Lurker > ElatedVenusaur

Theres something truly ghoulish about wanting a recession that will inevitably harm tens of millions of people because it will negatively affect Trumps political fortunes.
But, then Bill Maher is a multimillionaire, so hell be fine and thats all he actually cares about.

Nicolas goddamned Cage? Well, itll probably be entertaining, at least.

shockthemonkey posted...

Packing the Supreme Court is a fucking stupid idea

The stupid idea was investing life-time appointees with the ability to overrule Congress in the first place. The legislature ought to be the supreme power in a democracy.
And it ought to be democratically-elected too.

Fam_Fam posted...

really? someone died because you fell asleep on the job and you get fucking suspended and reassigned?

such bullshit.

What, you didnt actually think they would receive any real punishment?
Our criminal justice system has a shockingly minimal regard for human life or even following its own rules. And, in this case, its garbage state has allowed a lot of creeps to breathe easier.

Onix is pretty laughably terrible, yes. Really, it's not just its attack that's bad: it's everything but defense that's bad. Cool-looking Pokemon that's trash.
Sadly mostly true of Steelix, as well. But then, Rock-types in general usually get stuck with being slow and physically defensive in spite of having a battery of crippling weaknesses to powerful physical attacks.

Killing Eve, Season 2 Finale
Villanelle and Eve finally get together, only for Eve to realize Villanelle has a gun and made her axe-murder a dude for her own enjoyment: in other words, Eve finally realizes what she is to Villanelle: a toy. Villanelle responds to Eve challenging her by shooting her and leaving her to die. The entire obsession plot-line spanning two seasons is resolved in 15 minutes.

https://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/agent-47-finds-manhattan-jail-mission-weirdly-easy/
Have some satire.
But yes, at minimum, the prison fundamentally failed to follow its own procedures. Which is probably really common, but especially suspicious with such a high-profile inmate.

Ok, last post...

10) The British were insane: they were terrified of any power, especially Russia(but also France), threatening the jewel of their crown: India. The most ambitious in their foreign service called for seizing basically all of Arabia, Persia, and the Middle East, with a railroad running from Ceylon to Baghdad to Damascus to Antakya and Cairo/Alexandria; to ensure that their entire empire was linked to the Mediterranean. These people had the ear of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and he seriously attempted to implement their vision, over the objections of his Colonial Secretary, one Winston Churchill(and when Winston goddamned Churchill thinks your visions of empire are impractical, well...) Needless to say, this proved so insane and impractical, it's probably not an overstatement to say that it cost Lloyd George his job. Unlike most fallen Prime Ministers; however, he remained in Parliament as a MP until his death in 1945. His embrace of maximalist Imperialism helped facilitate the downfall of the Liberal Party: indeed, he was the last Liberal to serve as Prime Minister. Labour was able to supersede the Liberals in part by seizing the Liberal Party's previous position on empire.

11) The Ottoman Empire was disposed of in the San Remo Conference(and Austria-Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon), which awarded Greece vast territories in Anatolia(modern Turkey). What it didn't do was end the Ottoman Empire: it still ruled in Constantinople. What the Entente did not appreciate was that it no longer ruled anything beyond Constantinople: a former general and Turkish nationalist, Mustafa Kemal(Ataturk), had seized most of the Empire's Asiatic possessions. Kemal was dedicated to preserving Turkish territorial integrity, and carried out the Armenian genocide to ensure this. He fought and eventually defeated Greek armies, driving them from Anatolia, and repeated his genocidal defense of Turkish territorial integrity, slaughtering Greeks and Galatians in Western Anatolia. Ironically, he enjoyed the support of Soviet Russia, in spite of being virulently anti-communist: evidently, Lenin felt sticking it to the hated and hypocritical Entente outweighed the genocides and brutal persecution of communists. Once Kemal had crushed the Greeks, the Ottoman Imperial government folded and the House of Osman fled Constantinople, which Ataturk officially rechristened by its Turkish name: Istanbul. Nonetheless, he maintained his capital in Anatolia at Ankara.

12) President Woodrow Wilson sacrificed virtually everything to ensure the survival of what he felt was the most important of his Fourteen Points: the League of Nations. He did this in spite of a sizable Republican victory in the 1918 mid-terms that saw them seize the majority in the Senate and a rising feeling among Americans that the war in Europe would have been best left unwaged. Nonetheless, the President campaigned tirelessly for the League of Nations, even leaving the Versailles Peace Conference to do so. However, it seemed that the more he campaigned for his precious League of Nations, the greater the opposition grew. Stressed and exhausted, Wilson ended up suffering a debilitating stroke, and the Treaty of Versailles was formally rejected by the U.S. Senate in 1919, with only 39 votes in favor. The absence of the U.S. from the League of Nations helped to render it impotent(though its modern incarnation, the United Nations, proves that U.S. participation is anything but a silver bullet).

So yeah, there's some broad strokes. I can recommend both A Shattered Peace: The Treaty of Versailles and the Price We Pay Today and A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East.

