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the only two people in the trump administration who am certain is pro tariff is trump and peter navarro. of particular note, watch from ~53 sec to 1:23. navarro explains how the .3% contraction of the gdp is good news 'cause but for tariffs, we woulda' seen 3% growth. ... so, trump tells us he can't be blamed for bad gdp numbers 'cause is still biden's economy, but his personal tariff whisperer then goes out and explains that but for tariffs, the economy were doing supercalifragilistic? and that's good news? the tariffs were a man-made disaster... a man-made disaster attributable to one person, but the trump folks messaging is so undisciplined that they is sometimes telling the truth by accident. the thing is, on fox news and elsewhere, navarro, lutnick, bessent and trump messages is being massaged 'til they fit a useful maga narrative. oh, and for the folks who is still convinced doge is anything other than a scam so that elon musk can get his hands on more data to bolster his ai aspirations, trump 2.0 has spent more than biden did in his first 100 days. am knowing many has already memory hole'd 2021, but just a reminder, we were still dealing with a global pandemic at the time. so much for cutting enough waste, fraud and abuse to cover the proposed new tax cuts for the rich, eh? Despite Trump's promised cuts, U.S. spent more than $200 billion more in first 100 days than last year DOGE's website claims the task force has already saved that much, at $160 billion, between canceling grants, contracts and leases and making cuts to the federal workforce. On its "wall of receipts" site online, the office reports the largest reductions so far come from the Department of Health and Human Services, General Services Administration, Department of Education, Department of Labor and Office of Personnel Management. Only about $60 billion, or less than 40%, of that alleged savings are itemized on the office's online "wall of receipts" and even those itemizations have included errors and lax documentation. In his work at the American Enterprise Institute, Malkus said his review indicates the savings is more likely to be around $80 billion. ... and btw, since we weren't around to pontificate on the matter, cutting legislative and executive branch programs because they is woke or dei is not addressing fraud, waste and abuse. pay two different organizations to do same thing is wasteful. pay an organization $10 million to deliver widgets but only get $10 thousand in widgets, with the rest o' the money being pocketed by organization administrators is likely fraudulent. but those aren't the kinda things doge cuts. maybe you thinks funding sesame street for middle eastern broadcast is stoopid. and perhaps you feel that saving malnourished kids in the sudan, or supplying south african expectant mothers with aids medicines is bad policy, but cutting those programs ain't necessarily addressing fraud, waste or abuse. those is policy choices and Congressmen, when they pass budgets, can stop funding o' such programs if they want to do so. some o' these programs is executive branch exclusive, and the President don't need to supply a reason to cut 'em, but describing as the elimination o' waste, fraud and abuse is misleading at best if what is actual happening is that elon and trump is getting rid of programs they don't like, even if those programs is being run efficient and effective. if some lib ne'er-do-well were getting rich off o' plumpynut, and the kids in the sudan were not actual receiving the lifesaving nutritional supplement, that would be an example o' addressing waste, fraud or abuse. if narcan didn't actual do anything, if it were somekinda snake oil, then we would cheer doge narcan cuts. ... with two exceptions, we gotta give trump 2.0 credit, 'cause the project 2025 folks and other did an impressive job o' wargaming this sh!te out. example: going after law firms in the way trump 2.0 has done so shocked us 'cause it didn't even need to be successful to have the desired effect. the mergers and acquisitions folks at these firms made a calculated decision to cave to trump demands particular after they saw that other firms not targeted by trump were trying to peel off clients from targeted firms. many o' the firms gave up w/o a fight even though they knew they would win in a fight in large part 'cause most o' their business were actual related to government contracts. if you is a multimillion or billion dollar client who has an sec issue you need handled, why would you stick with a firm trump had effectively declared persona non grata? so even if trump keeps losing in court, he has effective reduced the pool of potential lawyers willing to take on cases, which makes future trump loses less likely. who do you think is representing the undocumented immigrants in most o' the fed cases? you might be surprised to learn just how much o' pro bono work the big firms do, and the big washington and new york firms trump targeted is known for taking on a noteworthy proportion o' immigration cases as part o' their pro bono portfolios. another example: cecot. f*&%^. honest, am conceding a complete failure o' imagination insofar as the deal trump brokered with el salvador... and looks like rwanda might be the next el salvador. yeah, we assumed that the fed would play habeas corpus shenanigans by moving potential deportees asap to the most friendly court districts imaginable, but again, we saw deportation as the goal. we actually thought the alien enemies act would be invoked day 1, and we were surprised by the absence o' initial executive orders making use o' the alien enemies act. we so did not foresee that instead o' deporting those aurora colorado gang members who had taken over the city, trump would send 'em to prisons controlled by friendly governments as a way to avoid due process. just 'cause we loathe what trump is doing to undocumented immigrants don't mean we need ignore how ruthlessly clever were some o' the planning which went into stuff such as cecot. am bringing up the almost reptilian cunning o' the trump folks in implementing their schemes 'cause doge were a noteworthy exception. in truth, we sees two HUGE exceptions: doge and tariffs. am assuming doge were mostly an elon musk pet project, and so it weren't part o' the pre inauguration project 2025 planning. shouldn't be a surprise doge were implemented in the same haphazard manner musk used when he took over and fixed/broke twitter. tariffs were, am guessing, something most o' project 2025 were hopeful clearer heads could convince trump to embrace reason, as happened when trump wanted to tariff mexico during his first term. we posted in 2019 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/447374-trump-plans-to-declare-new-national-emergency-to-impose-tariffs/ a couple days later, trump had already caved. not that it matters at this point, but am not sure why trump keeps conflating tariffs and trade deficits, but he sees those two things as inextricable linked. beyond reason he believes that the US is getting screwed by any nation with whom we have a trade deficit, and he only sees a trade deficit on goods as relevant, complete ignoring services. point is, am thinking there were no real plan for widespread tariffs on any and all nations with whom we has a goods trade deficit, as well as those penguins, 'cause the wargaming for such tariffs were predictable. see, brought it back to tariffs. am trying to do the trump weave. HA! Good Fun! ps we noted the charlie fox o' doge and tariffs, but we did skip trump's top appointees. when kash patel, tulsi, rfk jr., pete hegseth and pam bondi got their positions in trump 2.0, we were outraged that those folks were partisan to a comical degree, with conflicts of interest and character flaws which woulda' torpedoed any past administration's efforts to have 'em gain senate approval. in retrospect, perhaps we should be relieved, 'cause one o' the few obstacles to project 2025 successful implementation is the incompetence o' trump's top loyalists.

