Gromnir

from the hippies at the national review: Liz Cheney Is Not the Problem "Of course, at the end of the day, the problem isn’t that Cheney is making controversial statements; the problem is that Republicans consider her obviously true statements to be controversial." sadly the next offering is likely subject to a paywall... though is curious what wapo does and does not make access limited. Opinion: What Trump has to fear from Rudy Giuliani "Even before he peddled nutso election-fraud claims, Giuliani had firmly established himself as one of the world’s worst lawyers. He’s the bumbler who blurted out on national TV that his client, Individual-1, had reimbursed a $130,000 payment made to a porn star, a transaction that triggered a sprawling and ongoing New York grand jury investigation into Trump’s overall business affairs." ... "All this boggles the mind of anyone who has followed Giuliani’s lengthy career. It’s as though someone dropped him on his head. Still, as a former associate attorney general and former U.S. attorney, he surely understands that federal search warrants against lawyers don’t just fall off trees. The Justice Department doesn’t like them, out of respect for the attorney-client privilege. Prosecutors will use them if they have really strong evidence a lawyer is up to no good, and if very senior personnel in Washington agree. And, of course, only with the blessing of a federal court." HA! Good Fun!

@ShadySands thanks. is a curious implementation quirk which has a demonslayer barred from gaining the benefits of sacred huntsmaster outsider fe, but only when choosing demonslayer before sacred hunstmaster level 5. not a huge problem, but now we won't need wait to level 6 to realize whether or not this curious implementation were addressed. am playing around with quarterstaff master. level 5 would be nice but we might be able to manage with 4 levels. 12 (we misidentified as 11 earlier) is the point where diminishing returns is making further monk levels tough to bear. doubt we go past five for any multi. is mentioned in the patch notes, but it is kinda odd the animal companions need select a deity choice. at the defender's heart, we do not seem to be able to access party members character record tabs and accessing inventory is bass ackwards as we kinda gotta use one o' the merchants to get into party member inventory. akward. HA! Good Fun!

the most significant change observed while playing the newest beta build is doorways are no longer impenetrable barriers in tb mode. this were a serious issue in the previous build. if you didn't get your entire party through a doorway before combat started, you could be fubar. we just noticed the leopard may be the new win animal companion. take bully animal companion class and leopard gains access to fury's fall feat, which adds dex modifier to cmb. HA! Good Fun! ps lann being a follower o' iomedae makes narrative sense, but he is now a bit less ideal as a cleric multiclass. lann does kinda works as a sacred huntsmaster multi for those few who do not hate inquisitors. regardless, here is hoping some o' the oracle issues is fixed in this build; would make daeran more useful.

to be fair, this same exact issue came up a few weeks ago and were an embarrassment for fox news and other conservative leaning sources. the thing is, at the time it were virginia as the "woke" state which were gonna get rid of higher math for high schoolers. a bunch o' news organizations had to walk back that claim. ca were just the next in line? only difference will be this time the news organizations won't go so far as claiming calculus is being eliminated in some kinda misguided wokeness campaign. will illinois or colorado be next? probably. given this is just the second shot at the same issue, or so we assume from not reading dp link, is tough to single out ca as the target. am suspecting is more a frenzied attempt to reveal any evidence o' lib wokeness or cancel culture or whatever is the alt-right windmill o' the moment. don't wanna talk about trump deficit spending being ok with republicans in 2018 but biden deficit spending being untenable. wanna talk 'bout covid-19 other than as a way to complain 'bout how "unconstitutional" is mask mandates? nope. lord knows january 6 is verboten. california is an expected target, but the folks looking to deflect will grasp at any opportunity wherever might be the geographical loci. HA! Good Fun!

perhaps one o' the new brand o' trump brand republicans can explain why gaetz and others find section 230 relevant to trump's continued (albeit temporary) suspension from facebook. is irrelevant to our query, but it is worth noting the independent facebook review board agreed the initial suspension o' trump were appropriate, but they pointed out indefinite suspensions were not envisioned in terms o' service and rules o' facebook. so now is up to facebook to ban permanent and forever w/o the suspension silliness, or they should reinstate trump... by november. again, the suspension stuff isn't relevant, but am not sure how section 230 is relevant neither. have more than once pointed out how a news organization prints the lies o' an individual, the reprinting o' those lies makes the news organization as a publisher, so for defamation and libel causes of action, a plaintiff may collect from newsmax, nyt, wapo, cnn or others in print and tv and radio media just as they could from the original liar. is an issue which comes up again and again when folks bemoan censorship by news organizations and we have tried to clarify a few times. sec 230 would make facebook and twitter and your internet provider just as liable as all other publishers is when defamation and libel cases is at issue. so how on Gawd's green earth does repeal section 230 help a guy like trump get back his social media account? repeal section 230 would mean facebook and twitter and your internet provider would need to start active policing shared content 'cause those organizations would now be considered publishers for purposes o' monetary redress. repeal 230 and then give trump back his accounts would likely constitute prima facia evidence o' negligence on the part o' a publisher. have not been following the alt-right narrative on this, so when we saw multiple conservative types responding to the news o' the continuing suspension o' trump from facebook with pleas for section 230 repeal, we were confused. HA! Good Fun!

