Movies & TV Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Premiere Is High on Charm The series is high on nostaglia for a certain kind of kids’ adventure, but its central mystery is what really powers the tale By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on December 4, 2024 Credit: Lucasfilm Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Lucasfilm We’ve got a two-episode premiere! Let’s get to it. “This Could Be A Real Adventure” Credit: Lucasfilm In the time of the New Republic, piracy is on the rise on hyperspace routes. A pirate ship crew boards a bulk freighter, looking for a large haul. Captain Silvo, who has not been popular with his crew of late as they’ve fallen on lean times, is sure that this will fix morale, but his first mate, Brutus (Fred Tatasciore), enters the vault and finds a single credit. The crew turns on Silvo. On the planet At Attin, Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) is told that his father Wendle (Tunde Adebimpe) is going to be working late most nights this week, and Wendle gives his son lunch money for the entire duration. Wim meets best friend Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) on their way to the tram for school, and they have a fake lightsaber fight. At school, their lesson is stopped by Undersecretary Fara (Kerry Condon), who reminds the students that tomorrow is their Career Assessment Tests, which will determine their future place in the “Great Work” At Attin does for the Republic. She asks the children what they would like to do, and they all give very rote, safe responses—analysts and such—but Wim wants to help people in danger. His droid teacher insists that’s what safety droids are for. After class, Neel worries that Wim is going to fail his test and calls him out for basically admitting that he wants to be a Jedi when he grows up. Nearby, Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and her best friend KB (Kyriana Kratter) are racing their speeder bike and blow out the power coupling. Ferm worries because the scrapyard is picked over, and she wants to race against bully Bonjj Phalfa (Shané Almagor). Fern turns out to be the daughter of Fara, who is pleased that her daughter has gotten back to her spot at “head of the class” because there’s only so much room for people “at the top.” Wim asks his father to read him a story that night like his mom used to, but Wendle has to work and thinks his kid is too old for stories anyway. The next morning, Wim oversleeps and misses the tram, having to grab his speeder bike and take a “shortcut” to school. He drives through the woods, loses his helmet and falls down a ravine, coming across a big metal door buried in the dirt. He’s found by a security robot, who brings him to school; he’s missed his test, and his father is called in from work. Fern meets Wim there and tries to convince him that kids who skip the test are forced to work in “the mines” under the school. Wendle tells Wim that he convinced the proctor to let his son retake the test, but he’ll have to get every answer right to pass with a fifty-point penalty now levied against him. Wim tries to tell his dad that he found a Jedi Temple, but his father won’t hear it. Later, Wim convinces Neel to go back to the woods and unearth the temple. But Fern has arrived with KB and wants to call “claimses” on the site. She wins that little battle, but agrees to let the boys dig the place up for them; she wants to strip it for parts, hoping to get a power converter for her bike. Wim agrees, but only if she lets them go inside. Many hours later, Wendle gets home to find Wim gone. He goes into the woods to search for him, and finds the boy’s helmet. At the site, KB helps them open the door using her cybernetic add-ons, and they rush inside to avoid Wim’s dad who is calling for them nearby. They find a deactivated robot and the door locks behind them. In order to get out, they need to get the power back on, so the kids start searching. Fern tells the boys not to touch anything, and Wim that he needs to grow up and stop insisting that this place in a Jedi Temple. Wim investigates on his own and finds a cockpit… but it’s upside-down. KB manages to get the ship back online and the systems begin powering up, including a flashing green button that Wim presses. The ship begins to fire engines, emerging from the earth, and turning over as the kids rush to escape. Wendle sees the children on the hull, but cannot reach them, and the ship begins to leave the planet. The kids make it back inside as the ship gets through the Barrier of At Attin and goes into hyperspace on autopilot. “Way, Way Out Past the Barrier” Image: Lucasfilm The ship exits hyperspace and the kids worry over how they’ll possibly get back home from here. They meet SM-33 (Nick Frost), the first mate droid who means to turn them over to the captain of his ship. Fern tells him that she defeated his captain and she is the new captain. SM-33 believes her and shows them how to fly the starship, which is a bit complex for everyone except KB. Wim almost touches the emergency hull demolition sequencer. Fern asks the droid to take them home, but he doesn’t know where their planet is and doesn’t seem to have ever heard of it. Fern asks him to take them to the starport he mentioned so they can get directions. Back on At Attin, Wendle find two droids investigating the seismic disturbance made by the ship and demands that they help him find his son. Wim shows Neel all the rooms and weird items he’s found investigating the ship, including the captain’s quarters. The ship arrives at Port Borgo, located on an asteroid. SM-33 sends the kids over with a Teek ferryman, and tells them to trust no one. The ferryman wants payment so Wim gives him some of his lunch money, which causes quite the kerfuffle when seen. Wim hides the rest of his money in his sock. The kids start searching for somewhere they think they think might give them directions, but the place is full of pirates doing drugs and getting tattoos. A woman from the strip club(?) tells the girls it’s not safe there for children and asks where they’re from. When they tell her, she asks them to be serious; At Attin is known as the lost planet of eternal treasure around these parts. Wim and Neel almost cause a scene again getting food… because it turns out that Wim is paying with mint