This topic reminds of a question I've had about Blightheart and the Chanter +1 phrase per kill bonus... would it count kills from spells that happen while you have Blightheart equipped, even if you didn't have the gun equipped when you cast the spell? I'm curious specifically if there could be some potentially fun shenanigans with a Black Jacket / Bellower multiclass. Empowered Eld Nary while holding Sasha's Singing Scimitar w/ Shocking Prelude -> no-recovery weapon switch to Blightheart -> start racking up kills & phrases from the Eld Nary bounces -> no-recovery switch back to Sasha's when you're full on phrases again. Would that work?

Moved the conversation out of the politics thread... (shameless moderator power trip) It feels "odd" visiting Denmark. And I call it visiting, because I don't really feel "Danish" anymore. Nor do I feel Australian for that matter. I guess I have a bit of an identity crisis, not really feeling like I'm anything anymore 🤔 Visiting my dad and my brothers has been nice though. Spent a bit of time helping one of the replacing the roof on part of his house. It's been a long time since I climbed around like a monkey on top of a building with a battery powered buzz saw, cutting timber 😂 I still don't have a Danish drivers license, but at least I got the equivalent of a social security number (called CPR number in Denmark), got the NemID ("Easy ID") which is a very clever system used to authenticate yourself everywhere. Council website logins, Visa/Mastercard transaction approval, Internet Banking authentication, you name it. Also got my medical insurance sorted out (so I'm covered by public healthcare). Even got an official address and a bank account, which you can't get without an confirmed address in the government database (folkeregisteret). Getting a monthly salary, paying my taxes, freezing my butt off, feeling very miserable at times because of the local climate 😖 When it gets a bit warmer, the plan is to visit some of the places I used to hang out as a young man, like the town where my old highschool is (much of the town center is from 1300-1500 hundreds). Then having some Belgian waffles, ice cream and walk around on ancient cobblestones. Meanwhile, working for a Danish IT company as a consultant, spent a lot of time in training sessions, learning new stuff and hopefully add some Microsoft Certifications to my portfolio over the summer.