6) US President Woodrow Wilson, true to his progressive bona fides, put forward his extremely progressive and forward looking Fourteen Points, which included self-determination for all peoples. This led many in the Central Powers to be unduly optimistic, but it also led many in Europe and various colonies to think they had a shot at "self-determination". The problem was this: no one quite knew what these Fourteen Points meant, and that included Wilson himself. It did not help that he was extremely racist: he could not conceive of, say, Vietnamese or Africans ruling themselves. Thus, all of the colonial representatives who came were ignored and left disappointed and embittered. Among these was young Vietnamese nationalist Nguyen Tat Thanh, who had taken a job as a waiter at the hotel the American delegation was staying in hopes of making a case for his peoples' independence. Disillusioned and embittered after the peace conference, he left for the Soviet Union, and later changed his name to Ho Chih Minh, and would go on to be an incurable ulcer for first France and then the United States.

7) The exception was Faisal bin Hussein, the Hashemite Prince who had led Arabian irregulars alongside the famed British officer T.E. Lawrence(Lawrence of Arabia). Faisal was a tall, handsome man, gifted with natural charisma, and he had proven an asset to the British in their fight against the Ottoman Empire. The British and even President Wilson were quite taken with him, and the British envisaged him ruling a large Arab state(under British supervision, naturally!) spanning much of what is today Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. There were two problems: the first being Britain's other Arabian client, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Incredibly, the British had funded him since before the First World War, and did so even after they took his bitter rival, Sharif Hussein of Mecca, up as a client during the war. In spite of the fact that Sharif Hussein had proven utterly useless, and the fact that they had to create Faisal's army from Arabian POWs, the British were utterly dedicated to the so-called Hashemites. The second problem was the French: they had "secured" Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine as French protectorates in the Sykes-Picot agreement. What the British didn't share (certainly not with Mark Sykes) was that they didn't intend to uphold the agreement: the British wanted the whole enchilada. They succeeded only in forcing the French to give up Palestine. When the nascent Syrian Parliament offered the crown of Syria to Faisal, the French had a serious conniption, and ultimately deposed Faisal and dissolved the Syrian government.

8) The Balfour Declaration, which was the basis for the designation of Palestine as a "Jewish national homeland", was concluded under extremely misguided pretenses: the British vastly overestimated the importance of Jews and the impact their declaration would have Jews abroad. They believed firmly(and wrongly) that Jews controlled not only Red Russia, but the Ottoman Empire as well(via the "Young Turks" party), and that their "concession" to Jewish interests would win them favor. They were extremely wrong. Incredibly(by modern lights), Faisal bin Hussein and the most pre-eminent Zionist of the time, Chaim Weismann, saw eye-to-eye and were even friends! It's possible(though unlikely) a Jewish state working in-tandem with a Faisal-led Syria could have forged a Middle East that respected both Arab and Jewish interests.

9) The British, who loved Faisal, were devastated that the French deposed him and set him up as King of Iraq, a territory that had no interest in him. They deported a native candidate for the throne to Malta. They accidentally gave Transjordan to Faisal's lazy brother Abdullah, and his descendants are still the royal house of Jordan. This all made ibn Saud so mad he ditched the British and sought out American patronage by giving American companies the right to develop his kingdom's vast oil wealth.

Ok, I promised, so let's run some things down. Point-style!

1) The Germans sought an armistice when they did because their army on the Western front was in a state of collapse. By this time, the general staff more or less controlled the German state, and this was done in part to save face and prevent Germany proper from being occupied. The Germans knew that they had lost and expected to pay indemnities and cede territories, but, in their minds, they felt their position was not altogether weak, and President Wilson's Fourteen Points engendered some optimism. They were aghast when the British continued their blockade, but they sent representatives to the Versailles peace conference under the expectation that they would at least have a seat at the table. They would not. They belatedly realized that the peace was (essentially) being written by Britain and France, and the continued blockade forced them to acquiesce to whatever terms were dictated to them.

2) The Entente powers, chief among them Britain, Russia, and France, had been scheming to carve up the Central Powers since the war's very beginning(to be fair, the intentions of the Central Powers were not any more noble). Of course, Russia's collapse and eventual defeat removed her from considerations, but the principle Entente powers made many grand promises to the countries they had cajoled to their side: Italy, Romania, Greece. Serbia also had grand territorial ambitions. The chief problem was that Britain and France had made contradictory promises: for example, both Italy and Serbia expected to be awarded Split(in modern Croatia, in Dalmatia) and Fiume. This made it impossible to conclude a peace that satisfied all of the Entente powers, and Italy wound up getting shafted hard. Indeed, in the aftermath, an Italian patriot named Gabriele d'Annunzio gathered up a band of followers and seized Fiume, declaring it an Italian possession in September 1919. He and his followers were eventually evicted and the majority Italian city was handed over to Serbia(by then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). This actually fueled the Italian fascist movement.

