Lurker > Thorn

easy no-tool assembly

new-me getting the bad end of the deal having to be me tbqh

Correct, but since we've entered the realm of science fiction here I'm not ruling out that the nature of the painful death or injury could be similarly extraordinary.

it probably shouldn't, i'm just saying my only concern would be along those lines

oh lol

I was actually wondering about this earlier today.

Probably.

The only thing that would have me hesitating is more "what if it fails catastrophically" and like it tries to teleport you where matter already exists and you end up like fused to a building and die horribly and painfully. Or like failed to actually deconstruct you properly or some shit.

As to the philosophical dilemma of "if you're deconstructed and reconstructed perfectly is it still really you?" I think I'd accept "yeah i am" pretty quickly.

Honestly, almost all of the testimony in the 1/6 case is from Republicans - hell, from Republicans who were working in Trump's own administration. And as the accounts get closer and closer to 1/6 itself from those who were choosing to stick with him even as more and more began peeling away as Trump kept going further and further in his efforts to maintain power (like how it got too much for even Barr and so while he could testify to events in the immediate aftermath of the election/November, eventually the Justice officials testifying are ones who remained even after Barr was gone, etc.)

they'll wake up from that dream when they realize they have no one blocking for them

I ended up (failing mostly) to fall asleep but during that time the Georgia Grand Jury returned their indictment of Trump and his co-conspirators.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/15/us/politics/trump-georgia-indictment-annotated.html

41 counts, 18 co-conspirators (+Trump) Also 30 unindicted co-conspirators are mentioned.

As a whole:
22 counts relating to forgery
8 counts related to soliciting or impersonating public officers
3 counts of influencing witnesses
3 counts related to election fraud or defrauding the state
3 counts related to computer tampering
1 count related to perjury
1 count related to racketeering (RICO)

Trump specifically is indicted under 13 counts (tied with Giuliani for the most by any individual):

Georgia's RICO Act
3 Counts of Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer
Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating A Public Officer
2 Counts of Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree
2 Counts of Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings
2 Counts of False Statements and Writings
Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents
Filing False Documents

Co-Conspirators include (but are not limited to, I'm listing the ones I know a bit about):

Giuliani
Eastman
Mark Meadows
Kenneth Chesebro (listed as a co-conspirator in the Special Counsel's 1/6 indictment)
Jeffrey Clark (same, but this was the guy Trump tried to make Acting AG and was all gung-ho about using the military to suppress protests if they succeeded in overturning the election)
Powell (I guess the Kraken was released)

A lot of overlap with the special counsel's 1/6 indictment, unsurprising since it includes most of the co-conspirators in that indictment, but unlike that indictment it includes the enterprise's unlawful access to the voting machines in Georgia and their access and stealing the data contained within them, such as ballot images and personal info.

Georgia's RICO act is very broad and places under the jurisdiction of the DA even events that took place outside of Georgia provided that the underlying crime (overturning the election in Georgia) did. As a result the indictment is able to put forth basically the entire scheme to overturn the election in various states to show a pattern that these acts were all in service of the ultimate goal of overturning the election in Georgia. In all, the RICO Count lays out 161 Acts committed by Trump and/or the co-conspirators in the effort to overturn the election (or for the last few, to cover it up.)

Notably, some of the counts Trump is charged with occurred well after the election - one of the counts of solicitation as well as one count of false statement and writings occurs on September 17, 2021 when he tried to get Raffensperger (the Secretary of State, the one on the "perfect phone call" though that occurred and also resulted in charges earlier in the indictment) to "decertify" the election and declare Trump the true winner.

link will remember this

Also: Happy birthday to user SaveEstelle!

Well, if we're defining "stick" as in "go to prison" then I agree the chances are significantly higher he evades that because we have a two-tiered justice system. But I answered the question as "will he be convicted"

Would not be shocked in the least if somehow the justice system bends over backwards to keep him out of prison even if found guilty.

i mean he was telling witnesses scheduled before the grand jury they shouldn't testify

like that feels like textbook witness tampering but like you said rules don't seem to apply much here so idk

Georgia Court website may have spoiled the charges Trump is facing. Briefly put up charges online then removed them.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-state-georgia-appears-set-file-charges-against-donald-trump-court-document-2023-08-14/

Among the many felonies on it is a RICO charge.

