For the Captain Kirks and Luke Skywalkers of history, triumph over evil has always been enough. It’s possible I’m holding Discovery’s star to unreasonable standards, standards most white male action heroes get to bypass all the time in service of saving the day. Kirk, makes Michael Burnham’s decision-making look like bureaucratic red tape by comparison. I so desperately want to celebrate Michael Burnham finally ending up in the captain’s chair, but I have to reiterate my question from last week: has she really grown, or has the context simply changed? All those searing indictments laid out by her mother, by Booker, by Saru - were we supposed to see those moments as mere haterade, to be ignored rather than reckoned with? Admittedly, Star Trek has never really taken insubordination seriously the original Trek star, Captain James T. Osyraa isn’t the only one being robbed of complexity in this conclusion. They are empty, and perpetuating their emptiness hurts us all. Discovery’s third season finale has tweeted, “We are better than this,” and then signed off. We want to believe that a hero will save us, that simply voting a fascist out of office will end fascism. (I’d say white supremacy, as well, but I don’t think Star Trek is ready to have the “humans are the white cishet men of the Federation” conversation just yet.) As I struggle to focus on this recap, we’re watching the fruits of that kind of generational magical thinking unfold in real time. It is a simplistic, “one flaw in the Death Star” kind of victory, one that perpetuates the dangerous myth that there is an easy shortcut to defeating the cancer that is capitalist imperialism. To pithily suggest that “never give up” is the moral of the story here, as Michael Burnham does as she escapes a wall of programmable matter in the data core and blasts Osyraa into next week, borders on insulting. But at this scale, the kind of clean victory Discovery has created undermines itself, because it comes at the expense of offering an honest look at solving huge, seemingly insurmountable problems - problems that cannot be extinguished by the pew-pew of a phaser rifle, any more than they can by an AR-15. In many cases, I’m even a fan of wish fulfillment. I am all for presenting audiences with a better vision for the future. That’s not how organized crime works, even if this don fed her second to a trance worm.) In effect, Discovery has adopted the exact policy Osyraa herself was attempting to pull off, the one Admiral Vance refused to accept: wipe the whole slate clean and decline to reckon with our core flaws, the ones that got us into this mess in the first place. Even the FBI knows it can’t simply kill the don and destroy the mafia. Time to look to the future and get busy reuniting! (Come on. (We’ve even replicated the exact same chaos of the season two finale: huge space battle, allies arriving at the last minute, thanks to a last-ditch S.O.S.) The wicked witch is dead, which, as we all know, means the vast, vertically integrated empire she spearheaded - the one whose mercantiles dominate half the galaxy - has immediately disintegrated, never to darken a door again. Instead, we’ve chosen Hero Shoots Big Bad, Saves Day. I wanted her to pay for her crimes as much as Vance did - but then again, I also want a certain Senate majority leader to be consumed by Dinobulan flesh-eating bacteria. She was untrustworthy, ruthless, brutal, and yet her organization only flourished in the vacuum the Federation left behind she understood its limitations, its failures, better than perhaps anyone in the universe. It seemed like Osyraa was shaping up to be a Gul Dukat figure, an occasionally benevolent monster-turned-peacemaker our stars would be forced to tolerate through a tumultuous reconstruction period. Last week, I posited that the series might be trying its hand in Deep Space Nine territory. Because while none of our heroes die this week, this conclusion is a sudden death in itself, a bone-deep disappointment that betrays all the thoughtful, complex progress the series has made this season. Nevertheless, I feel it’s all I can do to mourn the loss of Star Trek: Discovery’s once-burgeoning appreciation for nuance, as well as its biggest wasted opportunity since killing off Captain Georgiou in the pilot. The Granny Smith Gotti was a monster who committed unspeakable atrocities, even against her own. Did she deserve death, objectively? Certainly. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of Osyraa the Terrible.
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No matter how much I might disagree with Howie Carr, it's a disgrace that a poor copy editor was put through the task of editing his book just to have the promo material butchered by its subject. When you plug a book that praises you, be courteous enough to the author to write with actual literature in mind. "Looking good," Trump said, slapping the economy with his wrench. But when criticizing an entire administration, maybe try to put an effort into making your argument at least superficially impenetrable. You can't hear an apostrophe when Fox & Friends anchors speak, so why should you have to write it? Totally understandable. "Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China.Possessives are hard. "Does Coco Chow have anything to do with Joe Biden's Classified Documents being sent and stored in Chinatown?" Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday. Trump also dragged Chao into his attacks on President Joe Biden this week after Fox News on Sunday reported that some of the classified documents found in Biden's possession had been transported to a Washington, D.C., facility in the Chinatown neighborhood. In a Truth Social post this month, Trump complained that the Senate minority leader and "his 'wife,' Coco Chow, who is a sellout to China," were making it "difficult for everyone else by constantly capitulating to Hopeless Joe Biden and the Democrats." Other recent attacks include the former president accusing McConnell and Chao of creating "unnecessary turmoil" within the GOP for passing the bipartisan Infrastructure Act. "What's actually concerning is her family's deeply troubling ties to Communist China, which has undermined American economic and national security," Cheung added. On Wednesday, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek in a statement that "people should stop feigning outrage and engaging in controversies that exist only in their heads" when asked for comment on Chao's response. "And I don't make a point of answering any one of them."Īt the time of her interview with CNN, Trump had called out Chao and her husband, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, claiming she and McConnell have "BIG relationships with China." "He says all sorts of outrageous things," Chao said when asked if she'd like to respond to a recent insult from Trump. In the past, however, Chao has chosen not to respond to the attacks, telling CNN in December 2022 that Trump was only "trying to get a rise out of" people by using the "racist taunt." Among one of the most repeated is Trump's nickname for Chao, often referring to his former employee as "Coco Chow," a term first coined by the former president in September 2022 in a Truth Social post. Jon Cherry/Getty Joe Raedle/GettyĬhao, who was born in Taiwan, said she has been on the receiving end of several racist remarks from Trump since announcing her resignation one day after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Chao on Wednesday spoke out against the verbal attacks from the former president, whom she served under during his administration. Former President Donald Trump, right, is pictured during an event at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15, 2022. Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, left, speaks at the 2022 Concordia Lexington Summit on April 8, 2022, in Lexington, Kentucky. This update is a beta test for the latest update to Dune 2000 Gruntmods Edition. Combined Update 1.6.1.2 (includes all previous patches as well) Update 1.6.1.2 (includes only new changes) If you have no idea which patch to install, choose the combined patch. I have included both the regular update and the combined update below. Fixed version number displayed in menu to be accurate Removed “Menu Editor” and “User Interface Table Editor” folders in D2K+, and added “Table Editor (UIB) folder” since the one tool now works on all UIB files. Added preview of the new Custom Campagin Creation Tutorial that will be provided with the finished version of the Rise of the Mercenaries expansion. Added instruction manual written by Gruntmods Studios, completely written from scratch for this version of the game Adjustments made to strings file in preparation for “Survival Mode” Adjusted Tech level so Ordos Palace can no longer be constructed (should be exclusive to House Ordos). Minor adjustments to AI resources in m1v1 Fixes for “Rise of the Mercenaries” expansion: This update is a minor update to the changes made in the previous update. Combined Update 1.6.1.4 (includes all previous updates as well) Update 1.6.1.4 (includes only new changes) If you have no idea which update to install, choose the combined update. I have included both the regular update and the updated combined update below. The update program has also been configured to automatically detect resolution settings. Option to play as sandworm color and change sandworm frequency Provides a method to switch difficulty during gameplay Allows you to switch houses ingame, allowing easy AI debuging and testing This is the first release of mission 2, and should anyĭebug Menu was added to the ingame options: 4 new music tracks: New Beginning (originally titled Ben Gess 2), HouseĬorrino,Mekanikz Tweek and Misuse Of Force (originally titled Misuse).Ĭredit to DJCID for the first 3 tracks and Kevin MacLeod for Misuse. New content was added to the Rise Of The Mercenaries campaign: Increasing the rate of troop production (AI provided courtesy of Luminar) Enhanced AI have been implemented for house Ordos, significantly Ordos resources have been enhanced significantly Harvester and Carryall replacements are cutoff at 80 minutes Wave at 80 minutes now includes even more troops for Harkonnen and Map has less resources for player base, forcing players to work harder to Survival Mode Beta was heavily modified to increase difficulty based on player feedback: Redesigned mission select and survival mode menus Fixed an issue caused by Siberian Gremlin’s string editor which could cause Fixed an issue where units would not spawn properly in survival mode Fixed an issue where an improper string entry was displayed in M1V1 Transparency is the best policy when it comes to these issues and I hope you continue to enjoy what GruntMods has to offer.This update contains numerous updates and bug fixes. We are always working at providing the best possible service and apologize for any interruptions. We are also working with our providers to establish load balancing, which will both improve speeds and availability between different regions, even during peak usage or through similar size DDOS attacks. This provides additional protection against issues with specific regional data centers. Server Redundancy: The Web Server is now located in a