csyphrett

It might be too late to use reconciliation.  That only had a small window and once it's gone, it's gone. It might have been done when they wrote the budget for the year.
CES

New Girl
2017-
Lynette Harkness stood on the roof of her apartment building in her training suit. She
looked at the massive cloud hovering over the island of Manhattan. She must have
lost her mind to think she could make a difference in the chaos that had overtaken the
city.
 
She must be crazy. Her dad would give her a lecture about trying to jump ahead,
when she was still trying to crawl. She frowned behind her face concealing mask.
This was an all hands emergency. She couldn’t just sit it out when people needed her.
 
She work things out with her dad later.
 
Her danger indicator flashed on the inside of her mask every time she moved her
head. It indicated the cloud was the biggest source of danger in white digital clock
numbers. Smaller numbers flashed in that direction, but twelve o’clock flashed more
often than the others.
 
A scream drifted up from one of the alleys around her building. The visor dropped a
crosshair in the direction of the scream’s owner. She ran to the edge of the roof and
jumped to the next building.
 
Lynette’s boots were designed to hook into any surface she stood on and support her
weight as much as possible. Running across roofs became safer when you could run
up and down walls.
 
She paused at the edge of the roof and looked down. A woman was being menaced
by a tree in armor. The thing held a spear with a flaming blade in two of its limb-like
hands. A man was down on the alley floor.
 
Lynette took a breath. She had an enemy of unknown capability. He was a threat
to civilians. Protecting the woman was first. Then she had to deal with the wounded
man. That way they both could survive the night.
 
“Net gun, right arm.” The array in her right gauntlet changed with a click. “Line gun,
left arm.”
 
Lynette raised her right arm. A crosshair appeared on her target. She clenched her
hand. A diamond-shaped projectile unfurled into a spider’s web. It wrapped around
the target and glued him to the wall behind him. He started sawing at the strands with
his spear’s blade.
 
She couldn’t let him do that.
 
She raised the other arm and shot another of the diamonds across the alley. The
missile extended a line of rope behind it as it smashed against the wall opposite her
to form an anchor. She dropped down from her perch, letting the line retract slowly
so she wouldn’t hit the alley floor.
 
She dropped down on the soldier with both feet extended. Her suit gave her limited
superstrength. She would never be able to hit as hard as the Mark, but she had
enough to ruin someone’s day. He cracked under the impact, but he didn’t stop trying
to get out of the net.
 
Lynette grabbed the shaft of the spear. She yanked it out of his grasp. Then she swung
it like a baseball against the monster’s head. That took some of the fight out of him.
 
“He stabbed Paul.” The woman went to her husband. “I can’t believe it.”
 
Lynette had some first aid, but it wasn’t enough in this situation. She listened and the
guy was still breathing. That had to be something.
 
Her danger indicator lit up. She turned her head as a spear flew by her. Apparently
the one guy she put down had a bunch of friends. She didn’t know if the training
suit could take a direct hit, and didn’t want to find out.
 
“Full Auto Net Guns,” Lynette pointed her gauntlets at the crowd. Suddenly the air
was full of projectiles as she shot at whatever was in her crosshairs first. The webs
glued the hostile soldiers together in a pack. They went down, struggling to free
themselves from their bonds.
 
Lynette turned on her radio. “Man down on the eight hundred block of East 40th
street. I need an ambulance and a van to haul away prisoners.”
 
“Lynette?” The voice of her dad came through loud and clear. “What are you doing?”
 
“Nothing, Dad.” Lynette shrugged at the woman. “I have a stabbing victim. I need
him picked up.”
 
“All right.” Her dad didn’t sound like it was all right. “Help is on the way. Stay out
of this. Go home.”
 
“I can’t, Dad.” Lynette frowned as her danger indicator started feeding her numbers.
“It looks like they are sending in troops right where I am. I am going to have to
protect civilians in the way.”
 
“You are so grounded.” Harkness muted his end for a second. “All right. I asked a
friend to bail you out. Then I want you to go home until I get home.”
 
“I will be glad to do that.” Lynette had no attention of going home. The city had to
be protected, and she had her training suit. She could protect herself.
 
“Got to go, Dad.” Lynette cut the radio off. More of the enemy soldiers were flooding
into the alley from the far end. Her crosshair lit up as they crossed her field of vision.
It was time to get to work.
 
She sent more net bullets at them as they marched toward her. Some tried to cut
the nets as they expanded. That just wrapped the net around their arms holding
them together as the web contracted.
 