Important to note that the case is still before a grand jury AFAIK and we don't know if they're actually going to file all these charges but it may give us an idea.

LightningStrikes posted...

although Biden also deserves criticism for implementing it despite knowing what would happen

Not to suggest Biden's hands were completely tied here but it was the agreement made by the US government. Just revoking agreements like that because of an administration change leads to a drop in trust internationally that the US will keep to its word - like when Trump stupidly pulled out of the Iran deal despite his own government certifying that Iran was in compliance leading to the entire deal blowing up and things being worse off.

There's a stronger case here for Biden to have reversed the decision because of the fact that Trump excluded the actual Afghan government from the negotiations here but I feel like things were in a place where if Biden didn't actually allow the withdrawal to happen, it basically never would. I'm not even convinced Trump would have followed through on his own deal.

Despite all his talk, he had actually been increasing the number of troops there compared to the end of Obama's term. When he talked of having reduced troops, it was from the highs he made and were still above end of term Obama for the majority of his term. It was only after Trump lost the election that they started making heavy cuts and I'm pretty sure reporting has it specifically because he was making a problem for Biden to deal with in doing it so haphazardly. Biden put a small delay in executing it, probably to try and address that, but I'm fairly certain the collapse of government there was bound to happen however a withdrawal happened. The Taliban ramped up their attacks against the Afghan government basically the minute the deal was signed by Trump (and under his admin obviously.) It didn't simply start under Biden or anything, it was back in Spring/Summer 2020.

MZero posted...

January 6th Interference is the only one that I know what it's referring to

Very brief summary of each:

Stormy Daniels Hush Money - NY State Case regarding how Trump illegally hid the payments he made to Stormy Daniels (a porn star) during his 2016 campaign. Generally speaking, I'd consider this the weakest case by far in terms of the severity of the crime - that's not to say it shouldn't be pursued (it should) nor that it isn't pretty damn clear cut (it is).

Stolen Documents - Federal Case. After January 6 when Trump seemingly accepted he wasn't going to be able to remain in the White House, he just straight up took a bunch of classified information, national security info, nuclear weapons related material, etc. with him to Mar-a-Lago and his golf clubs. You're uh... you're not allowed to just fucking steal top secret information. He maintains they're "his" but they absolutely fucking aren't. They belong to the Office of the President. Nevertheless, the National Archives which was in charge of collecting all this stuff, tried to handle this without causing a fuss and spent months negotiating with him and his lawyers to just please give us this shit back. After refusing to for a long time, he claimed he turned over what he had, but the Archives basically knows what they should have and knew he was lying so it eventually escalated to a search warrant being issued and executed by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago where they found boxes and boxes of this shit all over the place and clearly not stored securely (literally just piles of it in a MAL bathroom in one instance.) Also covers the knowing conspiracy between Trump and Mar-a-Lago staff to hide this stuff from National Archives and not turn it over when asked.

January 6 - Federal Case. kinda goes without saying but includes the plots leading up to it to have illegal false electors from multiple states "ready" to usurp the election and hand it to him during the certification. As well as how even after the insurrection his team was still trying to get them to delay their constitutional duty of certifying the election, using the insurrection itself as an excuse.

GA Election Interference - GA State Case. Related to the above, but this is being conducted by the state of Georgia and not the feds. Specifically relates to his efforts to interfere and overturn the election in Georgia. Includes his phone call to the GA Secretary of State (in charge of overseeing elections) asking him to "just find 11,000 votes" (he used the exact margin of defeat he suffered to Biden which I don't recall offhand but it's about there.) Also recent reporting says GA has obtained texts and emails showing Trump's legal team was behind an incident in early January 2021 where unauthorized individuals got access to the actual voting machines in a Georgia county.