am suspecting it were less about guts and more a matter o' common sense. until our freshman year in college, our knee-jerk reaction when dealing with law enforcement were to respond with snark... and if am being complete self-honest, barely disguised disdain. poor judgement on our part. were not US, but we once did need undergo a strip search and a rather unpleasant interrogation in an asian country, and were not even our scintillating personality which provoked the unpleasantness. simple misunderstanding. am s'posing the most shocking part o' the incident is that we received an apology, which we were informed almost never happened. regardless, in spite o' the wisdom which comes with age and experience, we nevertheless need tamp down an extreme strong desire to respond to any predictable stoopid law enforcement query with snark. am in our freaking fifties and even so am finding that we need take a deep breath and count to at least five before responding to any kinda cop question 'cause am knowing our reflex and unfiltered response will not benefit us in anyway. anyways, our point is that while it shouldn't be difficult to distinguish bravery from abject stoopid... HA! Good Fun!

Ah, that's for the in person interview. 😛 There is a section of like 25-30 questions that ask if you are a terrorist or if you plan to become one. I can only imagine that a lot of people get weeded out this way. I guess if you are a big enough idiot to answer some of those questions positively they don't need to waste further resources on you. Germany's permanent residency one is funny too. They ask you how you feel about Israel and the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Thanks Chaosspread and Boeroer for this guidance. I'll change the line up to include 2 casters rather than just 1. My original thinking was to minimise casters to just 1 because unlike Deadfire the spells are per rest rather than per encounter, and I didn't realise that the spells were that much stronger in Pillars 1 to compensate for that. And yeah, I'll avoid making the backline glass canons as I know the AI often prioritising squishy targets (running by the "tanks") or shooting past them. Out of interest, would 2 priests be over-egging the priestly pie, or are they so good that 2 would be great? Quick question for Chaosspread. You suggested replacing one of the Paladins with druid, wizard or damage dealer (rogue or ranger). I take it then that a Bleak Walker's potential for damage dealing is weak compared to rogue and hunter? (Never tried a BW in either Pillars game and was curious as to how it would do in a damage dealing role)?

I know it isn’t really funny, but I found it hard not to chuckle when you get a form in the airplane to fill out (when transiting through a US airport) declaring if you intend to perform acts of terrorism in the US. I never had the guts to answer yes just to see what happens

