The Insurrection Grows New Jersey Governor-Elect Mikie Sherill isn’t going to let the Constitution or reality get in her way. At least not when it comes to taxes, rate hikes, whatever she thinks the voters want. It sounds like a winning soundbite for Evita Perone. According to Politico, NJ Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill is floating the […] The post NJ Governor Wants to Stop Paying Federal Taxes to Fight Trump appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The Trump administration tightens immigration restrictions following a fatal attack on National Guardsmen, illegal alien access to federal benefits comes under scrutiny, and is the United States about to strike narco-terrorists on Venezuelan soil? It’s Monday, December 1, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the video version can be seen on The Daily Wire: Trump Launches Immigration Crackdown After D.C. Shootings Topline: The tragic shooting of two National Guard members from West Virginia by an Afghan national has triggered a massive immigration response from the Trump administration. And the president does not appear to be done with his sweeping actions. Over the course of last week and then into the weekend, President Donald Trump has taken a series of aggressive actions in response to this attack, about which some very harrowing details continue to emerge. The attack: Police say the 29-year-old suspect approached with a revolver and was shooting at a point-blank distance. He was also reportedly shouting “Allah Akbar!” One heroic guardsman, armed with only a pocketknife, was able to stop the shooter. The guardsman heard the gunfire, charged the shooter, and then stabbed him with the knife. Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old woman who was one of the guardsmen shot in the attack, died as a result of her injuries. The other guardsman who was shot, Andrew Wolf, is still fighting for his life. There continues to be an outpouring of support and prayers for his recovery and his family. The suspect was also severely wounded, but he is expected to survive. Where the prosecution stands: U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said that the charges have been upgraded to first-degree murder since Beckstrom’s death. Pirro said that this appears to be a case of an ambush-style attack. The FBI is even looking at this as a possible act of terrorism. In response, President Trump said he is considering dispatching 500 more troops to the nation’s capital to keep the peace, doubling down on his earlier executive order to protect the city and quell crime. The suspect: He came into the United States as part of Operation Allies Welcome, launched by the Biden administration after the botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. Many soldiers, including Afghan and American soldiers, were killed during that process, and the Taliban was able to retake the country. The suspect fought with a group of elite Afghan fighters known as “Zero Units.” They were all so-called “death squads” working with the CIA to help fight the Taliban. A friend of the suspect’s told the New York Post that he suffered from serious mental health issues as a result of his years in combat. Immigration crackdown: Trump has said the United States is not admitting any more Afghan nationals. The president has ordered a review of how Afghans were vetted during and after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Notably, tens of thousands of Afghan nationals came to the United States as refugees following the withdrawal. The State Department has said it is refusing visas to Afghan nationals until it conducts further vetting of the country. The president has said that he will “deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.” Trump Steps Up Enforcement Against Illegals Receiving Benefits Topline: The Trump administration is working to remove federal benefits for people who are in the country illegally. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he will “end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens.” He added that many recent arrivals depend on taxpayer-supported welfare programs while coming from “failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels.” Bessent’s turn: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has moved to implement the president’s order. Bessent said that his department is working to cut off federal benefits to illegals and stressed that these must be preserved for American citizens. Specifically, Bessent said the Treasury “will issue proposed regulations clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens.” The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also issued an alert to better crack down on the exploitation of the U.S. financial system by illegals who are seeking to move illegally obtained funds.  The department said that over the past several years, the United States has witnessed a “significant volume of cross-border funds transfers, including remittances” from illegals. MN Somalis: City Journal has reported in detail on a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota under the tenure of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, where billions of taxpayer dollars intended for social services were funneled through fake nonprofits and shell companies, and — alarmingly — some of that money ended up in the hands of the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Much of the fraud has been traced back to Minnesota’s Somali community, where fraudsters have allegedly exploited numerous loopholes in the state’s welfare system. But the story has been overlooked for a long time. “I think it’s fair to say there was an unwillingness or inability from Democratic state officials in Minnesota to recognize some pretty obvious alarm bells here. Claims were skyrocketing, spiraling out of control,” said investigative reporter Ryan Thorpe, who helped break the story. “The reality is, the Somali community … is a voting bloc you have to win if you’re going to win political office in Minneapolis.” Trump Clears The Skies Over Venezuela Topline: Tensions in the Caribbean are escalating after President Trump announced that the airspace over Venezuela should be considered closed. The announcement has raised new questions over