#Alex Kotch

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2008): Introduction

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Ladies. Gentlemen and Others, welcome, to the Doom WADs’ Roulette, where I review the best WADs according to Doomworld’s Top 100 WADs of All Times and (now) Cacowards. Today, we are starting to check out the “Cacowards” BEEP “2008” BEEP roster. Here are the rules:

#1 We are playing on GZDoom (ver. 4.10.0 4.11.3).

#2 We are playing on “Hurt Me Plenty”.

#3 Vertical aiming is on.

#4 No infinitely tall monsters.

#5 The WAD will be downloaded from the archives unless it’s not there among other reasons.

#6 We are playing WADs shown on a current roster from top to bottom split into three leagues (other WADs, runners-up and honorable mentions, and top 10).

#7 Lighting is set on modified Classic along with modified fog effect.

#8 Deathmatch/Multiplayer only WADs and the winners of the Worst WAD award do not count.

click

And so, we reached 2008; a year where I went to middle school (and was more unhinged than the elementary); a year where Obama became the president of the USA; this year was the birth of Trollface, the release of Dark Knight (widely considered the best Batman movie) and, of course, the release of Iron Man and the beginning of the MCU. a cinematic universe that would become a punching bag of the Internet in the future.

2008 was also a year of game releases such as Braid, Dead Space, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead (Valve’s another GOAT), and World of Goo.

As for Doom itself, 2008 was the first game’s 15th anniversary. It was also when id itself announced that yes, they’re making another Doom game.

Cacowards 2008 was different from the previous award ceremony in that it had not one, but two additional writers to assist Scuba Steve - Patrick Pineda (Metacorp) who would in the future create Beyond Sunset, a GZDoom-based game, and Darknation, of whom I have no real idea. Alex Pritchard (pritch) meanwhile, temporarily replaced Bill Kotch as foreword man of Cacowards.

I have mixed feelings about this roster. I know it definitely has bangers (I mean come on, it’s Cacowards), but at the same time, I can see sequels/spiritual successors to Deus Vult (this one will make me tired), Eternal Doom (screaming), Operation Overlord (crying), and not to mention, another WAD by Espi (look, I know he was important for the Doom Community, but I’m not a big fan of his work, okay?!). But then again, three WADs from Eternal and Chex Quest 3 to play. It would be a sin not to try those.

But their time will come later. For now, let’s take a look at the first gameplay mod that was awarded in Cacowards.

[noisynutcrusade]

OptOut aims to be a daily news app “100% free from corporate media narratives”

After Alex Kotch got into the habit of scrolling Apple News every morning in 2020, he started to find the offering a little limited. Kotch, who was an investigative reporter at the Center for Media and Democracy, noticed that just a few news outlets were repeatedly featured in the app, which he’d started using because it was pre-installed on his iPhone. “I got tired of seeing the same kind of…

[canchewread]

Author’s note: well, my week has sucked, how about yours? 

Right, no rest for the wicked then. So as I mentioned at the tail end of last month, I’m working on a new kind of Recommended Reading blog feature here on Can’t You Read. 

The tl;dr is these posts are designed to combine a sharable info graphic (or meme, if you must) with some short burst analysis and an important link to a related and often overlooked story by someone else. Ideally, all of this fits into an 800 or 1,000 word package that actually gives you enough time in your undoubtedly busy day to read the article I’m linking to.

Got it? Good, let’s get cracking.

American Fascism and Networks of Power

Well my friends, the last nauseating funeral gasp of the Trump era is almost over. With the recent news that (soon-to-be) former swine emperor Trump’s own Department of Justice can find no evidence of widespread election fraud, we all appear to be getting collectively closer to the final resolution of the Klepto Kaiser’s “chicken coup” and perhaps, the waning of his political influence even on the reactionary right. 

Good riddance to bad rubbish I suppose, but as I’ve repeatedly tried to explain to virtually anyone who would listen, the end of Trump is most certainly not the end of fascism in the larger Pig Empire, or even just American fascism. The reasons for this are of course myriad but a short list might look something like this:

the pre-existing and increasingly normalized strain of ideological white nationalism in our society and ingrained into non-elected portions of the state (think police, ICE, and Trump’s complete transformation of the American judiciary; similar processes are also occurring in places like India, and Brazil of course.)