The reloading warning kicked on below the danger indicator. She had used up too
much ammunition on these foot soldiers. She had to go hand to hand until the
shooters came back online.
 
She looked around. The woman she was protecting had picked up a brick that had
been on the ground. She stood over the stabbed man. If the aliens were going to kill
her husband, it was going to be over her dead body.
 
Lynette hoped she didn’t get stabbed to match him.
 
The first soldier through the pile went for the stab to the face that she anticipated.
She grabbed the body of the spear, yanked him into a kick in the face. She reversed
the spear and stabbed him in the lower leg with it. Then she pulled, spun and broke
the spear across his cylindrical head.
 
The shaft caught fire on the broken end. She flung it at the next soldier as he climbed
over his trapped fellows.
 
Lynette used a wall to get over her next two attackers, and attack a third. She
delivered a kick that vibrated her leg. She needed to stick to using weapons against
these goons.
 
She dodged several spear points, using the walls to keep out of reach of
counterattack. She could see they were frustrated at her holding them up in a little
alley while the rest of their mob did whatever it could. Some of the netted ones had
been trapped with their spear blades next to their skins. That couldn’t be pleasant for
them.
 
The reloading icon switched to ready. She smiled beneath her mask. Now she could
take care of business.
 
“Single Shot Net Guns,” Lynette ordered her weapons control. The crosshair
lit up green everywhere she looked. She had nothing but targets below her.
 
She began plastering targets to keep them away from the couple at the other end of
the alley. She only had one more reload. She had to make every shot count.
 
Her shooting filled the alley with cocooned bodies. The language they used sounded
like gibberish, but it was easy to tell what they were saying from the tone. They were
saying ‘Fudge’, but not really. She could live with that.
 
The tree soldiers’ big brother dropped in the street. Glass shattered on impact. He
looked around with eyes of flame in his wooden head. He half-turned to raise an arm
to point at the mouth of the alley.
 
“That can’t be good.” Lynette ran down to where the couple were. She had to get
them out of the way. She realized she should have done that sooner. It didn’t matter
how wounded the husband was, she should have gotten them out of the way before
she had trapped the army.
 
She might have killed them with her mistake.
 
The giant’s hand opened up to reveal fire inside his arm. He smiled as he summoned
his attack forward. Killing prey was the best feeling the Queen allowed.
 
“Line gun, right arm.” Lynette fired the projectile as she grabbed the man off the
ground. She flung him over her shoulder as she grabbed the woman and held her with
her arm. The line retracted as she ran at the tank.
 
She leaped into the air, running along the tank’s wooden body, before swinging
across the street. She didn’t think she was going to get the three of them to safety
in time. All it had to do was turn and fire as she swung across the open space.
 
A streak of lightning descended from the sky. It became a woman in yellow, hovering
between the weapon arm and the intended target. The tank fired at her instead. She
knocked the shot back with an open hand.
 
“I don’t have time to play around with you, big boy.” Lightning blasted through
the tank, shattering it into flinders. “I got things to do.”
 
“The Mark’s Lightning?” Lynette balanced her burden as she stood on the wall above
the street. “You’re Dad’s friend?”
 
“The impression I got was you’re not supposed to be wearing that outfit in public.”
Lightning smiled. “Your dad was a little bit irritated.”
 
“Could you take these people to the hospital?” Lynette held out the two people she
fought to keep safe. “I would like to finish my patrol before Dad gets home to ground
me.”
 
“There’s no patrol.” Lightning took the couple in her arms. “You go home, missy.”
 
She flew off in a bolt of lightning, taking the intended victims with her.
 
“I, the Queen of Genn, the Sister of the Destroyer, the Mother of the Myriad, the Sun
of a Million Lands, pronounce sentence on this miserable place for the crime of
accepting my rebellious daughter as one of your own.” A giant burning tree held up
the Mark in her grasp as she stepped out of the cloud over the city. She stood on a
parapet of stone. An image covered the world so everyone could see what was going
to happen. “You will all be exterminated just like this hero who tried to stop me.”
 
Lynette felt tears cloud her eyes as the Mark burned away in front of everyone in the
city. She took a moment to compose herself.
 
She wanted to be a heroine like her father and mother. She had even more reason to
carry on the family business now.
 