condition Old Republic credits. The kids are asked again where they’re from, and when they say At Attin, the pirates around them laugh. Wim and Neel try to escape and the group is surrounded by pirates—SM-33 comes to their rescue and begins beating up the collected scoundrels. They run, and Fern informs SM-33 that he shouldn’t have brought them to this port because they’re not pirates; the droid is understandably confused. Brutus arrives and asks what these children are doing in his spaceport. He sends them to the brig. The kids argue in lockup about what to do next, but a figure in the cells (Jude Law) tells them not to fight. He offers to help them get to the ship and back home, as long as they bring him with them. They ask him how he’ll help, and he uses the Force to bring the key to him. He asks the kids if they can keep a secret. Commentary Image: Lucasfilm Okay, I have to admit, the idea that these kids might live on a weird hidden world cut off from the known galaxy is pretty great. It also helps to alleviate all the weirdness from the first episode, where childhood worries become incredibly outsized due to bureaucratic systems that don’t make… any sense. Like, sure, Wim missed the bus to school and is late for his very important test, but the idea that he’d be in this much trouble to the point where he now has to get every answer right just to pass? That’s just plain silly. Major tests have makeup dates because you can’t expect everyone to be perfect and make every appointment in their lives… if you live in a real, normal place, that functions in a sensible way. A story needs to have stakes, but these are weird ones. Until we note that Undersecretary Fara believes in the “Great Work” they’re doing for… the Republic. Not the New Republic, mind you. It’s safe to assume she means the OG version. And there’s plenty more weirdness everywhere you look: Whatever that Great Work is supposed to be. The fact that droids administrate nearly everything on this planet, and keep things orderly to a degree that borders on brainwashing. The scrapyard being “picked over,” with no alternatives in sight. All the kids wanting incredibly boring jobs that they’ll hold for the rest of their lives. The Barrier that no one is meant to enter or exit. Presumably the Barrier makes the planet invisible to the rest of the galaxy, but who put it in place? And when did they decide to do this—at the start of the Clone Wars? Before? Do the adults know, or are they in the dark as well? This is some good dystopia they’ve cooked up in the background of this cute kids’ adventure. The idea of keeping this entire planet bogged down in bureaucratic nonsense to the point that no one has tried to leave in (at the very least) decades? A planet full of folks who don’t even know the Empire happened? Wim reading about an order of Jedi who are effectively long-dead? Yikes. Tell me everything. And this makes the ‘80s youth adventure/Spielbergian vibe that much easier to incorporate. You buy that a planet like this has the kind of suburbs that breed these stories, but it’s exciting for the fact that we’ve never seen a place like this in Star Wars. Places with sidewalks and school trams and neighbors who walk frogdogs in the morning. It makes something dated and nostalgic feel a little bit new. I’m loving all the kids so far, and really hoping that SM-33 isn’t permanently deactivated because how can you possibly create a pirate robot with Long John Silver vibes and then immediately scrap him. I’m trusting the show to make the right choice here. Jude Law’s character is billed as Jod Na Nawood… but he’s also clearly Captain Silvo from the start of the episode. The main question I have with regard to the character is whether or not those Force powers are the real deal. Because his exhibiting of them seemed awful convenient at the point where he showed up. Doesn’t mean it’s fake for sure, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried that gambit. If he is, Law’s character is the right age to have survived the Purge as either a student or a much younger Jedi, so he’d be understandably messed up from that. So we’ve got a good mystery cooking, a set of fun (and adorable) characters, and an adventure to see through. Not a bad start. Spanners and Sabers Image: Lucasfilm The opening bit where Silvo asks the freighter captain “If this is a bulk freighter, why is your vault magnetically sealed?” is undoubtedly meant to mirror Vader’s “If this is a consular ship, where is the ambassador?” The pirate Gunter (the one with the very Lobot headgear setup), is none other than Jaleel White, known by nerds-of-a-certain-age everywhere for his role of Steve Urkel in the sitcom Family Matters. Brutus’ species is a Shistavanen, which wasn’t named until more recent comic runs. Their first appearance was in the original release of the very first Star Wars film, but it was cut out of the ’97 Special Edition and all iterations thereafter—so it’s pretty cool to see one on screen again. The ferryman at Port Borgo is a Teek, which is a species first introduced in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, a speedy guy who helped Cindel when she was in a tight spot. I might be inordinately excited about seeing one again. We now have, uh, gray? Gray milk? For cereal. I wanna know what sort of vitamin complexes you get from different colors and what animals they all come from. The circus holovid that Neel’s siblings are watching is full confirmation that all the weird entertainment shit we saw in the Star Wars Holiday Special is, in fact, canon. I mean it isn’t really confirmation, but that’s what I’m taking it as. Importantly, Neel’s species is not Ortolan (like Max Rebo), as many a fan expected. Which… honestly makes more sense from an evolutionary standpoint? Several blue elephant species instead of one, just like the many different nearly-human species running about. SM-33 names Atollon, Al Alcor, and Aldhani as other possible worlds the kids could be from. Atollon is where the fledgling Rebel Alliance stationed Chopper Base, and Aldhani is the world where Cassian Andor and a small rebel cell performed arguably the most important heist in Rebellion history. Next week! We get to know Jude Law, erstwhile pirate captain?[end-mark] The post <i>Star Wars: Skeleton Crew</i> Premiere Is High on Charm appeared first on Reactor.