A weakened incoming, center-right administration (and its “liberal” establishment lackeys) that not only lacks the courage to purge fascists from public service but also attempts to weaponize far right violence against the American left, and regards antifascist street action as being akin to terrorism or crime.

the indefinite survival of an objectively fascist opposition party that probably has a better than even chance of retaining control of the U.S. Senate.

the existence of multiple right wing, mainstream media outlets and personalities that propagate fascist ideology, which are in turn buttressed by a seemingly endless wave of Astroturfed online media and internet psyops funded and controlled by fascist, or at least hyper-capitalist to the point of being reactionary, billionaires and their lobby networks.

the continued existence of violent, reactionary street gangs, far right neo-fascist militias, fascist conspiracy cults, and of course, roughly seventy-four million people who just gleefully voted for an open fascist and in some cases, continue to agitate for what would effectively be a coup.

the need for elite capital to defend itself against social upheaval and acquire soon-to-be scare resources in the face of evidence that capitalism is simply not compatible with avoiding the impending climate apocalypse our current political and economic course is actively ensuring will come to pass.

Naturally, I could have also mentioned the ongoing political, social and economic fallout from the still-raging coronavirus crisis, but I saved that for last because I want to unpack the ways we know many of the above forces function together in action - and as luck would have it, the Covid-19 anti-lockdown protests provide an extremely clear and documented example of what might otherwise look a little bit like a conspiracy theory. 

Now as you may well be aware, a concerted and sustained disinformation campaign conducted by not only President Trump, but the larger Republican Party and right wing media has successfully weaponized the response to the coronavirus as a culture war issue in America; and that conflict is rapidly spreading across the entire Pig Empire. 

This in turn was combined with a purely Astroturf protest movement, and judicious application of billionaire reactionary funding to literal white nationalist and fascist militias, to churn out thousands of cultists, chuds and other members of the reactionary “Volk” who demanded the economy be “re-opened” no matter how many elderly, marginalized or otherwise compromised people it might kill. Which as we’ve learned the month’s since, is quite a lot.

While each of these groups would vehemently deny it, it’s quite obvious that the billionaires and their media, are working with reactionary politicians in the Republican Party to marshal an aggressive, potentially violent protest movement against their political enemies and policies that threaten their profits. The rich guys get to keep raking in the cash, the politicians (who work for the rich guys anyway) get power and support from the chuds, and the Volk get to disguise a backlash against equality, decolonization and social advances as a battle against tyranny. All of which is wrapped up in a neat little bow under the auspices of covert white supremacy, in a situation that looks a little bit like eugenics, and bears all the hallmarks of historically racist (and obviously, false) attitudes in America about the genetic and more importantly *hygienic* superiority of whites over non-whites.    

Of course and as I mentioned above, all of this might sound like a conspiracy theory, but if you’ve been clicking on the links as we go along you know that it’s all true; unfortunately, a bipartisan billionaire-owned media interest in protecting the power and influence of elite capital in the Pig Empire, by and large prevents the mainstream media from presenting all of this information in its proper context. To counter that problem, let’s turn to investigative journalist Alex Kotch, an anti-corruption muckraker of considerable ability and someone who exists at least partially (but not entirely) outside the corporate media sphere.

On October 21st, 2020, Kotch and the Center for Media and Democracy published an extraordinary story that laid bare the inner workings of American fascism (and its capitalist roots) - we’re talking about exposing the direct financial connections between billionaire propaganda networks, fascist chud militias, right wing think tanks, GOP politicians and Astroturfed anti-lockdown protests; dark money meets dirty deeds done dirt cheap in a fake uprising that ends in obstructive lawsuits, partisan impeachment recommendations and a plot to kidnap and maybe even execute the governor of Michigan for... saving lives, apparently.

This is what the fascist alliance of elite capital (DeVos Family, Koch Network,) political power and street violence looks like in direct application; this is why I’m certain American fascism will outlast Trump’s fall - it’s all there in black and white. 

Unfortunately, hardly anyone noticed it at the time because the election consumed all of the oxygen in the room; as anything involving Trump is want to do. Let’s not make that mistake again - to check out Kotch’s incredible story, click on the title header below:  

GOP Politicians and Conservative Groups Set the Stage for Attempted Kidnapping of Michigan Governor by Alex Kotch

-nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

[curatorofthisdigitalmorass]

TYT Investigates Published on May 31, 2018

New FCC Agency Seems to Abandon the Commission's Founding Purpose

Two anti-regulatory Koch alumni are heading a new agency within the FCC that will focus on economic data rather than the agency's service to the public. TYT's own Alex Kotch with analysis and reader feedback. 

https://tytnetwork.com/2018/05/24/two-koch-insiders-are-creating-a-new-office-inside-the-fcc/