11344

Steve Jack is the hero known as Munchkin. Armed with the ability to draw artifacts and powers out of thin air, he can change any battle's direction with the right pull.
CES  

Ryan Pitcher is the hero known as Four Corners has the ability to return any attack back at the attacker. He has trained himself to do this, and uses special gloves to protect his hands from things like bullets as he reflects any attack back at its source.
CES 

The Hermit
“Mark?” Jane Hillsmierer paused in the outline of the door frame around her. She
reached for the switch one side of the door. She had learned to distrust the dark. “It’s
me, Jane.”
 
“I’m here, Janie.” A lamp cut on, casting a glow on a work table. Mark Hadron sat so
she couldn’t see his face.
 
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” She placed her hands in front of her.
 
“What brings you by, Janie?” Mark shifted slightly in the shadow. “The business is
closed.”
 
“I think you need to think about reopening it.” Jane stepped forward. “I got a warning
from Nobody. Another rip is coming.”
 
“It will have to happen without the Lamplighters.” Mark turned to look at his work
desk. Scattered parts covered the surface. “Let someone else take up the torch.”
 
“There’s no one else, Mark.” Jane hit the light switch. She blinked against the sudden
glare from overhead. “We were the only business who could do what we did. It’s time
to come out of the darkness.”
 
Mark blinked. His remaining eye glared at her, while the other was a crater in his
face. A long scar ran down to his chin from his hairline. A gray streak in his brown
hair followed the scar along his skull. One hand had a hole in it from something being
driven through it.
 
“How much more am I expected to give, Janie?” Mark looked down at the hole in his
hand.
 
“We can’t hide from this.” Jane looked around the dusty workshop. “The warning has
come. It wasn’t raised psychic energy. It wasn’t something strange acting as a trigger.
It was a clear word from somebody who has shown he knows what’s going along the
barriers. Those things are going to come after us first just to make sure we can’t do
anything to them. If I have to fight alone, I will. But we both know you’re the only
one who knows how things work.”
 
“I’ll look into it.” Mark looked at his table. “I think I have a sensor that wasn’t
junked. I’ll start doing surveys tomorrow.”
 
“Thank you, Mark.” Jane smiled. “I’ll come by at eight, and help you with it.”
 
Mark looked at her with his good eye. He blinked after a second. He nodded.
 
“And clean up this mess.” Jane waved at the dust. “You can do better than this.”
 
“The maid has the year off.” Mark smiled slightly.
 
“I’ve heard that excuse before, mister.” Jane walked out of the room. “Be ready at
eight.”
 
“You should have married her, boy.” The voice drifted softly out of the air. “Big
mistake on your part.”
 
“He’s right, Mark.” Another voice sounded from a small table across the room.
Spectral cards dropped on the surface. “Your future would be better than this one.”
 
“The lamp is charging.” A third voice spoke. A hand of light appeared, pointing at the
metal structure they had put in when they had bought the building. “Nobody was
right.”
 
“I don’t need advice from ghosts.” Mark glared at the room. “All I am going to do is
a simple survey of the local levels.”
 
“Think about it, Mark.” Harry Cho appeared at the table. His hands dealt cards in
front of him. “You have two futures ahead of you. One is dying a failure, the other is
a change for the better. It all depends on the Queen which future you will get.”
 
“We don’t have to guess who the Queen is, do we, boy?” Milton Kearn appeared,
flask in hand. He took a sip, tipping his hat back out of the way.
 
Dyson Baker appeared, bathed in the blue glow from the device they had set up when
they had gone into business. He had been a big man in life, and his ghost still retained
some of that.
 
“You’re going to need replacements for us, Mark.” Baker kept an eye on the lamp.
“You’re not going to be able to handle a rip on your own.”
 
“I am just doing a survey.” Mark frowned at his former friends. “I’m not getting
involved in any way except to keep Jane out of trouble.”
 
“The future is going to be bad for you, Mark,” said Harry. He shook his head at the
cards on the table. “Dyson is right. You’re going to need help if you want to keep on
going. And you’re not going to shape things with Jane. She is shaping the future with
you.”
 
“You don’t have a chance in Hell of running away.” Milton put his flask away.
“You’re done.”
 
“Don’t let us down,” said Dyson. “We started the business to keep the city safe. It’s
time to stand up and start walking again. Hiding is not doing.”
 
“You’re all dead.” Mark stood. “You don’t get a say in things.”
 
“Of course we do, boy.” Milton faded underneath his cowboy hat. “We’re the ones
who did what we had to do.”
 
