It's time for the end of season 2 of the Trump Presidency, and wow, were there some twists and turns over the year.  But now, the cliffhangers keep piling on.  It's like Trump saw the season 1 ender for Twin Peaks, and thought hey, I can do more cliffhangers than that.  And then he told Theresa May, "You call that a shambles?  I can show you a better shambles, I'm the most shambolic person I know, believe me."

Key highlights of this week's episode:

• Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, will be out after this season, gave a great Farewell Monologue, where he blamed everyone else for not cooperating, and how his leadership has ballooned the federal budget deficit to $1 trillion.  Guy still looks good though, I think he's doing a David Caruso with his "retirement".
  
• Interior Secretary and man under ethics investigation Ryan Zinke announce his surprise retirement from government.  Just like Game of Thrones, once you get to know these characters, they're gone.
  
• A federal judge in Texas struck down the entire Obamacare law, sending the health care markets into a tailspin.  No one really knows what will happen this time, as the verdict seems prima facie dumb, but we have a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court.  Will we have health care?  Will some of you die?  No time to find out now, because...
  
• Michael Flynn was scheduled to be sentenced for lying to the FBI and both sides said "no jail time, please."  Then the judge threw this out the window, talked about how General Flynn arguably disrespected what the flag stood for.  He asked the prosecutor if Flynn could have been charged with treason; the prosecutor wasn't sure, and asked to look up the statute!  (Spoilers: no it's impossible, there's no statute it's in the Constitution).  But we flew well past the "courtroom actually considers treason charges for respected general who served as National Security Adviser" waterline...
  
• The U.S. Congress shows a rare bipartisan chops, by passing a criminal justice reform bill to reduce sentences (First Step Act) and a huge Farm Bill.  Hemp is now legal!  It looks like we can finally get along and work together.  Until...
  
• After Trump promised to take credit for a government shutdown, we all thought that Congress would just pass a 6 week bill to fund the government.  But Trump is not having it, and threatened to veto and shut it all down unless he gets $5 billion to pay for part of his border wall.  Will they or won't they -- will the government shut down for good?
  
• Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker asked for an informal opinion on whether he could oversee the Special Counsel.  They said that he should recuse himself, informally.  He said, OK, I guess I'm not going to ask for a formal opinion and I'm totally going to oversee the Special Counsel.
  
• Robert Mueller looks to be in the final stages of charging Roger Stone of lying to Congress.  Will he flip?  Sexy spy Maria Butina did flip -- but is she a double-flipper?  Leaked court filings suggest that Mueller's not taking any chances, leaving a gag order in place.  Sexy redheads with gags... uh, moving on.
  
• The Interior Department moved to open all of the North Shore of Alaska to oil drilling.  Public comment is now open.  Will they listen to the public?  (Spoilers: no)
  
• Trump announced to the Defense Department (and incidentally the rest of the world at the same time) on Twitter that the U.S. would withdraw all soldiers from Syria.  Vlad and Bashir gave two thumbs up.
  
• Trump directed DoD to come up with a plan to remove all troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible.
  
• Defense Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis, the last of the so-called "adults in the room", resigned in protest.  Obviously upset about military withdrawals, he penned a letter saying in essence that he believes in alliances and using our military to protect others through partnerships instead of authoritarian intimidation.  He resigned because Mr. Trump does not share those values.
  
• With the government in freefall, will Trump head to Mar-a-Lago tomorrow to vacation with unpaid Secret Service protecting him?  Find out tomorrow!
  

I'm gonna sticky this one so that people can use it as a suggestion box to drop plot bunnies and the like.

One thing I've been itching to do is a deconstruction fic of GATE: The Day the JSDF Fought.  Of course, everyone knows: the shit is just plain broken.

The biggest thing is the complete absence of US Armed Forces.  I'll grant that maybe the JSDF might have been on the scene first, but you can bet that they would have been there to establish the beachhead on Alnus Hill.

The real trick will be writing it so that none of the major characters really get written out of the plot.

Thoughts?  Or other story suggestions?

It seems this was the result of the omnishambles combined with a catastrofuck that President Dumbbell just made in the Middle East, with the Kurds getting the shaft.

