Pidesco

I really want to order a 3080 to drive my UW on Cyberpunk. Hopefully my 980 won't suffer too much.

*adds to list*

You were here a few months after the forums got started. If you check your profile you can find your join date, and if you check your username number you can see how small it is(yours is 1981). The forums started February 2004, on the 7th. Gromnir, Amentep and I are some of the ones still active who actually joined on the first day. I wonder if there are full blown lurkers still around. Mr Brown perhaps?

Partly I'm still here cause I'm a mod, partly inertia, partly because I still very much enjoy Obsidian's games. The heyday of the boards to me was when people like metadigital, allanschu, llyranor/nickiam, dark_raven, darque, thepixiesrock, musopticon, baley, launch, hades or schmart were around. That's when I had a lot of fun just posting, both here and at the other place. Things were fun, felt fastpaced, and hijinks were had. Among the leftovers from that time are people like me, Gorth, Gromnir, kirottu, Guard Dog, hurlshot, Amentep, humanoid, malc, shadysands, numbersman, gorgon and others I'm not remembering. A lot of these have been around as long as I have. Some were even regular posters in the BIS days, where I only lurked. Anyway I am old, and I have an enduring emotional connection to this place and Obsidian itself, so I am here. Also, sometimes I get loot from Obsidian, which nowadays is a source of angst for my kid, because he wishes he could get Fortnite stuff from Epic Games. That's certainly a perk.

Qual é o jogo?

There are a couple of documentary series on Netflix about immigrants' plight in the US since ICE got turbo boosted by Trump's admin. They are filled with situations similar to that and are at a times truly painful to watch.

Personally, I don't think China is too concerned about the US, right now. Before Trump, the US was already losing power and influence, internationally, relative to China. Post Trump, it seems like there isn't a whole lot the US can do to slow China down. The withdrawal from TPP, the whole stupid tariffs thing and the Trump admin generally being a headless chicken with ADHD were certainly a huge boon for China, when China was already starting to move ahead anyway, without help. At this point, only China can stop itself, I imagine. I believe the following video more or less sums up China's reaction to Trump:

I'd buy a wine bottle that pours kittens.

Not too likely. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trump-the-serial-golf-cheat-in-the-white-house

As far as I am aware the ACA as implemented in Massachusetts before 2010 worked ok. The main issue with the ACA as implemented was (and is) malicious (as opposed to well intentioned) interference by the GOP. The real main-main problem though is that the wondrous invisible hand of the free market was allowed to run rampant on US's healthcare systems for, I guess, decades. Actual universal health care, as implemented in most industrialized countries, is much cheaper per capita, and delivers better health outcomes than whatever Frankenstein's monster that can reasonably be put in place in the US, be it the ACA or whatever hybrid replacement legislators can come up with. The blame for the current and worsening state of affairs can be laid squarely on the free market and the federal government's consistent laissez faire attitude.

As I understand it they hate both.

Well, that's just a weird belief because most American states are about as large as almost any other country in the world and are as detached from actual people on the ground as any other government, including the US Federal government. If you lived in, say, Norway, would you be against the Norwegian government but in favor of your local municipal government? If you were in Portugal, would you be in favor of the Portuguese government but against the EU government? Is the US actually country or a union of countries, by your estimation? Is the distinction between a government 500 miles away and a government 1000 miles away meaningless for a guy who lives alone(with a bunch of really cool dogs) in the woods somewhere? Anyway, some libertarians at work: https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project

Citations are needed.

Echo, echo, echo Also, I'm not saying it is for you. A lot of Libertarians are by all accounts honest in their wish for actual limited government. GOP support for it is a completely different deal, though, belied by the fact that they jettison the notion depending on what's politically convenient.

Well, the notion of limited government is, sometimes, a known dog whistle. Kinda like a softer "the civil war was actually about states rights".

I'd say Eisenhower was the opposite of limited government, if one's standard is GOP small government rhetoric of the past 40 years or so. Courtesy of Wikipedia: Income tax rates were much higher back then, of course.

Well, the Libertarian party obviously doesn't count, unless "Libertarian Party" is a petit nom for Ron Paul. As for the Republican party after WWII, I have to wonder when exactly was it the party of limited government, especially when it was in power. The only possibility is the Reagan administration, I guess?

Was there ever?

Reagan, Bush, Romney, Trump all sit on a spectrum. Trump wasn't some sort of astounding break with past GOP. The GOP has been courting and cultivating the xenophobic and evangelical votes at least since Nixon resigned, and it is why the GOP was so easily co-opted by Trump in 2016 and why the GOP is now effectively the Trump party.

I believe the last three elections were within polling/modeling error margins. Or I guess no one really knows yet for 2020. It's statistics and probability not magical crystal ball time.

It's not puzzling if you understand that Cruz (and Graham for that matter) are exclusively about holding on to their positions or climbing beyond them. It was impressive back in 2016 how so many GOP figures flipped from abhorring Trump to loving Trump so quickly. Fundamentally they follow what they perceive to get them the most chance of victory in any election, and the GOP base is now, by and large, the Trump base. I suspect that if the GOP doesn't get along with Trump, it runs the risk of splitting their base irrevocably.

I would think that too, except that I've been thinking the same thing for 4 years and, well, no.

So Trump has McConnell and Barr on his side. The US ain't rid of Trump yet.

https://djtrumplibrary.com/

As Gorgon says Trump turned large parts of the GOP base into a Trump cult. If there's a schism between the Trump loyalists and the rest of the GOP, the party will be in trouble. Additionally, if Trump runs in 2024 outside of the GOP, it will probably be catastrophic for the party's chances.