Gromnir

you do realize you are posting on a software development message board, yes? media piracy is understandably viewed unsympathetic by your hosts. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

that were our freaking point. *sigh* unnecessary clarification: because US systemic racism don't look like nazi holocaust, which almost all save some comical holdouts agree were a terrible evil, US supported discrimination ain't viewed by a few persons (too many) as real racism. HA! Good Fun!

obvious alternative: show a little restraint and instead o' subscribing to multiple streaming services, one wait and rent discs when they become available. madness. does result in being spoiled, which is annoying, but such behavior saved us from recent star trek disappointments. HA! Good Fun!

the purges o' jewish people in europe started long before the nazis, and sadly, didn't even end with the nazis. after all, a significant number of people liberated from death camps were promptly murdered by local populations. nazis hardly started the problem or saw the end. as a matter o' fact, the nazis kinda mess with modern perceptions o' racism. nazi, fascist and racist is terms which is gonna frequent see overlap in rl examples. nevertheless the aforementioned is distinct concepts. all too often, people (vol) appears to use all three terms interchangeable. more than a few people thinks systemic racism is nazi attempts at genocide, or something similar. have a pundit rattle on 'bout how US government supported home loan guidance which lasted well into the 70s did irreparable and lasting harm to minority populations and too many have a hard time seeing similar to nazis loading jews into train cars and sending 'em to death camps. systemic racism is nazis doing evil, not bank bureaucrats from decades past giving a preference to people trying to buy a house before most o' the posters to this board were even born, right. wrong. HA! Good Fun!

am older, so we benefit from having spoken with people who were detained in camps and we had a relative who actual fought with US forces in europe and were at one o' the camps when... liberated. even so, holocaust denial is disturbing. moon hoax and flat-earth nonsense, as hard as it is to believe folks may be so ignorant, one may chalk up to genuine lack o' any kinda scientific knowledge coupled with extreme suspicion. holocaust denial... in spite o' the mountains o' evidence, and bodies, folks work hard to disbelieve holocaust. can't help but wonder why folks is trying so hard to ignore evidence. is impossible not to wonder at some sinister motive driving unsupportable disbelief. moon landing hoaxers and flat-earthers make us lament US educational system as well as the individual's capacity for almost willful ignorance. holocaust deniers? ain't any kinda sympathy or pity we may muster. is something darker making such obtuseness possible.

is a widespread effort to remove andrew jackson from the US $20. andy is a complex american historical figure, but given the trail o' tears, public opinion as a whole shifted in recent decades such that he he gets viewed as a villain perhaps a bit more than he does as a competent (if unspectacular) chief executive and a bonafide war hero. read the earth is weeping and is difficult to decide who is more deserving o' infamy, jackson or grant. President grant were calculated and ruthless in his efforts to create a war with the plains indians, although few history books bother to relate the scope o' grant's efforts. the earth is weeping is a book which challenges many firm held preconceptions 'bout the US and Grant-- details US colonial efforts prosecuted as much by subterfuge as force and how the American people were purposeful kept in the dark 'bout uncomfortable truths. is a worthwhile read, particular today as Americans is reflecting on who exact is deserving o' monuments and what happens when uncomfortable truths force opinions to change. HA! Good Fun! ps (late edit) the earth is weeping is NOT a whites= bad, indians = good book. President grant comes outta the wash looking dirty, but one reason why subterfuge were needed to bring 'bout the indian wars is 'cause so many whites, particular US military commanders, balked at the idea o' killing starving women and children.

not a rock ballad, but the following gets our vote HA! Good Fun! ps always confuses Gromnir how deadly serious many/most hardcore fallout fans is 'bout the original titles. we have listened to the pundits opine 'bout the influences o' german expressionism on fallout, we kid you not, but when we suggest much o' fallout were created with tongue obvious and firm in cheek, with a whole lotta camp being an essential quality o' fo, you would think we were indulging in the worst kinda sacrilege.