@ShadySands am personal trying not to use mods 'cause am not wanting it to impact our feedback. however, am not above asking shady to do so. there were a curious "bug" in the previous build which involved the sacred hunstmaster inquisitor favoured enemies feature and the demonslayer ranger fe. IF your sacred hunstmaster hit level 5 and chose outsiders as his/her fe, then a subsequent level of demonslayer would effective stack, resulting in +4 to-hit and +4 damage v. those nasty outsiders so prevalent in the game. did not count as a progression o' the sacred huntsmaster's fe feature, but the benefis did stack. however, if a character chose the demonslayer class before adding levels o' hunstmaster, then the outsider option would be unavailable when the inquisitor finally reached level five and were able to pick a favoured enemy. am wondering if the demonslayer + sacred huntsmaster situation is same or different. sure, we can level a character to six and then hire a merc to test our self, but that is gonna necessitate literal dozens o' hours the way Gromnir is playing. if you get a chance... as an aside, pounce for the velociraptor is nice, and we could add the bully class which is now selectable, but in such a case am wondering why we don't just choose smilodon + bully. the trike has good str and am able to add trip with bully, so am s'posing such is an option. am just not able to do w/o trip in some way. am addicted to animal companion trip. so either leopard, dog or wolf + any animal companion class OR the no trip animal companions + bully. automatic trip for leopard, wolf and/or dogs feels like it would be superior, but am gonna need play with such options. am intrigued by the quarterstaff master for monk, but am wondering how to combine eleven levels o' it with other classes. overall, only having perused a bit o' character generation, everything looks nicer in the new build. HA! Good Fun!

the lack o' self-awareness, particular given how the issue started and where and how you is discussing the topic, is exact what we were dealing with while in europe. HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* so now 50k (statistics) is not useful. year in europe (anecdotal and used in comparison to europeans making similar conclusions regarding americans w/o benefit o' anything like a year in the US) were not useful. becoming kinda clear any observation which don't match your preconception will not be useful. and since you have obvious never posted here previous, welcome to the politics thread, but be aware that a significant % o' posts in this thread will be focused on US politics and not only US citizens will be driving the abundance o' contributions in the thread. sure, all those disinterested europeans and canadians and people from other parts o' the globe is no doubt being forced to post against their will. is not 50k posters, or anything near, but neither statistics nor anecdotal sways you from your established position, so... *insert eye-roll* HA! Good Fun!

you do realize how this issue came up yes? is particular funny as multiple non americans on an american game developer message board were discussing the relevance o' results o' a poll posted in an english paper which found, "In perhaps the most startling finding, nearly half (44%) of respondents in the 53 countries surveyed are concerned that the US threatens democracy in their country;" you cannot hear us, but assume we is chuckling. HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* again, one o' the generalizations euros had 'bout americans were our obesity and lack o' physical fitness, so observing how we were in far better condition than literal any student or faculty with whom we interacted over a considerable period o' time is misplaced why? and am not sure how large a sample size would have been necessary to convince you or anybody else with their tight held preconceptions 'bout americans. Gromnir spent over a year in europe, predominant dealing with university students. am guaranteeing our sample size were a hell o' a lot larger than the one the euros we were ordinarily dealing with had used to come to their conclusions 'bout american's and their education, health and culture. HA! Good Fun! ps you have no idea how difficult it were to find a decent gym in spain and england in the early 90s. euros eventual picked up on that quaint bit o' american culture, but were unicorn rare at the time.