potential U.S. strikes inside Venezuela amid the president’s war on drug cartels. The situation around Venezuela appears precarious. Trump on Saturday posted on Truth Social: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” That post has again sparked predictions about when airstrikes could occur. “We should read into it that strikes are very probably going to occur over the course of this week,” retired Admiral James Stavridis told CNN. “When you hear the president of the United States throw that warning out there, to me it sounds like strikes are coming probably sooner rather than later.” The fallout: Venezuela’s foreign minister called Trump’s post an “extravagant, illegal, and unjustified aggression against the people of Venezuela.” A country can’t actually close another country’s airspace, but that seems to be a technicality in this situation. Ten days ago, the FAA had already warned about a “potentially hazardous situation” for flights over Venezuela. Commercial air traffic has avoided the area since. Venezuela has said that U.S. migrant repatriation flights have stopped. Diplomacy? The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump and Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, spoke by phone recently. Trump confirmed the call on Sunday while speaking to reporters on board Air Force One. Trump did not provide details, but the call represents a shift after the U.S. cut off diplomatic talks in October. Reportedly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on the call, as well, and Trump and Maduro spoke of the possibility of a meeting, which would be a significant shift after Trump called on Maduro to step down and authorized CIA operations in Venezuela. Allies of the president have maintained that this is a drug operation–a very intense one, but one that will not lead to war.

Could a secretive environmental policy be responsible for one of California’s most devastating wildfires? Regulatory Malice: Newsom’s “Eco-Jihad” and the Palisades Fire Catastrophe The disastrous “let it burn” doctrine, disguised as ecological science, is not a mistake—it is a policy of neglect woven into the fabric of the U.S. Forest Service since the failed 1935 “10 a.m. policy” led to massive fuel accumulation. Now, the eco-radicals within the bureaucracy, armed with twisted ‘restoration’ goals, allow naturally-caused fires to rage, gambling with the lives of citizens. Governor Newsom once made a show of challenging this destructive philosophy after the Tamarack fire spiraled out of control. But his outrage was a political smokescreen. The catastrophic January 2025 Palisades Fire has ripped the curtain back, exposing the true, deadly cost of his administration’s environmental fanaticism. Shocking plot exposed Allegations now confirm that Newsom’s environmental policies secretly permitted certain fires to burn, setting the stage for the Palisades inferno. Documents, reportedly instructing state park officials to allow blazes in protected areas for so-called “ecosystem restoration,” reveal a betrayal of public trust. While the elite played ecological theory games, the public was deliberately kept in the dark—notification was reportedly withheld, guaranteeing that a monitored blaze could morph into a city-killing firestorm without local warning. The Palisades Fire, igniting on January 7, 2025, was not an accident; it was a foreseeable catastrophe born from regulatory arrogance. It became one of California’s most destructive wildfires, destroying over 6,800 structures and claiming numerous lives, forcing a frantic President Biden to issue a Major Disaster Declaration within 36 hours. The devastation is the irrefutable evidence of an administration that valued green ideology over human safety. Deep state collusion The deep-state bureaucratic machinery in California actively colluded with this environmental madness. Critically, these disasters are fueled by regulatory red tape, like the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which prevents essential fuel treatment and brush clearing. Critics, including local officials and experts, point to this regulatory tyranny as the true culprit, noting that millions of dollars were slashed from fire department budgets while resources were diverted to woke, irrelevant programs. As the state burned, Newsom immediately deployed the elite’s standard distraction: blaming the Palisades tragedy on “climate change” rather than admitting the failure of his own policies, his neglected reservoirs, and his criminally underfunded fire departments. This is a calculated maneuver to shield the government bureaucracy from accountability and deflect public rage onto a global, unmanageable crisis. Breach of trust The most profound betrayal is against the brave men and women on the front lines. Local firefighters and emergency responders were constrained by policy directives that secretly prioritized “restoration” over suppression, forcing them to fight fires with one hand tied behind their backs. The affected communities, displaced by the thousands, demand an end to the culture of secrecy. They watched their homes turn to ash while the Governor and Mayor, facing blistering criticism, were seen touring the downtown business district instead of being on the fire line. The Governor’s subsequent executive orders, temporarily suspending the very environmental laws (CEQA/Coastal Act) that caused the delay in the first place, is a stunning admission of guilt—a desperate attempt to clear the “roadblocks” of his own making, but only after the cities were already reduced to ash. The Palisades Fire demands a total, uncompromising review, not just of fire management, but of the entire environmental regulatory structure that holds California hostage. Sources: Los Angeles Times California Governor’s Office

'Habba is not the Acting U.S. Attorney'

There are a lot of nebulae in the universe, and they often get given catchy names like the Crab Nebula or Cat’s Paw Nebula. There needs no explaining the name of this nebula—seen in an image taken from the Gemini South Telescope in Chile. Located between 2,500 and 3,800 light years away in the constellation […] The post Stunning Photo Captures Gaseous Wings of Butterfly Nebula from the Gemini Telescope (LOOK) appeared first on Good News Network.

