Gromnir

money and moderation the established parties have the political mechanism and money to make it more difficult for 3rd party candidates to enter into the big time political game. the first goal o' any potential Congressman is to get elected. the primary job o' any Congressman is to get reelected. need pac money to get reelected these days. perhaps Gromnir is naive, but am believing most candidates is not bought by pacs. however, organizations got a vested interest in making sure like-minded candidates is elected. the whole process o' aligning pac money with candidates is deep entwined with party mechanics. the money issue is just one issue we believe libertarians would better focus their efforts on state and local offices. need far less money to compete local and state. the angry farmer or shoe-salesman-with-a-dream can still compete in the local political arena even without big money. is still not gonna be level playing field competition, but who ever promised the game would be fair, eh? the other reason we don't see 3rd party candidates in 2016 is 'cause things is actual pretty good here in the US. we got two parties who talk as if they is world's apart, but in practice they ain't. when euorpeans hear liberal v. conservative they is using their own political spectrum to pigeonhole US political animals. the truth is for the past few decades we has had a whole lotta moderates and hardly any genuine liberals or conservatives as would be recognizable beyond US borders. things need get bad enough, or at least the public needs to be getting frustrated 'nuff, before we see a genuine shift away from the centrist politics which has dominated our political landscape for almost a couple generations... at least. sanders and trump success this cycle does suggest the center is weakening, but am suspecting the two parties learn from their obvious mistakes and next national elections will be business as usual. just our opinion. HA! Good Fun!

there is a near universal misunderstanding 'bout the powers o' the Presidency. at the same time, am thinking the founding fathers had a shared fundamental misunderstanding o' human nature. every time trump opens his mouth and tells us 'bout how he is gonna overturn ny times v. sullivan or he blathers on 'bout preventing muslims from immigrating to the US, we wonder who were the moron who taught trump 'bout our federal government while he were in high school and university. however, the sad truth is trump is not alone in his misconceptions 'bout the power o' the President. am suspecting the number o' people who actual understand the powers granted to the President by the Constitution is extreme small. heck, while the President is the undeniable leader o' the executive branch, from a practical perspective, given how vast is the executive branch, much o' the functional power o' the executive branch o' government is wielded by career bureaucrats who perform their duties with little concern for who is the current President o' the USA. 'course the founding fathers understood what (limited) powers were being granted to the President. more fools were they. the thing is, the President's power ain't as much a product o' the Constitution as it is o' human nature. the President is the one fed elected office we all get a chance to vote 'pon. the President is also the most visible and recognizable member o' the federal government. the most vocal federalists o' 1787 would be shocked by the power and influence o' the federal government. voting for President is not just a vote for the head o' the executive, but it is a functional national referendum o' broad policy issues. when Presidential elections happen, Congressmen listen. the President, when he appears to have the backing o' a significant majority o' the people, wields far more practical power over domestic affairs than the founding fathers woulda' ever imagined. the electoral college is fine for what the President was meant to be. the electoral college may even be ok for what the President actual is 'ccording to the Constitution. the thing is, actual Presidential power is different than what a reading o' the Constitution would suggest. am thinking a change to the process by which the President is elected is warranted, but as gd observes, changes to the Constitution is difficult to affect... as were intended by the founding fathers. HA! Good Fun!

well, you were gonna need get your characters to 65 regardless. level the sentinel the rest o' the way doing the tactical and tactical-solo flashpoints. am suspecting that you reach 65 once finished with the fps. have the sorcerer immediate start revan. the pvp is almost a non factor as we got valor 5 from three warzones, two o' which were fabulous losses. don't do any side-stuff in sor or kotfe and space-bar through cutscenes and you will finish relative quick. *shrug* you thought it were pretty much just a matter 'o getting two to 65, yes? get to 65 via the fps on one character and get to 65 with sor+kotfe on the other will take a bit more effort than our suggested sooper-dooper speed leveling, but won't be too much worse. even so, as is material you has already slogged through previous, am understanding the reluctance to continue. for a new companion? too much effort. 'course by doing champ level requirements you get the complete xp boost armour we mentioned, so there is that. HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind that by doing sor, you will need necessarily complete a handful o' fps, and am 90% certain you do not need complete all fps on one character for flashpoint expert.

