Guard Dog

I bought a Boston Butt to cook in the smoker today. I expected I’d have folks here to feed it to. Thought it would make for a nice dinner. But turns out they had other plans. Looks like I will be eating smoked pork this week. All week.

In honor of River the inspiration for Dogmeat 4, Xbox and Bethesda have donated $10,000 to the Montgomery county Humane Society there have also been a number of tributes on the Nexus page. I like the one that puts a statue at the red rocket where are you first meet Dogmeat. River was one mans dog. But in a way she had millions of friends she never met.

Asked if US will deliver 'consequences' to Russia for ransomware attacks, Biden says 'yes' No doubt Putin is trembling right about now.

@Gromnirfor whatever it’s worth my “they are all the same” sentiment in this case is not directed at any political leadership. Rather it’s directed at “the people” who are pushing for them to be everything they shouldn’t be. If Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, heck even McGovern and O’Neil could see the Democrats today they would be horrified. Ditto for Coolidge, Eisenhower, Goldwater and Reagan for the Republicans. CPAC has been around since the ‘70s. A lot of very intelligent people have attended and addressed that convention over the years. Economists, scientists, decent political leaders. Most of them wouldn’t recognize that band of idiots that are there right now. If I had come up to you in the 1980s and told you they were seriously discussing how to make a private citizen the President of the United States in a matter of days you probably wouldn’t even believe me. I wouldn’t have. The People voting for the Democrats are the other side of bad. The crap they’re asking for is way too “Year Zero” for me. Plus it’s clear none of them have ever read and economics book. At least not one of the good ones.

I’ve got some company coming today. My brother and his wife are spending the night. You know in 14 years they’ve never visited my house? I’ve been to see them three times in that time. Well I do live pretty far away from them. They’re driving up to St Louis to visit her family. My brother and I are not particularly close. No reason for that really we just fell out of touch. But it will be good to see him. Since our parents passed away we’ve barely spoken.

And you guys wonder about my nihilism and my cynicism. Politics in the United States is little more than a Civil War between two tribes who want their own flavor of autocracy.

That’s very cool. I never knew that. That has been one of the best efforts in fallout three, new Vegas and four. Since you were part of that you get a Nuka Cola from me!

There are a few that are indispensable. Beantown Interiors and the ones at add interiors to many of the buildings are must have. True storms in the other ambient weather and lighting mods are also essential. I want my buildings dark, my subway is darker. Night time outside also. Light from light sources only. I like having to rely on the flashlight. I have a few that enhance difficulty, wasteland survival is a big one. Even at high level you’re not going to be able to take more than one to two bullets before going down. I have a few that slow down experience gain. I also like the ones that add constant to existing areas. Except for diamond city. I’ve tried a few of those but they seem to have conflicts with some of the weather mods. Plus you don’t spend enough time there to make it worth modding. I also have radio mods for WRVR, Cadillac jack, and galaxy news radio. Those are all really well done. I’ve got one that adds a new area to the map but I never did find it. I can’t remember where the entrance is and I did never looked it up. Maybe this time. Other than that I have a few of the immersion mods that enhance the atmosphere and add a little details to the game.

The Libertarian party became a joke long before 2020. But, when both the Republicans and the Democrats are unacceptable which has been the case for me ever since 2012 and before 2008, where do you go with your vote? Leaving it blank does nothing. Voting for a 3rd party does next to nothing. But hell would freeze into a solid block before I ever hand my vote to a low villain like Donald Trump or someone as inept as Joe Biden. Biden is inarguably a better man than Trump for whatever that is worth. That does not make him an acceptable alternative. Just a different flavor of bad. My cynicism didn’t come naturally. It was hard won. And yes I do believe in the absolute sanctity of private property outside public domain. Unapologetically. If what is mine is not exclusively mine then we do NOT live in a country. We live in a bandit kingdom. Not that anyone is banging down the door trying to take anything… right now.

The president of Haiti has been assassinated I didn’t realize he had refused to hold elections or step down. Haiti and the Dominican Republic occupy the same island but are worlds apart in every other sense.