the earth is weeping: the epic story of the indian wars for the american west two observations: 1) probably weren't what you were thinking 'bout when you asked for suggestions. w/o question the indian wars fits definition o' colonialism, but is rare what persons is intending by reference colonialism. 2) is possible the only decent book we ever read with "epic" in the title. another title worth mentioning is, the divided ground: indians, settlers, and the northern borderland of the american revolution author is alan taylor, who wrote the admitted superior william cooper's town. regardless, is a couple works we mention for no other reason than they is unlikely to show up on any other colonialism reading lists, but deserve spots nonetheless. HA! Good Fun! ps only just seen the finnegans wake post. am conflicted 'bout the title for reasons we won't fully go into, but the thing is, unlike ulysses which gets the masterpiece label, finnegans wake were the breaking point for many a diehard joyce fan. joyce were fully cognizant he were punishing the reader with fw, which in our mind is an unforgivable conceit for an author... but we kinda/sorta forgive anyways. complicated.

phillip k. d!ck, in the intro to a collection o' his short stories, spoke o' heinlein: Several years ago, when I was ill, Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric typewriter, God bless him—one of the few true gentlemen in this world. I don't agree with any ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time when I owed the IRS a lot of money and couldn't raise it, Heinlein loaned the money to me. I think a great deal of him and his wife; I dedicated a book to them in appreciation. Robert Heinlein is a fine-looking man, very impressive and very military in stance; you can tell he has a military background, even to the haircut. He knows I'm a flipped-out freak and still he helped me and my wife when we were in trouble. That is the best in humanity, there; that is who and what I love. am thinking heinlein is misunderstood by many as some kinda jingoist warhawk. maybe he was. *shrug* regardless o' phillip k's opinion o' heinlein's ideas, am personal a big fan o' the moon is a harsh mistress and we believe job: a comedy of justice, is criminal underappreciated. HA! Good Fun!

am not gonna get into the lee stuff... again. doesn't matter regardless, 'cause for better And worse, we got democracy. a bunch o folks in the 1890s and 1920s thought lee statues were a swell idea and they built 'em all over the south. am not sure why statues is such a sticking point for folks 'cause most o' us have little difficulty accepting the notion that the democratic process gets it wrong from time to time. should be no biggie. folks in 1895 got it wrong or their reasons were based on bad info or perhaps reasons for lionizing no longer outweigh reasons for removing. whatever. democracy, in many ways, is a horrible way to make decisions. the majority is not especial wise or generous and is no foresight granted by a majority. democracy is better than alternatives, and regardless, it is what we got. democratic process puts lee up and for better And worse, democratic process should be available to take down. no vandalism or mobs. choice. most o' us shudder at the sight o' book burnings. at the same time, am doubting most o' us thinks textbooks, once created, cannot be changed, altered or altogether removed. got a school textbook from 1910 south carolina teaching how miscegenation is immoral and leads to birth defects and "mongloidism." such stoopid doesn't need be taught into perpetuity 'cause such were the history and heritage o' 1910 south carolina. we take the book off the shelf and the act o' removal may itself be a teachable moment. nevertheless, try and remove a statue which were erected same time the textbook were written, and were at least partial meant to communicate a similar message, and we nevertheless get heavy resistance to removal. weird. vandalism is wrong way, but is nothing special 'bout statues other than fact people believe they is special.... 'course this observation comes from a guy who purposeful uses aaron burr board image as a less than subtle backhand directed at the veneration o' the founding fathers. HA! Good Fun!

South Dakota Gov. Noem vows 'we won't be social distancing' at Trump Mount Rushmore event ... is so many things we could say 'bout this story. won't. instead we ask folks to read story and then look at comments in response to the story. HA! Good Fun! ps apologies for double, but different topic.

