Lurker > ElatedVenusaur

You get off on the idea of being a woman in a sexual situation. Doesn't mean you want to be one, per se. Autogynophilia, I believe...

Saloonist posted...

Supermajorities are a double edged sword.

People will turn on the system for obstructionism if you put up too many roadblocks to change, yet at the same time this last year has proven the dangers of direct democracy. The founders were right.

In what way?

In any case, Erdogan rigged it. Not in terms of literal ballot-stuffing, but the opposition was silenced and rules for voting were changed at the last minute. Even then, the referendum barely passed. Might be some instability, but Erdogan took notes on how Putin did it(also Russia was never very democratic. Yeltsin was so unpopular he had to rig the 1996 election to avoid losing to the Communists. As in, the literal continuation of the ruling party of the USSR.)

Art can and often does take on meaning not intended either by the artist or the client that commissioned it.

Fascism is socially-conservative and aggressively nativist i.e. the purity of The Race is of paramount importance. As such, it explicitly rejects the idea that all people are equal. As it is also authoritarian, if not totalitarian, it is overtly hostile to social structures that could challenge it(opposition parties of any ideology, the press, unions, etc.)
Economically, it tends to embrace some aspects of the modern welfare state, but only offers such benefits to members of the master race. It has no issue with capitalism, and Hitler was, in fact, quite cozy with a lot of the leading German capitalist class.

Of course, Fascism is uniquely nativist, which means it takes on slightly different characteristics in different nations. Spanish Fascism, for example, embraced the traditional role and importance of the Catholic Church, where as, say, Nazism was at best indifferent to Christianity.

ScottSweatshirt posted...

ElatedVenusaur posted...

I think you'll find that authoritarian regimes were slaughtering millions long before Communism was ever conceived.

ElatedVenusaur posted...

I always find centralized power something that will always falter due to the the vices of human nature, I see the ideology as neither good or bad, just the humans that influence it. Communism seems like a ideal that's easily predisposed to corruption

Authoritarian power structures are terrible, yes. Regardless of what they claim to be based upon. But you seem to have a specific axe to grind.

I think you'll find that authoritarian regimes were slaughtering millions long before Communism was ever conceived.
And after.

Here, I dug up a poll. Basically, the top two finishers advance to the second round.
Benoit Hamon is the same party as the current president, Francois Hollande, but his primary opponent(Manuel Valls) endorsed Emmanuel Macron instead, so his support has cratered.
Le Pen is a less subtle Trump, Fillon is a scandal-plagued center-right guy, Melanchon is an actual leftist, and Emmaneul Macron is, like, Michael Bloomberg-ish?
A vote for Melanchon is a vote against austerity, so he's who I would vote for if I were French. The others will either do nothing about the coming crisis(Macron, Fillon) or accelerate it(Le Pen).

Paper_Okami posted...

Probably.

All the "top" Qbs in the draft are busts though.

There's almost too many of them for that to be true, but then I remember 2013.
I sure hope the Bills aren't dumb enough to take another QB in the first in an unusually poor QB class, but you know, they're the Bills.

Automization is leading to greater efficiency in manufacturing, while simultaneously reducing the number of human workers needed. Given that this trend is likely to continue, and more and more jobs will become outmoded, how should society deal with the (potential) permanent increase in unemployment?

It's almost like one side is principled and the other....is not.

Nobody wins in war with North Korea. They probably can't do a ton of damage to their neighbors, because their artillery, missiles, etc. is either hilariously outdated, useless, or both.
The problem is that the collapse of North Korea creates an even greater humanitarian crisis than North Korea existing. What little infrastructure exists will be wrecked, and there will be refugees, and China is not going to be interested in dealing with that. Also, China will never accept the presence of U.S. troops even closer to its borders than they already are.
North Korea is basically a feudal hellhole, and absorbing it will probably tank the South Korean economy for a generation, at least. Most North Koreans are subsistence farmers, after all.

MasterGakke posted...

The Venture Brothers. Even the worst Venture Brothers episodes are great.

It's still going though, of course. Of course, it's been aging like wine so far.