Books Wind and Truth Reread Wind and Truth Reread: Chapters 133-136 Tables are turned, knives are out, Blades are reclaimed, and a throne is saved! By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey | Published on December 1, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Happy Monday, Sanderfans, and welcome back to our Wind and Truth Reread! Hoo-boy, do we have a doozy of a week. The Sanderlanche is fully Sanderlanching and we’re rapidly shuffling from POV to POV like a deck of cards. We see Adolin *cue angelic songs from the heavens* kicking some major ass, Maya returning with deadeyes in tow, Dalinar refusing to kill Gavinor, Shallan’s climactic encounter with Iyatil, Szeth leveling up and then… well, you know. Let’s get to it, shall we? The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content). Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs Chapter 133, “Puppet,” opens with Adolin growing more and more exhausted as he tries to avoid getting Shardbladed to death by Abidi the Monarch. Adolin focuses his concentration and goes on the offense, managing to strike Abidi in the side, several times, shocking the Fused. As he fights, Adolin thinks of how he had promised to help Azir and questions why he had done so. His father trained him to be a weapon but his mother… his mother tried to make him into a weapon that had meaning. And Adolin begins to understand himself, letting go of his anger over Evi’s death. He knows that he can be the man she wanted him to be. Abidi lunges for Adolin, who blocks the Blade with the candelabra and rams his sword straight through the Plate’s eye slit into Abidi’s eye. To no avail. Abidi is able to heal. Storming stupid Fused! Abidi lifts Adolin into the air and Adolin knows he’s about to die, realizing that he’ll never be enough, no matter how he tries. Abidi begins ranting, but his monologue is cut short when Adolin laughs as he realizes his purpose, as Maya told him he would. He says, “Yes, I’ll lead them.” Then he humbly asks for a little help. Abidi thinks he’s begging, but Adolin isn’t asking him for help. Sir? What… what was that?Sir! When Abidi hurls Adolin across the room at a wall, his Plate, worn by Abidi, suddenly flies apart and surrounds Adolin just as he crashes into the stone surface. His Plate spren have apparently come to life and chosen him over Abidi, who is shocked. The Plate spren work to accommodate his missing leg, fortifying the Plate to give him a new leg and foot. Then… oh, storms, then an orange-red light starts to glow from the joints of the armor and from his helm. There are no symbols—he is not Radiant, after all—but his Plate is alive. He was Adolin Kholin. A man with very good friends.  As Adolin charges toward Abidi, the Fused feels fear for what may very well be the first time. POV Shift! Szeth is getting the tar beat out of him by his father and the other Honorbearers. But he realizes that they’re being used as puppets, unable to act of their own accord, being controlled by Ishar. His father asks for help even as he throws Szeth about and pummels him. Ishar yells at Szeth to just do what he says and Szeth thinks back to all the times he’d asked someone else about the right thing to do: his father, the Farmer, the captain of the guard. Finally, finally, he realizes that he will never again do as his masters require—and he skips right over the Fourth Ideal and swears the Fifth. Chapter 134 is titled “The Third Way.” Shallan manages to plant her anti-Stormlight knife into Formless’ eye. Of course, it’s actually Iyatil using a Lightweaving. She tries to heal herself but, as mentioned, she has an anti-Stormlight knife in her eye, and Iyatil handily does away with herself as her Stormlight meets the anti-Stormlight. Mraize knocks Shallan to the side just a fraction too late and tries to help Iyatil before he sees that she’s dead. He whispers that he’s free, then immediately questions Shallan about how she knew it was Iyatil and how they knew about Formless. Mraize closes Iyatil’s remaining eye and sneakily takes something from her belt. Shallan tries to convince him not to fight, creates a Lightweaving of him as he could be, traveling the cosmere to help people. He’s not swayed. He tells her he’ll take her directly to Thaidakar, who may forgive her if she joins them. Radiant asks if she needs to take over but Shallan replies that she can handle it, with Pattern’s help. POV Shift! Yanagawn grips a sword and waits nervously outside the throne room with the remainder of their small crew while hundreds of singers and Regals lurk just down the corridor in both directions. He asks why they haven’t attacked and Colot says they’re waiting for