Gromnir

skarp_one is looking for your (not yours apparently) outrage. keep in mind he has a little tantrum every time some white supremacist has their free speech right "suppressed," so there is kinda obvious hypocrisy here. don't feed seymour. is theatre and will never be an end. HA! Good Fun!

ps am gonna admit many in the media did not help with their coverage o' trump lies and misstatements of fact. admission: am not certain what were the right way to cover trump lies. every new lie revealed created a numbing effect. for past Presidents, lies were frontpage fodder. journalists had a duty to report trump lies, 'cause such had always been news and when media covered for Presidents in the past, media were soundly and appropriate criticized for doing so. but from day 2 o' the trump Presidency, lies were constant, and followed a combative double-down progression which somehow made each subsequent lie less meaningful. many in the media took a glee-filled approach to describing the newest lie dujour for trump. would be hypocritical to blame lefty opinion personalities for doing same as the right leaners, but am not denying the fact many media personalities provided support to the conservative narrative o' idiotic tds bs. tds were the rejoinder every time trump said something legit deranged, and then trump would improbable double-down. am still not certain how the media shoulda' covered trump lies. cold and dispassionate were never gonna happen in 2016. fox news were kicking the competition's collective arse by being in sync with rush limbaugh while still being able to claim they were providing news and facts. rags like breitbart were gaining in popularity, and even fringe blogs original appealing to business folks were going full hardcore conspiracy with no attempt to disguise their pro-putin/pro-tehran agendas. with facebook magnifying the problem o' people getting news stories they wanted to hear rather than exposed to balanced reporting, we spiraled back into the bad old days o' yellow journalism but with the news coming 1000x faster and responsive. education is the obvious solution, but education is difficult and takes a long time to show results. am willing to admit the mainstream media handled trump lies and ignorance poorly. am also willing to admit we can't think o' effective and practical ways to have responded to a Faith driven Presidency. HA! Good Fun!

you got it reversed. trump were let off the hook. his impact on his base, and republicans in general, while implausible, unreasonable and at times genuine unbelievable, were nevertheless real. Most Republicans Don't Trust Fauci or CDC's COVID Advice—but Nearly 70% Believe Trump: Poll trump were aware o' the Faith o' his parishioners. trump knew disinfectant poisonings increased after his observations just as he knew many people demanded hydroxy therapies even when reputable doctors said there were no reason to believe such a treatment could be effective. trump were more responsible then you suggest. just consider the antivax folks in this country. has been two groups driving antivax for decades: minorities; granola moms. is understandable a few minority groups has a hard time forgetting the us military using minority soldiers as guinea pigs. even so, as we pointed out in the covid thread, recent polls show minorities is getting vaccinated at rates similar to population at large. am pleasant surprised. the current holdouts for the vaccine is republican males. huh? pre trump it were hippie moms who were responsible for those stoopid measles outbreaks in +90% white counties and school districts in so cal and oregon. trump singlehanded complete flipped the identity o' the antivax movement in a matter o' months after years o' enduring stoopid. more responsible. HA! Good Fun!

one year ago on more than one occasion trump claimed the rest o' the world were laughing at the US. a faceplant which will take decades to be forgotten were a bold move to guarantee he were correct 'bout the laughter bit. HA! Good Fun!

don't need to add more stars. in 2021 and beyond, claim new stars has been added is better. sure, somebody is gonna be a smartypants and count 50 stars and show scientific there is only 50 stars, 'cause let's be honest, is tough to make 50 actual be 53 even with quantum silliness. so what? prove is still only 50 is just "alternative facts." ... russia hoax, perfect call, stolen election, manafort and stone were treated unfair and the doj intervened independent o' trump, sharpiegate, etc. half the country has been convincing themselves o' equal improbable alternative facts for better than four years. so go ahead and pretend you is picard if you want, but in 2021, there is as many stars as there needs be, regardless o' whether the stars is representing votes in georgia or map decorations. HA! Good Fun!