It's bound to spook some House Republicans, which will make it even harder for them to get anything done.

Hopefully she tanks just hard enough for Melanchon to squeak into the second round.

K181 posted...

Even the Democrats aren't that incompetent. Even the Democrats.

I think the Democratic leadership is precisely that dumb. Newspaper writers and DC insiders will sing their praises for restoring "The World's Greatest Deliberative Body". They'll be the toast of the town for 12, maybe even 24 hours.
That'll be worth not being able to get anything done, certainly.

First of all, you bought A House Divided and Heart of Darkness too, right? Expansions are nigh-required with older Paradox games, due to how patching worked and the fact that the games always needed vigorous patching.

As far as what you do in Victoria 2? You mold your country like clay. Except it's angry clay and only 50-75% of what goes on is comprehensible. You'll want to make sure your states have a sufficient quantity of bureaucrats, then you'll want to make sure they have plenty of clergy(~4% of total population), because they double as educators, and your POPs need a (minimal) amount of literacy so they can get maimed in your factories.
Occasionally, your POPs will want things. Voting rights, minimum wage, getting rid of slaves, etc. If you want those things, that's good. You'll just need a sufficient quantity of liberals/socialists(for political/social reforms respectively) in your Upper House and/or high enough militancy to scare Conservatives into caving.
If you want things your POPs don't want, you oppress the crap out of them so they get angry. If they want things you don't want, you just kind of make token concessions and make sure they have a constant supply of consumer goods to take their minds off the fact no one has voting rights.

As far as the US in general goes, it's a pretty easy play. No one really wants to mess with you, so just play nice with the British and you can rule an entire continent unmolested. The Civil War will probably happen, but Victoria 2 is utterly incapable of modeling the Confederacy's advantages, so you'll win in six months to a year. Other than that, conquer or sphere the entire continent.

Even Data gets more action than Geordi.

nayr626 posted...

I'm pretty sure Coraline wasn't Tim Burton..

Wasn't it Laika? Check out Kubo and The Two Strings as well.

I believe that tag line refers to Henry Sellick, But yeah, it's Laika.

It's certainly beginning to be concerning. He's a bit limited as a player, but he is pretty good at what he does. Better than the likes of Blaine Gabbert, E.J. Manuel, or Josh McCown, certainly.
Then again, so is Cutler. The NFL is conformist and dumb.

Impossible to say, as Trump has only started to handle it.
Obama, for his part, was very cautious and seems to have resisted the calls of a number of top advisors to take more, well, action like Trump just has. Personally, I lean towards believing that the time to act has long since past, since there's no coherent faction to back that isn't either evil(Assad, ISIS, Al-Qaeda off-shoots) or purely sectarian(Kurds).

And now, EU4 DLC run-down!

Mandate of Heaven - Adds a new tributary system for China as well as new mechanics for Confucianism and Shinto. Just came out.

Rights of Man - Adds ruler traits, queens, and special mechanics for Fetishists and Copts. Is highly recommended.

Art of War - Adds special mechanics to simulate the Thirty Year's War and the Napoleonic Wars. Allows you to create marches(militant vassals) and eventually create custom vassals. Recommended.

The Cossacks - Adds the Estate sub-system which simulates internal politics to a degree. Also includes special mechanics for Tengri, Hordes, and giving diplomatic feedback. Pretty good.

Mare Nostrum - Adds corruption and sailors, which are meh and pointless respectively. Pass unless you really want the "complete" experience.

Common Sense - Adds development, special mechanics for Protestants and Buddhists, special mechanics for theocracies and parliaments. Buying this DLC is just common sense, as it's probably the most impactful expansion.

Conquest of Paradise - Adds colonial nations and a bunch of mechanics for the natives in North America, as well as the option to randomize the New World. Low priority.

El Dorado - Adds special mechanics for Nahuatl(Aztecs, Mayas) and Inti(Incas) nations, as well as a nation designer. Pretty neat, but not all that important.

Wealth of Nations - Mostly mechanics related to trade, such as privateering and trade companies. Middle-of-the-pack.