something—he guesses that they’ve been ordered to wait. Kushkam agrees that they’re waiting and asks why, but Colot has no idea. Yanagawn thinks of the four ways to win and realizes that the only hope is a “random turning of the tides.” At that moment, the doors of the throne room burst open and Abidi the Monarch flies out of the room and smashes into the wall on the far side of the corridor. Then Adolin walks out and crushes Abidi’s chest, destroying his gemheart. “Your Majesty,” he said, resting the Blade of Memories on his shoulder, “I have reclaimed your Shardblade for you.” Woot-woot! Adolin Kholin, I storming adore you! POV Shift! Szeth speaks the Fifth Ideal, light explodes around Szeth, and the Honorbearers all fall to the ground, shielding their eyes. Kaladin then approaches Ishar and says he needs to talk to him while he can see clearly. Alas, Ishar is not affected positively by the Oath being accepted. He begins railing about Dalinar, calling him an “imitation Bondsmith”: “I was fooled by Dalinar’s clever lies once. Not again. I am prepared with countermeasures. I always learn.” Chapter 135 is titled “The Choice of Honor” and we’re back with Adolin! Yay! Maya speaks to him, says she thought he had died when he vanished. He explains her about the aluminum and assures her he handled it. Then he asks Noura about the deadline. They have ten minutes. They have to hold the throne room for ten long minutes. Notum tells him there are at least twelve Fused among the singer troops and that one is taking charge with Abidi dead. Adolin fears his friends will die immediately in an assault and that he’ll be dragged down and stabbed through the eyes. Sir? the armor thought. Then the faceplate’s holes are filled and air flows through his armor. That’s handy now, isn’t it? But still, the enemy is about ready to attack and if they drag him down, they’ll still be able to shatter his plate and kill him. The singers start to chant and Maya reminds him that she’s there and her friends can help. Adolin says he doesn’t think a few more honorspren will be of help and there’s a little confusion over that. So she shows him where she is in Shadesmar, accompanied by dozens of deadeyes. Adolin realizes he’d made a mistake in sending her when they were thinking of different kinds of help. Several of the deadeyes try to speak but cannot, though Adolin can sense their feelings. You need allies.We have come. Adolin doesn’t want to take advantage of them when they’ve already given so much but they recognize his injury—they, like he, have been wounded, and he realizes that sometimes you have to just keep going. The ashspren opened her mouth and forced out a few sounds. “Wa … wa … tch …”“Watchers,” Adolin said, “at the rim.”She nodded, and he felt her thoughts. Oaths had fallen, but she would not let him fight alone.“Because in this case,” Adolin said quietly, “a promise is something deeper than an oath.” Oh, my feels! Adolin’s character arc over the course of the books, and especially since the Radiants returned, has been fraught with doubt and feelings of inadequacy. He’s grown so, so much, through his courtship with Shallan and his friendship with Kaladin. And to see him realizing the importance of promises and learning to accept himself as he is… oh, Sanderfans, it gives me such deep feels. (Although I didn’t cry this time.) Then Adolin is back in the palace, mere seconds having passed, and he tells Maya he needs nine Blades and Plate. Then he shouts to the Unoathed to arm up. They don’t understand, of course, but then the Shardblades appear, each with a Plate helmet. “I said,” Adolin commanded, “ARM UP!” Chills down my spine! POV Shift! Renarin and Rlain are still discussing what to do with Mishram, and Rlain insists that they have to let her go. Renarin agrees, observing that they should be able to shatter the gem, considering that it’s already cracked. Rlain says they both need to free her so she can see human and singer working together. And so together, they pick up the gemstone. POV Shift! Szeth is restored by Stormlight and turns to his spren to thank it for trying to help him. Szeth says that all men should be the law, should follow the law. Then he announces that 12124 is the wrong spren for him and that if he’s to choose, he would choose another. He’ll seek out the dissenters and find another spren… then he releases his spren from its bond. It’s painful, but he knows it’s the right thing to do. Nale’s spren appears and chastises 12124 for giving Szeth too much power. “You have let yourself become an attendant to your human, an auxiliary to his will.”“Is that…” the shrinking spren said. “Is that so bad?”