In 2008, Everyone Thought The Recession Was Bad. But in 2020, Many Americans’ Views Depend On Their Party. "In the most recent Quinnipiac University national survey, 69 percent of Republicans described the U.S. economy as “excellent” or “good.” Similarly, nearly two-thirds of Republicans in both Civiqs’s daily tracking polls and in a June 11-15 Associated Press/NORC Poll said that the nation’s current economy is at least leaning toward good. By contrast, only around 10 percent of Democrats thought that the national economy was doing well in those surveys." ... "Before Trump took office, the more racial discrimination white people thought their own group faced, the more likely they were to say that the economy was worse than it had been a year earlier. These voters largely voted for Trump. But under Trump’s presidency, a similar poll found that white voters were less likely to say the economy had gotten worse if they believed white people faced high levels of racial discrimination." we were admitted a smidge surprised by the numbers. sure, we recognized how trump voters, the vast majority o' whom would be republican, would be less likely to blame the President for current economic issues. and yeah, before covid-19 we were recognizing how a disturbing number o' persons refused to admit debt were getting outta control or that farmers and blue-collar manufacturing workers had benefited least from trump efforts to deregulate, reduce taxes for rich and fight a trade war with china. even so, what kinda self-delusion does it take to see current economy as better than september-november 2016? extreme polarization o' the US electorate has resulted in a kinda mass hysteria which is gonna make any kinda positive change difficult and may make bipartisan action impossible. our republican system, for better or worse, requires that for there to be substantial change either an improbable super majority 'mongst populace and those who govern must be achieved or there must be compromise. am beginning to suspect that regardless o' november election results, the US is facing a metaphorical death by a thousand cuts situation. four years o' impotence and incompetence is survivable as long as there is no sooper majority, but such a state may only continue for so long until results is just as bad as a precipitous and catastrophic fail. degree o' perceived white victimization predictis optimism regarding current economy? ... what? wh efforts to gaslight has clear been effective beyond our most improbable nightmares. HA! Good Fun!

more water. less bourbon. HA! Good Fun!

two titles immediate came to mind: okami iwd for a rush job, the production values were exceeding expectations and am admitting we were kinda shocked by just how beautiful were the title. artwork and music were some o' the best in any game we had played up to that point. even today, a couple decades removed from release, iwd remains one o' the more gorgeous games we has ever played. HA! Good Fun!

am ok with defund... in certain situations. is not a one-size-fits-all solution by any means. do a little google research and compare camden defund efforts to philadelphia. camden defunded a few years past, and the new police department which replaced initial had 2x as many excessive force complaints as old department, but only initial. initial were a couple years btw, and how many municipalities is so patient? that said, through change in culture and concerted outreach, camden saw positive evolution o' their police, but it were not ez and there were growing pains. philadelphia did same w/o defunding . in fact, the model for camden, with the exception o' the complete defund, were philadelphia. try and create a new and more huggable police and you is gonna see a need for increased functional cop funding as 'posed to less. efforts to retrain and implement community outreach which is anything more than a farce won't be cheap. chances are while your fledgling flower police is learning to hug rather than harm, you are gonna need pay sheriff to handle some o' the load, and sheriff won't do for free. sad to say, but crime won't stop 'cause police defund. gonna need pay somebody to do what defunded cops did. defund is a double-edged sword which, on some level, is an abomination insofar as typical progressive-democrat ideology is concerned. genuine defund police is a last resort kinda move necessitated by the existence o' cop unions. if you think any substantial change to culture and training is gonna be implemented amongst cops who has a strong union, you is being extreme optimistic. unions frequent resist change for no other reason than they is wired to do so. every change is a first step onto the slippery slope, and so almost all change is presumptive opposed. IF you need get rid o' the union, then you need defund the police department. why did camden defund and philadelphia did not? main answer is camden believed they needed a genuine new start, and that couldn't happen with old union in place. progressive-democrats, busting unions? the gods grant the prayers of those whom they wish to destroy. ain't meant to be so literal, but... regardless, be careful 'bout asking for defund. is not a bad idea per se, but needs be careful planned and long-term issues may not be immediate obvious. defund is not a solution in and of itself. at the very least, becoming union busters should give democrats pause. but, to keep this less political, we will observe how we got one dog who has become increasing more sensitive to loud noises in recent years. were fireworks and gunshots which caused terror-shakes and peeing. is now overhead planes, loud rain and even heavy wind which has the little girl trying to find a safe place from the omni-directional bass sounds. 4th o' july has us closing widows even if temps is ok and watching movies or listening to music at somewhat excessive volumes in an attempt to drown out fireworks noises. we got a small place near tahoe on nevada side o' the border. relative remote. have serious considered taking a few days and hauling the dogs up there to find some respite from the inevitable annual terror-fest which is the week o' the 4th. HA! Good Fun!

