Castlevania soundtracks. In my mind that goes to PERFECT SELECTION DRACULA BATTLE PERFECT SELECTION DRACULA BATTLE II If you enjoy fabulous 80s era arranged music, it does not get any better! A runner-up would be Perfect Selection Dracula ~NEW CLASSIC~, which in my mind is a bit overrated. That said, if you are into the original soundtracks, Dracula Best I and II are well worth finding. I saw Dracula Best I on ebay for under $50 shipped from Japan...