we shoulda' gotten into the collections side o' the legal biz. on average, two hours billable equals three hours actual work, and that is in spite o' the ordinary 1/10 hourly increment shenanigans which may be exploited when some associate is facing a billable hours crunch. beware the 30-second phone call. even the enormous firms able to handpick clients never collect all fees billed. nowhere near all fees is collected. gd is in part paying for all the other folks who will never be able or willing to pay. a couple guys we knew from school got into collections almost immediate after they passed the ca bar and they made far more money than we ever made as an attorney. our understanding is their experience were not atypical. likely won't make you feel better, but we do not envy the solo practitioner trying to pay the electric bill to keep the lights on in her office. is a tough racket, particular for those just starting. HA! Good Fun!

when we were teaching in europe, near everybody we met wanted to talk US politics. sure, those same folks all complained 'bout bankrupt US culture and the ludicrousness o' the US being so important to world events, but they just wouldn't shut up about the US. americans were fat and stoopid and the way minorities were treated in the US were reprehensible. am sitting there, literal arm length away from these undereducated, chain-smoking socialist brats whom we could embarrass in any physical contest you might invent or imagine after having experienced more overt racism in a few months than we had endured in decades in the US and is as if we are sudden invisible or something. we nevertheless initial found the euro preoccupation with all things USA to be... quaint. only initially. our time spent in europe contributed heavily to us voting republican consistent (a few exceptions) from the early 1990s all the way to 2016. HA! Good Fun!

downside is previous saves do not work with the new build. HA! Good Fun! ps the hunter outfit includes a dead racoon suspended from your belt. am all but certain nobody in-game will ever comment on the corpsfied procyon you have dangling at your waist, which is a real shame to our way o' thinking. so many joke opportunities wasted.

we never bother to read dp links-- fool us once. however, am guessing from reading the link verbiage, this has something to do with keeping kids o' different abilities in the same class until some point in high school. freshman or sophomore? whenever has been suggested, is a freshman or sophomore thing. makes a whole lotta sense from an educational pov. kids learn as much from fellow students as teachers, and has been discovered students learn more when they explain problems to other students. is one o' the explanations as to why special needs kids and esl students is now taught in regular classes as 'posed to special settings removed from th larger student population. special help for esl and special needs actual leads to slower advancement and has been discovered that when students mentor their esl and special needs peers, those mentoring students benefit considerable. what this means is a whole lotta extra work for teachers, 'cause those teachers won't just be teaching a math class to, in some california schools, three dozen students at the same time. gotta teach billy trig while albert is still struggling with fractions? as if teachers didn't have enough work as it is. 'course is possible am being non responsive to dp as we didn't bother to read the link. would rather french kiss a electrical outlet than follow a dp link. as to the chauvin trial and @Guard Dog observation, overturn a jury verdict is kinda extraordinary. however, am not having a full accounting o' voir dire and judge handling o' specific jury issues... voir dire ain't some weird sex thing btw. as often as not, failure to discover more 'bout juror pre-trial activities gets blamed on lawyers for failing to do due diligence in investigating, even if such an outcome don't feel particularly fair from a defendant/lawyer pov. HA! Good Fun! ps fixed as we can't spell "read."

Judge orders release of DOJ memo justifying not prosecuting Trump https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679.27.0_1.pdf "And of even greater importance to this decision, the affidavits are so inconsistent with evidence in the record, they are not worthy of credence. The review of the unredacted document in camera reveals that the suspicions voiced by the judge in EPIC and the plaintiff here were well-founded, and that not only was the Attorney General being disingenuous then, but DOJ has been disingenuous to this Court with respect to the existence of a decision-making process that should be shielded by the deliberative process privilege. The agency’s redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum, and the excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the Attorney General to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at any time." ouchie. am genuine curious what will be the doj response. appeal any such order for production o' documents central to attorney general review would ordinarily be reflexive. then again, we have multiple federal judges who has stated barr were "misleading" and/or "disingenuous" regarding the memo describing the mueller report findings and is tough to imagine the doj going far in defending the former attorney general's actions. 'course none o' this makes any difference 'cause our deeply polarized electorate had already formed their opinions before barr summarized mueller report findings. is now a couple years removed and any impact the truth might have had initial is even further diminished by the presumed gaslighting which will take place post release. ... while am curious 'bout the contents o' the memo, am more interested in seeing how the doj handles this. multiple judges (three at this point) has called barr a liar, including a bush 43 appointee, so is doubtful anybody will be shocked when memo reveals barr were less than honest 'bout whether the doj believed trump engaged in activities which woulda' exposed a non sitting President to obstruction of justice charges. only mystery left is what doj decides to do going forward, and am admitted uncertain as to that conclusion. edit: on the lighter side, and am s'posing related to @Guard Dog and his dueling observations... the twitter battle has a few more slap-fight moments including mtg calling gallego, a former marine, a "coward." HA! Good Fun!