[lejacquelope]

Richard Spencer gets kicked off Sound Cloud! Awwwwwww

[thenxmbersprogram]

//Tag Dump

[birdcagewalk]

Interior Design Firm:A1000xBetter

Lead Designer: Patrick Maziarski 

Stylist: Ethan Kotch 

Photography: Alex Zarour

[wilwheaton]

Joe Manchin has never been this famous. People around the world now know that the West Virginia Democrat is the essential 50th vote in the US Senate that president Joe Biden needs to pass his agenda into law. That includes Biden’s climate agenda. Which doesn’t bode well for defusing the climate emergency, given Manchin’s longstanding opposition to ambitious climate action. It turns out that the Senator wielding this awesome power – America’s climate decider-in-chief, one might call him – has a massive climate conflict of interest. Joe Manchin, investigative journalism has revealed, is a modern-day coal baron. Financial records detailed by reporter Alex Kotch for the Center for Media and Democracy and published in the Guardian show that Manchin makes roughly half a million dollars a year in dividends from millions of dollars of coal company stock he owns. The stock is held in Enersystems, Inc, a company Manchin started in 1988 and later gave to his son, Joseph, to run.

Joe Manchin, America’s climate decider-in-chief, is a coal baron

Fuck Joe Manchin. 

[thesassprincess]

Kotch (Caitlin) asked and I delivered because Bestie Rights ™️

The Unauthorized (it was authorized) Ranking of the Patron Saint Gremlins

9. James/Haley: Step parents. Married into gremlin. They're here for the ride.

8. Dave: Side gremlin, but mostly just an asshole. In the best way! He's an asshole you want to befrend! But he eats too much pasta.

7. Derek: Jock gremlin. Only talks about football, and eats like he has never seen food before.

6. Penelope: Not really a gremlin unless you get her in front of a craft. Glitter gremlin princess.

5. Alex: Book gremlin. Will go days without eating if you'd let her, just because she didn't realize it was time to eat. Solidly in the middle, making her the Mother Queen of the Gremlins.

4. Hotch: A disaster of a person. Grumpy, moody, (my sweet baby), and definitely will hide out in the dark if he's trying to be alone. An altogether mess of a gremlin.

3. JJ: Tomboy gremlin. Rough and tumble, likes to get messy, doesn't think anything is gross. Will 100% look at puke and be like "woah, neat!"

2. Spencer: Grubby baby gremlin. Eats like he lives underground and steals trash for nourishment. Screams when he doesn't get his way.

1. Emily: If I have to explain this one you didn't watch the show and you haven't read psolc. She 100% growls at people.

No I am not taking criticism at this time, but lmk your thoughts/feelings (please I going to work behind a desk I need to be entertained)

Also, read Patron Saint by @themetaphorgirl (Kotch) because it's good thanks so much

[themetaphorgirl]

So if your name is kotch, are you hotch's secret twin or some shit?

I MEAN MAYBE

I’m not already projecting myself onto Alex already nooooo

[odinsblog]

Devos-Funded Group Organizes Protest Against Michigan Governor’s Stay-at-Home Order

(by Alex Kotch)

A political group heavily funded by the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos organized a raucous rally against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order on Wednesday. Roughly 3,000 conservatives, including members of the Proud Boys hate group and Confederate flag-waving right-wingers, descended on the state Capitol. Most participants did not wear protective masks or observe social distancing recommendations.

The protest was organized by the DeVos-funded nonprofit Michigan Freedom Fund (MFF) and a far-right organization called the Michigan Conservative Coalition.

Just one day earlier, Whitmer had thanked Amway and the DeVos family, which owns the company, for donating personal protective equipment (PPE) to state hospitals. "Amway has really stepped up to help keep Kent County families and health care workers safe during this time," Whitmer said. The day before that, Whitmer called out the DeVoses for funding MFF as it promoted the protest.

Despite Michigan having the fourth-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, along with nearly 2,000 deaths, MFF calls into question the data and science that have informed Whitmer’s decisions and argues that she should reopen the state’s economy. The campaign against Whitmer has been especially harsh and sometimes personal. Some protesters chanted, "Lock her up!" as they approached the Capitol on Wednesday.

The DeVoses fought Whitmer in 2018, donating large sums to the Republican Governors Association, which spent over $6 million against her.