http://dulfy.net/2016/06/28/swtor-dark-vs-light-event-checklist/ just to be certain, am gonna note how each lower level reward is a prerequisite for higher level rewards. to be successful granted the eternal rewards, which includes the new companion, you must first complete the champion level requirements. is annoying, but to get the new companion at least 1 dvl character needs do minimal pvp (2-3 warzones?) as well as shadow o' revan content and kotfe content. not need do your main class quests which culminate on corellia, so get a character to +50 via heroics and then start shadow o' revan is perfect viable. as for quick leveling, stick the dvl xp armour on a character and continue doing black talon. with the level scaling implemented, you will not need better armour to sleep walk your way through black talon, even at +50 levels. given the current 2x xp event which runs through november, you is gonna level very fast indeed while also picking up ok credit rewards and two pieces o' class appropriate purple armour/gear... which can be sold for credits if nothing else. we recommend bt v. esseles as the bonus boss can be dispatched solo in bt. unlike operations, where you must needs wait around on fleet and hope for an invite... and then roll the dice you didn't get a fail op group, ~20 minutes o' your time will result in a successful bt run. HA! Good Fun! ps flashpoint expert requirement for champion level is also a pain in the tuckus. a considerable number o' the fps can be completed solo, which is nice. is also not hard-mode required, so the tactical runs is typical ez. unfortunately, depths of manaan is/was bugged. do not let fire kill the final boss or you will not get credit for the fp.

well, y'know, trump's admission, which were also recorded, tends to lend credibility to the accusers. ain't the foul language but the admission o' a pattern o' behavior which most folks is pointing to as evidence that trump's accusers is worthy o' consideration. am not sure what you heard in the recordings, but am thinking you missed the lead. ... truth-to-tell, the foul language in the recording likely helps trump. if all we had were a cold-blooded admission o' sexual assault, w/o the accompanying laughter and foul language being shared by two adult males, the recording would be viewed as more damning rather than less. at least with the language and laughter, trump can argue his admission were in jest. HA! Good Fun!

Considering his own history of groping women, perhaps it would be more appropriate just to keep quiet? as much as our democrat friends hate to hear this, we do find a considerable amount o' hypocrisy coming from those who defended bill in spite of his questionable treatment o' women and their revulsion o' trump's behavior towards the fairer sex. does not apply to all democrats, but those who were dismissive o' the bill clinton scandals regarding women should be speaking a bit more softly 'bout trump insofar as his treatment o' women is concerned. but again, am speaking specific o' the treatment o' the ladies issues. is a whole bunch o' other issues, no? we got no problem with arnold rejecting trump. our own concerns with trump's suitability to be President is less 'bout his unwholesome behavior towards women and more 'bout his complete misapprehension o' the role of President and the near total lack o' any kinda workable solutions to those problems he thinks is obvious. trump, at best, is an elmer gantry kinda candidate. arnold, as an extreme successful immigrant and republican, has a noteworthy pov regarding trump. typical we put little stock in arnold pov as we share little in common with his values and perspective, but am not gonna outright dismiss arnold pov on current political issues anymore than we would dismiss bill clinton. if the issue in question has to do with mistreatment o' women, then yeah, arnold and bill and donald is not gonna be role models. 'course so little 'bout this election is having anything to do with the actual qualifications and abilities o' the candidates. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, for the dvl event we created two characters we will be unlikely to ever use again in the future. rushed through old content doing minimum necessary to reach "eternal" level o' rewards. am doubtful the goal o' the event were to have us exhaust tens o' hours on throw-away characters. 'course, while the mindless repetition o' already completed content is indeed soul crushing, our typical leveling scheme requires a couple dozen runs o' esseles or black talon, so our capacity for dvl kinda self-flagellation is already high. one positive: the dvl xp bonus armour stacks with 2x events. the speed with which we will be able to level future characters is a nice bonus. HA! Good Fun!

