How The Biden FBI Let An ISIS Acolyte Slip Right Past Them

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News Cassandra Netflix’s Cassandra Has Some Deep Dark Robot Secrets Just do what the nice robot lady says and everything will be fine. By Molly Templeton | Published on January 7, 2025 Screenshot: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Netflix Obviously, if you name your robot Cassandra, you’re doing so for reasons. Reasons about truth, presumably, though the “good fairy” robot in the German series Cassandra doesn’t so much tell the truth as … embody it? Seems like she might know some things. Creepy things. Cassandra was acquired by Netflix last year, along with a handful of other German series and movies. Written and directed by Benjamin Gutsche (All You Need), it’s a six-part series with a weirdly future/retro vibe. As the synopsis explains: Germany’s oldest smart home has remained empty since its owners perished under mysterious circumstances over 50 years ago. In the present day, when Samira and her family move in, electronic home assistant Cassandra awakens from her decades-long slumber. Developed in the 1970s to care for a family, she has remained out of commission since the deaths of the house’s former residents. Now, Cassandra senses a second chance, one where she can be something more than a fairy godmother who keeps everything running smoothly. Cassandra comes to see herself as an equal member of the family, and she has a single mission: to use every single resource at her disposal to ensure she is never left alone again. So … alternate universe, sort of? In which Germany got very advanced smart homes in the 1970s? What does the rest of the world look like? Am I asking the wrong questions? We’ll find out when Cassandra premieres on February 6th. [end-mark] The post Netflix’s <i>Cassandra</i> Has Some Deep Dark Robot Secrets appeared first on Reactor.

Books short fiction Six SFF Stories About the Power of Words Exploring the magical, mystical potency of language… By Ratika Deshpande | Published on January 7, 2025 Photo: Aaron Burden [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Aaron Burden [via Unsplash] What is said, and precisely how it is said, hold incredible implications in speculative fiction, as in life. Here are some stories that explore, specifically, how individual words can hold power, manipulate reality, change how we feel, and even who we are… “By the Far Salt Lake” by Portia Elan When our protagonist’s father notices her interest in his books, he teaches her to read, but abandons her education when she informs him that she can see the words outside the pages. They mean something to her, something she only understands when her father dies and she sits mending a shawl: she can hear the angels, and they grant her their name in blessing. No one else can hear them. They guide her, protect her, and it is then that the girl recognizes that she can do something with the words they’ve offered her. An optimistic story about doing good in the world. “A Better Way of Saying” by Sarah Pinsker Back in the 1910s, movie theatres used to hire people to shout out the title cards displayed in silent films. Our young protagonist, hired for the job along with his sister, finds the wording inelegant, so he makes little changes as he reads them aloud. To his surprise, when the movie plays next, the title cards show his words, instead of whatever the makers originally wrote. He experiments with this effect, which works with movies, but not anywhere else—he can’t, for instance, speak into existence a job for himself at the newspaper office. Then, while substituting for a journalist, taking notes on a press event with the famous and charming actor Douglas Fairbanks, he gets the chance to test out his little magic trick when things seem to be taking a dangerous turn. But will it work? And what consequences will result? “An Open Letter to Bakers” by Teresa Milbrodt How many of us have answered the question “What would you wish for, if you knew it would be granted to you?” with something like “World peace” or “Ending world hunger”? Our narrator actually got the chance to do make such a wish, but not without including dozens of clauses to make sure their innocent wish wouldn’t impact anyone in the world negatively. It seems to have worked—though not entirely. A letter of apology is due, at the very least, and our narrator meant well, so we ought to listen to their side of the story too. “Letters from Yours” by Em Liu Our narrator has moved to an alien city, exchanging their life for their father’s health. They write letters to their Papa, letters they can’t send, but which afford them some comfort. Then the aliens find out what they’re doing, and want to know more. What does the written word mean to a people who don’t have written language, but who love stories? What does it mean to the ones who can understand the words but have no one to hear what they have to say? Liu explores both themes in this moving story about family, stories, and separation. “The Words on My Skin” by Caroline M. Yoachim In this curious little story, words determine what traits people have. Very few individuals, strictly monitored, are allowed to be skinwriters, giving people words that will shape their personality.  Being the daughter of a skinwriter gives our narrator access to her pens. The first time she snuck words onto her skin she was just a child. But then, as she grows up, she takes matters into her own hands, deciding that she’d choose what kind of person she wanted to be. It’s common knowledge now that the words we use to speak to others—especially to our kids and loved ones—sometimes affect them in profound ways, far more than we might suspect; I really loved Yoachim’s unique take on this concept, written in very few words but with a lot of faith in humanity. “The Bone Poet and God” by Matt Dovey Ursula, a bone poet, has a question for God: “What kind of bear am I meant to be?”She feels insecure, often ashamed, and needs to know her purpose. What can she do for others? How can she be useful? She carries with her bones—the tools of her craft—which belong to her family. Every bear has four runes carved on their bones over the course of their life. Ursula, for example, was given HOME and WATER by her parents. The third will be given by God, known only at one’s passing, and the fourth each bear chooses for themself. This is what Ursula wants God to help her with. But will she able to reach the top of the mountain where the right word can be found? And will she be content with what she gets? [end-mark] The post Six SFF Stories About the Power of Words appeared first on Reactor.