Federal Case (Documents and 1/6) v State Cases (NY and GA) is significant in that federal charges can be pardoned by a president (and if still ongoing can basically be killed by a President) and Trump's legal strategy has been blatantly and unashamedly been to delay the cases and hope to get re-elected in 2024 to take over the Department of Justice and kill these cases - or if they concluded to pardon himself. POTUS can not pardon state criminal charges. In NY that power rests only with the Governor of New York. In Georgia that power has instead been delegated to a Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Clawed enough time to finish Part 1 of my Gerudo region exploration. Left the parts of the desert with the sandstorm alone but otherwise went everywhere else. That just leaves the Goron Region to go!

135 Shrines, 849 Koroks.

not liking that korok number, not gonna lie. Hard to imagine it stops at 900 so the next even number is 1000 and no way there's even close to that amount in one region. Sure, there's the section of Gerudo Desert I left alone but I wasn't finding many in the part I could so I don't think there's gonna be like 50 over there lol. Unless it ends with some wacky number like 927 or something. Well, we'll see where I end up I guess.

Games 1 > GOTD > My memory literally does not even remember GOTD2 was 2020 even a real year > Quotes Contest (i believe) > no thanks

1/6. I mean, they should all stick but you could argue that the judge in the Stolen Document case could tilt things with pre-trial decisions based on their history of already issuing bizarre motions in favor of Trump that had to be swatted down by the full Circuit and that fuckery could happen in GA since they passed a law earlier this year that lets the governor's appointees fire prosecutors (including the ones investigating that case) at will. Meanwhile 1/6 has a tough but fair judge and is held in DC where the chances of a holdout sneaking onto the jury to hang the trial on purpose is lowest.

division-by-era

Well then. The Georgia prosecutors got text messages and emails that directly connect Trump's legal team to the voting system breach in Coffee County in early January 2021.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/politics/coffee-county-georgia-voting-system-breach-trump/index.html

We had various testimonies before that this shit was being discussed in the Oval Office and there were draft executive orders referring to it but it sounds like they now have the receipts.

Projection, as always. Also worth keeping in mind that the GA GOP wrote, passed, and signed a bill earlier this year that allows them to remove local prosecutors and that would include the ones investigating this case.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-bus-death-chicago-illinois-172def5894d16d225d82ca92129c3f34

Abbott is still bussing immigrants to blue state cities as a stunt. And now a 3-year old died on board because of it.

pyresword posted...

FFIX a top 1 non-Kiseki game of all time tbh

wow. the industry is in dire straits too.

:P

wow worse than IX?

the series really is in dire straits

The thing that concerns me with Newsom is that being Governor of California it'll probably be all too easy to paint him as "some crazy liberal, san francisco overflowing with crime and homeless people, etc" tripe that's been part of the Republican playbook for decades and that 35-40% of the country will just buy it for no other reason than "California."

Maybe I'm wrong.

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Hes still agile and witty

...........

wut

It's, uh, clear we're just going to have to agree to disagree here and table this.

If you're telling me the Trump going on talk shows and giving interviews in the 2000s isn't a dramatically different person in terms of being able to speak coherently and stay on a topic and not end up rambling nonsense like he was even during the 2016 campaign I'd say I'm not the one who needs to "be for real."

Aren't you making KP's point for him?

2016 and 2020 were close to the same result (in terms of votes in swing states, Trump was closer to winning 2020 than Hillary was to winning 2016) in spite of the fact that Biden was a better candidate than Hillary, we were in a global pandemic with hundreds of thousands dead, and he no longer had the ability to pretend he was a "moderate" which he somehow had with swing voters in 2016 despite it being clear bullshit.

Like both elections were ~70k votes in ~3 states away from flipping the result (despite both Hillary and Biden winning by millions more in the popular vote) the fact that both were basically in each other's margin of error in spite of all that is because Trump was benefiting from an incumbent effect. It took all of that just to overpower it enough to barely flip the result.

Even controlling for Trump's lack of intelligence you can look at clips of him 10, 20 years ago and he was so very clearly more coherent. He's still an odious human being with the same racism, etc. but I'd say the difference is much starker than with Biden.

