News thread.

So the FCC voted 3-2 in favor of scrapping Net Neutrality.

Political affiliation aside, I can't see how anyone can be happy about this.

Tyrant Lizard wrote:

So the FCC voted 3-2 in favor of scrapping Net Neutrality.

Political affiliation aside, I can't see how anyone can be happy about this.

I see both sides. I get why people don't trust big corporations (EA anybody?) but at the same time, I don't think that the government should be so involved, either.

I just want a happy medium.

Considering how necessary the internet is to everyday life, I think there kinda has to be neutrality.

yeah the net neutrality thing being killed is worrisome.

The Pentagon had a secret program that investigated reports of UFO's from 2007 to 2012 that cost $22 million.

UN votes overwhelmingly to reject US recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital.

Perhaps now the cheeto-in-chief can educate himself a little more on the world outside the White House as he takes all 128 of those names.

Theta Rex wrote:

UN votes overwhelmingly to reject US recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital.

Perhaps now the cheeto-in-chief can educate himself a little more on the world outside the White House as he takes all 128 of those names.

The United Nations is a worthless organization that has a long history of anti-Israeli/anti-Semitism bias for a long time.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/unesco-backs-resolution-ignoring-jewish-link-to-temple-mount/

http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277%7D/TT_2016REPORT.PDF

Besides, what good are they when the couldn't stop the Rwandan genocide?  Not only that, but what good are they when many of their own peacekeepers have underage sex with children. That and given how many of them are bribed off by China, Russia, and much of the oil states (Saudi Arabia and Iran) as well as causing the cholea outbreak in Hati yet not even given ANY form of compensation, has done nothing about the human rights abuses in China, Russia, North Korea, or 'insert crappy country with a bad leader/abusive government here' and a whole bunch of other crap, then I say we disband it, nationalize the actual building, and sell it off to somebody who can turn it into a hotel.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Theta Rex wrote:

UN votes overwhelmingly to reject US recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital.

Perhaps now the cheeto-in-chief can educate himself a little more on the world outside the White House as he takes all 128 of those names.

The United Nations is a worthless organization that has a long history of anti-Israeli/anti-Semitism bias for a long time.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/unesco-backs-resolution-ignoring-jewish-link-to-temple-mount/

http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277%7D/TT_2016REPORT.PDF

Besides, what good are they when the couldn't stop the Rwandan genocide?  Not only that, but what good are they when many of their own peacekeepers have underage sex with children. That and given how many of them are bribed off by China, Russia, and much of the oil states (Saudi Arabia and Iran) as well as causing the cholea outbreak in Hati yet not even given ANY form of compensation, has done nothing about the human rights abuses in China, Russia, North Korea, or 'insert crappy country with a bad leader/abusive government here' and a whole bunch of other crap, then I say we disband it, nationalize the actual building, and sell it off to somebody who can turn it into a hotel.

Well, at least they don't have to add "bowing to the White House's empty threats and eye-rolling temper tantrums" to that list.

As low a bar as that may be.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Theta Rex wrote:

UN votes overwhelmingly to reject US recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital.

Perhaps now the cheeto-in-chief can educate himself a little more on the world outside the White House as he takes all 128 of those names.

The United Nations is a worthless organization that has a long history of anti-Israeli/anti-Semitism bias for a long time.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/unesco-backs-resolution-ignoring-jewish-link-to-temple-mount/

http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277%7D/TT_2016REPORT.PDF

Besides, what good are they when the couldn't stop the Rwandan genocide?  Not only that, but what good are they when many of their own peacekeepers have underage sex with children. That and given how many of them are bribed off by China, Russia, and much of the oil states (Saudi Arabia and Iran) as well as causing the cholea outbreak in Hati yet not even given ANY form of compensation, has done nothing about the human rights abuses in China, Russia, North Korea, or 'insert crappy country with a bad leader/abusive government here' and a whole bunch of other crap, then I say we disband it, nationalize the actual building, and sell it off to somebody who can turn it into a hotel.

Their mission is to prevent WWIII, which so far they've done a pretty good job at. Just because a few bad eggs  were raping and pillaging, doesn't make the whole organization rotten. I'm sure I can pull out FAR worse from our own Armed Forces and police. You know, like that one cop who tortured a man before killing him and got off scott free. The UN is good for the world, but it's not their fault the world is so fucked. They simply don't have the resources to answer every problem in the world. Disband it, and I guarantee the nukes would be flying within the year.