“The lamp is drawing in power.” Dyson pointed at the machine as he turned to mist.
“It’s going to attract things whether you like it, or not.”
 
“Any last words before you fade away, Harry?” Mark turned his one eye on his last
friend.
 
“The future can’t be fought, Mark.” Harry picked up his cards. “It can only be dealt
with and sometimes a better tomorrow means a terrible today.”
 
Harry stood, tucking his cards away. He smiled as he faded away.
 
“The Queen is coming, Mark.” His voice drifted in the air. “And the choice is coming
with her. Pick the best path.”
 
“Stupid ghosts.” Mark looked at his desk. The parts for the technology they had come
up with lay covered in dust. He picked up a shell base and inspected it. He picked up
a rag and wiped the bowl out.
 
“I’m going to be ready.”

The variation I saw was:
Pepsi: That didn't go over well
United: Hold my beer.
Sean Spicer: LEEEEEEEROOOOY JEENNNNKKKINNNSSS!!!
CES 

The variation I saw was:
Pepsi: That didn't go over well
United: Hold my beer.
Sean Spicer: LEEEEEEEROOOOY JEENNNNKKKINNNSSS!!!
CES 

The variation I saw was:
Pepsi: That didn't go over well
United: Hold my beer.
Sean Spicer: LEEEEEEEROOOOY JEENNNNKKKINNNSSS!!!
CES 

Girl at work saves toddler walking down the road. Apparently she slipped out of the house in her socks and diaper and walked a half mile before Keirstan picked her up
CES 

Sorry to hear this, Masked Man.
CES 

Honestly I think the solutions are known by everyone, but are merely difficult to implement because of government corruption:
 
- Raise the minimum wage.  The federal minimum wage hasn't been effectively raised in what, thirty years?  States have recently begun to do this themselves, and while I think it's too early to see what the ultimate effects are going to be, the dire predictions of economic collapse have not occurred.
 
- Education and training.  Automation is a cool thing to discuss nowadays but it's been happening for centuries.  More importantly, it's easy to see it coming and prepare for it by providing education, training, and relocation assistance to the people who are being moved.  Again this is a no-brainer--we can resist automation and cling to a less-efficient work arrangement, or we can replace people with robots and dump them on the streets to fend for themselves, or we can make this minimal investment in these people so they can go be productive somewhere else.
 
- Enforcement of human rights.  This one is tricky, but the only reason globalization is perceived as a problem is that it's cheaper for companies to move work from the U.S. to slave laborers in offshore sweatshops.  Oddly enough, this problem is somewhat self-correcting--Chinese labor, for example, is becoming more expensive since we've given them so much work and their economy is (or was) booming.  Still, it shouldn't be difficult to enforce decent working conditions, if not wages, on labor used to produce goods for import.  We already have to monitor such goods closely to keep the lead out of toys and the plastic out of baby formula.
 
 
 
 
This is the more difficult question.  I wrote an essay a while back about how the democratizing of news via the Internet wound up breaking the media, preventing them from performing their duties as watchdogs, and fragmented the population into bubbles and echo chambers in which only the most hysterical voices could be heard.  I still believe that this problem will be solved through technological and societal means, but there's certainly no guarantee.

The Hermit
“Mark?” Jane Hillsmierer paused in the outline of the door frame around her. She
reached for the switch one side of the door. She had learned to distrust the dark. “It’s
me, Jane.”
 
“I’m here, Janie.” A lamp cut on, casting a glow on a work table. Mark Hadron sat so
she couldn’t see his face.
 
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” She placed her hands in front of her.
 
“What brings you by, Janie?” Mark shifted slightly in the shadow. “The business is
closed.”
 
“I think you need to think about reopening it.” Jane stepped forward. “I got a warning
from Nobody. Another rip is coming.”
 
“It will have to happen without the Lamplighters.” Mark turned to look at his work
desk. Scattered parts covered the surface. “Let someone else take up the torch.”
 
“There’s no one else, Mark.” Jane hit the light switch. She blinked against the sudden
glare from overhead. “We were the only business who could do what we did. It’s time
to come out of the darkness.”
 
Mark blinked. His remaining eye glared at her, while the other was a crater in his
face. A long scar ran down to his chin from his hairline. A gray streak in his brown
hair followed the scar along his skull. One hand had a hole in it from something being
driven through it.
 
“How much more am I expected to give, Janie?” Mark looked down at the hole in his
hand.
 
