Gromnir

happy 30th. HA! Good Fun!

dr. wachter is chair o' the UCSF department o' medicine. HA! Good Fun!

one last reminder 'bout january 6, 'cause is an important detail people forget. as an American citizen, you do not have a Constitutional right to vote for President. am knowing most assume such a right must exists somewheres, but go ahead and look it up. the states appoint electors. is up to the states to decide how to appoint electors. the electoral college scheme is how the Constitution describes the manner in which we choose the next POTUS. is no mention o' popular vote for President in the Constitution. so again, what happens if pence did send votes back to the states? no doubt there would be popular disagreement as to whether such were legal (even though there were no real basis for granting pence such authority in a situation analogous to 2020,) but would take time for Courts to decide IF they chose to decide. could very well become a moot issue if the red state legislatures, given the opportunity to revise their elector choices by pence's unlawful action, decided to make trump their choice 'stead o' biden. can states do that? honestly, as bizarre as it sounds, am unsure... and that should scare you. SCOTUS could very well decide such a legal issue is in fact a "political question" not appropriate to judicial review. sure, it would not have been legal for pence to send vote slates back to the states, but irrational as it may seems, such ignores whether or not state legislatures are able to correct the will o' the people. again, 'ccording to the Constitution, states choose how to appoint electors. at the time you got jeffery clark as acting attorney general, a guy who were active pushing voter conspiracy theories... you also have in place a SCOTUS which recent brazen ignored an illegal bounty scheme by texas regarding abortions, refusing to grant petitioners injunctive relief pending their final determination in another abortion case... and trump is still in office during a time o' utter chaos. worst o' all, you got many millions o' americans who ignored four years o' trump illegal behaviour. you think that those millions sudden rise up 'gainst tyranny and authoritarianism? if fox news and conservative radio is hour-by-hour convincing audiences that given the still very real questions concerning the legitimacy of the 2020 election, it were perfect justified for individual states to review and decide such an important matter, do you expect those habitual self deluded viewers to sudden reject the narrative they wanna hear? would such be a lie? sure, but what is new 'bout that? the 24/7 news cycle allows 'em to tell their gop audience what they wanna hear. simultaneous and just as important, the new brand o' conservative media would be providing the multitude o' people who ignored four years o' trump an excuse to pretend as if a slow-motion coup were no different than the muslim ban, buried ig reports and white vans in portland, 'cause truth-to-tell, it were no different. if you think the Courts would step in and save you as they did with the 2020 election, you is wrong. we noted more than once how the Courts ordinarily avoid interference with elections, which is part o' the reason why so many minority groups is presumptive doomed when they try and fight the transparent prejudicial efforts in states (particularly southern states) where the gop game plan for years has been to limit voting access as much as possible. team trump lost their legal battles as much because they were trying to appropriate the same equal protection arguments voting rights groups had been using for decades to try and overturn state efforts to burden voting rights. sure, the trump teams were also largely incompetent and they had zero evidence whatsoever, but team trump efforts were dismissed based on weakness o' law as often as 'cause o' a complete absence o' factual support. aside, but keep our observations in mind following the 2022 elections when many democrats is gonna be stunned and perplexed by the callous indifference o' the Courts to obvious gop efforts to undermine voting rights. many o' you will rage at how the Courts is letting the gop in north carolina or texas steal votes from marginalized voting groups, but those Courts let you know what they were gonna do in 2022 in part 'cause o' what they did in 2020 and as they has done consistent for the past couple decades. regardless, is disturbing to us how ez it has been to convince so many americans that january 6 were, at worst, an unfortunate expression o' patriotic zeal. folks trespassed and vandalized and those people deserve to be punished, but qq, nothingburger, they are all bad, etc. is disturbing, but not surprising. HA! Good Fun!

OR 'stead o' just hoping, we could take serious and make an effort to prevent another insurrection. just sayin'. aside, enjoy a nostalgia twitter post from january 6, 2021. one year later and a word from tucker carlson changes everything. no longer a despicable act of terrorism. edit: *chuckle* HA! Good Fun!

another thing 'bout reading history is it teaches us that a failed coup is rare the end o' the story. subsequent coup attempts is likely and the follow-up efforts tend to be more successful. HA! Good Fun!