Sorry though, I didn't bring it up to humiliate you, it's just that- oddly enough- a whole lot of those '6-12 month' articles have started popping up again, which I find highly amusing given how poor (and generally forgotten) the last set of such articles were and the general theme of media propagated/ generated propaganda prevalent in the election. pretty much everything in the spoiler is wrong, which is why am confused if you thinks it would humiliate Gromnir to once again be offering to take a punch for putin's sake. the situation has been devastating for russia and the Negative growth russia has endured the past two years will require a good number o' years o' positive growth to see russia fully recover. sub 1% growth predictions is Not positive news. am not sure what articles you is reading, but russia were hit extreme hard and a currency collapse (the bloomberg graphic you used identified russia as having had the worst currency downfall o' any nation during the span o' time tracked, but the ruble did beat bitcoin, so...) woulda' resulted in a quicker recovery, albeit with far different and equal devastating consequences. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69691-ukraine-discussion/page-13?do=findComment&comment=1569008 yes, being down to their last $367 billion actual were a problem and weren't funny at all, which is why putin started digging into pension funds o' all things. capital flight from russia has been incalculable... literal. is so much shady russian business it becomes impossible to tell just how much money left russia, and prospects for increased foreign investment at this time is still extreme limited particular with at least a couple years o' stagnation being predicted, foreign sanctions in place, and an increasing unstable foreign relations picture developing. in a more appropriate thread we would be happy to continue this all-too--familiar discussion. not much has actual changed, but it has arguable changed for the worse overall. the russian economy is still mired in a framework which more closely resembles petroleum-based mercantilism than anything else. the currency drop didn't actual result in russian domestic production marked increasing. the poverty rate in russia has increased and those russian poor is now spending ~50% o' their retail income on food, a figure not helped at all by self-imposed sanctions o' food. is not good for russia. is not good for europe. just as russia weren't able to laugh off their currency woes 'cause o' their currency reserves, the russian economic situation still ain't funny. again, 'cause bloomberg appears to be ok for zor https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-27/vladimir-putin-is-his-economy-s-worst-enemy kinda off-topic though, so... knock yourself out. am sure you can convince oby that all is well. HA! Good Fun!

Two and a half years. I've been keeping count, thanks to Gromnir just starting a conversation about how sanctions would bankrupt Russia in 6-12 months. It's just one of those things which is always 6-12 months away, I guess. lordy. this old chestnut. we observed a couple experts predicted currency collapse in russia in 6-12 months if nothing changed. 'course russia went desperate with their interest rate adjustments and staved off currency collapse, but collapse mighta' been the less long-term damaging result as 'posed to what has happened to the russian economy the last two years. anybody wanna actual review state o' the russian economy as it stands today compared to a couple years ago? and heck, given how little russia has actual done to improve their situation since the double-whammy o' sanctions Plus oil price collapse a few years ago, they now gets to enjoy the prospect o' years o' economic stagnation following +18 months o' actual recession. what actual happened were zor suggesting that the hundreds of billions in foreign currency assets russia possessed would allow them to laugh at the currency crisis, and that russian retributive food sanctions wouldn't hurt russians. were also some nice hypothesizing 'bout food alternatives from china and brazil. used bloomberg graphic 'bout relative currency strengths he complete misread, seeing as how russian currency were hit far worse than other oil dependent nations during a similar period o' time. *shakes head sadly* until russia makes a serious commitment to alter their economy, which is far too dependent on oil exports, it will continue to be highly vulnerable to sanctions and to the predictably volatile nature o' oil (or any single resource) as the alpha and omega o' russian economic growth. and yeah, the poor is gonna suffer the most when a nation imposes food sanctions on a people... and the ranks o' the russian poor has grown alarmingly in the past couple years. to respond to malcador's actual observation, doesn't take much mental gymnastics to explain the recent russian "posturing" simply as a way for putin to distract the russian people from just how terrible is their economic situation. if the russian people weren't so angry at vile westerners, they would no doubt focus their attentions on more mundane issues... such as being able to actual pay for food. am doubting distraction is the only reason for seeming russian "posturing" but am not doubting it is a factor. HA! Good Fun!

we noticed yesterday that most is available via youtube as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY7eqTQgEsE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BAMUm-uAp0&index=3&list=PLdI7wgR3a3r6A8SpXlExtC8teRM73MQKW HA! Good Fun!

http://www.nytco.com/the-new-york-timess-response-to-donald-trumps-retraction-letter/ david mccraw and the times just went all ll cool j on trump. HA! Good Fun!

the moderators, all of them, is excellent. is the unsung stars o' the series. all o' them is expert at using the kinda faux socratic method to lead the group to curious ethical conundrums. HA! Good Fun!