“We can’t hide from this.” Jane looked around the dusty workshop. “The warning has
come. It wasn’t raised psychic energy. It wasn’t something strange acting as a trigger.
It was a clear word from somebody who has shown he knows what’s going along the
barriers. Those things are going to come after us first just to make sure we can’t do
anything to them. If I have to fight alone, I will. But we both know you’re the only
one who knows how things work.”
 
“I’ll look into it.” Mark looked at his table. “I think I have a sensor that wasn’t
junked. I’ll start doing surveys tomorrow.”
 
“Thank you, Mark.” Jane smiled. “I’ll come by at eight, and help you with it.”
 
Mark looked at her with his good eye. He blinked after a second. He nodded.
 
“And clean up this mess.” Jane waved at the dust. “You can do better than this.”
 
“The maid has the year off.” Mark smiled slightly.
 
“I’ve heard that excuse before, mister.” Jane walked out of the room. “Be ready at
eight.”
 
“You should have married her, boy.” The voice drifted softly out of the air. “Big
mistake on your part.”
 
“He’s right, Mark.” Another voice sounded from a small table across the room.
Spectral cards dropped on the surface. “Your future would be better than this one.”
 
“The lamp is charging.” A third voice spoke. A hand of light appeared, pointing at the
metal structure they had put in when they had bought the building. “Nobody was
right.”
 
“I don’t need advice from ghosts.” Mark glared at the room. “All I am going to do is
a simple survey of the local levels.”
 
“Think about it, Mark.” Harry Cho appeared at the table. His hands dealt cards in
front of him. “You have two futures ahead of you. One is dying a failure, the other is
a change for the better. It all depends on the Queen which future you will get.”
 
“We don’t have to guess who the Queen is, do we, boy?” Milton Kearn appeared,
flask in hand. He took a sip, tipping his hat back out of the way.
 
Dyson Baker appeared, bathed in the blue glow from the device they had set up when
they had gone into business. He had been a big man in life, and his ghost still retained
some of that.
 
“You’re going to need replacements for us, Mark.” Baker kept an eye on the lamp.
“You’re not going to be able to handle a rip on your own.”
 
“I am just doing a survey.” Mark frowned at his former friends. “I’m not getting
involved in any way except to keep Jane out of trouble.”
 
“The future is going to be bad for you, Mark,” said Harry. He shook his head at the
cards on the table. “Dyson is right. You’re going to need help if you want to keep on
going. And you’re not going to shape things with Jane. She is shaping the future with
you.”
 
“You don’t have a chance in Hell of running away.” Milton put his flask away.
“You’re done.”
 
“Don’t let us down,” said Dyson. “We started the business to keep the city safe. It’s
time to stand up and start walking again. Hiding is not doing.”
 
“You’re all dead.” Mark stood. “You don’t get a say in things.”
 
“Of course we do, boy.” Milton faded underneath his cowboy hat. “We’re the ones
who did what we had to do.”
 
“The lamp is drawing in power.” Dyson pointed at the machine as he turned to mist.
“It’s going to attract things whether you like it, or not.”
 
“Any last words before you fade away, Harry?” Mark turned his one eye on his last
friend.
 
“The future can’t be fought, Mark.” Harry picked up his cards. “It can only be dealt
with and sometimes a better tomorrow means a terrible today.”
 
Harry stood, tucking his cards away. He smiled as he faded away.
 
“The Queen is coming, Mark.” His voice drifted in the air. “And the choice is coming
with her. Pick the best path.”
 
“Stupid ghosts.” Mark looked at his desk. The parts for the technology they had come
up with lay covered in dust. He picked up a shell base and inspected it. He picked up
a rag and wiped the bowl out.
 
“I’m going to be ready.”

The Hermit
“Mark?” Jane Hillsmierer paused in the outline of the door frame around her. She
reached for the switch one side of the door. She had learned to distrust the dark. “It’s
me, Jane.”
 
“I’m here, Janie.” A lamp cut on, casting a glow on a work table. Mark Hadron sat so
she couldn’t see his face.
 
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” She placed her hands in front of her.
 
“What brings you by, Janie?” Mark shifted slightly in the shadow. “The business is
closed.”
 
“I think you need to think about reopening it.” Jane stepped forward. “I got a warning
from Nobody. Another rip is coming.”
 
“It will have to happen without the Lamplighters.” Mark turned to look at his work
desk. Scattered parts covered the surface. “Let someone else take up the torch.”
 