the biggest problem with definitions is people will cherry pick. ted and others is gonna find an alternative bit o' code or embrace an alternative reading. same goes for insurrection, which the oed and merriam-webster has definitions some do not like. sedition will change subtle but significant depending on if you are using black's or the us code. have seen people try exceptional hard to read a definition so that it supports their pov, and alternatively they will find the outlier definition more palatable and sudden become fans o' a new source. as an aside, am not a big fan o' terrorism labels. kinda like hate speech, is our observation that terrorism statutes exist to be criminalizing bad behaviors different depending on how much we dislike or fear the speaker or actor. am not seeing a genuine need for hate speech or terrorism statutes. if somebody blows up a bus and kills a bunch o' kids, is it worse 'cause it were intended to coerce as 'posed perhaps being an exercise in mayhem and chaos? find who blew up the bus and punish 'em for murder and proerty destruction and whatnot. if speech is bad enough that it violates the Constitution, which is a tough threshold to exceed, do we then heap on a greater punishment 'cause the speech is racist, sexist or bigoted? don't seem necessary. converse, if you got thousands o' people breaking into one o' the essential buildings housing the Article 1 branch o' the federal government, thousands who is intent on delaying or stopping altogether the peaceful transition o' power o' the Article 2 branch o' the federal government, then am thinking you are talking 'bout more than trespass and vandalism. 'course ted has never been in the Gromnir camp insofar as hate speech or domestic terrorism labels, so his waffling has little to do with definitions or integrity. ted squirming is an effort to make sure he don't offend thulsa doom's nightly audience. edit: The Capitol Attack Signaled a Post-Christian Church, Not Merely a Post-Christian Culture "As with the insurrection (and virtually every authoritarian movement in history), an apocalyptic moment is an emergency requiring emergency measures. Thus we get the cognitive dissonance of people who support law and order (sometimes by quoting Romans 13) beating police officers and breaking through windows in order to shut down Congress’s constitutional duty to count electoral votes. These are the people who can ridicule the very words of Jesus Christ about turning the other cheek as naïve and weak." HA! Good Fun!

... so, tucker carlson is the gop's thulsa doom? ted cruz ain't a beautiful girl by any stretch o' the imagination, but with a few choice words from tucker, ted were nevertheless were willing to hurl himself off the cliff's edge. the fish stick fortune heir is giving lessons in power to a US senator? HA! Good Fun!

is the way we describe our issues with tb mounted combat. recent patches did strange things with mounted combat which were already wonky. multipliers for charge damage apply... sometimes. why? HA! Good Fun!

Fingers Crossed! QAnon Faithful Await the Return of JFK Jr. on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas these folks is still showing up in dallas by the scores, but @Guard Dogcan't believe same folks thought they could really pull off the green bay sweep promoted on conservative radio by folks such as steve bannon, and clear embraced by potus and at least 147 republicans who even after the events o' january 6 objected to certifying the results o' the Presidential election. keep in mind those gop Congressmen objecting to the election, other than perhaps paul gossar, were not insane and most were not idiots. so, who is more delusional, the qanon folks or gd? HA! Good Fun!