Books Reading the Weird The Sleep of Reason: Stephen King’s Pet Sematary (Part 14) By Ruthanna Emrys, Anne M. Pillsworth | Published on December 4, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Welcome back to Reading the Weird, in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches. This week, we continue Stephen King’s Pet Sematary with Chapters 40-42. The novel was first published in 1983. Spoilers ahead! Content warning for child death. Recent chapters must have been an evil dream, or a “hellishly detailed moment of imagination” as Louis raced death for his son’s life. In the instantaneous vision of disaster, Louis just missed grabbing Gage’s jacket. In reality, he just snagged it, pulling Gage out of danger. There was no crushing grief, no wake, no appalling public fist fight with Rachel’s father. Instead: Early on, Gage showed a great aptitude for swimming. In high school, he converted to Catholicism, causing Rachel to predict he’d marry his Catholic girlfriend to the destruction of all his academic and athletic hopes. But he went on to Johns Hopkins and a gold medal at the Olympics. Louis and Rachel watched his triumph on TV. “I guess this caps everything,” Louis said, but then he saw Rachel’s elation change to horror. Looking back at the screen, he saw not Gage on the podium but another boy. The cap to everything, in reality, was baby Gage’s cap, on the road, full of blood. Louis wakes to a gray morning, a raging hangover, and the evil reality of his son’s burial day. At last he breaks down sobbing, thinking that he’d do anything for a second chance. Anything at all. * * * The prevailing gray and black of the grave-side ceremony are punctuated for Louis by Gage’s white coffin, floral tributes, the violent green of Astroturf and the yellow payloader hiding behind a hill until the actual burying can begin. Jud comforts Ellie as Louis has been unable to. His gaze reproves Louis, but Louis can do nothing when his thoughts are full of Gage. * * * The final funeral ceremony, “the rite of food,” takes place at the Creeds’ house. The party is quiet, but drinks are raised, with Louis downing several beers himself. He watches Rachel’s parents comfort her and avoid him. He makes the right replies to condolences; if he seems distant, people will excuse it. No one can know he’s thinking about graverobbing. Just as a game. It’s not like he’d ever do anything. After the party, Louis drives back to Pleasantview Cemetery. He follows winding paths to Gage’s grave, ignoring the internal Jud-voice that warns “you’re looking up a road you don’t want to travel.” Pleasantview isn’t like the Pet Sematary. Its acreage is “sanely divided into quadrants,” whereas the Sematary is all rough concentric circles, recalling that ancient symbol of the spiral, twisty bridge to the unknown. He realizes now that the Sematary is a come-on for the true burial ground beyond. Standing over Gage’s neatly raked earth, Louis continues thinking about resurrection logistics. The cemetery gates will be locked at night. There may be a watchman. What if he’s caught? He imagines criminal charges, losing his job, Rachel horrified, Ellie harried by classmates. But—Gage could live again! According to Jud, Timmy Baterman came back a daemon. Though determined to think rationally, not wishfully, Louis can’t believe that would happen with Gage. He could be muddled, diminished, but Louis would still love him. Still, horror sweeps him when he realizes he’s drawn a spiral on Gage’s grave. He rubs it out and leaves, furtive as a trespasser. Back home, Louis realizes the time between death and reburial may be critical. To expedite Gage’s resurrection, he’ll need to send Rachel and Ellie away. He persuades Rachel to go back to Chicago the next day with her parents. She resists. The family needs to stay together, and she senses Louis hiding something. He denies it, and promises to follow her and Ellie after arranging things in Ludlow. The Goldmans are thrilled to host Rachel and Ellie. Almost like magic, it’s easy to get last-minute flights. We also hear that the truck driver who hit Gage wasn’t drunk or high, just had a weird urge that day to speed through Ludlow. He’s since tried to hang himself. But surely even if the burial ground nudged the driver, it can’t control airline prices. Irwin Goldman calls to apologize for what happened at the funeral home. The old man breaks down crying. Louis tries to retain his resentment, but suddenly thinks about really burying the hatchet with the Goldmans and abandoning his resurrection plans. Letting Gage go seems the sane path to reweaving their lives. Or—would it be killing Gage a second time? Even while packing, Rachel has doubts. Is Louis hiding something? And—Ellie’s had a nightmare about seeing her father at the kitchen table, eyes open but dead. An understandable nightmare, and yet Rachel senses “a quality of prophecy.” Later, in bed, Louis reminds Rachel of the time they were afraid that infant Gage might be hydrocephalic. It turned out he wasn’t, but what if he had been? Would she still have loved him? Of course, she would have: Gage would have still been Gage, mentally disabled or otherwise. The Degenerate Dutch: Alternate-Gage’s conversion to Catholicism is accompanied by random slut-shaming of his girlfriend. Libronomicon: Oz “the Gweat and Tewwible” continues to symbolize the horror of death, power or lack of power barely obfuscated behind the curtain. Louis also considers the methods of “Dickensian Resurrection Men”—most likely Jerry Cruncher in A Tale of Two Cities, a character who has entirely fallen