funny sai and kama should get mention. we were considering a not str based monkish multiclass build which would take advantage o' flurry, but since were multiclass, depend on unarmed attacks would be doomed. there is feats for adding dex modifier to piercing and/or slashing weapons so monk levels for flurry coupled with monk weapons is a natural synergy. sai and kama make sense. can buy a decent sai (expensive) before drezen. can find a decent kama in the drezen stronghold. the selling point o' owlcat's games is breadth as 'posed to depth. am understanding the appeal o' getting as many pnp features into wotr as is possible. am not necessarily agreeing with such goals, but am understanding. one o' poe2's more common pre-release derided changes made that game better than the preceding poe title: no weapon specialization options. find a battleaxe late in poe2. well fudge, am only good with longswords, and none o' our companions specialized in battleaxes, so the soopergrooveykeen battleaxe is a sell item next item we make it back to town? nope. in poe2, unless am a dedicated 2h weapon wielder, is a good chances we will be able to make use o' the fantasmagoric axe... and if am a 2h wielder, then that means the late game quarterstaff is useful in spite o' fact we were using lord darryn's voulge for the past few dozen hours of gameplay. in a pnp campaign, a living dm looks at party composition and makes certain the guy who wants to wield a spiked chain is not complete f'd for 20 levels. in a crpg, one needs either make certain there is every weapon option possible for every possible build (unlikely) or accept that the lack o' such weapons in a system such as pathfinder 1e means more than few builds will be dogs, and other builds will be particular strong for no reason save for how the player lucked out or meta'd the perfect dress-up barbie minigame options; best in slot nonsense. were many poe2 complaints, and many such complaints were deserved. what were curious to us were how vocal the lack o' weapon specialization complaints were from people before they played poe2, but those complaints were hard to find from people who played more than a few hours. unfortunate, weapon specializations and focuses for crit range and such is part o' pathfinder, so, owlcat is stuck with a whole lotta not great options to satisfy players who want more options. more options from the developer insofar as weapons is concerned makes increasing likely more people will be disappointed with the options provided, and not provided. HA! Good Fun! ps am gonna take a moment to just vent how much we loathe the nelson muntz approach pathfinder takes to game design, which owlcat actual magnified. am betting +90% o' wotr players will have camellia continue improving her rapier feats, which makes her somewhere twixt dead weight and considerable less effective when fighting foes who is piercing weapon resistant or even immune. ... sure, is a number o' pathfinder critters who is immune to compulsions n' similar effects, but owlcat in kingmaker and wotr just sorta lumps a whole spectrum o' mind-affecting and kinda/similar effects together, so your owlcat enchanter, particular late game, is getting the nelson muntz far worse than pnp. not a fan.

is actual surprising common. one o' the more dramatic examples, but hardly unique, is georgia. look online for boundaries of georgia from colonial, to articles o' confederation to 1783, to... hmm 1826 is when georgia kinda final looked like it does today, but as recent as 2008ish there were a push to change borders with tennessee, and the core issue were water. HA! Good Fun! ps virginia may win the prize for most dramatic border changes post statehood. ceded land to fed and other states and all kinda extreme alterations which make sense only if you is a serious historian.

comes up every couple o' years but maybe gets a 1:30 story on a few local news broadcasts and perhaps an article in sacbee and la times... then most people go back to their daily lives realizing they has heard the same story get repeated for literal decades. is less a democrat v. republican thing anyways. is water. farmers, who ordinary vote republican, is most interested in the issue, but there is many powerful so cal farmers who would gut you in an alley if you threatened their water and they thought they would get away with the deed. much o' socal would be indistinguishable from arakis w/o water from elsewhere. water is serious business and is getting more serious each year. HA! Good Fun!

were hopeful you were joking... first time. second? *shrug* regardless, am genuine at a loss to come up with a good argument to deny statehood. Federal Judge Orders Los Angeles To Offer Shelter To Skid Row Residents judge concern for the endemic la homelessness problem: good am nevertheless at a loss to identify the legal basis for demanding compliance with such orders... and how is such orders enforced? ... (add another shrug here) HA! Good Fun!

you are being serious? am increasing convinced you are. new states may be admitted by the Congress into this union, but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state, nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress. (am not placing in quotes 'cause may have slight misremembered punctuations or a word and am admitted too embarrassed to look up 'cause am realizing we need to look up... which am prefect aware makes no sense.) we got some familiarity with the constitution, and am at a loss to identify the state secretary of agriculture requirement. there were the enabling acts, and some pre Constitution stuff which might be suggestive but not dispositive? anything you hear regarding supposed requirements o' statehood ain't actual a requirements and numerous states has been admitted w/o a Constitution, which is the document wherein necessary state offices would likely be described. even if dc state secretary o' agriculture were a requirement, which it isn't, would it be enough to convince you that hundreds o' thousands o' americans, many o' whom is veterans, do not deserve federal representation? and let's be grownups 'bout this yes? even if there were some kinda requirement that a landlocked territory have a secretary of the navy or some such silliness, all that would happen from a practical matter is that a government official would have an extra and meaningless job title. is not difficult to envision that the woman who is deputy secretary of state for dc gets additional and meaningless job title: dc state secretary of agriculture. no additional pay or responsibilities. *gasp* this is NOT a real thing to be concerned 'bout. and if you claim to be joking, am gonna note you has now made this observation multiple times, which undercuts the i was keeding bit. HA! Good Fun!