yes. they (all too many) insurrectionists were attempting to prevent biden from being certified as the next President o' the US. you going all bruce on us and invoking blm summer protests is making us wonder if you has been brainwashed by all the alt-right radio you listen to. were the f'ing Capitol, while Congressmen were in session as they ratified the results o' the most recent Presidential election. january 6 most assured were not random acts o' vandalism directed at empty freaking buildings which were targeted only as some kinda vague representation o' state or fed authority. no, molotov ****tails hurled at a police station in some rando state is not, in and of itself, any kinda evidence o' insurrection and you know that. seriously, what is wrong with you folks? somehow you take the summer protests collectively and balance them 'gainst january 6. try and find a leader or plan for the summer protests and link the vandalism o' one police station and another federal court house as somehow part o' a greater and more sinister whole to undermine The Government? have seen how you are able to do such with burisma and biden so no doubt you has self-hypnotized the guy in the mirror into believing the doggerel you hear on the radio. the thing is even if you do engage in the most implausible mental gymnastics and compare The Summer Protests (as if they were a recognizable and insular event) with January 6, you still ain't accounting for the fact you had a representative o' the US freaking Government, the POTUS no less, directing a mob (of course a mob is by its very nature disorganized. duh.) to interfere with the ratification of the freaking Presidential election, while Congressmen, the Vice President and many nameless staff and security people were occupying the Capitol. no self awareness. how wrong were you 'bout 45... and you know you has been wrong 'bout 45. we could list all the ways but would be spam. clearly the former guy believed pence could and should send votes back to the states, where republican legislatures would then invalidate the original slates o' votes submitted to Congress. we know this 'cause we has heard from numerous individuals such as peter navarro that such were the plan, and that hundreds o' republican Congressmen were in on the plan. the mob, directed to go to the Capitol, were clear intended to pressure those ambivalent republican lawmakers to go along with the onrushing tide, and failing such, trump could take advantage o' the ensuing chaos. you got reports o' US generals extreme high in the chain o' command expressing their concern that trump would take advantage of post election chaos to try and use troops to keep himself in power. there were clear a plan. there were most obvious an effort to prevent the peaceful transfer o' power. there were indeed many thousands o' people who invaded the Capitol intent on preventing biden from being certified as the next President. was the efforts disorganized? 'course they were. your history sucks, 'cause most revolutions and rebellions look disorganized, particularly if they is unsuccessful. trump were leading the efforts, so almost by definition it were gonna be haphazard, chaotic and messy. part o' the effort to prevent the biden being certified as 46 were the sending a mob to the Capitol and mobs is inherent disorganized. perhaps worst o' all, what you still refuse to accept is just how close a thing it were 'tween trump failure and success. a handful o' people making different choices. keep in mind pence were one o' the stop the steal advocates POST election. you, and all too many republicans, independents and democrats just don't get it. to you folks, january 6 were bad and it were lurid tv, but it were exaggerated by some and regardless it failed. foolishness. refusal to accept how dangerous were january 6 and how close a thing it were is precise why so few is trying to make certain it is impossible for such to happen again. point o' fact, the opposite is taking place. republicans have a plan as they did january 6, and they is thinking ahead to make the next election they lose go different. you learned nothing during four years o' trump, so why should we think you would learn something in one year since the insurrection, but 'course is all rationalization bs. they are all bad. this willful ignorance is necessary to maintain your singular driving ideological focus: they are all bad. the thing is, even you can't do they are all bad if trump were the guiding force o' an insurrection. muslim ban, burying ig reports, federal agents in white vans arresting people off the streets o' portland w/o probable cause or even accusation o' crime. etc. you managed to ignore it all, but the insurrection requires a different level o' willful obtuse, but a necessary one to maintain, they are all bad. too many americans didn't learn a darn thing since january 6, 2021. shame on you all.

fixed. you will get there eventual. HA! Good Fun!

saw the new matrix movie. ... not sure if the wachowskis were mocking the studios or the audience, but the meta aspects were kinda funny in a parody kinda way. am not sure if that were the intent. kept thinking this sequel (reboot?) were a bit like if matrix got the phillips vision treatment. am also clear never gonna understand the one stuff. thought neo were s'posed to be able to warp the reality o' the matrix, but if such is the case he gots an extreme limited imagination. is also kinda amusing the one is now we liked the matrix. this weren't the matrix. HA! Good Fun!

are you using metamagic feats? sorcerers + metamagic feats + sorcerers reflex = fail. dunno. have played almost exclusive tb. as an aside, we did discover a curious side effect o' equipping a late game familiar which does random elemental damage each round you manage to land a melee weapon hit. not only does it proc elemental barrage, but the actual damage inflicted includes pretty much every other effect you might be adding to your weapon damage. haven't checked with vital strike, but the sanctified slayer we were using received damage from sneak attack + bane + crusader's edge+ instrument of freedom, 'cause those were the effects we had active at the time. so, 1d4 electricity damage + (more than) 20d6 additional damage. and again that were separate from the elemental barrage which stacked all the same stuff as well as divine damage equal to mythic rank. aside HA! Good Fun!

you gottta fiddle with the camera and your party position to gain access to the next map section. described insular like that it sure sounds like a bug, no? is the kinda thing that if it were a bug people would be complaining 'bout incessantly. truth is it's not actually that buggy o' a feature (anymore), though there are a couple easily circumventable bugs linked to geography shifting. unfortunate, the unique feature doesn't actual add any meaningful gameplay value. geography shift does add time and a bit o' annoyance. with each individual wall or building shift annoyance being somewheres 'tween trivial and minor, the problem is the all too frequent abyssal fed-ex quests and even simple map navigation has player time invested doing nothing meaningful multiplied and for no good reason. is a unique feature which does nothing save increase frustration and gameplay time. should'a been cut. HA! Good Fun!

not surprising, am going with a human inquisitor for our aeon. the problem were deity selection. wanted lawful and non evil. abadar were an obvious choice, but we went with erastil so we could go sanctified slayer and still acquire an animal companion. is a perfect legit wotr option as an inquisitor o' erastil could be seeking to cleanse the land of demon taint, including the demon horde's humanoid allies, to make the land safe for communities to once again flourish in the areas surrounding the world wound, but truth is we went backwards from abilities and powers to end up with erastil as our choice, which feels kinda cheap and metagamey. am suspecting we will manage in spite o' the role-play burden. kinda wanted to go skald now that they is working as described, but we also were committed to aeon and while am thinking an aeon skald would be excellent, it weren't on our shortlist. am actual a bit perplexed as to what mythic we would choose for a skald, other than trickster or perhaps an eventual legend build. am not genuine interested in trickster though. HA! Good Fun! ps we kinda wanted to go with a halfling sanctified slayer, 'cause such a choice strikes us inherent funny, but is a feat heavy build and the one extra feat humans receive were a deciding factor.

