
1098: Climate Grief
Vladimir Putin oversaw the successful test of a new hypersonic intercontinental missile, claiming the weapon is invulnerable to current United States interceptors. The Pentagon acknowledges a significant gap in domestic defense capabilities as the General Services Administration simultaneously develops an e-commerce acquisition platform with heavy advisory input from Amazon. This shift toward high-tech warfare coincides with Patrick Shanahan replacing James Mattis as Acting Secretary of Defense, signaling a move away from traditional kinetic strategy toward cyber and satellite dominance. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials delayed elections in several cities citing an Ebola outbreak and a warehouse fire that destroyed voting machines, while China reportedly seized Kenya's main port following a default on infrastructure loans. Domestically, Senator Rand Paul utilized the holiday season to troll Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz on Twitter, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand signaled a 2020 presidential run on CNN. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission issued a formal warning regarding a sophisticated Netflix phishing scam targeting user payment credentials through fraudulent email confirmations. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg addressed the Climate Change Summit in Poland, sparking a debate over the psychological impact of alarmism on children. This episode introduces the Good Grief Network and its ten-step program designed to help college students process existential dread known as climate grief. Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak also test the Interplanetary File System as a decentralized distribution method to protect the program from potential de-platforming.



