Four out of five planets visible with the naked eye are out at night all month.

Observations with the South Pole Telescope have revealed an independent addition to the biggest problem in cosmology.

For people 35 and under, Monday was the first time in their lifetime that a Republican presidential election victory was certified by Congress with zero Democratic objections, but in their 2025 debuts, the late night comedians wanted to claim that Monday’s proceedings showed Republicans how the transfer of power is supposed to be done. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel quipped, “In a master stroke of irony, Congress certified Donald Trump's victory today. Of all days, this one went off without Ted Cruz having to hide in a broom closet. This time he was just in there looking at stepmom porn.”     He also observed how Kamala Harris was the one who had to preside over the process, “Harris made it clear that she was following the oath she had taken as vice president and ensuring the peaceful transfer of power to the next administration. Boring. I mean, you notice how uneventful it was today? The Democrats lost, and they accepted they lost. There were no vegan baristas scaling The Capitol walls, no one was wearing animal horns, no one in face paint calling himself the ‘Blue Anon Shaman.’" Kimmel then proceeded to interview a Blue Anon Shaman character who wanted to fight for stereotypical progressive causes like electric cars, pronouns, and catchphrases about diversity and climate change. Speaking of irony, Jon Stewart kicked off The Daily Show’s 2025 run on Comedy Central by sarcastically asking Congressman and 2016 objector Jamie Raskin, “I imagine, sir, a very hectic day. Did they do their traditional chasing of the Congresspeople through the bowels of the building?” Raskin replied, “Yeah, luckily it was snowing outside, so all the insurrectionists were slipping and falling on the road and everything, so. But no, we, today was actually a totally uneventful and peaceful and nonviolent day. It is what January 6th should be and it's what it used to be like, I suppose.”     As D.C. was blanketed by snow, Stewart continued to help Raskin whitewash his own history of election denialism, “Congressman, is it hard on a day like today, seeing the way that it went, not to be passive-aggressive to the Republican colleagues, to not be like, ‘Oh! Hey, look at this, done by 1:00! Hey! Oh, my god, we can go out to Friday's and eat apps because there was no rioting?’” Raskin was more than happy to cover up his own past, “Yeah, the whole thing took, like, maybe 25 minutes. It should have taken 15 minutes but some of our Republican colleagues confused it with the Republican National Convention and they were cheering and applauding and yelling. We were just there to count the votes, and we were not there to, you know, continue the campaign. But, yeah, I mean, I talked to my friend Lauren Boebert and I asked her how she enjoyed it, and she said it was great because no Democrats had made any objections, and I said it was terrific because nobody tried to assassinate the vice president, and so we were all happy with how it went.” Over at CBS and The Late Show, Stephen Colbert tried to praise Democrats by noting, "Oh, yeah, today, Donald Trump's electoral victory was certified by Congress."  After some booing from the audience, Colbert continued, "Yes, I used to feel things too. And the striking thing about this time was how normal it was again. There was no riot. No one broke a window with their beard. In fact, the whole process took only 30 minutes. Yeah, democracy shouldn't take longer than it takes Rachel Ray to make a meal. Peaceful transfer of power? Yummo." Whether Kimmel, Colbert, Stewart, and Raskin want to admit it or not, no Republican who planned to object to the 2020 election thought there would be a riot. Some of them even said what they were doing was no big deal and cited previous Democratic objections to defend themselves. It is a good thing no Democrats objected on Monday, but it should not have taken them getting a dose of their own medicine to finally allow the certification of a GOP president without objection for the first time since George H.W. Bush. Here are transcripts for the January 6 shows: ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! 1/6/2024 11:45 PM ET JIMMY KIMMEL: In a master stroke of irony, Congress certified Donald Trump's victory today. Of all days, this one went off without Ted Cruz having to hide in a broom closet. This time he was just in there looking at stepmom porn, but poor Kamala Harris, because she is vice president and president of the Senate, she had to give the official signoff on Trump's win, which, that is cruel and unusual. It's like making your ex DJ your wedding to your new--. Harris made it clear that she was following the oath she had taken as vice president and ensuring the peaceful transfer of power to the next administration. Boring. I mean, you notice how uneventful it was today? The Democrats lost, and they accepted they lost. There were no vegan baristas scaling The Capitol walls, no one was wearing animal horns, no one in face paint calling himself the "Blue Anon Shaman." *** CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 1/6/2024 11:36 PM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: Oh, yeah, today, Donald Trump's electoral victory was certified by Congress. Yes, I used to feel things too. And the striking thing about this time was how normal it was again. There was no riot. No one broke a window with their beard. In fact, the whole process took only 30 minutes. Yeah, democracy shouldn't take longer than it takes Rachel Ray to make a meal. Peaceful transfer of power? Yummo.  *** Comedy Central The Daily Show 1/6/2024 11:25 PM ET JON STEWART How are you, sir? Thank you for joining us. I imagine, sir, a very hectic day. Did they do their traditional chasing of the Congresspeople through the bowels of the building? JAMIE RASKIN: Yeah, luckily it was snowing outside, so all the insurrectionists were slipping and falling on the road and everything, so. But no, we, today was actually a totally uneventful and peaceful and nonviolent day. It is what January 6th should be and it’s what it used to be like, I suppose. STEWART: Congressman, is it hard on a day like today, seeing the way that it went, not to be passive-aggressive to the Republican colleagues, to not be like, "Oh! Hey, look at this, done by 1:00! Hey! Oh, my god, we can go out to Friday's and eat apps because there was no rioting?" RASKIN: Yeah, the whole thing took, like, maybe 25 minutes. It should have taken 15 minutes but some of our Republican colleagues confused it with the Republican National Convention and they were cheering and applauding and yelling. We were just there to count the votes, and we were not there to, you know, continue the campaign. But, yeah, I mean, I talked to my friend Lauren Boebert and I asked her how she enjoyed it, and she said it was great because no Democrats had made any objections, and I said it was terrific because nobody tried to assassinate the vice president, and so we were all happy with how it went. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is among the Democrats apparently keen to pretend that any kind of presidential pardon is now off the table after President Joe Biden gave an "unconditional" blanket pardon to his felonious son Hunter Biden and commuted the sentences of monstrous child-killers, city-impoverishing fraudsters, and other predators. Schumer noted Monday on X, "It is utterly shameful that the president-elect is considering pardons for January 6 rioters." After winning the election in a landslide, President Donald Trump told Time magazine in an interview, "We're going to look at each individual case, and we're going to do it very quickly, and it's going to start in the first hour that I get into office." "A vast majority should not be in jail, and they've suffered gravely," added Trump. Weeks later, Trump reiterated in an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he would begin issuing pardons to Jan. 6 protesters on his first day back in office, noting that unlike the radicals involved in the genuinely deadly BLM riots who largely got out legally unscathed after inflicting billions of dollars of damage on the nation, Jan. 6 protesters were treated "unfair[ly]." 'Nothing that happened on Jan. 6 calls for a 22-year prison sentence.' "Those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look," said Trump. When asked whether he would consider also pardoning violent protesters, Trump noted that some of the convictions for violent crimes were bogus and said, "I'm going to look at everything. We're going to look at individual cases." Over 1,580 defendants have been charged with crimes connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests. Blaze News previously reported that nearly 1,000 people have pleaded guilty to Jan. 6 charges, 68% for misdemeanors and 32% for felonies. Of those who pleaded guilty to felonies, 53% were for supposedly assaulting law enforcement officers. Some of the most consequential prison sentences ranged from 10 to 22 years. Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, told the Washington Examiner in a statement that "nothing that happened on Jan. 6 calls for a 22-year prison sentence, especially when the Biden Justice Department essentially gave amnesty to the much more deadly and destructive BLM and Antifa rioters." "Pardoning criminals who waved Confederate flags, donned Nazi symbols, assaulted police officers, and tried to halt the democratic process would be a dangerous endorsement of political violence," continued Schumer. This talking point has been pushed by other leftists including Joyce Vance, a senior fellow at the Soros-funded Brennan Center, who noted Friday, "Pardoning the rioters is a grotesque misuse of the pardon power because, cloaked in the appearance of lawful authority, it would put the presidential seal on crimes that go to the heart of an attack on our democracy." Schumer, who