@Gorth am suspecting nowadays more people is celebrating hugo weaving's V than they is guy fawkes. welcome to rivendell, evey. HA! Good Fun!

maybe not a total loss. we would stand at least six feet away from anybody wearing that getup in public... with the possible exception o' comicons and halloween. HA! Good Fun!

hmmm. weren't genuine going for obscure. we do highly recommend sinclair lewis. our favorite sinclair lewis is babbit, but am thinking elmer gantry might be the work which has aged best. it can't happen here, were on the reading list o' many in 1935 and 2016, but it is only a mediocre lewis effort even if it were, (and is) disturbing relevant. would suggest elmer gantry to gd if for no other reason it has been banned so frequent since its release. every good libertarian should have such a book on his reading list. ... you can always watch the movie, which is worth viewing for multiple reasons, not the least o' which is shirley jones performance o' lulu bains. HA! Good Fun!

intransigence over masks does make us concerned 'bout a vaccine. many o' these jokers already trend towards the antivaxer idiocy, and is only gonna take a slight nudge from their respected radio and tv personalities to convince those in your image that the vaccine is just as much o' a threat to liberty as is masks. after all, vaccines is big pharma trying to make a buck in spite o' all those kids ending up with autism... and next thing you know, they will be coming for our guns. HA! Good Fun!

last night we heard loud music from 7ish-9:30ish pm. is not a grumpy old man thing 'cause is not as if the music bothered us... weren't as if it were a 2am kinda thing. perhaps an excess o' U2 songs, but otherwise we had no complaints 'bout substance or volume. nevertheless, were weird 'cause, due to covid-19, our community had voted to "delay" its traditional concert series. is an amphitheatre for the community where such stuff is held and while the venue is a few miles distant from Gromnir's home, we are able to hear the concerts when they is held. last night sounded like a concert were being held, which we found perplexing and all together stoopid. weren't a concert. turns out the music were a graduation party with a live band held at a residence 'bout a half-mile from our place. dozens o' folks crammed into an admitted spacious backyard, but no social distancing enforced and no masks. didn't seem particular responsible. as to fireworks, at least three homes has burned down in our community from fireworks related accidents within the last 10 years, and multiple grass fires were started which threatened other homes. whatever. is a northern CA thing and is simple part o' the norm that week before and after 4th there is gonna be fireworks aplenty in an area with a whole lotta dry brush and heritage oaks just waiting to burst into flames. folks prepare. all our properties have steel roofs, am less concerned than we were in past. less. this year our community board debated whether to postpone the 4th fireworks celebration and community parade 'cause o' covid-19. is one o' the larger fireworks displays held in our area. scale o' the fireworks is noteworthy particular as the actual size o' the community is smallish. the parade is somewhat more pedestrian and is mostly people decorating their golf carts in red, white and blue bunting. population o' the community functional quadruples one night o' the year. families pack the verdant grass lawns adjacent to community thoroughfares. blankets and lawn chairs is staked out to claim best available spots a week in advance... the blankets always strike us as an odd way to establish a claim as sprinklers is running on those days leading up to the 4th. anyways, board decided not to delay fireworks to a fall holiday. more curious, while the maintenance crew announced they could paint social distance circles on lawn areas to encourage responsible behaviour during a freaking pandemic, such an an effort at mitigation were rejected. ... the community does also throw a very nice pancake breakfast on the morning o' the 4th. serious though, why would anybody reject the option o' having social distance circles being painted on community lawn areas? a large percentage o' the community is older, with children and grandchildren visiting for the 4th. the rate o' comorbidity in our community is gonna be as bad/worse than even the navajo reservations for simple fact so many is so old. would assume people would be extra careful, no? no. also amusing is the excessive number o' the plastic garbage cans in our community reduced to puddle/pile o' filth and ash the night o' the 4th 'cause otherwise smart folks don't realize how dumping hot spent fireworks in their trash barrels is a bad idea. am suspecting at least a dozen such fails occur every year. well, at least the fireworks stuff is an outdoor event, so covid-19 issues is dramatic reduced, but am confident we see infection spikes 'cause avenues will be packed with maskless morons who will later return home and attempt to set their homes ablaze by lighting trash cans on fire. HA! Good Fun!

hobbes and Gromnir end at much different locations, but we start journey from a similar place. credit where credit is due. we also have been known to quote faulkner, but it don't make us a racist, and you know we don't love the south as he did. don't even get us started on nietzsche. if we were quoting hobbes as to proper role o' government, then you would have cause to question. converse, gd is actual indulging in the vices. is this your elmer gantry moment? after all, who but one o' the truly depraved may understand what it is to be a sinner? preach on brother dog. we kid. that said, vices such as vaccinations, nitrogen-based fertilizer and refrigeration is stuff we would need be a bit obtuse to turn our back 'pon 'cause o' some sorta luddite moment. heck, we had our appendix burst in our early 30s, so, we would be dead w/o a few o' those infernal modern vices. HA! Good Fun!