1) dc statehood clearly benefits democrats 2) dc statehood is the right thing to do is not as if 1 being true precludes possibility o' 2 being true. in 1889, north dakota and south dakota were added to the US as 2 states and only reason the dakota territory were split in twain is 'cause doing so would give republicans 4 senators instead of two. of course statehood is a political issue, but annexation is an obvious instafail 'cause neither dc nor any adjacent state want such... is no room for the fed to arbitrate a compromise when there is already a consensus. is political and benefits one side, and is still right that dc citizens should get fed representation. HA! Good Fun! ps we see no way to get around filibuster. is no obvious exception. is not gonna happen. however, the issue will be pushed hard to force republicans to make increasing bad arguments to deny statehood to a geographical area where +46% o' the population is black. democrats know they won't win, but is no good legal or practical reason they should lose, which is gonna force the gop to be the bad guys once again, solidifying democrat base before midterms. is all politics.

am not certain how that display fools anybody and gets passed on to the next generation o' critters. HA! Good Fun!

well, you would get vaccinated sooner, but other than that am not able to think o' too many selling points. HA! Good Fun!

dc's homeless population had decreased for multiple years pre pandemic... not certain today. am betting dc still manages to have worst us rate o' homelessness, but of course that is in part 'cause it is a city and just a city. drug problems, poverty, and the aforementioned crime all is gonna mess up state statistics, at least as far as we know. am admitting other than the homelessness factoid we can't say what is dc's current situation with any confidence. maryland and virgina has been shifting blue from purple for the past few years. gop in those states necessarily is throwing in the towel if dc is added. dc politicians, for all the complaints 'bout the obstacles they need suffer 'cause o' lack o' statehood, have far more autonomy in the current scheme than they would as city politicians in maryland or virginia. annexation makes a whole lotta sense, but am thinking it is the one solution nobody in power on either side o' the aisle at the state or local level desires. HA! Good Fun!

there is brown. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain o' the current situation, but am recalling during the last serious pushes for dc statehood or annexation, the real obstacle to annexation were nobody wanted dc. the district were a resource drain. maybe that has changed? dunno. HA! Good Fun!

have been pulled over multiple times. first time evar were a speeding thing where we were going 52 in a 45mph zone. were a legit stop but we were kinda annoyed. cop came to window, which we needed manual roll down 'cause we were driving a 78 cherokee jeep. we asked cop for a double-cheeseburger, onion rings and a large dr. pepper. cop actual smiled a bit, but we still got a ticket. daytime. suburban neighborhood. no problems. other times were a bit more scary and worst were not being pulled over while driving but cops stopping us as we walked through a nice neighborhood in the bay area at 2am. we became agitated 'cause cops were demanding info they were not privy to as a mater o' law and but for a soopercop's partner stepping in to intervene, am thinking we woulda' been arrested... and as we were a scholarship athlete at Cal at the time, things coulda' gone very bad for us. learned a valuable lesson that day and realized being right were less consequential than being cautious. no more smarty responses from Gromnir when dealing with cops. had a distinct uptick in stoopid traffic stops after we got the bmw x5. our driving behavior didn't change, but somehow a minority male driving a so-called luxury (piece o' crap) suv at 3am (when we typical went to our gym) often with our hoodie up 'cause o' damp post workout hair, attracted police attention. we followed all instructions, no matter how ridiculous, to letter and made no jokes and were as polite as human possible. HA! Good Fun!

the video requested by media were released immediate. this were not a wide known issue until recent. obvious there need be some kinda process for releasing the videos on request, and get fully unedited w/o viewing in camera by a judge is stoopid, 'cause who knows what info is gonna be on tape which makes innocent bystanders look bad or has views o' cop computer screens showing personal info for people involved or mere tangential related to the incident in question. says a attorney had to go to court is misleading. fill out a form. make a request. wait some reasonable time for video which blurs out personal identifying info unrelated to events. typical. don't make assumptions or apply generalities. wait. get details. HA! Good Fun!

video were released almost immediate. is best to be cautious o' terms such as "usually," as is same kinda narrative supporting assumption you might believe you is opposed to. believe something is true is not same as true. less a matter o' da or local police releasing video has been the problem o' cops "accidental" or purposeful turning off their body cam devices. not as prevalent an issue today, but it were a problem for some time. am knowing is impractical for technical reasons, and cops would never agree anyways, but am recalling the recent watchmen tv show where the imagined alt-universe tulsa police officer in episode one needed to get permission to unlock his weapon. we couldn't help but wonder if the mysterious lingering body cam failures would diminish if police officers were unauthorized to unholster their firearms unless they first made sure their bodycams were active recording. HA! Good Fun!