More UFO stuff I’m sure there is a logical explanation. And that does not rule out that the logical explanation is aliens. But, that probably shouldn’t be the first club out of the bag.

A Tale of Two Dakotas All of the politics behind the admittance of Puerto Rico and Washington DC as a state got me thinking. With the exception of the original 13 I don’t think any state has ever been admitted to the union without consideration of its political demographics. Prior to the Civil War no slave territory would be admitted without also admitting a free territory. That is largely what the Missouri Compromise that saw Maine get carved out of Massachusetts and Missouri added as a slave state was about. After the CW the same politics have been applied (mostly) only it was the D vs R politics that are considered. If Puerto Rico were likely to lean Republican their application for Statehood (although I think there is far more interest in DC than in San Juan) would be DOA.

LOL “the people“. I’m long past the point of giving a s—t about the people. I’d call them sheep but that would really just be an insult to real sheep. A real sheep can’t help being a dimwitted heard animal. People have to choose to be that. God gave them the intellect to be otherwise they just choose not to be. People believe lies because they choose to believe lies. When those lies confirmed preconceived biases it just sugar coats the lies. Some 17,000 people went to see Trump in Sarasota and every single one of them seems to actually believe the election was stolen from him. Just as the same simple minded sheep on the other side of the political spectrum believe the Biden administration that the crime rate and inflation is entirely the fault of the Republicans. As you well know the truth is more complicated. Political demagogues, machine politicians, and earnest civil servants all look into the media cameras and lie to us every freaking day. The fact that people believe lies hardly surprising when lies are all they are ever fed. And why wouldn’t they lie to us? People are stupid. They don’t have the patience to hear complex explanations. They don’t want the truth. They want to hear a story. They want a hero to cheer for and a bad guy to boo at. They want to hear that all the bad things that are in the world are only there because of the malfeasance of someone or something they have already been preconditioned to hate. Complex explanations of complicated events like inflation and debt monetization leave them emotionally unsatisfied. They want to hear that it’s all the Republicans/Democrats fault. To hell with them. They are getting the government they deserve on both sides. The fact that that government occasionally does good is the smallest of redeeming qualities. The fact that you’re better off with it then without it its a little better. A necessary evil at its best, an intolerable one at its worst.

This is my fourth, and likely final, trip through fallout four. And I just noticed something I never noticed before. In the prewar scene in the beginning if you click on the special book in the babies room Nate or Nora will “wonder what Sean will grow up to be”. I busted out laughing when that happened.

Started a new FO4 game. New mods, new character concept, new play strategy. C’mon Dogmeat, let’s go boy.

Finally a cause we can all believe in

I am always amused when people demand the government solve the problems the government causes. That’s like using a flamethrower to put out a house fire.

i’m sorry I thought the title of this thread was happy birthday!

But the US as the political entity it is today technically didn’t exist until the current Constitution was adopted. So it’s not out of the ballpark to suggest that date. After all the Articles of Confederation would have led to a very different country had they been kept. But you do realize I am sure I’m not being serious or critical with the whole NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE schtick. It was just a little joke from the movie thread that’s probably getting stale

twitch..... twitch..... must not comment.... nooooo........ IT'S NOT AMERICA'S BIRTHDAY! IT'S THE DAY THE UNITED COLONIES DECLARED INDEPEDENCE (WAR) FROM ENGLAND! THE UNITED STATES ACTUAL BIRTHDAY WAS SEPTEMBER 9TH 1776 WHEN THE THE COLONIES BECAME STATES. OR JUNE 21 1788 WHEN THE CONSTITUTION WAS RATIFIED! NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE! I'm soooo sorry... I can't stop myself.... I need help!

The snake might have thought it was a life or death survival situation but to Sunny.... well the world is her personal toybox. She thought she found something cool to play with.

Sunny came trotting into the house with something special in her mouth: a full grown rat snake. It had coiled itself around her muzzle and was latched onto her collar with it’s mouth. Not sure who caught who! It took a few minutes and with a little cooperation from Sunny I managed to get the poor thing untangled without doing it any harm. I turned him loose in the barn. No doubt he’ll do some good business in there. Rodents are attracted to the chicken feed. That dog!