Also, they're not anti-Israel, they're anti-Imperialism and anti-genocide, both of which Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. They've far expanded past their 1946 borders, relocating or killing anybody who stands up to them. And whenever somebody calls them out on their bullshit, they pull the anti semite argument. Fuck Israel, they're imperialist pigs, and deserve to have their borders cut back to what they originally were.

CT-1138 wrote:

Both of which Israel is committing against the Palestinian people.

Most 'Palestinians' are actually Jordanians. Jordan occupied the West Bank until the Six-Day War (which Israel had to strike first-via destroying most of the Arab nations air power due to how outgunned it was). The main reason why Jordan didn't take them back was due to how many of the Palestinians via Arafat and the PLO tried to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, aka Black September. Their failure meant that Jordan refused to completely trust them again.

We have proof that North Korea has a biological weapons program, more specifically, anthrax.

In many ways, this is worse then nukes. Biological weapons are far cheaper to make then nukes and in many ways, just as devastating. If a North Korean commando unit were to infect Seoul with anthrax or more likely, some of North Korea's artillery were to fire a few bio-tipped rockets or artillery shells into the city, then a lot more people would die faster then if they simply leveled it to the ground with a conventional artillery barrage, which also includes multi rocket launchers.

Apparently North Korea and the south are starting to have peace talks, a month before the Games

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/04/asia/north-korea-south-korea-talks-intl/index.html

Hawaii emergency officials say alert of ballistic missile threat was mistake
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hawaii-ballistic-missile-threat-alert-false-alarm-live-updates/

I wonder who was drinking on this wonderful Saturday morning.

India has test launched an ICBM.

This was most likely a message to China and Pakistan. Iran too.

We have proof of those 3 Alcatraz prisoners that escaped did survive after all.

The Pentagon is talking about expanding America's nuclear arsenal as a response to that of Russia's.

Mysterious Mayan cites found in the rain forests of Guatemala.

President Trump says that the Nunes memo vindicates him in that the Muller probe is just a political hit job.

The B-52 long range heavy bomber will be in service past its 100th birthday.

Nice. The old bird is at least 66 years and is still putting a ton of hurt on bad guys. Pretty good for an old plane.

Shooting at Florida high school claims at least 17 lives.

I sure hope the government's keeping count.

Theta Rex wrote:

Shooting at Florida high school claims at least 17 lives.

I sure hope the government's keeping count.

Can you please not politicize this until the dead are buried? It's disrespectful.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Theta Rex wrote:

Shooting at Florida high school claims at least 17 lives.

I sure hope the government's keeping count.

Can you please not politicize this until the dead are buried? It's disrespectful.

As disrespectful as feigning shock and horror on Twitter for a few political sympathy points before sitting with your thumbs up your asses for the remainder of the year pretending something is going to change this time, all the while your own government funds are practically paying to keep this shit happening?

I sincerely apologize if I seem disrespectful, but this kind of talk is decades too late, not a couple of weeks too early.

Too soon? These are at least a monthly occurrence nowadays. It's always going to be "too soon". I agree with Theta. The shock value was lost about 50 mass shootings ago. At this point, the only disrespect to the families is given by those who want to do nothing to stop further incidents. By now, it's just a common occurrence in the daily lives of Americans, like a home burglary. I'm not going to pretend to be sad if our politicians won't bother to pretend to try to stop mass shootings. The only emotions I have left for these shootings are utter anger and disgust.

It looks like North Korea was selling chemical weapons to Syria.

The wreck of the USS Lexington, sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea during WWII, has been discovered.

The last male northern white rhinoceros has died.

Theta Rex wrote:

The last male northern white rhinoceros has died.

It's crap like this that only convinces me that the only way how to save endangered species like elephants and rhinos is if conservation gets militarized. It HAS been proven to work. Case in point: Kaziranga National Park in India established a 'shoot-to-kill' policy via poachers and ever since then, poaching has gone down massively. I say that African countries should adopt that same policy and, given how more dire things are, adopt even harsher punishments. For example, if you are involved in illegal poaching, then you family also gets punished by being forced to work in conservation activities to restore the population of endangered animals. If you get shot and killed by an anti-poaching squad, then your head gets put on a stick as a warning to others and your family has to pay the bill.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

By the way, where are all these Hollywood lefties? Shouldn't they be calling to save all these endangered species by now, considering how they're all of the 'Save The Earth" kind?