aside: if bill gates did have a plan from the last century to kill more than five million people by virus and his predictions were so precise he somehow knew that the omicron variant o' said virus would be causing global concern, then am thinking we should just be done with it and declare him Emperor o' The World, 'cause that is the kinda mad sooper genius you need murdering for you as 'posed to looking at you as a potential future victim. HA! Good Fun!

another unique but different problem. the wall you specific mention, unlike others, appears to move, but perhaps does not. we have a problem where if am too close to a wall, it simple won't shift, but the harem of ardent dreams wall is a curious outlier 'cause bunch up next to it and shift camera makes it appear as if the wall moved, but you are nevertheless prevented from moving forward. HA! Good Fun!

'cause bill gates believes he is actual a member o' batman's or the flash's rogues gallery and as such he were compelled by his special brand o' crazy to leave clues about his evil scheme two decades in advance via a french game developer's mostly forgotten product. as an aside, if it weren't for david bowie's contribution, we would have had no idea what you were talking 'bout. HA! Good Fun!

please recall how quick we got accustomed to a new normal post 9/11, and the truth is a follow-up terrorist attack were far less likely than is a large venue event becoming a super spreader situation. three thousand died 9/11. total. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us according to a stanford study, trump rallies alone 'tween late june and late september o' 2020 (just three months) resulted in at least 700 deaths. tell people how similar to new airport security changes they need be hours early to gain entry to a large venue event so they may be rapid tested and need provide proof of vaccination? no entry w/o proof o' both? hardly a forehead stamp, eh? would people have complained? sure, but if were a nonpolitical recommendation from cdc and got backing from virtual all political leaders on both sides o' the aisles, people woulda' gotten acclimated to such changes fast... and such stuff woulda' been far less intrusive than the patriot act which most americans went along with absent much criticism. try and tell us what people won't do or will resist doing ignores what they has done during past epidemics and specific recognizing how passive people went forward with far more serious changes post 9/11. mask mandates? *insert eye roll* covid-19 has been different 'cause skeevy politicians made different and 'cause some people keep excusing what were done for no reason other than political opportunism. HA! Good Fun! ps am also just fine with going obvious and not doing large venue with fans present, particular indoors, at least until we get decent antivirals and a few more people vaccinated.

perhaps amusing is a couple years past we mighta' suggested the above piece were likely edited to make republicans look worse than they is. no, is not as if we were thinking mr. o'sullivan would fake interviews, but if you interview a few dozen people and four o' 'em are loons, then it wouldn't shock us if the loons were figured more prominent than they deserved to be. is also ez to take a single observation or statement outta context. we recognize media bias and am actual ok with it. is hardly strange that reporters and news organizations got beliefs which color their opinions same as does the rest o' us. has never been some kinda rule that all news must be dispassionate reported. put your big boy pants on when watching or reading news and realize there is likely gonna be some level o' skew. the problem for us is in our conversations with living and breathing conservatives over the past few years, we have increasingly witnessed the kinda insanity visible in the above video clip. we live in a community which had most neighbors (overwhelming most) vote for trump. not all is antivaxxers, not even most, but is too many who do embrace such insanity and they seem to believe that their particular brand o' denialism and self-harm is actual the majority pov o' their neighbors. if your neighbors is polite and don't call you out on your antivaxx wackiness, these folks take instead as agreement. the more disturbing aspect is how frequent we hear tucker carlson nonsense come outta the mouths o' our neighbors. fbi were behind januar6? okie dokie. is also the weird and quixotic stated belief that blm and antifa were behind january 6 badness, but that for the most part january 6 were just a peaceful protest which is overblown and exaggerated by the media... which is weird views to try and square simultaneous, no? regardless, is increasing difficult to find what we think o' as traditional conservatives, or at least is difficult to find those who is willing to say anything contrary to the current narrative o' crazy which has taken hold o' the gop. cnn and mr. sullivan most assured do not need work hard or selective edit to make republicans as a whole look unhinged. HA! Good Fun! ps just so is clear, am not thinking most republicans is unhinged, but all too many are willing to embrace the insanity or are at least refusing to reject the crazy in their party. many o' our republican neighbors is retired military, far more than national average. when the rittenhouse stuff were big news, those retired military men were tending to agree that kyle's behavior were not reasonable and definitely not laudable, but when they were in a group with other republicans parroting fox news, those military guys became noticeable and uncharacteristic taciturn. if you listen only to the loudest republican voices, is gonna be ez to see 'em all as unhinged, which is fair but perhaps not as accurate as you might believe.