we get reflexive pushback from a few posters. whatever. however, one o' the wackier instances we recall were the resistance we got when we observed how following any police shooting or police incident where a person were serious injured, there were no harm in waiting a bit for facts to emerge. frequent the facts change, but once the narrative is established, people find it difficult to change their conclusions. is always best to wait. even if the outrage feels complete justified, eyewitness accounts and even video may be misleading. and no, am not suggesting wait for months or years. were never the claim. however, it takes more than a few hours or days to investigate many tragedies and is hardly a suprise when new video emerges which severe undercuts assumptions arrived at 'cause o' earlier eyewitness testimony or shaky iphone video recordings. if people feel outrage, their outrage will be no less valid or impactful if they wait for a week. wait for investigations and still feel outrage? good for you; is your right as an american to be outraged whether that outrage is justified or not. nevertheless, am not seeing a downside to waiting for facts, waiting for proverbial smoke to clear. how many celebs and pundits insta jumped to jussie smollett defense? some o' those supporters reversed course when new facts emerged, but others refused to do so 'cause doing so undermined the more important and overreaching narrative. HA! Good Fun!

owlcat has announced the next beta update is may 5. also, 'cause am knowing folks such as @ShadySands is interested, there is new info 'bout the intelligent weapon feature. HA! Good Fun! ps have not played the beta in some time 'cause we became smidge frustrated with a few bugs and 'cause we were aware o' the late april guestimate for the next beta version. as such we will wait until may 5 to do more beta.

am suspecting the rationale for not having cop emts is that 'tween paramedics and fire departments, those folks is no further away from a 911 dispatcher than would be a cop emt. nevertheless, we wouldn't be surprised to learn that cops were far more willing to call in cop emts for help if such were available. is an idea at least worth considering. am also recognizing that law enforcement in general (and please recall there is no "in general" US law enforcement. each state and local county is gonna do different) should place a greater emphasis on their first aid training o' all street level personnel, but doing so costs money and requires time and... HA! Good Fun!

for a number of years we were paying ~$800 per month for our sister's meds. she had lupus, which became other problems. she also had some emotional problems stemming in large part from an assault when she were a student at Cal. took meds for the mental health issues, but those weren't what was costing most o' the $800. if it makes skarp_one feel better, after her attack incident, she tended to vote republican, or perhaps she voted republican 'cause that is what Gromnir were doing at the time. whatever. however, the reason her meds were so expensive were in part 'cause we were supporting her. we couldn't get her onto our personal insurance plan for various reasons, but we coulda' finagled so she were medi-cal eligible (and most o' her meds woulda' been free) but while her medical care woulda' been not terrible... well, that is the best we can say. we supported and so she weren't ssi and medi-cal eligible. our meds, save one, has copays o' $10, but we checked and on average we would be paying $15 for each even if we had no insurance 'cause they is not particular expensive. is one exception. costs us $80 but is not a monthly med. would cost us far more than $80 if we had to pay brand name price with no generic option. considering our med issues, we don't spend much on meds... yet. a couple years past we did have surgery and a single overnight stay post-op. were real surgery--not cosmetic. needed anesthesia. weren't life saving though. something to keep us able to walk and maintain bladder control, so kinda necessary from our pov. our insurance were billed $350k. we paid $25 out of pocket. in 2021, if you are a day gig worker in the US, chances are you still need decide 'tween rent, food, transportation, utilities and health insurance. at least one from that list is gonna be a loser. guess which most choose. accident happens or you suffer a burst appendix or whatever... get a $350k bill and then what? HA! Good Fun!

power corrupts, but powerlessness corrupts absolute. if you believe you have nothing to lose, what is there to stop you from doing the unthinkable? there are sociopaths and psychopaths who commit horrible crimes 'cause they are getting what they want and other people are just obstacles. rare. a large % of people do bad things 'cause they believe they have run out of better options. governments necessarily have a monopoly on force, and the threat o' force discourages the powerless from taking action, but there is usual a breaking point. edit: am gonna go out on a limb and predict somebody on tucker carlson's staff gets fired, 'cause ed gavin clear weren't the guest tuck thought he were. HA! Good Fun!

LeVar Burton lands guest host gig on 'Jeopardy!' after more than 246,000 fans sign online petition a story which brought a genuine smile to our grumpy mug. HA! Good Fun!