“There’s no one else, Mark.” Jane hit the light switch. She blinked against the sudden
glare from overhead. “We were the only business who could do what we did. It’s time
to come out of the darkness.”
 
Mark blinked. His remaining eye glared at her, while the other was a crater in his
face. A long scar ran down to his chin from his hairline. A gray streak in his brown
hair followed the scar along his skull. One hand had a hole in it from something being
driven through it.
 
“How much more am I expected to give, Janie?” Mark looked down at the hole in his
hand.
 
“We can’t hide from this.” Jane looked around the dusty workshop. “The warning has
come. It wasn’t raised psychic energy. It wasn’t something strange acting as a trigger.
It was a clear word from somebody who has shown he knows what’s going along the
barriers. Those things are going to come after us first just to make sure we can’t do
anything to them. If I have to fight alone, I will. But we both know you’re the only
one who knows how things work.”
 
“I’ll look into it.” Mark looked at his table. “I think I have a sensor that wasn’t
junked. I’ll start doing surveys tomorrow.”
 
“Thank you, Mark.” Jane smiled. “I’ll come by at eight, and help you with it.”
 
Mark looked at her with his good eye. He blinked after a second. He nodded.
 
“And clean up this mess.” Jane waved at the dust. “You can do better than this.”
 
“The maid has the year off.” Mark smiled slightly.
 
“I’ve heard that excuse before, mister.” Jane walked out of the room. “Be ready at
eight.”
 
“You should have married her, boy.” The voice drifted softly out of the air. “Big
mistake on your part.”
 
“He’s right, Mark.” Another voice sounded from a small table across the room.
Spectral cards dropped on the surface. “Your future would be better than this one.”
 
“The lamp is charging.” A third voice spoke. A hand of light appeared, pointing at the
metal structure they had put in when they had bought the building. “Nobody was
right.”
 
“I don’t need advice from ghosts.” Mark glared at the room. “All I am going to do is
a simple survey of the local levels.”
 
“Think about it, Mark.” Harry Cho appeared at the table. His hands dealt cards in
front of him. “You have two futures ahead of you. One is dying a failure, the other is
a change for the better. It all depends on the Queen which future you will get.”
 
“We don’t have to guess who the Queen is, do we, boy?” Milton Kearn appeared,
flask in hand. He took a sip, tipping his hat back out of the way.
 
Dyson Baker appeared, bathed in the blue glow from the device they had set up when
they had gone into business. He had been a big man in life, and his ghost still retained
some of that.
 
“You’re going to need replacements for us, Mark.” Baker kept an eye on the lamp.
“You’re not going to be able to handle a rip on your own.”
 
“I am just doing a survey.” Mark frowned at his former friends. “I’m not getting
involved in any way except to keep Jane out of trouble.”
 
“The future is going to be bad for you, Mark,” said Harry. He shook his head at the
cards on the table. “Dyson is right. You’re going to need help if you want to keep on
going. And you’re not going to shape things with Jane. She is shaping the future with
you.”
 
“You don’t have a chance in Hell of running away.” Milton put his flask away.
“You’re done.”
 
“Don’t let us down,” said Dyson. “We started the business to keep the city safe. It’s
time to stand up and start walking again. Hiding is not doing.”
 
“You’re all dead.” Mark stood. “You don’t get a say in things.”
 
“Of course we do, boy.” Milton faded underneath his cowboy hat. “We’re the ones
who did what we had to do.”
 
“The lamp is drawing in power.” Dyson pointed at the machine as he turned to mist.
“It’s going to attract things whether you like it, or not.”
 
“Any last words before you fade away, Harry?” Mark turned his one eye on his last
friend.
 
“The future can’t be fought, Mark.” Harry picked up his cards. “It can only be dealt
with and sometimes a better tomorrow means a terrible today.”
 
Harry stood, tucking his cards away. He smiled as he faded away.
 
“The Queen is coming, Mark.” His voice drifted in the air. “And the choice is coming
with her. Pick the best path.”
 
“Stupid ghosts.” Mark looked at his desk. The parts for the technology they had come
up with lay covered in dust. He picked up a shell base and inspected it. He picked up
a rag and wiped the bowl out.
 
“I’m going to be ready.”

I feel this needs to be shared.
 

And the people he is wanting to have confirmed for his cabinet are pretty horrible people for the most part. I think Pence picked most of these people since they seem rational but have a core of evil running through them. The only two that actually look Trump picked them are the guy from Goldman Sachs (which owes money to and blasted during his campaign) and the king of bankrupticies.
 