is no reason you shoulda' noticed. to any casual observer, Thomas appeared to be the lone voice o' justice and integrity on a Court devoid o' humanity and decency. is exact how his dissent were meant to be viewed. this kinda posturing is new(ish) from Thomas. last few years. disappointing. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna admit, there has been some upside to the pandemic. pre pandemic, we never shopped at soopermarkets. however, the whole "ecart" option we have from the local belair/raleys has us doing a considerable amount o' our grocery purchases w/o ever needing to get out o' our car. no dealing with rude fellow customers. don't need chat with the checkout people and make obligatory small talk. didn't brush our teeth and we stink from our morning bike ride? no worries. our pandemic suit is a hoodie, baggie knee length shorts and some kinda slip-on footwear. slight variations almost every single day. however, have not descended to the point am wearing socks and sandals. that is a basement we refuse to enter even during the daily horror movie which has been the covid-pandemic. given our newfound enjoyment o' unapologetic sloth, is quite possible much o' our pandemic lifestyle (at least insofar as grocery shopping is concerned) will continue even after any serious covid dangers has past. HA! Good Fun!

Thomas is being a hypocrite... again. 1) is a couple similar cases with exact same basis for granting or denying relief involving government employees and prisoners in which Thomas went exact opposite. 2) the Court has no business handling this case. most significant, this is not a Constitutional matter (unlike the prisoner situation), so let Congress fix. it sux that Congress likely won't fix anytime soon, but Thomas o' all Justices should be advocating judicial restraint. we don't like the current situation insofar as the feres doctrine is concerned, but is not actual the job of the Court to right wrongs. Constitutional v. Not Constitutional should not be confused with right v. wrong, even if it is difficult to stomach in many instances. nine unelected men and women should not be deciding cases such as the west point issue. the fact the hundreds o' elected men and women in Congress won't fix has never before been motivation enough for Thomas to intrude on the legislative prerogative, so why only recent? am suspecting gd missed the subtext, and is not his fault. is no reason gd should be aware o' what Thomas were actual doing in his dissent, a dissent which clear deviates from his past history regarding similar cases. Thomas were grandstanding. for a couple years now, Thomas has been telegraphing his willingness to overturn precedent... save for when the majority actual does overturn precedent and then pretends they did not. ... this dissent by Thomas had nothing to do with angels or military people, and it sure don't follow Thomas' past opinions, 'cause Thomas has sudden abandoned the one thing which made him an admirable Justice: consistency. Thomas mentioned plessey and brown, but if you don't think people knew he were talking 'bout roe then you are kidding self. J. Thomas is now firm ahead o' the pack in our personal ranking o' worst scotus Justices. were a competition 'tween Sotomayor and Alito previous in a race to the bottom, but Thomas has gone full darkside the last couple o' years and his past record as one o' the most predictable and consistent opinions on the Court has been replaced with the kinda naked political opportunism we condemned in Rehnquist... though am admitting Kavanaugh may give both Rehnquist and (new)Thomas a run for their money. HA! Good Fun! ps is crap like this which plays to the base but simultaneous reveals Thomas abandoning integrity... has us serious considering abandoning the rare capitalization we always afford Justices. not kidding.

pundit draft grades https://www.pff.com/news/draft-2021-nfl-draft-grades-all-32-teams from our pov, the only purpose in doing draft grades is so that three years from now people may look back at all the experts and marvel at just how wrong they were. HA! Good Fun!

from the source least likely to be cutting biden slack: the national review "Turning to the grim details, if this proposal is approved, those earning more than $1 million a year will face a top tax rate on long-term capital gains of 43.4 percent (once the Obamacare surtax on net investment income is thrown in), compared with 23.8 percent today. That would be a top rate higher — generally much higher — than anywhere in Europe, and that’s before considering what state and local taxes can do to the math. Those living in high-tax states such as California and New York will be looking at a top rate in excess of 54 percent, and for those lucky enough to be resident in de Blasio’s New York City, over 58 percent. Those who have been making plans to leave will get moving, and others are likely to join them, something that would come as a major blow to their governments’ already-shaky finances." https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/bidens-vindictive-capital-gains-tax-hike/ 20% for gd unless is a really good year, in which case he gets the surcharge we mentioned earlier in which case is 23.8%. only way gd gets the big new hit is if he is an extreme top earner. the current 20% is indeed a burden for folks trying to make ends meet through small investments in real property and non ira kinda stuff. likely still better than the income tax rate, but is still a burden. yeah, the $1million threshold is not as gracious as it seems for those family farmers we mentioned earlier or for individuals whose entire retirement plan is built 'round selling a business. details will need be worked out to accommodate such inevitable outliers, but is perhaps not near as terrible as gd thought it were. HA! Good Fun!