can't imagine why some people in Congress wanted an investigation surrounding the events o' january 6. after all, we could all see what happened, yes? one suspects at least a few o' the people from the linked video genuine believe what they is saying. relevant to another thread as well. conservative echo chamber has resulted in faith based view o' reality which all too often in 2022 is significant divorced from facts. HA! Good Fun!

making a second post (apologies) 'cause would be ez to miss in the wall-o-text which is our normal posting practice. recommendation: try and dimension door to every roof in alushinyrra. many roofs which visibly look like they could have content or is big enough to accommodate your party is inaccessible to dimension door, which am s'posing is the developer's way o' not wasting your time. the problem is there is a few rooftops with hidden 1007, some o' which is the best stuff you will find in the abyss. unless you wanna find a guide, am gonna suggest attempting dimension door every roof. tedious? indeed. warning: potential one of the most difficult encounters in the game occurs on a roof accessible only through dimension door. surprise. HA! Good Fun!

is actual a separate issue. the camera thing occurred to us 'cause we necessarily had to move the camera to track our party through the labyrinthine lower city during the beta. we saw buildings move (at first it was a heard as 'posed to seen kinda thing) moments after entering alushinyrra 'cause the developers put a hairpin turn on the map which is unavoidable and results in a pov which blocks your party if you don't shift the camera. am s'posing is possible to miss, but the building shift mechanic is made kinda in-your-face. however, assume one is stuck at an immovable wall, developers no doubt believe eventual a player will turn around and go back whence they came, which is also likely to result in a change in camera views. 'course, as we noted, if you have your party bunched up against a wall, is chances the wall don't actual move and all you get is the sound-effect, which is most annoying and could make the build shift missable. am s'posing the developers coulda made more obvious w/o being overt, but the hidden quality o' building shift didn't bother us none. what were annoying were fact the shifts occurred so slow and were extreme sensitive in select areas. ever so slight tap o' the mouse and perhaps the building sudden starts going in the exact wrong direction? different issue entirely is the problem with so much content being on the roofs o' alushinyrra. camera angle change will not get you access to much o' the roof content. if you didn't build one o' your casters to have dimension door, you could be in for a rough time accessing such otherwise inaccessible content. the conversation regarding the handicap to non fliers we mentioned doesn't actual apply to camera angles. after all, buildings (and later whole sections o' the city) do move to provide terrestrial bound critters access to additional portions o' the map. nevertheless, got arueshalae in your party doesn't give you access to rooftops even if she has wings 'cause there is no player flight and only other game flight is scripted (as with the dragon or vrock assassins sudden pouncing), but no such scripting gets you on rooftops even with flight capable party members. unless we missed something fundamental, you need dimension door, and if you only have limited access to such via wands or a small number o' scrolls, then you might be fubar if you don' have such stockpiled. we didn't check, but we don't recall significant quantities o' dimension door scrolls being for sale in alushinyrra. as an aside, for our first abyss run, all the traps on roofs is what convinced us we needed to access roofs and as such we needed nenio back in our party to be reach those areas. importance o' roof access were not gleaned through a loading screen tip or the conversation we reference but the simple recognition that if the roofs is trapped, is 'cause developers no doubt put other content up there as well. HA! Good Fun!

no, but you do have the vanity and narcissism to ascribe your faults to "quite a few." again, is not your suggestion that there is irresponsible and selfish people out there which offends. problem is you make a jump to the futility o' mitigation and vaccination; assume your flaws doom mitigation and vaccination is exact the arrogance which seems to offend you. edit: please recall before private vaccine mandates for workers were instituted, many cops, pilots, nurses or others claimed they would quit rather than get vaccinated. when the actual vaccination policies were instituted, the moral high ground folks whimpered a bit but overwhelming got vaccinated. united airlines, for example, a frequent target o' ted cruz, exceeded 95% vaccination rate for employees by late october. as such am finding it is o' limited efficacy to put to much stock into what antivaxxers claim they would or would not do when confronted with mandates n' such. look at what people do as 'posed to what they say or claim. HA! Good Fun!

thanks to russian blasphemy laws, is gonna be the closest we get to a reign of winter offering. HA! Good Fun!