Quote:In his resignation letter, Gen Mattis described his views on "treating allies with respect" and using "all the tools of American power to provide for the common defence".
"Because you have the right to have a secretary of defence whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down," Gen Mattis wrote.

GoFundMe For Border Wall Passes $4 Million, 0.4 Percent Of $1 Billion Goal

Some entrepreneurial soul has decided to help some people lighten their wallets and set up a Go-Fund-Me campaign for the White House's resident dumbbell border wall.

How is this supposed to work? Who knows.

I mean, you can give the money to the Treasury, but the Power of the Purse resides with the House (which will turn majority Democrat in a couple of weeks) who decides who gets what money, and I don't see how they expect to compel them to allocate that money to the wall.

A NASA engineer gets revenge on the scum who steal packages from people's doorsteps:



ETA: Oh, and there's an article on CNBC about the guy and the video.

Calm restored in Strokestowwn


So, to summarise:

A man who was a serial delinquent debtor. He was a financial clusterfuck. It takes a lot of fucking around to get a Judge to grant a posession order against you. 
A bank that hired an unlicensed goon squad of gammon to enforce a court order rather than actually follow the usual proceedure.
An unlicensed goon-squad of gammon that went in like they were dealing with a bunch of terrorists, eager to crack skulls. 
A bunch of actual terrorists who showed up to kick the utter shit out of them. This was far more organised than a bunch of farmers - most Irish farmers couldn't organised 2nd gear in a 2 speed box. 

The blueshirts in Government are siding with the bank. The bank are acting like they did nothing wrong by hiring fomer British soldiers to turf a family out of a home in Roscommon. Sinn Fein are siding with the debtor - which they would since it was likely 'their friends' involved in the beatdown. Or as the 'Teesh' said, they're letting the balaclava slip.

And nobody knows who to fucking sympathise with. You just have a shower of cunts everywhere. KBC are already being called the Bank of You Vee Eff and are probably done as a business. They've used the goons before. You have a certain cultural resultance to turf people out of their homes. Hiring the British to do it is like hiring a bunch of lads from Alabama to run eviction squads in Harlem - there's a historical context there that makes it a bad idea. You have vigilante justice that was a bit of a slap as far as vigilantism normally goes - the gammon are lucky they're not in a bog somewhere.  

You have a situation that truly, and totally qualifies for the GUBU moniker.

The classic Warrior Trilogy is being re-released as both Ebook and print-on-demand


https://bg.battletech.com/news/warrior-t...and-ebook/

So yeah, I've been trying my hand at reproducing the butterbeer from Universal Studios and have had some success with a cream soda/butterscotch syrup blend topped with whipped cream flavored with more butterscotch syrup.

But that's not what this post is about.  This post is about the video below, which YouTube just popped up as "recommended" for me.  It's a guy making a genuine 16th-century butterbeer recipe.  And he was so pleased with the result that now I want to try it.

wpsstories:

Quote:writing-prompt-s:

Quote:after dying god informs you that hell is a myth, and “everyone sins, its ok”. instead the dead are sorted into six “houses of heaven” based on the sins they chose.

We arrived first at the House of Lust. “House” is a misleading term. It was more of a camp, spread over acres and acres of lush forest. There was a white sandy beach (nude, of course) full of copulating couples. There were little cabins sprinkled all along the path, from which orgasmic moans regularly came belting out. Men with six pack abs and women with perky breasts strolled by without even noticing me and God. They only had eyes for each other, tickling and pinching each other with flirtatious giggles.

“What do you think?” God asked as we passed a nineteen-way taking place in a pool of champagne. Little cherubs flitted overhead armed with mops and cleaning supplies, thankfully. “Lust is our most popular sin.” I eyed the supermodel-like figures of a couple passing nearby, and could easily see why. “You can look however you want. Hell, you can be whatever gender you want. No fetish is too taboo, and no desire can be denied here.”

It was quite tempting, but I wasn’t ready to make a permanent decision here. “Let’s see the others,” I told God.