was previously careful not to conflate violent Black Lives Matter rioters with peaceful protesters and took an entirely different approach when discussing the leftist radicals who clashed with police near the White House in June 2020, added that Trump's potential pardon of Jan. 6 protesters "is wrong. It is reckless. And it would be an insult to the memories of those who died in connection to that day." Ahead of Kamala Harris' certification of President-elect Donald Trump's landslide victory, Schumer criticized Trump again on he Senate floor, characterizing the Jan. 6, 2021, as "one of the darkest, most shameful days in American history of our democracy" and suggesting it was unconscionable to pardon Jan. 6 protesters. The Democratic senator later told reporters that pardoning Jan. 6 protesters "would set a terrible example for the future in America and to the world that it was okay, that it was forgivable to do this." Schumer spared Biden from similar criticism over his controversial pardons or the examples they might set. The Democratic president issued a "full and unconditional pardon" last month for Hunter Biden, giving him a pass on crimes committed between 2014 and 2024 and letting him off the hook for his felony conviction on gun charges and for his felony tax offenses. When asked about Hunter Biden's pardon, Schumer told a reporter, "I've got nothing on that." Schumer apparently also had little to nothing critical to say about Biden commuting the sentences of 37 convicts on federal death row, including cop-killers, mass killers, and murderous child rapists. Among the individuals Biden spared from the accountability pursued by judges and juries was Jorge Avila-Torrez, a "serial killer of the highest degree" who kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered two little girls, Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, in 2005; murdered 20-year-old U.S. Navy Petty Officer Amanda Jean Snell in 2009; and raped and nearly killed another woman in 2009. There was also deafening silence from Schumer and most other Democrats when Biden commuted the sentence of a disgraced former comptroller who stole $53.7 million from her struggling Illinois city along with around the sentences of around 1,500 other convicts. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Former UFC fighter and Green Beret Tim Kennedy was on a military-themed television show with the man accused of blowing up a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas.Matthew Alan Livelsberger allegedly detonated explosives outside the Las Vegas Trump Hotel on New Year's Day in what he claimed was an effort to bring attention to the U.S. drone program.Two days after the event, Kennedy revealed on his X page that he was once partnered with Livelsberger on the History Channel show "Ultimate Soldier Challenge."The show is described on IMDB as having "elite men and women of America's Special Operations' units" compete in a "worldwide battle of their skill, adaptability and strength."'None of this makes sense.'Kennedy is listed as a cast member for a March 5, 2013, episode titled "Green Berets vs Norwegians."Livelsberger is listed as "Matt Berg," a Green Beret."13 years ago I competed in a shooting competition on History Channel called The Ultimate Soldiers Challenge," Kennedy wrote on X. "My partner in this competition was Matt Burg [sic] (aka Matt Livelsberger). Last night when I saw old photos of him on the news, I put together that it was the same guy."Along with some photos from the production, Kennedy called Livelsberger "sincere, hard-working," and a "talented and competent Special Forces operator.""I am flabbergasted and heartbroken to hear the news. None of this makes sense and I like many others are confused and want answers," Kennedy added.He was a sincere, hard-working, talented, and competent Special Forces operator. I am flabbergasted and heartbroken to hear the news. None of this makes sense and I like many others are confused and want answers.— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) January 4, 2025 An email attributed to Livelsberger was sent to retired U.S. Army intelligence officer Sam Shoemate. Shoemate read the email on the "The Shawn Ryan Show" and included warnings about the drone sightings that have popped up across the United States' eastern seaboard."What we have been seeing with 'drones' is the operational use of gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast, but throughout history, the US," he wrote. "Only we and China have this capability. Our OPEN location for this activity in the box is below. China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up. As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the balloon."Livelsberger also claimed the drones are the "most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed" and that either the FBI or Homeland Security had been digitally tracking him.Kennedy had 24 professional fights between 2001-2016, amassing an 18-6 record.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!