But Republicans play on easy mode so it apparently doesn't matter.

Biden being old is like... probably his biggest weakness, and I agree it's a bit of a concern even as I disagree with this bullshit that he's "not all there" coming from the right for years now. But it's also something I roll my eyes at in this cycle because it's not like Trump is much younger. (Though I know that despite it being so fucking stupid and hypocritical in my mind it is something he'll face, even if it's a complete double-standard in my eyes)

A lot of it is that you just don't really challenge your party's incumbent, and that's true within both parties, whether you think it's a good idea or bad. But there is basically no one even remotely serious gearing up for a run. Quite literally it's Biden and then the drop off to joke/GOP-op candidates like RFK. It's not like it's fantasy football and we can just pick Warnock up off the waiver wire to replace an injured starter.

If you look to 2028 I'm not sure what field looks like but I'd say Whitmer looks pretty good (though after 2016 I will forever be worried that this country will refuse to vote a woman for POTUS), Newsom wants it so bad but idk if that's a good idea. Pritzker is a weird case because... y'know... billionaire, but IIRC he's done pretty well by Illinois. Harris will try I'm sure, but unfortunately I think that's a doomed candidacy.

Low-key I think an issue is that the "best" candidates from an electability standpoint are ones holding office in places where ensuring the seat stays held by a Dem would be tougher - places like the midwest and Georgia.

Dancedreamer posted...

And I'm super disappointed by our (lack of) response to Roe V. Wade being overturned.

FWIW, on the state level, anywhere it's been on the ballot (including Ohio tonight since everyone knew it was a hail mary for the GOP to keep abortion off the ballot in 2024) Dems have massively overperformed what they'd be normally expected to get.

Like, abortion bans going down in Kansas overperforming.

Kenri posted...

this and biden being the best candidate regardless are not mutually exclusive

that

i'm saying this is no better alternative for this cycle. that's not the same as saying biden's a great candidate.

TheManaSword posted...

I am officially a homeowner as of today.

Congrats!

Re: 2024. I think Biden is the best candidate the Dems can put up this cycle - for better or worse, and the indictments 100% will hurt Trump among independents. But after 2016 I will never rule anything out, he has a legitimate shot even as I'd call Biden the favorite.

And your reminder that the media is not a friend:

https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1687449904619163649
https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1687485013158154240
https://twitter.com/CourierNewsroom/status/1688958628445794322

lmao

good job ohio

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Tita's father has one job, to be the balanced member in the family.

excuse me. this is the man who taught cassius bright the way of the staff

...yeah he's the weakest member of tita's family by a mile

Yeah, Haseo has a full character arc. Unfortunately some of it is gated behind an anime (which covers Haseo's time before the game before he became the "Terror of Death" and was in Ovan's guild) but you basically get the gist of it in passing.

...But also the same anime spoils some major reveals in Volumes 2 and 3 so you just don't win no matter what LOL.

Kevin had actually briefly jumped ahead of Estelle as my favorite character in Sky and then that final scene with Renne happened and Estelle was like, "Say my name." Breaking Bad-style

the goat

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Anelace's sword got a massive power boost

Yeah, that's why I recommended you take her. That only happens if she's in the party of a Nightmare Arena clear. The boost actually places it above her Zemurian Ore weapon too, lol.

Haven't gotten much time to play Zelda recently but what little there has been finally led to the Zora region being mostly explored outside the Domain itself.

Finding the King in a random cave seemingly on the verge of death was a shock LOL.

126 Shrines.
805 Koroks.

To Gerudo Desert.

Meanwhile, Florida's education mandates has resulted in AP Psychology being banned from the state.

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1687183317483872256

AP Psych touches on, and has since its inception decades ago, the subjects of gender and sexual orientation and that is now illegal in Florida. Florida has informed schools that AP Psych may only be taught if they exclude the topics, which College Board deems essential and refuses to gut the course.

50/50

would upgrade to 100/100 if we could

Trump being arraigned in DC Court as we speak. No surprise he plead not guilty.