out of my memory since high school—and quotes Andrew Marvellon the nature of graves. Madness Takes Its Toll: If Gage really had been killed, Louis believes it would’ve driven Rachel crazy. Not that it would be easy to tell, with how people keep giving her Valium. Ruthanna’s Commentary Goddammit, Louis. And Goddammit, Stephen. I knew, starting Chapter 40, that “none of that happened” couldn’t be true—would end up a dream or a fantasy. But like Louis, I wanted to believe. And King sends books in all sorts of weird directions, so maybe…? Maybe Gage dies later, or someone else dies instead, or the wendigo gets at the family some other way, because after all something has to happen in all those remaining pages. But not this? Please? And so of course I go into the following chapters all too sympathetic with Louis’s wishful thinking, and all too aware that I am not immune. My least favorite finding in cognitive psychology is that studying cognitive bias doesn’t make one any less prone to it. In fact, those of us who specialize in the failure modes of human reason have extra tools for convincing ourselves of the things we want to believe—bolstered by the conviction that we know how to protect ourselves against loss aversion, confirmation bias, the sunk cost fallacy, etc., etc. It’s possible to mitigate those things with enough training and attention, sometimes, but all too often the quest for rationality is self-defeating.   Even moreso than psychologists, doctors are trained to think through high-stakes problems calmly, rationally, with an eye to the evidence. There’s a reason they’re also not supposed to handle those problems for their loved ones. Louis brings all his professional mind-tools to bear on the task of “deciding” whether to resurrect Gage. And those tools get him exactly where he wants to go—and nowhere that’s a good idea. But really, once you have the evidence that resurrection is possible, its advisability is a purely empirical question, right? Even the safest treatment has some percentage chance of negative outcomes. Thus a negative outcome is not evidence that a treatment is dangerous. Never mind if the best observed outcome is something minorly-malevolent but shaped like a cat, that you find revolting to touch and disturbing to have near your kids. You could get the same effect, sort of, from a head injury. If you think about it, the potential side effects of the burial ground aren’t that different from an intellectual disability. The word Louis uses is now considered a slur, but on the other hand “of course you’d still love your kid and keep them at home” was not an attitude to be taken for granted in the early 80s. And on the more important hand, intellectual disability is surprisingly distinguishable from wendigo-puppeted undeath—assuming you don’t have massive motivation to decide that it isn’t. Like any good medical professional, Louis also considers moderating factors. Time since death ought to logically make a difference, especially since the worst known outcome came after a delay due to overseas shipping. Ideally we would run tests on mice, but there’s no time for that. Better to do—that thing you’re not doing—quickly, while the odds of minimizing sequelae are high. And if you’re considering doing that thing you aren’t doing, better to get other people out of the way. It’s not like you could explain beforehand, or like they would be able to give equally rational input into the decision. A fait accompli, that’s what you want. Even if you haven’t figured out how the post-hoc explanation would be easier. Even if your wife, not actually a complete idiot, can tell that you’re lying. It’s not like she’s going to guess the truth. Nor does Louis worry about the details of Jud’s warnings. It’s ridiculous (rationally) to believe that something might reach out from the burial ground and urge a truck driver to unsafe speeds, let alone that it might provide convenient airline tickets. So there’s no reason whatsoever to fear that this whole line of thought has been touched off by an outside force. No need to worry that active malevolence is all that makes your “treatment” possible. Louis has planned everything out very logically. He’s accounted for all the possibilities. He’s even considered, and tried to counter, his own wishful thinking about the conclusions that he wants to draw—and after that, still drawn them. With all that caution, what could possibly go wrong? Anne’s Commentary The first time I read Pet Sematary, I bought the opening of Chapter 40, that “none of those things,” those too-hideous things spawned by Gage’s death, had happened. Nor did I snort with shocked outrage, thinking that King had committed the capital narrative-crime of erasing harrowing story events with an “It was all a dream,” or in this case, an unbelievably condensed moment of imagining what would happen if Gage made it to the road. In fact, the dream is the story of how Gage lived to mount that podium of ultimate achievement for an Olympic gold medal. From that height, he might have gazed into a future of triumphs. Or rather, the dreaming Louis might have gazed farther into Gage’s triumphant future, if only he hadn’t woken up as “The Star-Spangled Banner” crescendoed and the cap on Gage’s swimming career changed into a little boy’s cap filled with blood. The blood-filled cap killed me. I had bought Gage’s alternate future, Louis’s dream, not because it was credible after the preceding chapters, but because I had wanted so damn hard to buy it. What might have been exponentially upped the horror of what really was. Inserting the