rjshae

I've just resigned myself to the fact that he's going to say a lot of stupid things, and stopped trying to filter for common sense. His close supporters just tend to make up random stuff to fit the sputum, so it's difficult to take serious.

Finished my first play through, which included the first DLC. It was fun, but I didn't much care for the inventory system and having to keep perusing it for better equipment. There has to be a better approach. I also didn't feel like it has high replayability, so I'll wait until more DLC comes out before returning. Finally, choosing talents is awkward because a number of them expect you to know your character build but won't let you examine it. By the end of the game I almost didn't care what talents I chose, so I just picked the next available.

This drug is the 'breakthrough of the year' — and it could mean the end of the HIV epidemic The good news: an amazing drug find that can potentially stop the HIV epidemic in Africa The bad news: almost nobody with HIV can afford the drug

The DJT campaign has already pledged to pardon the J6 participants, so the precedent is pre-existing. Trump reportedly promises January 6 pardons ‘in the first hour’ of his presidency or sooner – US politics live The optics would be much better if Biden targets political people who DJT would intentionally go after, and if Biden does it in a bi-partisan fashion. For example, members of the January 6th committee; people who worked to prosecute DJT in any manner; selected leaders of Congress, the FBI, and DoJ; and key election workers in disputed states. It should probably be limited to the last decade, when DJT was politically active.

I tried watching the original series in dubbed French, but I just found it really annoying for some reason. The English remake is okay even though it's a police procedural, and she has that quirky character going for her.

Finish Rogue Trader after 86 hours. It was mostly pretty good, with almost no bugs. I'm not sure how much replayability it's going to have, so I'll wait for the rest of the DLC before trying again.

Considering that Biden was criticized for (supposedly) choosing DEI cabinet picks over competence, I'm finding it ironic (and amusing) that DJT is now choosing personal loyalty over competence. What goes around comes around.

With a pro-Putin Presidency in the bag, Russia may feel free to slow their operations in the Ukraine and move forces to Syria. Putin won't want to lose that ally.

Presumably when DJT deploys troops to tackle immigration issues, somebody will need to take the heat if and when things go horribly wrong. I'm betting that will be the Defense Secretary. Bump... bump.

I'd be a little surprised if DeSantis accepts the post. Governor of a large state such as Florida is a stepping stone to a future Presidential run. Defense Secretary is a stepping stone to being DJT's lap dog, and a future date with bus tires.

Now if you only let the chimps reproduce when they type out valid words, eventually you might evolve a species that could read and type out Shakespeare's works. Problem solved.

For the chills...

Our power finally came back on after being out for two and a half days. That cyclone knocked out power over a big area of our county. Normally I'm used to a few hours outage during a winter storm, but this is the longest in my memory. My sleep schedule is all messed up now, but at least I can finally have a warm shower. I hope this type of storm doesn't become a regular thing, what with climate change and all.

I wonder what DJT has in mind for MTG? If I had to guess, I'd say Secretary of *COUGH*racial purity*COUGH* Homeland Security.

Probably my favorite indie band, but I always thought they were English. Nope, Canadian.

What I don't get is why he'd take on a job like that. Bureaucracy fixer is about as uninteresting as a job can get. Getting ready for life on Mars?

I see DJT has been carefully assembling his crack(pot) team. Rubio is the only one I can take seriously thus far, but there's a couple I don't recognize so we'll see I guess.

Been dealing with a bug that's had me laid up for a few days. I don't have a temperature so it's probably not the COVID, fortunately. Can't wait until it goes away though.

For DJT's second term, I'm expecting a lot of sturm und drang, but not a lot of accomplishment. In terms of foreign policy, there will be nothing that he accomplishes which will make up for losing Ukraine. He's going in to that situation with a weak negotiating position vs. Putin, and Russia will get nearly all of what they want. A halt to hostilities will allow Russia to re-arm and prepare for the final takeover. Hostilities with Iran will continue, and relations with US allies will sour thanks to his "bull in a china shop" diplomacy. DJT's efforts to apply tariffs will increase costs for consumers, particularly those with a low income, and may be inflationary. His work to end the ACA and to "reform" medicare will result in fewer people with health insurance, and a lowering of life expectancy. He'll curb efforts to reduce climate change, which at best will only slow down the transformation to a renewable energy economy. If he deploys troops to round up illegal immigrants, it may severely disrupt the economy and increase costs for consumers.

What this does demonstrate is that Iran is an enemy of DJT. His actions ensured that would be the case. It's unclear whether relations with Iran would have become more normalized without DJT's antagonistic intervention. But I like to think they were starting to trend in a positive direction prior to 2017. Now we're likely in for more decades of (possibly unnecessary) hostility. It will take a new generation of leaders to cool things down.

Timber! Japan launches world’s first wooden satellite into space

Most of those efforts took place in red states, so it wasn't as concerning as it might have been. Still, the optics were pretty bad. As for forcing people to stand in line for 6 hours to vote, that seems like a form of a poll tax which violates the 24th amendment. But I'm not sure how well that argument would play out in the court system.

I'm not convinced the fear-mongering strategy failed; it just wasn't enough. Lower income people got clobbered in the pocketbook by inflation, and no amount of good economic news was going to counter that. The Fed took a year before changing the rate to counter inflation, and as consequence it nearly got out of hand. I think that's why DJT is President. Yes, the entire world went through inflation, but Americans tend to be insular and think locally. Back before the 2020 election I thought some of DJTs policies were inflationary (E.g. massive aid package; tariffs), yet somehow he's escaped blame. That's partly because of poor messaging by the Biden administration, something they've shown over and over they're not good at. The Democrats painted themselves into a corner on the border issue, and they have nobody but themselves to blame. My concern now is with DJT planning to use the military against targets in the US. That's the path to becoming a banana republic.

Fabrik?

I think Biden would just have lost by a larger margin. His polls were scraping bottom at 38.5% approval rating; they flipped back in 2021 (with the withdrawal from Afghanistan) and have never recovered. There was nobody else to step into his place other than Harris, and she and Biden controlled the campaign budget. If there had been more time, maybe Harris could have built more of a coalition. She gave it a good run, given the limited time available.