I can't wait until my obamacare is repealed. I am going to look at my coworker who voted for Trump, and I am going to laugh in his face, and rub it in that he had obamacare too.
 
The people I know who said Hillary was the bigger evil, I point blank told them that Trump only told the truth 4% of the time. In a hundred word speech, Hello I'm Donald Trump were the only truthful things he said. Benghazi: Cleared ELEVEN TIMES (And the guy on the committee getting the cabinet seat still swears Hillary was such a mastermind that she covered up her involvement, but she can't cover an email server that a private foundation found through FOIAs.) Emails: Nothing on them, nothing but reports coming from her department that never went out from her server (which shows you how stupid the FBI is because they destroyed a diplomat's career because they couldn't figure out part of her job is to talk to foreign nationals. Oopsie.) Clinton Foundation: The guy that was complaining the most was getting chucked out for CoI because he was building his side business while using Bill Clinton as a fundraiser. Foundation paid for Chelsea's wedding, which apparently is not true according to an audit. The list goes on and I have had to show how wrong the people I work with are to their faces. And they are still Trump's better. After that I was like you are the biggest fracking idiots ever.
 
And I have gotten to rub it in about what they choose, and every time Trump does something stupid, I go you voted for him.
 
What would really make my day is Trump gets impeached, arrested, and tried over his own Foundation, and the fact he was committing fraud with it. I would laugh my Shadow laugh at my coworkers, and say you voted for him.
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And the people he is wanting to have confirmed for his cabinet are pretty horrible people for the most part. I think Pence picked most of these people since they seem rational but have a core of evil running through them. The only two that actually look Trump picked them are the guy from Goldman Sachs (which owes money to and blasted during his campaign) and the king of bankrupticies.
 
I can't wait until my obamacare is repealed. I am going to look at my coworker who voted for Trump, and I am going to laugh in his face, and rub it in that he had obamacare too.
 
The people I know who said Hillary was the bigger evil, I point blank told them that Trump only told the truth 4% of the time. In a hundred word speech, Hello I'm Donald Trump were the only truthful things he said. Benghazi: Cleared ELEVEN TIMES (And the guy on the committee getting the cabinet seat still swears Hillary was such a mastermind that she covered up her involvement, but she can't cover an email server that a private foundation found through FOIAs.) Emails: Nothing on them, nothing but reports coming from her department that never went out from her server (which shows you how stupid the FBI is because they destroyed a diplomat's career because they couldn't figure out part of her job is to talk to foreign nationals. Oopsie.) Clinton Foundation: The guy that was complaining the most was getting chucked out for CoI because he was building his side business while using Bill Clinton as a fundraiser. Foundation paid for Chelsea's wedding, which apparently is not true according to an audit. The list goes on and I have had to show how wrong the people I work with are to their faces. And they are still Trump's better. After that I was like you are the biggest fracking idiots ever.
 
And I have gotten to rub it in about what they choose, and every time Trump does something stupid, I go you voted for him.
 
What would really make my day is Trump gets impeached, arrested, and tried over his own Foundation, and the fact he was committing fraud with it. I would laugh my Shadow laugh at my coworkers, and say you voted for him.
CES          

And the people he is wanting to have confirmed for his cabinet are pretty horrible people for the most part. I think Pence picked most of these people since they seem rational but have a core of evil running through them. The only two that actually look Trump picked them are the guy from Goldman Sachs (which owes money to and blasted during his campaign) and the king of bankrupticies.
 
I can't wait until my obamacare is repealed. I am going to look at my coworker who voted for Trump, and I am going to laugh in his face, and rub it in that he had obamacare too.
 
The people I know who said Hillary was the bigger evil, I point blank told them that Trump only told the truth 4% of the time. In a hundred word speech, Hello I'm Donald Trump were the only truthful things he said. Benghazi: Cleared ELEVEN TIMES (And the guy on the committee getting the cabinet seat still swears Hillary was such a mastermind that she covered up her involvement, but she can't cover an email server that a private foundation found through FOIAs.) Emails: Nothing on them, nothing but reports coming from her department that never went out from her server (which shows you how stupid the FBI is because they destroyed a diplomat's career because they couldn't figure out part of her job is to talk to foreign nationals. Oopsie.) Clinton Foundation: The guy that was complaining the most was getting chucked out for CoI because he was building his side business while using Bill Clinton as a fundraiser. Foundation paid for Chelsea's wedding, which apparently is not true according to an audit. The list goes on and I have had to show how wrong the people I work with are to their faces. And they are still Trump's better. After that I was like you are the biggest fracking idiots ever.
 