dream here is one of King’s finest moments. On top of the emotional gut-punch, it illustrates the universal human vulnerability that’s going to bring Louis down. Earlier we’ve seen how he prides himself as being unflinchingly rational, as befits a scientist and physician. Other people may try to deny the Big Inevitability which is death. It’s understandable for a child, like Ellie, to do this. Rachel’s death-denialism, however, nears pathological levels. Okay, she finally tells him about Zelda, making her phobia more understandable and allowing him to cut her some slack. Still. Dead is dead. Louis won’t deny the Big Inevitability because he doesn’t want it to be true. Louis doesn’t yield to wishful thinking. Louis knows what he knows. Until he doesn’t know it anymore. Because Micmac burial ground. Because Church resurrected. Because, back a bit, the ghost of Victor Pascow. Here are things never dreamt of in the philosophy that schooled him, or if dreamt of, sturdily rejected. By Chapters 40-42, Louis has incorporated these new realities into his philosophy. Therefore, when he considers taking Gage to the burial ground, he isn’t being irrational. He is considering a possibility, albeit one he doesn’t understand the way he does the biomechanics of blood circulation. And so? He probably couldn’t claim to understand quantum physics, either. Bottom line: As far as practicality’s concerned, it’s no intellectual sin for Louis to think about bringing his son back to life. The intellectual sin he must guard against would be letting emotion cloud his judgment. It would be believing what he wants to believe to the point of ignoring possible contraindications, the shoulds of the matter. What about Hanratty’s resurrected bull, who turned mean? What about Timmy Baterman, who turned more than mean, maybe demonic, monstrous? To put those extremes aside, what about Church? Undeniably, the cat has changed for the worse, but he’s only proven dangerous to small creatures, and that’s just an exaggeration of his essential felinity. Ellie still loves him, in a way, kind of. If Gage came back diminished, dulled, Louis and Rachel would still love him, just as they would have if he’d been born with those handicaps. Louis has ascertained that capacity within himself. Rather tortuously, he’s gotten Rachel to admit to the same capacity. And that’s the important thing, right? It’s what parents do, even if, um, their child “had grown up to commit rape and murder and the torture of the innocent.” That was going to the extremes again. At most, Gage might never learn to read. Right? Right. No wishful thinking here. No glossing over the problem of how family, friends, neighbors, the public at large, would react to a dead boy back “riding his trike in the yard.” To hesitate because of such difficulties would be listening “to the voice of cowardice.” Would be “killing [Gage] a second time.” So Louis decides the right thing to do will be to manipulate Rachel into taking herself and Ellie off to Chicago. It will be to ignore Jud’s warnings. It will be to dismiss another of Ellie’s prophetic-seeming dreams even though her last one, about Church’s death, came true. Even thought Louis can’t quite push this new “prophecy” out of his mind. But come on. A man can only welcome a few strange things into his philosophy at once. He can be allowed to set some aside. Not the ones that might interfere with his plans—that would be the sin of believing what one wants to believe. No, just the strange things that are irrelevant at the moment. The ones that are too strange. Like Jud’s idea that the Micmac burial ground exerts uncanny power, and that its power is growing now and influencing—the actions of truck drivers? The urge of a toddler to run from Daddy at just the wrong time? The availability of last-minute airline reservations, for chrissakes? All right. I’ll allow that Louis is correct to scoff at the notion of uncanny powers controlling airline reservations. Not even the Wendigo could pull that one off. Next week, we celebrate our 500th post with Frank Darabont’s 2007 adaptation of King’s The Mist. Join us, and keep a careful eye on the weather![end-mark] The post The Sleep of Reason: Stephen King’s <i>Pet Sematary</i> (Part 14) appeared first on Reactor.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Chinese government-backed hackers have infiltrated major U.S. telecom networks, and officials are now struggling to remove their access, U.S. authorities announced Tuesday. Jeff Greene, a senior official at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, pointed out the complexity of the situation, according to CNN. He explained that it’s tough to figure out just how bad the security breaches are and what to do about them because they don’t have all the information about where and how deep the problems go. “We’re still figuring out just how deeply and where they’ve penetrated, so until we have a complete picture, it’s hard to know the exact parameters of how to kick them off,” Greene said. A senior FBI official added that most telecom providers are actively working to uncover the full scope of activities by the People’s Republic of China, CNN said. The ongoing investigation reveals that the hackers targeted communication systems used by top U.S. political figures, including President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance. Chinese hackers are EVERYWHEREhttps://t.co/cPq2RIo954— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 16, 2023 Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds previously warned that hackers have breached