Agiel

Slightly concerned that we will say historical fallacies on the order of "The Iranian embassy hostages were freed by Reagan" develop when the Mosul operation is in the bag (of course it remains to be seen if the Iraqi government will address the problem that helped lead to its loss i.e. sticking it to the Sunni minority, alienating Sunni militias that contributed to the Anbar awakening, and sacking competent officers in the military on the basis of their sect). The same could also be said about the fact that already as far as the DoD is concerned sequestration is dead. Annual procurement budget threatened to go as low as $80 billion in 2013, but today that has shot up to $110 billion and is set to remain there into the next decade (for perspective, you could get two Gerald R. Ford CVNs for that, or sixty B-21 Raiders, or ten Virginia-class attack boats).

Newt Gingrich wants new House Un-American Activities Committee You know I kind of figured that if he was proposing to bring back this "silly damn thing" he would at least make a modicum of effort to re-brand this endeavour, but I guess I figured wrong.

Fox news still hasn't fully accepted Trump. That should tell all. Don't get all OCD on me. I'm not going to pick straws. Of course media outlets are going to be negative, that's their m.o, it's not the same as openly supporting a candidate as is most often done. You're either lying to yourself or out of touch if you don't see the difference. I would in counter claim that you are lying to yourself if you really believe that Trump don't have support of media outlets behind him. Media outlets know how to read their audience and they know that it is divided. Like where you see that Fox don't full heartily support Trump, you can also see media outlets that attacked him during elections now writing articles about people coming together in name of the country etc. pieces meant to make people that are against Trump, less against him and court those who supported Trump continue to read/watch/listen them. Media is excellent in the ways how they manipulate people and their goal is alway foremost their own profits. Mark Bowden, he of Black Hawk Down, Killing Pablo, and Guests of the Ayatollah fame, wrote a story for the Atlantic on the News Corp acquisition of the Wall Street Journal (unfortunately I think the change to the Atlantic's website kind of messed up formatting the piece; it's a little harder to read than when I first laid eyes on it). The key takeaway from that piece for me:

The Cubs won the World Series, Pennsylvania helped to elect a possible Manchurian candidate into the White House, and M. Night Shyamalan actually came out with a good movie. Clearly we're in uncharted waters:

I first saw it while staying at the house of the parents of my then Quebecoise girlfriend (who were also avid BD collectors). I found that you can rent it on Youtube and I'd honestly be shocked if it didn't come with English subtitles since the description is in English.

I am quite fond of <<Valerian et Laureline>> series, and Luc Besson's last crack at an adaptation of a classic bande dessinée, <<Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec>> I actually quite enjoyed. I suspect however, as with many other Luc Besson flicks, the people who are least likely to react well to this announcement are actual francophones.

Dirt 3 Complete Edition is free for the next 46 hours or so on Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/dirt-3-complete-edition-free-game

And yet they still somehow managed to make it embarrassingly cringey and completely without reason or sense. Bah, humbug. Regardless, they actually just came out today and said the previous reports were false: A little sad, but hey, greatness can't be rushed. I've said since I finished the last game that the bar I would measure Half-Life 3 by were that ever to be released would be Metro: Last Light. 2033 does benefit from the Redux version but the level design was a lot tighter in Last Light in my opinion.

Something that might prove handy for some for the next 4-8 years, if we make it that far of course: http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

My parents were re-modelling their house in the suburbs in order to sell it off to move closer to me in the city. I should try to convince them to reconsider. In addition I was never one to be frivolous with my vacation days, so I may need to get used to the idea of taking extended leaves of absence in times of international crisis. Live in a metropolitan area? Downwind of an ICBM base? Near an airstrip long and wide enough to accommodate a B-52H loaded with ALCMs? This site may be helpful for your preparations: http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Final Fantasy XV began life as Final Fantasy XIII: Versus, a game unrelated to XIII but I believe slated to release simultaneously with it. Somewhere down the line that plan fell through and went dark before being re-branded as XV. As for the Last Guardian, I found it at least a little funny how Team Ico managed to not make a game for the console generation that was the longest by a country mile.

Emphases mine.

It was a point of reference - but yes, I do think that after Geroge Soros is done putting fluoride in the water and dumbing down the population in general, he will be targetting the gaming community specifically. And once he has finished using Bioware as a guinnea pig, will move onto Obsidian. Let me guess: You developed this theory after the physical act of love when you felt the loss of essence?

Holy s***, this girl does amazing black metal covers... on a classical piano: Speaking of which, Deathspell Omega released their newest EP <<The Synarchy of Molten Bones>>. I have to announce this here otherwise I'd run to to the top of a church belltower to yell it for all to hear, right before I set fire to it.

A German pal sent me a picture of a Typhoon in a special livery connecting Richtofen and Hartmann: I'd like to have seen something referencing Marseille. That guy was a fighter pilot's fighter pilot:

Previews of the Auralnauts' upcoming fandub of Episode V:

Got the first two tomes of Olivier Ledroit and Thomas Day's BD, <<Wika>>. Story is fairly by the numbers "a-lost-and-orphaned-monarch-setting-out-to-reclaim-her-birthright" fantasy plot, but my god is Ledroit's art amazing: While I was at it, also bought another of Ledroit's artbooks, <<Fées et Amazones>>:

Might as well. It's free. Incredibly life-like cheese wheels. Haven't gotten around to getting the DLC for it. Unfortunately just buying all of that sans the base game is more expensive than buying the GOTY edition. Think I'll just wait till that Remastered Edition is on a Steam sale. After all, I haven't had the itch to go back to Skyrim since 2012 anyways.

A food truck in Portland:

I learned today that Snoopy was retired from MetLife's advertising campaign. The news made me realise that the only reason I chose MetLife as my dental insurance provider as part of my benefits package was because of those commercial.