... waiting for gd to recognize the inherent irony in sharing such thoughts on a crpg developer's digital message board. "no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." even so, sounds like a swell trip. personal enjoyed the first day o' sub 100 F in a week. dog walking in the AM and, for a change, indoor cooking as 'posed to the grill. HA! Good Fun!

wish it were a second wave, but it is likely just a spike from stoopid. perhaps call it an American hump? am agreeing such were inevitable 'cause o' American decentralization and stoopid-in-the-guise-of-individualism. our first post in the original covid-19 thread had not only the frank drebin clip, but also mocked the inevitability o' resistance to sane mitigation guidelines. we claimed the predictable protesters would legitimize such resistance 'cause, "next thing you know, they will be coming after our guns." what surprised us, and is true inconceivable for us to have made such a mistake, but we assumed trump, as all previous Presidents in living memory, would make an attempt at unifying the country to deal with the crisis. there is a natural/unnatural and predictable rally-to-the-flag moment following every crisis in this nation. folks beyond our borders is disturbed by seeming ubiquitous displays o' patriotism by Americans, but such also has us tending to unify (sometimes to an admitted scary degree) when a perceived threat arises. didn't happen in 2020. covid-19 rally-to-the-flag were a stillbirth abomination which died almost instantaneous. yes, even with genuine leadership and unity, there woulda' nevertheless been far too many who rejected calls for sacrifice in the name o' a greater cause. is not a bad impulse. a few more such folks rejecting fear as a reason to suppress liberties and we wouldn't have been stuck with the Patriot act. the thing is, this time we had the President active encouraging those sons o' liberty to reject The State and its guidelines, and the threat weren't some kinda possible/maybe threat from afar, but rather a disease, immune to ideology, which were already entrenched and spreading in the US, killing hundreds and thousands every day. the terrible reality is those hardcore libertarians who refuse to wear masks and social distance in 2020, would be far more willing to sacrifice if the threat were once again some kinda possible threat from a source which could convenient and comfortable be labeled as islamic extremism. give trump credit for reading tea leaves correct. particular after his oval office speech and the first couple covid-19 task force briefings, trump recognized that his aspirations for a second term would not be successful if he sought to bring together a nation he had worked so hard to divide for three years. trump's only chance were to solidify his base and hope for a miracle. IF covid-19 evaporated in the summer like the flu typical does, trump could win. IF the economy were able to shake off the impact o' covid-19 by september/october, then trump could win. IF hydroxy were a miracle drug... trump knows he needs gamble to win, and he is willing to gamble with tens of thousands of american lives. trump will continue to divide the nation and solidify his base while simultaneous gaslighting x1000 and hoping for a miracle. yeah, we would see a spike regardless 'cause Americans is Americans-- better and worse. would be many who did not trust cdc or President or government puppets with advanced medical degrees. such distrust isn't a bad thing, but this time the distrust following the rally-to-the-flag moment were encouraged by the President and his reasons were transparent mercenary. spike wouda' been much smaller if almost any other 2016 major candidate had successful won the Presidency. HA! Good Fun!

odd. watching the task force briefing, we recalled our firstest obsidian board covid-19 thread post. believe pence and you would think the US south and southwest has a few hotspots which should be contained in short order. nothing to see. oh, and somehow, not following cdc advice is a first amendment issue. ... not need say this, or we would hope so, but the rights o' free speech and assembly does not preclude a person from choosing to follow guidelines which prevent the spread of infection and save lives. the wh has chosen to flaunt cdc guidelines which it simultaneous claims is important for preventing the spread o' the virus. 'cause maga is the new opiate o' the masses. HA! Good Fun!