every major U.S. telecom provider, gaining the capability to intercept and monitor Americans’ texts and calls. This intrusion puts every individual’s private communications at risk, which highlights a threat to personal and national security. “Any one of us and every one of us today is subject to the review by the Chinese Communist government of any cellphone conversation you have with anyone in America. Because they have access to every single one of our major telecommunications companies. They have broken in. They can read your texts, and they can hear your conversations,” Rounds said. “It’s just a matter of who they want to listen to and who they don’t.” This espionage effort also represents a national security concern for the incoming administration, which must now deal with the fallout of these breaches, CNN reported. Telecom giants such as Verizon and AT&T, having collaborated closely with federal officials, have made the most progress in mitigating the hackers’ presence. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post US Struggles to Remove Chinese Hackers From Major Telecom Networks appeared first on The Daily Signal.

THE CENTER SQUARE—A coalition of 28 attorneys general has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a case in which Mexico is blaming U.S. gun manufacturers for Mexican cartel gun violence. At issue is a 2022 lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against U.S. gun manufacturers arguing they are responsible for Mexican cartel crime in Mexico. A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed the lawsuit. Mexico appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Mexico’s claims fall within an exception to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005. In June, a coalition of 27 AGs, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, appealed to the Supreme Court to throw out the case. In a petition filed on Tuesday, the coalition, which now totals 28 AGs, asked the Supreme Court to reverse the 1st Circuit’s ruling, noting that it has already rejected the expansive view of “proximate causation” that the 1st Circuit used to allow the case to go forward. Mexico’s lawsuit contradicts claims made by its former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that crime went down under his leadership and crime in Mexico wasn’t a problem. From 2018 through the end of his term this year, violence increased exponentially, according to multiple reports, The Center Square reported. Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” policy with the cartels led to one of the bloodiest elections in Mexican history this past election cycle. Obrador then blamed Americans for the violence, as dozens of candidates were murdered in Mexico allegedly by the cartels, The Center Square reported. While claiming that America’s “drug problem” is not Mexico’s problem, Obrador blamed U.S. gun manufacturers for cartel gun violence and cartel weapons trafficking and smuggling. Weapons trafficking and smuggling are felonies in the U.S. for which cartel operatives are prosecuted by U.S. authorities. American gun manufacturers do not sell their products to transnational criminal organizations, and no data supports Mexico’s claims, the AGs argue. Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to create protections for firearm companies from being held liable for the criminal misuse of their products, including protecting them from lawsuits like the one Mexico filed, they argue. Mexico argues an exception in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act narrowly authorizes its lawsuit. The 1st Circuit agreed based on an expansive view of “proximate causation,” which the Supreme Court has already rejected, the AGs note. The proximity cause fails, they argue, because cartel violence is associated with Mexican government policy, cartels rarely use American retail guns, and eliminating the U.S. retail gun industry wouldn’t affect the cartels’ access to weapons. “If Mexico wants to end its domestic gun problem, it may do so. It could name and report the gun dealers who allegedly sell guns to drug cartels. It could attempt to negotiate with the United States to extradite individuals who trafficked guns to Mexico. It could finish its war with the cartels. It could even close its border with the United States. But it cannot end the domestic manufacturing of American firearms,” they argue in the brief. “That Mexico disagrees with our Nation’s history and tradition of firearm ownership is no consequence to its ability to impose its preferences on the American people via judicial fiat. This lawsuit against American gun manufacturers recycles the failed, anti-gun lawfare tactics already rejected by Congress. Mexico’s legal theories have no basis in law or fact. This Court should reverse,” they said. Joining Knudsen in the brief are the AGs from Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the Arizona Legislature. Among them, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody first called on President Joe Biden to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. She also led a coalition of 17 AGs calling on the president to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Several Republican congressional reports have identified Mexican cartels as facilitating the U.S. illicit fentanyl crisis by working with the Chinese Communist Party to wage nonconventional warfare against the U.S., The Center Square reported. President-elect Donald Trump has warned he will impose sanctions on Mexico, shut down the border, and target the cartels once in office. Originally published by The Center Square The post 28 AGs Call on US Supreme Court to Intervene in Mexico Gun Violence Case appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile Say They Have a Legal Right To Track You and Sell Your Data appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