... kinda random, no? HA! Good Fun!

https://www.learner.org/resources/series81.html# am admitting we were unaware the series were available online in its entirety 'til we looked for it earlier today to be responding in the wot election thread, but the linked videos is fantastic. yeah, am doubting anybody actual watches one o' the +50 minute videos, but am feeling the need to repeat our appreciation for 'em. 1989 is a bit dated at this point, and while the folks in the videos were titans in their respective fields, many will be unrecognizable, particular to folks not from the USA. nevertheless, am thinking that the series is well-worth the time it takes to watch all ten offerings. am loathing wiki, but the link provides a list o' the panelists and we don't see any obvious errors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_in_America HA! Good Fun!

george bush actual pushed Congress to increase the nasa budget and encouraged nasa to get us back to the moon, unmanned and manned, with target dates which have already elapsed. return to moon were a reasonable first step to going to mars. HA! Good Fun! Oh, i do not fault him for doing that. It actually deserves praise in itself. I just find it interesting that once again it gets pushed to the limelight by the end of the second term by the next president. Perhaps it is not a sexy agenda during election times. january 2004. not election time for bush. not when it were too late to do anything. not after he slashed and burned nasa for two terms. HA! Good Fun!

george bush actual pushed Congress to increase the nasa budget and encouraged nasa to get us back to the moon, unmanned and manned, with target dates which have already elapsed. return to moon were a reasonable first step to going to mars. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.learner.org/resources/series81.html# is good stuff, and you get your answer(s) in video #2... and am thinking #8 as well. lawyer can't lie or put client on stand knowing that they will lie, but there is practical ways to deal with those limitations. defend guilty is not a problem. HA! Good Fun! ps pay particular attention to mr. neal remarks... am thinking he gets involved at 24:40 o' video 2

The victim says that was not how she behaved. Hillary's affidavit is her swearing to the court she was told those things, so either she was told those things (whether the person telling lied or not) or she lied to the court under oath (cue discussions of later Hillary activities, I'm sure! ). Ultimately the motion never got reviewed in court (again as near as I can tell) so there doesn't appear to be any real determination in regards to veracity. Regardless a defense attorney is legally able to challenge witnesses testimony and to test evidence on behalf of their client, so again while I don't like a lot of what Hillary has done in government in modern days, I can't fault her in this case for...well...being a defense attorney. what people is ignorantly lambasting clinton for regarding kathy shelton is exact why rape shield laws were passed. the case in question occurred two years previous to arkansas passing rape shield, so the terrible injustice done to shelton, when viewed from the pov o' 2016, were actual the norm. clinton defended her client. if she lied in an affidavit, it would be unethical and illegal, but proof o' such mendacity is lacking. regardless, the tragedy o' kathy shelton is not a criticism o' clinton but o' the system as it existed at the time. clinton laughing 'bout polygraph accuracy? this has been a non-issue for a long time. "true-believer" defense attorneys is common, but even so, successful defending folks one knows is guilty o' terrible crimes has gotta take a kinda toll. is more than a few alcoholic defense attorneys. 'mongst criminal defense attorneys, black humor is even more common than cirrhosis o' the liver. anonymous tips that lead to capture of _______? is a dirty secret o' the defense bar that a considerable number o' those anonymous tips come from defense attorneys. 'less one is a true psychotic, you gotta find a way to laugh at the perversity o' the system. Gromnir ain't even a criminal defense attorney, and am shuddering to think how insensitive some o' our conversations held 'mongst peers is gonna sound to the layperson. as an aside, we will never do family law. however bad is criminal law on the psyche o' the attorney, family law is even more taxing. the atrocities (petit and major) people is capable o' committing 'gainst former/current loved ones is genuine soul crushing. being an advocate for people with so much rage, particular when children becomes the ultimate prize o' the battle 'tween monsters, is the kinda thing we has seen destroy more than a couple good men and women. as much as we dislike clinton, we cannot fault her for defending her client, and am reluctant to judge her for her poor choice o' jests even as such were cringeworthy. 'course we find her email defense to be straining credulity and her foreign policy record to be worthy o' a whole 'nother degree o' black humor... and her willingness to lie when confronted with unpleasant truths is almost pathological. ... 'course when obama were recent talking 'bout how much he wants to see astronauts going to mars, we laughed at that too. no President since clinton (bill) has done so much to hamstring the US space program that we couldn't help but think obama were doing a tommy flanagan kinda jest... oh, and this is likely a joke for which obama would like a mulligan. *shrug* this election should be a laugh-a-minute chuklefest. 'tween clinton and trump's seeming intentional faux pas one-upmanship, we should be having chronic sore ribs from laughing, but we ain't hardly laughing. HA! Good Fun!