Res Publica - Mostly just a faction system for Republics(which is similar to Estates but not as interesting) and a special government for the Dutch(which is OP as hell). Easy to do without.

As for other Paradox games: if it's older than CK2, all expansions are required. I'm mostly serious. If it's Stellaris, Leviathans is good and Utopia is amazing.

Bluster posted...

ElatedVenusaur posted...

and getting screwed over by Britain/Russia/USA is your cup of tea.

https://i.chapelcomic.com/secondary_power_problems.png

My most recent playthrough was as Egypt, and the damned Brits keep getting in the way. They took Lebanon, tried to take Palestine(I took back Lebanon), and now I'm trying to eat the Saudis and they're involved because they don't have anything better to do. Thank God the naval AI is terrible, or otherwise they'd beat me like a rented mule.

I'm going to do a DLC primer! I'm listing only expansions with actual gameplay implications.

CK2
Monks&Mystics - Adds monastic orders, societies, the ability to secretly practice one religion while publicly professing another, and Satanism. Satanism is great fun. Generally speaking, it effects most characters.

The Reaper's Due - Adds an entire sub-system for illness and being maimed, including court physicians, treatments, etc. Also lots of events relating to Death, including an immortality event chain(that will mostly just get you killed) and an event where you play chess against Death(for your life). Also ramps up epidemics, especially the Black Death. It's highly-relevant and entertaining no matter who you're playing as.

Conclave - Empowers your council. Depending on your crown laws, your councilors can vote to approve or disprove certain actions. Powerful vassals expect to be on the council, and NPCs will curry favor with others to get them to vote the way they want(you, of course, can do the same!) You can go against the wishes of the council, but doing so makes them angry. Effects everyone, is very good, but does make the game harder overall.

Horse Lords - Do you like the idea of playing Nomadic peoples like the Mongols? Because Horse Lords is chock full of content for nomads(such as the Mongols). If steppe nomads don't appeal to you, pass on this one.

Way of Life - Adds character focuses and lots of character-related flavor, including expanding upon friends, rivals, and lovers. Excellent DLC, highly recommended.

Charlemagne - Gets you a shiny new 769 AD start-date and a bunch of events for Charlemagne. If that sounds cool, then get it. However, it's somewhat underwhelming. The 769 start-date features a one-of-a-kind pagan religion, but you can't play them unless you also have Old Gods.

Sons of Abraham - Adds lots of content for Christians, Muslims, and Jews(and makes Jews playable!). That covers most of the characters you can play, so this is a good buy.

The Old Gods - Gives you a shiny new 867 AD start-date and allows you to play as all pagan characters, as well as Zoroastrians. Plus, Norse characters can raid. Playing a ruthless Viking warlord is awesome and you can do all sorts of crazy stuff with them. Zoroastrians also have a ton of content. This is basically the best expansion. If you only get one, make it this one.

The Republic - Let's you play as Republics, which is a lot different than playing a feudal lord. You control a prominent merchant family and seek to defeat your rivals in elections and expand your trade network. Can be a lot of fun, but if playing a patrician doesn't sound interesting, it's safe to pass.

Rajas of India - Expands the map to India and lets you play as Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. Each religion has its own mechanics, but, honestly? None of it is interesting, and India often feels like it exists separately from the rest of the map. The weakest expansion.

Legacy of Rome - This adds personal retinues and lots of content for the Byzantines. Retinues are pretty neat, I guess.

Sword of Islam - Let's you play as Muslims. They have all sorts of unique content. A good buy.

Sunset Invasion - The Aztecs invade Western Europe. No, it doesn't make sense. But it is hilarious. If you have Old Gods, you can even play as the Aztecs and get your blood sacrifice on.

Will do one for EUIV tomorrow. Remember, the object of CK2 is this: live fast, die in a mysterious manure explosion.

I didn't feel like it sucked, myself. But it certainly wasn't good. They got a lot of good performances(Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Viola Davis particularly) and good effects, but the plot was such a total mess even that couldn't keep the movie from being boring. Also, the Joker was just kind of there despite having little-to-nothing to do with anything(you could say the same for Captain Boomerang). All the flashbacks exist solely to give Jared Leto more screen-time, but they just bog the movie down at all the wrong times.