The Establishment War on Kash Patel

Last weekend, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence sustained a nasty concussion in the second quarter that forced him to sit the remainder of the game against the Houston Texans. Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who incapacitated Lawrence, was immediately ejected from the match and has since been suspended by the NFL for the next three games without pay. Jason Whitlock and coach Jason Brown discuss the incident. While Jason initially agreed with the NFL’s decision to suspend Al-Shaair, Brown may have convinced him to soften his stance. “When are we going to start making quarterbacks part of the 22 players that wear pads on the football field? Last I checked is we all have pads and helmets on. Stop with the defenseless player thing. When the quarterback left the pocket, he's now a running back,” Brown argues, adding that the only reason these rules are in place is because quarterbacks are so expensive. “This is not how you’re supposed to play the game that we all signed up for. Make the quarterback part of the game; take the slide out of football. You are in a no-win situation on defense,” he adds, noting that Lawrence chose not to run out of bounds and slid too late, and now Al-Shaair is being unfairly punished for just playing defense. In retrospect, Jason agrees with Brown’s stance — mostly. “I get the NFL is paying these quarterbacks 40, 50, 60 million a year, and they don't want their $50 million investment on the sideline, standing around in concussion protocol. I get it — but if the guy that's getting the most money is taking the least amount of risk, that's a bad, bad recipe that will create some disharmony in the locker room,” Jason says. “You're 1,000% right — ‘Hey, we all signed up to play tackle football. One guy because of the position he plays will get paid 50 million while I'm a linebacker getting paid 10 million, and he has to take less risk than me,”’ he says, imagining what many of the players must be thinking. “It makes no sense.” However, Jason also understands that Al-Shaair has a reputation for being unnecessarily violent. He plays a video montage of the linebacker’s most eyebrow-raising plays — some of which involve him punching another player in the head and hitting a player when he was already several steps out of bounds. When it comes to banning the quarterback slide, Jason says Brown is on “rock solid ground,” but the punishment of Azeez Al-Shaair for his illegal hit on Trevor Lawrence is “a little deeper” than just one reckless play. “This Azeez Al-Shaair is the new [Vontaze] Burfict,” he says. To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above. Want more from Jason Whitlock?To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The Department of Government Efficiency underscored this week the staggering cost of the Biden administration's ongoing immigration crisis, comparing the expense of it to other historic milestones and projects.Based on data collected by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the planned advisory committee, headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, reported that American taxpayers shelled out $150.7 billion in 2023 to address the immigration crisis.'The scale of spending on illegal immigration boggles the mind!'FAIR reached the amount by combining the total federal, state, and local expenses and subtracting the tax contributions from illegal aliens. The organization estimated that the gross cost is $1,156 per year — per taxpayer."In 2017, FAIR estimated the net cost of illegal immigration at approximately $116 billion," the organization wrote. "This means that in just 5 years, the cost of illegal immigration has increased by nearly $35 billion. This rapid increase is a consequence of the ongoing border crisis and a lack of effective immigration enforcement. The sections below further break down and explain these numbers at the federal, state, and local levels."New York City taxpayers have already spent $6.4 billion to support the 200,000 migrants who have entered the city since the beginning of the immigration crisis. Since December 2022, Denver has expended $356 million to provide housing, food, and other services for illegal immigrants.DOGE highlighted FAIR's findings in a Monday post on X.The department attempted to put the total "in context with other costs" after adjusting for inflation. It noted that World War I cost $334 billion, the Apollo Space Program $257 billion, the Manhattan Project $30 billion, the Panama Canal $15.2 billion, and the Hoover Dam $1 billion. — (@) Musk responded to DOGE's post, writing, "The scale of spending on illegal immigration boggles the mind!"X users mocked Democrats for insisting it would be too expensive to deport illegal aliens or complete a border wall.One user responded to DOGE's post asking, "How much would it have cost to keep those illegals out?"Another user wrote, "How can we afford NOT to deport them?"Over the past several weeks, DOGE has brought to light numerous instances of wasteful government expenditure, including the expenses related to vacant buildings resulting from remote work policies.U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who will head the nearly formed Senate DOGE Caucus, sent a letter to Musk and Ramaswamy last week outlining ways the department could slash $2 trillion in government waste. Her first suggestion was to reduce spending on unused or mostly empty buildings, calling it President Joe Biden's "billion dollar boondoggles."On Wednesday, DOGE noted that the Social Security Administration approved an agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees allowing 42,000 employees to work remotely until 2029. An SSA spokesperson verified the telework agreement with Bloomberg. The AFGE claimed it would "secure staffing levels through prevention of higher attrition."