“Your failure proves that it is.” Man, highspren are such jerks. Except for Aux, of course. The spren disappears into the Cognitive Realm and Szeth hopes it will be well. Then Ishar pretty much tells Szeth he’s an idiot. Szeth knows that the Honorbearers will soon return to Ishar’s control, so he fetches Nightblood. He asks if the sword destroys the souls of the people he eats forever. Nightblood says that he doesn’t, that they’re just changed. Szeth says he must destroy one last time but Ishar stops him, telling him the sword will consume him. Ishar then Connects himself to Szeth and shows him the darkness that he holds at bay, the sorrow in the hearts of the Heralds. Szeth screams. POV Shift! Yanagawn grabs a helmet and dons it, and the rest of the Plate forms around him. He takes a Blade and turns to meet the singers who are charging toward them. The others suit up as Yanagawn did and Adolin gets the guard from the smuggler’s port, plus Noura and Rahel, telling the three of them that they must hold the room. He instructs Noura to sit on the throne and tells the others to make sure nobody sneaks in while the rest of them are busy fighting. Noura takes the Blade of Memories and they go to hold the throne. Adolin summons Maya, who is ready to kick some Fused ass. Damn, I love Maya. POV Shift! Kaladin tries to pull Ishar away from Szeth and he also becomes Connected to the Herald. He sees the darkness, too, and it smothers him, consumes him. Ishar commands Kaladin to feel it, telling him that this is what the Heralds would feel all the time if he didn’t hold it back. He touches Syl and she feels the darkness too, curling into a ball and weeping. Nale tries to stop Ishar and Ishar touches him, as well, telling him he must bear his own madness. Ishar then forces the Honorbearers to experience the darkness, as well. “Feel it,” he repeated softly. “Then question me.” Chapter 136 is titled “Ten People With Shardblades Alight.” We see Dalinar attacked by Gavinor as the hour of the contest arrives. Dalinar avoids the boy’s Blade as he lunges again and again. He has no weapon. The Stormfather says he thought Dalinar would know what to do and he says he’s still working on it. He tries talking to Gavinor, which does no good as Odium has shown Gav all of the bad things Dalinar had ever done—all of the bad, and none of the good. Taravangian offers Dalinar a Shardblade, since he has no sword of his own, and Dalinar takes it reluctantly. He and Gav fight and Gav observes that he’s better than the versions of him he’s fought before when training in the Spiritual Realm. Then Dalinar throws the boy to the ground and Taravangian tells Gav not to let Dalinar trick him, and calls him “son.” This angers Dalinar, who tells Taravangian that he hates him. Taravangian snaps his fingers and Gavinor freezes in place. He’s aware, but he can’t move. Taravangian is offering Dalinar the chance to kill Gav, and thereby win the contest and secure Alethkar. “Storm you!” Dalinar said, stepping toward him. “There are prices that aren’t worth paying to win.”“I disagree. No price is too high for the greater good.” POV Shift! Adolin and the other Unoathed are holding the singers back. There are ten Shardbearers facing the enemy and they held. Fun tidbit: Notum has Plate and a Blade! And he saves Adolin from a Magnified One. Very cool—nice touch, Brandon! As the singer ranks begin to break, a Fused with an Edgedancer’s abilities looks upward as if he is hearing something. Then he sighs and walks away. As do all of the others. Adolin is confused but then Noura runs from the throne room to tell them that the contest has begun. They have saved Azir! POV Shift! Dalinar circles Gavinor but, of course, doesn’t strike him down. He and Taravangian spar with words and Taravangian says he feels people all across Roshar, feels their pain and suffering. Feels it all across the cosmere, crying out for relief until someone brings them peace. Until he brings them peace. Meanwhile, Gavinor is struggling against his bonds, tears running down his face. Dalinar tells Taravangian that the boy knows he’s been betrayed. All those years of training and Taravangian doesn’t even give Gav the chance to beat Dalinar. Taravangian tells Dalinar to choose to either kill Gavinor or lose the contest. Dalinar refuses. Taravangian takes Oathbringer from Gav’s hands and drives it into the floor in front of Dalinar. He tells him he’ll be the Blackthorn again, head of Taravangian’s armies. He says it’s the greater evil but if that is Dalinar’s choice, he will accept it. “You win wither way. Whatever I do, you win.”