Judge apparently warned him that should he violate the conditions of his release (Don't commit a crime, don't share facts of the case with anyone known to be a witness, and don't attempt to influence jurors) he may be held until the trial.

Apparently the instruction to not influence jurors is something he wasn't explicitly told in Florida. While I still can't bring myself to believe he would actually see jail (not prison, but being held until this trial) this is the court that jailed Manafort and Stone for violating the conditions of their releases.

lol did pence finally flip?

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1686819913833267227

Specifically states that Trump asked him to reject the votes from the swing states to toss the election to the House (where Trump would have won because of how stupid the process is there)

More of a deeper dive on the indictment.

Trump is indicted on four criminal counts:

Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding
Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding
Conspiracy Against Rights

There are six unnamed, unindicted co-conspirators. By context I think I've seen NBC ID 5 of them: Giuliani, Eastman, Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Chesebro

Among the manner and means Trump is accused here included the conspiracy to send fraudulent elector slates to Congress, trying to get Pence to overturn it, and after Pence refused and the insurrection began - trying to use the chaos to pressure members of Congress to delay resuming the session to certify the election.

The indictment also has loads of evidence to prove Trump was knowingly lying about the election, demonstrating that many of the times he lied about fraud were made after his political allies told him it was bullshit.

This excerpt is basically the "is you taking notes on a criminal conspiracy?" meme:

The Indictment states...

The next day, on December 8, Co-Conspirator 5 called the Arizona attorney on Co-Conspirator 6's list. In an email after the call, the Arizona attorney recounted his conversation with Co-Conspirator 5 as follows:

"I just talked to the gentleman who did that memo, [Co-Conspirator 5]. His idea is basically that all of us (GA, WI, AZ, PA, etc.) have our electors send in their votes (even though the votes aren't legal under federal law -- because they're not signed by the Governor); so that members of Congress can fight about whether they should be counted on January 6th. (They could potentially argue that they're not bound by federal law because they're Congress and make the law, etc.) Kind of wild/creative -- I'm happy to discuss. My comment to him was that I guess there's no harm in it, (legally at least) -- i.e. we would be sending in 'fake' electoral votes to Pence so that 'someone' in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the 'fake' votes should be counted."

And then this, where they just openly flirt with using the military to remain in power and suppress any opposition (though LotM's tweet has it too):

The Indictment states...

On the afternoon of January 3, Co-Conspirator 4 spoke with a Deputy White House Counsel. The previous month, the Deputy White House Counsel had informed the defendant that "there is no world, there is no option in which you do not leave the White House [o]n January 20th." Now, the same Deputy White House Counsel tried to dissuade Co-Conspirator 4 from assuming the role of Acting Attorney General. The Deputy White House Counsel reiterated to Co-Conspirator 4 that there had not been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that if the Defendant remained in office nonetheless, there would be "riots in every major city in the United States." Co-Conspirator 4 responded, "Well, [Deputy White House Counsel], that's why there's an Insurrection Act."

There's more too (including a quote by a Trump Campaign Advisor stating, "it's tough to own any of this when it's all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership."), it's a fascinating read.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1686497045715050496

thanks obama

swordz9 posted...

Man what fucking crime do you have to commit to NOT be able to run for President?

Technically?

"engaged in insurrection or bellion against [the United States], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof" though with the caveat that a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate can lift even that disqualification.

Quite literally that is the only disqualification outside of an impeachment, conviction, and additional vote to impose a disqualification penalty laid out in the Constitution - the 14th Amendment.

A convicted serial killer would be eligible to run - legally, at least.

jets ownership!

\()/

Xenoblade 3 would probably be at the top of my list.
Trails series has some good ones.
Nier can be a bit uneven with this but when it's good it's good.

Edit: Yeah if Recruit/Loyalty Missions in ME2 count, then it's up there.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

So all that's left is to win the nightmare arena

Take Anelace as a party member IMO.

and yeah Star Door 15 is... something. We got the uncensored version that was in the original PC release of 3rd in Japan. Japan heavily censored it (basically cutting out the entire first half of it and the CGs) in the following re-releases though canonically it all still happened.