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A made-for-TV golf game between the stars of the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's LIV Golf will award $10 million in cryptocurrency.World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Rory McIlroy will play an 18-hole prize match against No. 10-ranked Bryson DeChambeau and No. 79 Brooks Koepka.The December 17 showdown will officially be called the "Crypto.com Showdown," with the title sponsor providing a crypto-backed purse for the first time in PGA history.Front Office Sports reported that the $10 million prize will be paid entirely in the Crypto.com native currency, called Cronos. At the time of this writing, one Cronos is currently valued around $0.227. The $10 million equates to about 44 million Cronos.It was not confirmed, however, how the prize would be distributed between the winning and losing teams.Neither the PGA nor LIV are the first sports brands to integrate cryptocurrency into their winnings or payments.The UFC added $60,000 Bitcoin bonuses voted on by fans in 2023. The "Fan Bonus of the Night" awards were in $30,000, $20,000, and $10,000 increments, paid out to fighters. Crypto.com was also the sponsor for that endeavor, as part of a 10-year, $175 million partnership with the UFC.Karate Combat, another fight league, has fully integrated cryptocurrency into its business model.With its own token ($KARATE), Karate Combat allows viewers to own a stake in the sport while also earning more coins through games on the platform UpOnly. This play-to-earn model allows users to gain cryptocurrency while the game designer earns revenue through licensing, ads, microtransactions, or subscriptions.Bitcoin and cryptocurrency overall have skyrocketed since Donald Trump's election win. On the campaign trail, he pledged to end the "anti-crypto crusade" by the SEC.Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) publicly declared his support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency for the first time at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July. The senator touted cryptocurrency as an opportunity for impoverished and lower-class Americans to make investments.The PGA vs. LIV match will take place at the Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, Nevada. It follows in the footsteps of previous TV golf events like the Netflix Cup and Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Tiger Woods shed light on whether or not he will continue his golfing career, explaining that his body isn't healing the way he hoped it would.During a press conference in the Bahamas, Woods said he had a "long way to go" before he was "able to compete" against PGA Tour opponents.Woods said last year he wanted to compete once per month in 2024 but played just five times this season and even withdrew from a tournament due to illness. He only made one cut in those five competitions; placing 60th at the Masters.'That's part of age and part of the athlete's journey.'While hosting the Hero World Challenge, Woods spoke to reporters for about 30 minutes on his injuries and intent to play moving forward."I'm not tournament-sharp yet. I'm still not there," Woods said regarding competing in the challenge; he finished 18 out of 20 in the tournament in 2023."These are 20 of the best players in the world, and I'm not sharp enough to compete against them at this level. When I'm ready to compete and play at this level, then I will."Expressing his desire to continue golfing, Woods said "the fire still burns to compete.""The difference is, the recovery of the body to do it is not what it used to be," he added."I still love doing it, I love competing, I love competing at anything whether it's we're playing cards or we're playing golf, and no matter what it is I love competing. That's never going to leave but, as far as the recovery process of going out there and doing it again and again and again and doing it consistently at a high level, for some reason the body just won't recover like it used to," Woods said with a shoulder shrug."That's part of age and part of the athlete's journey."In mid-September, Woods went under the knife for what was believed to be his sixth back surgery, ESPN reported, an injury that also caused pain down right his leg. The pain became even worse as the 2024 season went on.Woods has also had multiple surgeries to repair damage in his right foot and leg he suffered from a car accident in February 2021. The 49-year-old said he didn't expect his back to go out again this year, but it was "quite painful" throughout the end of the season, which led to another procedure to alleviate the pain in his leg.As for his future commitments, Wood said he could make new promises all over again but truly didn't know when he would recover."I'm just trying to rehab and still get stronger and better and feel better and really give myself the best chance I can going to next year."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!