“Did you really think I would be here under any other circumstances?” Then Taravangian says he and Odium will be one god for the whole cosmere, as it was thousands of years ago. “It begins here, Dalinar, with your decision. Of course, we know what will happen with Dalinar, and it’s heartbreaking. But we’ll get to that when the time comes. …In the meantime, can we all just take a minute to celebrate Adolin and what an absolute badass he is? Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs Adolin This was who he was.With a sword in his hands, everything briefly made sense again. He had been waiting so, so long for that feeling. What a freeing feeling, to finally be able to do what you were best at again! As Dalinar had worked to make Adolin into a weapon, Evi had worked to make Adolin into one that had meaning. Teaching him empathy and kindness. One could say that Dalinar had created the iron, but Evi’s love and teachings were the forge which strengthened that iron into a perfect blade. This is something that Dalinar never truly grasped, I don’t think. He cared for the people he led in a superficial, reserved way. Adolin (and Kaladin) got to know their followers in a deeper way. They actually formed friendships, and took the time to understand and truly care about the people around them. Does this make Adolin and Kal better leaders? Perhaps not. Having those deep friendships means that it’s going to be harder to sacrifice those followers, should the need arise. A good leader has to be ready and willing to make the hard choice of sacrificing the few to save the many. Perhaps it’s a matter of scale. Once you reach a certain rank, and the number of people following you grows to be thousands rather than dozens… do you have to extend your worldview and view your followers as numbers instead of individuals? It’s an interesting question. An oath could be broken, but a promise? A promise stood as long as you were still trying. A promise understood that sometimes your best wasn’t enough. A promise cried with you when all went to Damnation. A promise came to help when you could barely stand. Because a promise knew that sometimes, being there was all you could offer. Playing with semantics he may be, but the meaning is clear and moving. Because Evi had believed in Dalinar. Against all evidence, she’d loved him. And Adolin, her little boy, desperately wanted her to be right.That was why. That was the final truth of it. With a sigh, Adolin let go. Let her rest […] I appreciate that Adolin is able to self-analyze to this extent, and in such a charged and dangerous situation! And so we finally get closure for him on this part of his emotional character arc. Szeth Each time it was less and less a question. More and more a mantra.I am Truthless. I do not ask.I do as my masters require.Never. Again. And we all rise in a wave of tumultuous applause for our poor sad boy Szeth, taking control of his own life again and finally doing what he wants to do, rather than blindly taking orders. You care not for people, only for rules. I do not care for your training styles, your philosophies, or the ‘truths’ you tell yourselves.” He paused, considering the next action, and decided it was right. “I will seek out the dissenters who live the old ways of the Skybreakers. There, I will find another spren. I release you from your bond. I wish we could have been friends.” Incredible. To have gone through all that work, and to just… walk away? What strength. No sunk cost fallacy for Szeth, that’s for sure. Renarin “This is our fault,” Renarin whispered to Rlain beside him. “Humankind’s. Peace was possible, but we didn’t want peace. We wanted to win.” Ouch. How many battles in history and just… life in general could be described thusly? Peace was possible… but someone just wanted to be right. Reminds me of that old meme… Kaladin I don’t have a specific quote for this, as the entire section of chapter 135 is what I want to address. This manifestation of depression that’s forced upon Kaladin is nothing new to him… or to me. It’s portrayed so well, here. Anyone who has ever suffered from depression will recognize the reality of these thoughts, battering against Kaladin’s mind. Dalinar “I’ve lived my father’s life a dozen times over. And always the same theme. No one ever gets to decide. You decide for them.” Oof. That one hits close to home. Dalinar does have a tendency totell others what to do, doesn’t he? He has respected when others have pushed back against his orders—Adolin and Kaladin rejecting the roles he chose for them, notably—so at least there’s that. But Dalinar still assumed that he knew best what was needed in the first place, didn’t he? Yanagawn Yanagawn spoke to the Fused with the decisive voice of an emperor. “Gather your people at the Oathgate, Fused. We will let them