And I have gotten to rub it in about what they choose, and every time Trump does something stupid, I go you voted for him.
 
What would really make my day is Trump gets impeached, arrested, and tried over his own Foundation, and the fact he was committing fraud with it. I would laugh my Shadow laugh at my coworkers, and say you voted for him.
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"Ich hat dir gesagt," or some such.

Netzilla is right. I know a guy who voted for McMullen even though McMullen wasn't on the ballot in my state. I don't like either one of these candidates so I voted for a third party. I told him point blank that voting for someone who didn't have a chance was just throwing your ballot away.
 
People want change versus status quo, that's fine. But knowing you have a sociopath who will wreck your boat and a status quo person who will at least try to keep things together was the choices. Anything else was hey I'm jumping off the boat to drown. That's especially true now that Ryan is making noises of destroying Medicare, and the Republicans can destroy Obamacare.
 
(I am especially pissed about the Obamacare because I depend on it for my heart medication. This guy at work has it too, and he voted for Trump. I just found that out. I was like this dumbass is an idiot. OMGWTFBBQ!!!!)
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Trump still has to answer his 75 lawsuits. One of the two Trump U cases has been said to have grounds for racketeering charges. I doubt there will be an impeachment process as this plays out
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So, whose standard of evidence? You seem to be deciding that, but your standard, in one metric already, is not shared by most on either side of the political aisle, and is at odds with the actual facts and any definition of reasonable standards.
 
Perhaps if you don't like a topic, you could simply just not like the topic. This does not equate to an argument of such validity that the topic is decided, because it isn't.
 
It's easy to characterize something as 'over-emotional and accusational' to discount it. But you yourself responded to a statement that was, in essence, "alt-right, a movement founded by white nationalists for white nationalism, and whose arguments stem from white nationalism, is white nationalist, and Bannon, who provides their strongest media source, is either an opportunist, or shares views with white nationalists, and Trump, by making use of this, created a problem" into an over-emotional accusation that I was unfairly calling people racists, when, in fact, the above are actually statements of fact. You further used anecdotal evidence, you know some people who are alt-right and don't think they were racists, as your sole trump.
 
I clarified that I did not doubt that was true. Which does not change who founded alt-right, who it's main voices are, and that the very, very few of those voices who do not claim to be white nationalists are, in almost every case, putting forward the exact views of the white nationalists, minus outright stating they are white nationalists.
 
Any thorough search of alt-right sources, be it theirs or their critics, will confirm EVERY statement I just made.
 
If we can't call people who call themselves white nationalists, white nationalists, based solely on some anecdotal evidence of someone else having the bad judgment of associating themselves with a white nationalist movement, who can we call white nationalists?
 
I'm only reiterating this to point out that you are not in a place to be arbiter on discussions of race if you cannot allow even self-avowed white nationalists to be referred to as racists. A discourse on race that cannot address actual racists is not a sensible thing.

Netzilla is right. I know a guy who voted for McMullen even though McMullen wasn't on the ballot in my state. I don't like either one of these candidates so I voted for a third party. I told him point blank that voting for someone who didn't have a chance was just throwing your ballot away.
 
People want change versus status quo, that's fine. But knowing you have a sociopath who will wreck your boat and a status quo person who will at least try to keep things together was the choices. Anything else was hey I'm jumping off the boat to drown. That's especially true now that Ryan is making noises of destroying Medicare, and the Republicans can destroy Obamacare.
 
(I am especially pissed about the Obamacare because I depend on it for my heart medication. This guy at work has it too, and he voted for Trump. I just found that out. I was like this dumbass is an idiot. OMGWTFBBQ!!!!)
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Also if he allows the ACA to be repealed, that will be a personal blow to me and my family.
 
Forgive me if I am not sanguine with the thought that we elected a moron who could not be trusted with his own phone the last two days of his campaign
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Wang Fei Man is a practicioner  of Wing Chun. Coming from a Hong Kong besieged by gangsters and foreign powers, he used his fighting skills in self defense. He is the one member of the team who tries not to hurt anyone, but is known to unleash his chain punch against his enemies.
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Grunge by Ringo was okay, but the first person pov from that book is def a Sue. Joker gets straight c's in school just to tick off his liberal mom. I was like seriously?
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