bozo aired at noon 'til the 1980s. *snort* pre-adolescent 80s pansies. just sayin' HA! Good Fun! ps we didn't have a tv back in those days, but am recalling visiting chicago relatives during the 70s and watching bozo. the freaking grand prize game is what we recall most vivid. *shakes head sadly* we sat and watched kids throw ping pong balls into buckets to win t-shirts and toothbrushes and trips to the natural history museum.

tassadar sacrifice at the end o' starcraft were kinda memorable for Gromnir. not on par with the mebbeth incarnation o' ravel's coda, but worthy o' mention. y'know, our actual best gaming moment might be when we downloaded a patch for mechwarrior: mercenaries to correct a bug that were preventing us from progressing. message boards and developer responses were a bit slower back in those days, so we spent considerable game hours trying to figure out what we were doing wrong 'fore we realized that our failure to rendezvous with a dropship were the result o' a bug. being actual to progress after literal wasting more than a dozen hours on a sisyphean task, followed by a week (or two?) waiting for a hotfix, were likely our bestest game moment. HA! Good Fun! ps honorable mention for troika as no developer has so consistant had our best gaming moment for their titles existing immediate before playing the games. so many great concepts ruined by poor execution.

Plus I think they forgot at least a 'few' of the Trump scandals... understatement. HA! Good Fun!

we haven't seen a full transcript o' the interview, but J. Ginsburg is getting a bit grumpy in her old age. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88911-the-us-election-2016-part-vi/?p=1840673 as we has noted earlier, a national anthem protest o' cop behavior reveals a fundamental lack o' awareness. am doubting ruth went into much detail in an interview with katie couric as to why she were seeing the protests as "dumb" and "stupid," but am suspecting that at least in part it is 'cause o' reasons we already mentioned. nevertheless, the salty octogenarian is becoming increasingly apt to speak her mind w/o considering the consequences o' how the average citizen will react to her musings. we enjoy the news articles that result from her lack o' concern for the niceties o' being one o' the more recognizable figures in our fed government, but J. Ginsburg's penchant for reflexive rather than reflective public responses is becoming almost trump-like. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/03/30/liberals-love-alexander-hamilton-but-aaron-burr-was-a-real-progressive-hero/?utm_term=.7d64119f21c2 before the musical we thought aaron burr got a raw deal from history. is too bad the only exposure many will have to aaron burr is a musical and a milk commercial. before today, we had no idea michael bay directed the commercial. huh. HA! Good Fun!

Ive often wondered about this. Good ifo's. in the spirit o' full disclosure, we got no numbers to back up our impressions o' lakota christianity. nationally we got numbers that says 3/4 o' indians is christian and a majority o' those is catholic, but there is baptists and lds and methodists on the rez... or maybe lutherans. all those protestants get kinda jumbled for us 'less we got a specific case. regardless, gifted shouldn't take our impressions 'bout lakota christianity as... gospel. HA! Good Fun!

the question is a bit... gauche. is current 567 recognized tribes. is a considerable number o' tribes still not having recognition. each o' those tribes is gonna have its own traditions. and keep in mind just how geographical large and diverse is the United States. not surprising then that the indigenous peoples would be diverse as well. *shrug* our christmas dinner, when we could afford to do christmas dinner, were not too unfamiliar. christianity is common 'mongst the lakota, with catholicism being the most common denomination. and our family were catholic. we celebrated christmas. always had some kinda decorated tree. for dinner we perhaps had turkey or pheasant or perhaps a roast beast o' some kind. couldn't always afford an extravagant meal, but gift giving were a tradition 'mongst the lakota long before europeans and christianity arrived, so we always exchanged gifts, even if were small stuff. menu items which might be unfamiliar to bruce would include wampanackali (which we believe our grand father learned from a huron or iroquois, so is not a lakota recipe and would not be common at other lakota christmas dinners) fry bread, wasna, and plum cake. HA! Good Fun!