A DeVos spokesperson claimed the family did not sponsor the protest, and MFF's executive director disputed that the family financed it as well, claiming that MFF spent no money. The Detroit Free Press points out that the group paid for two Facebook ads that took users to the Facebook event page of the protest, which the groups set up and called "Operation Gridlock." MFF claimed the ads cost $250. The April ads were the group's first since last December. In addition, MFF's paid staff presumably spent time on the job coordinating the media operation. An administrator of the MFF Facebook page posted a live video and photos of the protest.

MFF is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, so it does not publicly disclose its donors. But its affiliated political action committee, the Michigan Freedom Network (MFN), does. From 2017-19, MFN has been almost entirely financed by members of the DeVos family, according to state campaign finance records. Several DeVos family members combined to give the group $255,000, or 98 percent of the MFN's contribution revenue during that time.

(continue reading)

[azspot]

Gotta really admire the Wisconsin GOP and right-wing judges for accomplishing several goals at once: stealing a state Supreme Court seat, disenfranchising voters, and killing people.

Dr. Alex Kotch, Surgeon General of the U.S.

[dragoni]

.@AOC starts a petition for Stephen Miller to resign.

"In Stephen Miller’s case, thoughts have become action. As the architect of Donald Trump’s deportation regime, Miller has built a system designed to keep people who do not look like him out of the US." 

https://act.ocasiocortez.com/signup/stephen_miller/?source=em20191113-323&t=4&akid=323%2E95995%2EfEw2RQ

— Alex Kotch @alexkotch

Because of Miller, a ‘3-year-old girl was sexually abused in U.S. foster care after being separated from her father by ICE’

Stephen ‘Himmler’ Miller is responsible for:

Muslim Ban

Deporting Dreamers  #ICEtapo

Ending DACA

Family Separation and Zero Tolerance #CrimesAgainstHumanity 

Internment Camps  #TrumpCamps  #BabyJails 

Psychological Torture  #InhumaneConditions

Sexual assault of migrants from Latin America to the United States, Wikipedia

“Militarized Border Rape”

“Sexual Assault of Children in Migrant Shelters”

‘You Have to Pay With Your Body’: The Hidden Nightmare of Sexual Violence on the Border, NYTimes

Children sexually assaulted and bullied by US border guards at migrant detention camp, report says, The Independent

“Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border. He’s a twisted guy... He’s Waffen-SS.”, Trump White House Adviser

[curatorofthisdigitalmorass]

TYT Investigates  Right-wing Summit Snubs Trump Base, Celebrates Militarism

[dendroica]

Three years ago, a similar dynamic played out in North Carolina over the anti-trans, anti-labor HB 2. Following the passage of the law, which was implemented in order to preempt a local ordinance in Charlotte mandating that businesses allow trans people access to the right bathroom, a whole slew of corporations doing business in the state came out against it, including Apple, Dow Chemical, IBM, and Google. As Alex Kotch at Facing South found soon after the law’s passage, however, many of those same companies speaking out had helped the law’s passage by contributing millions to the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), the GOP’s campaign arm for state legislative races which helped elect a Republican majority to the state legislature, and the Republican Governors’ Association, which helped elect former Gov. Pat McCrory in 2012. As Kotch found, at least 36 companies that had come out against HB 2 had given a combined $10.8 million to those groups since 2010. What happened? McCrory and the Republicans tried to turn it into a campaign issue and failed miserably; McCrory was one of the only Republicans to lose statewide in 2016. A few months later, under the threat of a boycott by the NCAA, his successor, Democrat Roy Cooper, and the legislature worked out a deal to repeal HB 2 and replaced it with another bill was nearly as much of a raw deal for trans North Carolinians as HB 2 was. Still, it was enough for the corporations, and the boycotts went away. In many ways, the situation in Georgia is even worse than North Carolina’s, as the bill passed earlier this month and it’s taken this long for just two companies to come out with noncommittal statements about their plans once this law goes into effect. There’s simply not the same level of enthusiasm from companies, motivated by profit, to match a right-wing anti-abortion movement led by a governor who’s likely eager to use a big strong stand against Hollywood interests as a campaign line.

Disney, Netflix Threaten Georgia Pullout Over Abortion Ban

[silas216]

http://twitter.com/silas216/status/1089169514602942466

This is truly amazing. Two GOP senators voted against the GOP president's bill, but Democrat Joe Manchin just had to vote with Trump on it. Guy needs to pull a Lieberman and switch parties ffs. https://t.co/OnJlhezyP4

— Alex Kotch 🔥🚲 (@alexkotch) January 24, 2019

from Twitter https://twitter.com/silas216 January 26, 2019 at 08:33AM via IFTTT