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Theta Rex wrote:

The last male northern white rhinoceros has died.

It's crap like this that only convinces me that the only way how to save endangered species like elephants and rhinos is if conservation gets militarized. It HAS been proven to work. Case in point: Kaziranga National Park in India established a 'shoot-to-kill' policy via poachers and ever since then, poaching has gone down massively. I say that African countries should adopt that same policy and, given how more dire things are, adopt even harsher punishments. For example, if you are involved in illegal poaching, then you family also gets punished by being forced to work in conservation activities to restore the population of endangered animals. If you get shot and killed by an anti-poaching squad, then your head gets put on a stick as a warning to others and your family has to pay the bill.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

By the way, where are all these Hollywood lefties? Shouldn't they be calling to save all these endangered species by now, considering how they're all of the 'Save The Earth" kind?

I have certain... reservations about putting heads on sticks, but besides that I would fully get behind enforcing wildlife protection through more stringent means and treating poachers as the criminals that they are because the cost of not doing so is already being shown through ongoing decline and extinction of wild animals. As a child, I always wanted to see a park full of dinosaurs recreated from extinction. But as an adult, I'd rather visit a park or preserve where animals had been brought back from the brink of extinction and saved from ourselves. We'll always have the movies to enjoy, but as Dr Malcolm said, dinosaurs had their shot.

(As a side note, I like to believe as a headcanon that Masrani Global put InGen to use in bringing endangered species back from the brink with their cloning technology, so in one significant way the legacy of John Hammond besides the dinosaurs was something of more of a healing nature to our planet.)

As for the typical Hollywood crowd, I've learned by now they're a lost cause. Its the rest of us I'm worried about.

It looks like Channel Awesome is in some big trouble.

This isn't the first time they've had problems. Allison Pregler got screwed over and was fired for petty reasons, Rob Walker, Doug's older brother, has been documented as a dick, their management is inept, and two of their biggest contributors, Brad Jones and Angry Joe, are barely connected to the site. LordKat talked about a lot of their problems and documented said they were the reasons why he left. Also, Mister Metokur made a 7 part expose about Channel Awesome via his YouTube channel. Check them out.

Update.

Chris Stuckmann has just left Channel Awesome.

This site is going down. The only question is if it will ever recover. I say no.

I'm really not surprised at all by his decision. I think anyone who wasn't aware of the sheer levels of abuse and manipulation going on behind the scenes will leave until its only the Walker brothers and Michaud left. I don't think it will recover either, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.


I was going to post this in the Godzilla new threat, but this also pertains to other Legendary Pictures films like Pacific Rim Uprising and Skyscraper:
Dalian Wanda Group sheds assets, and may affect Legendary Pictures moving forward

This bit of news explains why there have been no new announcements regarding future installations in the MonsterVerse despite the moderately good critical and box office reception to both Godzilla 2014 and Kong: Skull Island. I don't think the Wanda Group has been a very good steward of Legendary Entertainment, and it would be good to see it return to America and stop trying to appeal to the Chinese market, since it clearly ins't helping them out as much as they thought it would.

Oddly enough, Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom aren't mentioned in the article despite the former's huge box office and the latter's potential to do the same. Legendary may have only co-financed JW with Amblin and Universal, but they still gained a lot of money from its success.

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

I'm really not surprised at all by his decision. I think anyone who wasn't aware of the sheer levels of abuse and manipulation going on behind the scenes will leave until its only the Walker brothers and Michaud left. I don't think it will recover either, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

7 others have quit as well. Why Brad Jones and Angry Joe are still attached to the site is beyond me. Both are barely attached as is and they own their own properties. That and Joe really works for Disney via one of their offshoot properties so he needs CA the least. Brad is more puzzling since he hired Allison-after she got railroaded by Michaud, and before getting fired Rob Walker-and Phelous-who quit in protest of Allison getting fired-after the 2014-2015 debacle. One would have thought he would have quit then, or quit because of how those rumors are now true, or many of them anyway. Yet, he still is attached.