Toronto data center, and the file server is located in Montreal.Going forward, additional monitoring will be put into place on both servers to notify us of any issues that occur before they impact performance. Server Monitoring: We have implemented file level server monitoring to notify us of suspicious activity on the file server.New Server Instances: We have deployed additional server instances and reconfigured these with tighter security settings, to cover us against further attacks through other avenues.Increased Security: We have raised the protection level with our partners at Cloudflare, bots and other automated systems will have a significantly harder time visiting the site and utilizing any services we offer.We have taken the following measures to ensure the server is as secure and functional as possible: Several hours after service was restored at 8am, we again saw an increase in traffic matching the profile of the original DDOS attack. Although we have measures in place to prevent automated attacks against our service there is no such thing as a perfect defense and as such the site was taken offline by our hosting provider until the attack subsided. On February 2nd at 3:13am EST and its respective file server was the victim of a DDOS attack. On Monday, he followed it up by forcing a fumble on Rob Gronkowski during 7-on-7 drills and then intercepting a Tom Brady on a pass during 3-on-2 drills." Then, against Philadelphia, he got the start opposite Darrelle Revis, collected seven more tackles and should've been credited with two forced fumbles. "In the Patriots' first preseason game, against Washington, he totaled seven tackles and deflected two passes. He'll make the 53-man roster, but sticking after Brandon Browner returns from a suspension will be more of a challenge." He was also part of a forced fumble in the first quarter. "Malcolm Butler forced and recovered a fumble in the third quarter. He recorded just 16 tackles and four passes defensed during that time, so it's not as if he had really made himself known. I don't think too many of those games air on ESPN or CBS on Saturdays.Īnd you can certainly be forgiven if "Malcolm Butler" wasn't permanently etched into your brain during the 18 Patriots games which preceded the Super Bowl. He joined the team with little fanfare as an undrafted rookie out of Division-II Western Alabama, a school that plays its football games against Miles College, Florida Tech, Delta State, Valdosta State and Shorter University. Whatever you were thinking during that nail-biting half of football, chances are you jumped out of your seat in celebration when Butler made the Super Bowl-saving interception on the goal line.Īnd it's a safe bet you'll never forget the kid's name as long as you live.įor many who don't cover the team on a daily basis, it would have been easy to have forgotten or to have never known Malcolm Butler prior to Sunday. It could have been anything.BOSTON (CBS) - It's OK to admit that when you were watching the Super Bowl on Sunday and started to see Malcolm Butler playing crucial snaps in the second half, you thought to yourself - "Who?" And it's OK to admit if you thought it was Darius Butler, the former Patriots defensive back who's roughly the same size as Malcolm. I went to the hospital," Butler told the newspaper. "They probably thought I was kind of late on the game plan I wasn’t as locked in as I should be and could have been a matchup deal. "I feel like this was the reason: I got kind of sick. MORE: Former Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien says he attempted suicideīelichick said after the game that Butler's absence was not a disciplinary matter, and he declined to elaborate at the annual owners' meeting in Orlando this week.īutler, for his part, told USA TODAY Sports' Jarrett Bell earlier this month that "I don’t know how much more I can explain it was a ‘coach’s decision.'" He later speculated to The Boston Herald that it might have been related to his health. MORE: Who will be NFL's 'Final Four' teams in 2018 season? And I really wanted to go ask him, but I didn’t."īutler had played 97 percent of New England's defensive snaps prior to the Super Bowl, and nearly two months later, the reason for his benching is still a mystery. "I was close to going up there and saying what I wanted to say to Matt or Belichick, but I just stayed in my lane and just did my job. I respect my authority and I just couldn’t ask them for something they didn’t want to do. "There was times when I was on the sideline, I just wanted to go up and say to Belichick or Matt Patricia, and just say, ‘This how we’re gonna end this?’" said Butler, who signed with the Tennessee Titans as a free agent this spring. "I grew up in the Patriots system, you know, and I’m a man of God. More: Titans: How Logan Ryan helped recruit former Patriots Malcolm Butler, Dion Lewis More: Titans free agency: Why Malcolm Butler says he was benched in Super Bowl More: Titans GM Jon Robinson favors the underdogs. The 28-year-old told Sports Illustratedin a promo for the episode that he didn't bring up the matter to the coaching staff during the game because he wanted to respect their decision - but he did consider it. In a new episode of SI: Under the Coverthat was released Friday, Malcolm Butler said he considered confronting New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick or defensive coordinator Matt Patricia during February's Super Bowl in an attempt to insert himself into the game.īutler, who was arguably the team's top cornerback last season, was famously withheld from the team's loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. |