We carried on to Greed. We passed rows and rows of mansions, each more opulent than the next. Some of them were so large that they would have had enough bed rooms to fit my entire hometown. And so many different styles: one second, we were in a beautiful French vineyard in front of a gorgeous chateau with the Alps in the background. The next second, a warm tropical beach with a modern mansion atop breathtaking cliffs. After that, a ski chalet in Colorado with a roaring fire in a hearth large enough to fit an ox. Each one had various Italian sports cars and Rolls Royces parked in front, with the occasional smattering of boats, helicopters, etc.

“Any material desire you ever wanted,” God explained. “Your own world, where you can have everything. You want the Hope Diamond? You can fly to Washington DC in your own solid gold helicopter and buy it from the Smithsonian. Hell, you can just buy the Smithsonian.”

Also tempting, but I decided to keep looking.

Gluttony was next up. Tables and tables of the very finest foods: beautiful steaks cooked medium rare; butter-poached lobster tail; fresh oysters on a half shell; exotic wines in dusty bottles that had been hiding in the cellars of the world’s finest restaurants. Everyone had a glass of champagne in hand and simply lounged on couches and chairs near the tables, eating endlessly. As soon as the inhabitants took a bite, the food just instantly came back. My mouth watered even watching them.

“In every other House, the food is practically sawdust compared to Gluttony,” God explained. “You haven’t truly experienced heaven until you’ve been to Gluttony.”

I shook my head, and we kept moving.

Sloth was as you’d expect. An endless sea of the softest mattresses, stacked with cushions and pillows that made the story of the princess and the pea seem minimalist. Little angels visited each resident, giving them massages that made them all melt into their blankets.

Wrath was… well, a lot like what I’d expect Hell to be like. Fire, brimstone, whips, torture.. you know, the works. Except here, you weren’t the one being tortured. Every enemy you’d ever made in your real life was now under your thumb. “Lots of people choose their fathers,” God explained. “Lots of grudges against parents in general, you know. But you’re not limited to that. Someone beat you out for a big promotion back on Earth? Take your pound of flesh here.”

Then we arrived at Envy. It looked… well, a lot like home.

“Go on in,” God said, gesturing toward the door. I turned the knob and walked in… and found Emily waiting inside. She ran forward, wrapped her arms around my neck, and planted a kiss right on my lips. “Welcome home, honey.”

I looked back toward God. “Oh, don’t be coy,” he said. “You have no secrets from me. We all know that you were in love with your best friend’s wife.” She didn’t seem to hear him at all; she went back into the hall. “We all know that you just settled for your own wife while secretly pining after her. Well, this is your chance to live happily ever after.”

I peered into the kitchen. Emily was baking something, wearing nothing but an apron. Her curly black hair fell softly over her shoulder as she whisked ingredients. She turned back, noticed I was observing her, and an enthusiastic smile spread across her face.

“It’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it?” God whispered in my ear.

I wanted to take it. God damn did I want to take it. But I shook my head.

God seemed puzzled. “You need to make a decision,” he told me.

“I haven’t seen Pride yet.”

He scoffed. “No one ever wants Pride, trust me.”

“Well, I want to see it.”

_________________________

Pride was boring. Just a row of workbenches in a bare white room.

“I don’t get it,” I told God.

“Yeah, no one does,” he answered. “That’s why no one ever chooses it. Doesn’t cavorting in Lust sound better than sitting here building little trinkets for the rest of eternity? Wouldn’t you rather gorge yourself in Gluttony? Or spend time with Emily in Envy?”

I considered the options again. “I pick Pride,” I finally told him.

He narrowed his eyes. “What? Look at it!” He gestured around the room again. There wasn’t much to look at. “Why would you choose this for the rest of time?”

“Because you don’t want me to pick it,” I told him. If he was really God, he’d know what a contrarian I can be. And I knew he was hiding something, trying to pretend like Pride didn’t exist. There was something special about it.

God scowled back. “Fine.” He led me over to one of the workbenches. In the center, there was a black space. A blank, empty void that went on forever. “Here’s your universe,” he said. “You’ve got seven days to get started.” He took his seat at the bench next to me and went back to tinkering in his own world. After a long pause, he finally spoke again: “You know, it might be nice for me to actually have some company for once.”

Dozens of Bomb Threats Reported Across America in Apparent Bitcoin Ransom Scam

NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau Wrote:“We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city. These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide and are not considered credible at this time."