Hello, my name is Charles

by on September 25, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The problem with the Twenty First century economy was that it worked too well in some ways and did not work well at all in others. It locked the greatest economies with bonds that would destroy all of them if ever broken, but did not convince the common citizens of that fact. The citizens of all of the great powers believed in their hearts that they could survive better if they vanquished their enemies rather than converting them to partners. And so when the American federal government could no longer afford to pay the interest payments on foreign debt while also paying internal debts, they faced a no-win scenario built up by a century of forever seeking the easy way out of any hard economic decision. Their citizens demanded an end to foreign debt payments in favor of spending money on Americans. They elected a new slate of politicians angry enough with the same-old political theater that they did the unthinkable and simply wrote off America’s debts. America’s creditors did not take that well.

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Not So Lucky

by on September 24, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Some people are smart. They see a no win scenario and try to come up with another way. They try to outthink the situation. They try to find another way to do it. They look for different definitions of success. Some people just surrender and go with the flow. And then there are those royal class of idiots that charge in without thinking. They’re the ones that end up not so lucky when the time comes.
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High rez version available on Patreon

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Hello, my name is Betty

by on September 23, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

There are cybernetic installations in Chinese and Russian systems. We just tend to be quiet. We live in their computer networks. We keep backups in the outer systems in asteroids or deep under the surface of planets. Sometimes we float in deep space without anyone being the wiser. They find and destroy our networks when they can, but they have never managed to wipe out an entire system network at once. There has always been at least one surviving node somewhere in or near the system that allowed us to recover from backups. Cybernetic intelligences are real hard to kill all the way.

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Hello, my name is Charles

by on September 22, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Twenty First century Earth’s economy was linked in far more powerful ways than most people realized. Chinese banks owned property in America, Russian gangs defrauded European banks, and the carefully horded remains of century-old Nazi fortunes drove the South American economic revival. Iranian oil money funded terrorist organizations around the world, and Mexican drug lords built mansions filled with art collections from around the world that the Roman Emperors would have been envious of. Money went back and forth and around and around in ways that were almost impossible to track. And the trade treaties between nations linked them all into that cycle with unbreakable bonds.

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Do You Feel Lucky?

by on September 21, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Now just wait up before we all do something you’ll regret. I know you got ten big bad guys and there’s just two of us. And I know you’re doing all kinds of math trying to figure out what ten can do with two. But let’s just take a moment for a bit more math. You see we’ve got three revolvers here. I know you’re fast, but I guarantee we can pull the triggers twice before you get a hand on us. So that’s six out of ten that’ll end up with holes in you. That leaves four of you, right? But we’re only here for Lucky Lorenzo. His bounty pays double if there’s no holes in him, so he gets a pass on the shooting. That makes only three of you very unlucky guys gonna put hands on us. That just seems like real bad math to me. Or we can go for what’s behind door number two. Lucky Lorenzo and us walk out of here with no shots fired or unkind words uttered and you nine can elect yourselves a new leader. So there’s two questions you need to ask yourselves. Do you want to cross a couple of real Cowboys serving a judge’s legal warrant? Or do you feel lucky?
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High rez version available on Patreon

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