Imo it's not harder. The per-rest mechanic of casters makes it so that you can spam a lot of (more) impactful spells (faster) in tough encounters. Most spells in PoE are more powerful than in Deadfire because they are per-rest. But that also means if you can spam them in tough fights (b cause you didn't use them in easy fights) the fight will be so much easier. Also the Priest's buffs are more potent in PoE1. You have Inspired Radiance + Devotions which is a direct, stackable +30 acc buff for the whole party. Also Prayers counter most disabling attacks of enemies - which are usually the things that make fights extra difficult. Any party is viable. You can play 6 Rogues and be fine if you know what you are doing. Two Paladins and no casters (besides Priest) will make the tough fights even harder because Paladins don't have the tools to crack those fights - unless you give them both a marking weapon + Coordinated Attacks which let's each of them buff any near party member's accuracy with all-stackable +20 points which is extremely potent in the toughest fights. For example Blade of the Endless Paths/Spectacular Spetum for the Bleak Walker and Shame or Glory + whatever other sword for the Kind Wayfarer. Lay on Hands and the Kind Wayfarer's healing are great to survive fights, but because of the endurance/health mechanic of PoE1, healing is not the impactful "remedy" to lacking defenses it is in Deadfire. If you try to outheal everything you will have to rest a lot bc. of low health. Even if only one party member has low health you have to rest. It won't help if 5 out of 6 have still nice health bars. But you have a Priest - and that's the biggest plus you can have in PoE. In general - for an easier playthrough - I would recommend 3 front liners with one dedicated tank who can block chokepoints (like Edér) and two offtanks who catch the occasional rusher for your backline. In my current run I'm using Hiravias with dual hatchets and Kana Rua with a single hatchet (yes, Hiravias is more than capable to fulfill that role). More front liners lead to a positioning mess very often. The pathfinding is not as good as in Deadfire and you might end up with some Benny-Hill-esque sequences where enemies and party members run around each other in circles, block each other and all other sorts of weird things. Three backline characters. As above I'd say the more casters the more easy the fights at the higher levels will become. But any ranged character will work. It's beneficial to not build utter glass cannons for the backline. If you have very potent damage dealers but they have low endurance, DR and deflection they will attract certain enemies' attention. Rogues, Barbs and Rangers are primarily looking for soft targets. If you then have front liners who cannot punish disengagement, you will end up with lots of enemies just rushing by your front line, eating disengagement attacks and attacking your squishies. You can counter that with tactics (don't un-stealth the backline until the front line is firmly engaged by enemies, use choke points and corners, use a lot of disables, summons and mind control) and/or by simply giving your backline a bit more deflection and DR (via items and buffs) so that they become less attractive targets. Even the highest DPS drops to 0 if your damage dealers get knocked out. TL;dr: I'd say your party composition is suboptimal but it's totally doable. You have a Priest - which is a big step towards easier fights. And if you had no issues in Deadfire I'm very sure you will not have issues with PoE - after a short acclimatization phase.

Hi, PoE1 dragons is harder than boss in Deadfire but not so much. On the other side equip is stronger in Poe1, so this balance out difficulty. You can beat the game on PotD SOLO with every class, so a full party is good in any combination, more or less. I'd switch a paladin of your party with another class: maybe druid (trade of all jacks, and also a good healer if you wanna keep such role without a paladin), wizard (AoE damage and control, or a melee wizard build, and he can achieve heal with scrolls) or a damage dealer (rogue, melee or ranged, or ranger, ranged indeed). If you wish a great damage dealer a monk is actually strong, and a barb is fun and good for groups of foes. It is only to have variety in your party, you can stick to your party composition and you'll have no many troubles with a chanter, a priest and a cipher.

am knowing trump ms13 tattoo misunderstanding has justifiably received the most attention, but the portion highlighted by the daily show from 5:59-7:01 might be our favorite. HA! Good Fun!

Corrupting Beauty gives a timed buff aura which applies Distracted in a small area around the player. PS. The Best Defense is great when used with 1h ranged weapons - great procs and also the recovery reduction.

I'm still in Denmark and probably will be until the end of the year. The plan is then to return to Queensland (with some new skills, experience and certifications to add to my CV)

There had been bug that if you apply debuffs that suppose to confine enemy, like paralyze and petrify, on already proned enemy, will immediately get the enemy up and move freely, with the paralyzed or petrified debuff active on status tab. After the version upgraded to the latest 3.8.0.87535, this bug remains, at least with paralyze. Maybe also with petrify, that I have not yet tested. Patch note said "Knock Down will now respect suppression when trying to determine if there's an active knocked down status effect preventing stand up", it seems it's still not working as intended, please fix. Also, I found another new bug on the latest version that if you sequece action as moving to a position and then melee attack toward the enemy, charater will stuck after he moved.

All that talk of Lost brought back a memory of this

I said it once and I'll say it again. As a Tori Amos fan. I'm shocked I didn't caught onto Kate Bush quicker since they are so similar. Also Why no wrestler of any stripe that I know uses Tori Amos as a walk out music baffles me. This Slayer cover proves that I would totally have used it if I didn't stop growing at 5'3"