just to be clear, unless gd makes more than $1 mil in a year, the capital gains change should not make a difference to him. is something like .3% of tax payers the change is gonna impact. is only if you are a top earner the capital gains change is relevant, which sucks for Gromnir if we sell multiple properties all at one time, but c'est la vie. HA! Good Fun!

were a personal choice by tom. can't even blame on bad cgi. HA! Good Fun!

the non-partisan CBO warned that trump's blissful advocacy o' trickle down as the means by which his proposed tax cuts would pay for themselves were misguided and would cost the US enormous amounts o' money. warned before the tax cuts. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/54994 and yet we still see trickle down being advocated in spite o' yet another fail. but maybe the fanciful appeals to ye goode olde days has us once again embracing mercantilism or slave labor. heck, the slavery thing worked for the greeks and for the US. @Guard Dog is likely gonna take offense at suggestion the capital gains tax is mostly a tax on windfall profits, but when looking at the total o' money the fed and states generate from capital gains it could be described as such. am suspecting gd ain't some kinda land baron who is enjoying his scrooge mcduck lifestyle as he skis down small mountains o' gold and jewels. nevertheless, when he tries and sells any o' his investment properties, he is gonna see a significant amount o' his profits disappear. is more than a few people who live off their investment income and their sale o' small real property investments, and those folks is not making anywhere near windfall profits. the 3.8% surcharge for families making over 250k per year is indeed a windfall tax, or at least it is meant to be. but again, the capital gains tax is 20%. compared to income tax rates save for lowest brackets, capital gains is extreme low and the rich has been taking advantage o' the capital gains rate to build ever increasing fortunes for many decades. your average american believes the rich is getting away with paying little or no tax, which is bs. nevertheless, the current situation with inheritance tax, hedge fund exceptions and capital gains is all contributing to unsupportable income disparity and trickle down does not boost the economy anywhere near enough to pay for even trump's recent tax cuts which pre pandemic the CBO were projecting would cost americans trillions in the next decade and a half. rich get richer, poor get poorer and gd gets screwed no matter what. HA! Good Fun! ps in the spirit o' full disclosure, Gromnir is pretty much living off our ira at this point, and as such our capital gains on investment is deferred until we withdraw, so am not immediate affected by capital gains taxes. our real property, which am increasing convinced we should unload, will be affected by capital gains taxes at some point, but am not gonna be personal hurt if the capital gains rate were to double. the relative small hit from capital gains is how we were able to make money via real estate. same thread fifteen or twenty years ago and am suspecting we mighta been a bit less critical o' low capital gains.

is not as if the wealthy is gonna stuff their money in a mattress if capital gains increases. is a tax on profit. US capital gains is 20%. the bracket for 40k income earners is 22%. so, where do you think the top 1% is making all their money? corporate tax obvious has the corporates pass the hit on to consumers, so is rare beneficial in the long run. obvious carveouts for personal residences (which there already is) and family owned farms is always considered when there is talk o' adjusting capital gains, but other than the 100ns who also argue in favor o' a flat 15% tax, which would lower taxes on the wealthy significant and disproportionate punish the poor, is tough to come up with a decent argument for maintaining the status quo... other than trickle down which has been a dead-end since reaganomics were laid to rest. "The lower capital gains rate — designed to encourage investment — mainly benefits the wealthy. For the 99 percent of taxpayers making less than $500,000, salaries and wages accounted for 75 percent of their adjusted gross income for 2012, according to the latest period available from Internal Revenue Service returns. Yet for those making $10 million or more, salaries and wages only account for around 15 percent of their income, while capital gains accounted for about half of their earnings." https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/02/bill-gates-calls-for-higher-capital-gains-taxes.html HA! Good Fun!

can't watch it. is clear these folks don't understand the difference 'tween antlers and horns. suspension of disbelief is blown rendering sweet tooth unwatchable. ... kidding, but it does look kinda silly and am admitted exhausted by the fantasy trope o' replacing rl racism with far less subtle bigotry towards elves or faeries or kids with antlers. if it doesn't look better than star trek, then am not seeing the point... which is most assured not an antler pun. HA! Good Fun!