withdraw into Shadesmar. If you have wounded that need care, we will see to them once our own are cared for.” He really has grown into a true leader, hasn’t he? Taravangian I don’t think you care to actually understand. You merely want someone to justify your horrible actions, to make it easy for you.” What do you think, readers? Is Dalinar right about this? “We, at the top, can never have the peace we will bring others. We must taint our souls with the worst sludge of corrupt morality, to sacrifice our ideals at the feet of a stable government.” The idealist in me wants to agree with Dalinar, that there’s another way, that there always has to be another way. That sacrificing your ideals on the altar of peace isn’t the only way. But the pessimist in me wonders if Taravangian might not be right. Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories Shallan’s final encounter with Mraize and Iyatil was a long time coming, in many ways, but it also gave Brandon another opportunity to drop some Cosmere teasers on us. Instead she made a version of him in rugged clothing, walking somewhere bright. A world where the sun was a soft shade of yellow, and the ground was covered in soil, like Shinovar. “I have traveled Shadesmar,” Mraize said, staring—with what she thought was genuine longing—at her Lightweaving. “I have met aethers and dragons. But no, I was never allowed onto another world.” There are some clear differences between the Ghostbloods we see on Roshar and those we meet on Scadrial in The Lost Metal. Iyatil and Mraize seem much more inclined toward aggression and violence than the crew of Kaise and Shai and TwinSoul and the rest. But I wonder how much their organization and methods have departed, as well. Mraize is native to Roshar, and he says here that he’s spent time in Shadesmar. But not being allowed to journey to other worlds is sticking in my craw. Kelsier obviously can’t travel beyond the Scadrian subastral (yet), and yet the Ghostbloods are a Cosmere-wide organization, with members from Roshar, Silverlight, Sel, and Dhatri in addition to Scadrial. Kaise, Dlavil, and TwinSoul have moved to Scadrial. That’s a lot of movement just among the few members we’ve met so far. So why is Mraize stuck on Roshar? Is this just an Iyatil thing? “Unoathed! Arm up!” I have some gripes with this whole sequence, but in the context of this reread, it’s all about the lore for me. This is a MAJOR shift in how Invested Arts work on Roshar, and sets up some great possibilities for the back half of the series. With the Knights Radiant crippled—no more Stormlight, no more Bondsmith access, dubious access to Warlight—it seems as though Sanderson is setting things up for a very new power landscape. The Listeners have access to Warlight through their prayers, but they’re more of a neutral party. Adolin’s Unoathed might very well be the core of the resistance against Retribution’s death grip on Roshar. Speaking of new developments in how things work: “You spoke the Fifth Ideal. Szeth, you’ve become the law!” Szeth just straight-up skips the Fourth Ideal, which opens up a whole new can of worms. I feel like some Orders might be more flexible on this than others—Lightweavers, for instance, would probably be more locked into a standard progression; maybe if you speak a powerful enough truth you could jump straight to the Fifth Ideal, but that doesn’t sit right with me—and it makes sense for Skybreakers to be one of them. Not sure if that counts as irony. But we know at this point that there are different sets of oaths for Skybreakers, and the final Ideal for them is a pretty concrete goal. Hit that goal, as Szeth does here, and boom. Max level. Much of the rest of this week’s selection is Dalinar and Taravangian facing off, but we’re not quite to the really juicy Investiture and theory stuff yet, instead mostly watching Dalinar reluctantly duel Gavinor before getting into an argument with Taravangian. We’ll have to wait just a little bit longer before we can start talking about the stuff of Shards and Ascending…and that most inexplicable of characters, Nohadon. We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who haven’t read the book yet. See you next Monday with our discussion of chapters 137 through 140![end-mark] The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapters 133-136 appeared first on Reactor.

Seinfeld, a show about nothing, actually gave us something for the holidays:  a new December tradition in which everyone can participate. On December 18, 1997, all of us were introduced to Festivus, the holiday “for CONTINUE READING... The post The Real History Behind the Fake Holiday Festivus appeared first on The Retro Network.