Really, this movie's early production must have been a power struggle between different visions for it, and not one of them won it. Instead, it ended up a shambling chimaera that is vaguely funny but kind of boring.

Gojak_v3 posted...

ElatedVenusaur posted...

DarthAragorn posted...

I'd really like to get EUIV but it's so damn expensive with DLC.

The DLC bundle has all the DLC except Rights of Man and Mandate of Heaven(the two most recent ones). If you're looking to pick and choose, Common Sense, Art of War and maybe Wealth of Nations are the heaviest hitters.

It's also $120

http://store.steampowered.com/app/236850/

True. I already own much of it, so it popped up much cheaper.
Base EUIV is a fantastic game though, and it's been patched regularly since its release. And will continue to receive love for years.
And, like I said, you can always just pick-and-choose DLC. Most of the content comes via the accompanying patches.

LotrMorgoth posted...

given it was her who said it, the republicans will now say its a horrible idea and lock her up for war crimes

in the meantime, no escalation of war! She's a double agent for peace!

It would be the best thing she's ever done.
As much as I want Assad to get Gaddafi'd, Syria is already way more of a mess than Libya ever was and also the potential for civilian casualties is...extreme.

DarthAragorn posted...

I'd really like to get EUIV but it's so damn expensive with DLC.

The DLC bundle has all the DLC except Rights of Man and Mandate of Heaven(the two most recent ones). If you're looking to pick and choose, Common Sense, Art of War and maybe Wealth of Nations are the heaviest hitters.

Perhaps in celebration of the launch of Stellaris: Utopia and Europa Universalis IV: Mandate of Heaven, Paradox games are on sale on Steam! This includes in-house titles as well as Paradox-published titles like Cities: Skylines, Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny.
Of particular note, EUIV is -75% and every pre-Mandate of Heaven DLC is 50%. CK2 is in the same boat: base game is 75% off, and the rest of the DLC is 50% off, the lone outlier being Reaper's Due, which is 33%(and that one's worth every penny of full price!).

Oh, and Victoria II is similarly discounted, if spreadsheets, pie-charts, and getting screwed over by Britain/Russia/USA is your cup of tea.

gunplagirl posted...

hollow_shrine posted...

Color me surprised. 2018 can't come soon enough.

We won't gain many seats even if more democrats go out and vote. It won't be until 2021 that the districts get redrawn and so it's down to us winning more 2018 and 2020 seats to get the majority so that over the next decade they'll have more fair districts.

2018's also a real bad year for Senate seats(for the Democrats), since it's the echo of 2006 and 2012. Like, Ted Cruz's seat is the third best pick-up opportunity. A reasonably popular incumbent senator in a red state.

CowboyDan posted...

Axiom posted...

CowboyDan posted...

awesome999 posted...

Wow what is wrong with that government? Attacking their own citizens? Is staying in power really that important?

If Assad loses, he's a dead man. So to him, yes.

Pretty much. He'll gas the entire country if he has to. Unfortunately for the innocent citizens America has a president in power that will let him do just that

To be fair, Obama didn't really seem to be doing much either. This isn't the first gas attack, after all. It has been going on for years.

Previous attacks were with chlorine gas, which, while still terrible, is way less lethal than sarin. Sarin is neurotoxic.

Obama did get Assad to turn over his chemical weapons stockpiles, but that wouldn't have stopped him from simply making more. Which seems to be what happened.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/attack-syria-kills-35-people-170404075153415.html
Sounds like peace talks may collapse as a result of this. I'm not even sure that's a bad thing.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39488539
Has Assad's fingerprints all over it, of course. Bombing hospitals afterwards is a real nice touch.

treewojima posted...

Omnislasher posted...

people are generally treated pretty well in Saudi Arabia

they also sell us oil. they're swell folks all around

They're also the primary proponents of Wahabbism, an extremely reactionary Islamic sect, as well as being the primary source of funding for most Islamic terrorist groups. Great country.