3) The Entente powers made no secret of their intention to dismantle the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and cut Germany down to size. Thus, in the waning days of the war, when the Entente's victory was apparent, many patriots of prospective nations like Poland and Czechoslovakia launched international public-relations campaigns and organized irregular forces on the ground, seeking to seize as much territory from the moribund German and Austrian-Hungarian empires as possible. French Premier Georges Clemenceau, by now already disenchanted with the Brits, envisaged the creation of a "Little Entente" led by France, comprised primarily of the nations liberated from Germany and Austria, but they fell to fighting amongst themselves for territory, desperate to expand their borders as much as possible, regardless of the cost. This created bad blood that ended the "Little Entente" before it could begin, and would make them easy pickings for Nazi Germany in the future.

4) Speaking of the Slovaks, they were agrarian and poorly-organized, but they didn't particularly want to be in Czechoslovakia, which would be(and indeed was) dominated by the Czechs. They didn't have armies or a slick public-relations campaign though, so nobody cared and they got lumped into Czechoslovakia anyway.

5) No serious attempt was made to engage with Soviet Russia. This was for two reasons: that the Entente powers found the Bolsheviks utterly contemptible and that they fully expected them to lose the Russian Civil War(they were, after all, already actively aiding the Whites). They were utterly wrong on the second count(the first being rather subjective) and Lenin eagerly undermined the terms of their peace agreements wherever and however he could, which, given that he ruled Russia, turned out to be throughout Asia.

Its certainly true that Japans intentions were impure: they coveted European possessions in Asia, but they were also targeting American immigration quotas which were, by any objective measure, super racist(and extremely uncharitable to Japanese people).
Of course, the other powers of the day rejected the motion for two reasons:
1) They were at least as racist as the Japanese
2) Acknowledging racial equality would undermine their empires

When Im not posting from work, I could do an effort post on the monstrosity that was the Treaty of Versailles and the general peace process, Ive read two different books about it in the past year.

Everything went as it should have.

That show was always pretty progressive. Certainly, it took an extremely dim view of corporations and bosses.
I'm glad Static Cling is living up to that. I wish I could watch it and see if it's still as brutally funny(and gross).

Joe Biden was always gaffe-prone, but he could "follow the plot", so to speak. He seems to have increasing difficulty doing that now. Like, I could see a younger Biden talking about working with segregationists(he was even aware enough to leave out the part where he agreed with them on busing and was desperate to ingratiate himself with Sen. Eastland).
But this constant confusion of people(Theresa May is Maggie Thatcher?) and places(El Paso is Houston?) and some of his other bizarre episodes seem to suggest the wires in his brain are getting tangled.

Of course, even if he was as vital and lucid as, say...Bernie Sanders, there would still be the matter of his record. But the fact that there's legitimate cause for concern over his mental acuity is just another problem. At this rate, a Trump/Biden debate would be them failing to draw clocks.

shockthemonkey posted...

I dont things Epstein talk will last through Tuesday. I think legislators will keep up gun control talk despite this.

Also, let's be honest: it won't be long before the next one.

That's not a reliable source.

Bernie Sanders
Generic
Pick one. I wouldn't exactly describe Warren as generic either, and the rest aren't old. I mean, unless you're referring solely to Joe Biden, and he's definitely worse than a generic democrat.

BignutzisBack posted...

The_Ivory_Man posted...

That's almost every politician though.

Didn't support gay people when it would have been relevant then all of a sudden act like full blown supporters now.

Yeah it's weird to try to single out politicians for being against LGBT when virtually every single one of them were until the mid-2000s

You know who officially authorized a gay pride parade in 1983? And also voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996? Bernie Sanders, of course.
Granted, it took him until 2009 to publicly endorse gay marriage...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_watch
https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/19/health/suicide-watch-prevention/index.html
Just to give you an idea of what proper procedures for suicide watch look like. At best, the prison was negligent.

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

This is an absolute SHOCK. Weird how people that can implicate the Clintons end up offing themselves

Why zero in on them? There are many, many more people than them who benefit, domestically and internationally. Elites of all political stripes.

For people questioning this: he was on suicide watch. He shouldn't have had anything he could hang himself with nor anywhere to hang himself from. He also should have been under constant surveillance.

NinjaBreakfast posted...

https://twitter.com/sfpelosi/status/1147657745253855233

at least some of our faves won't now be implicated!

LOL, what, is it common knowledge among Democratic elites that Bill Clinton attended these parties? Or would some one less obvious get implicated?
Definitely feel like they maybe didn't try very hard to prevent Epstein from offing himself.

A few things jump immediately to mind:

1) Dixie is a lot better than Kiddy. She moves faster, has her hair to slow-fall, AND has a smaller hit-box. These strengths are vastly more relevant than Kiddy's extra power.

2) Worse animal buddies. Ellie is strictly inferior to Rambi, and Squitter was nerfed. Quawks can awkwardly carry barrels(because who didn't want "Squawks that requires more finesse"?), Squawks still exists, Engarde is the same as ever. This really restricts the kinds of gimmicks they can employ(like that tedious ass level that revolves around Ellie's fear of mice).

3) Most of their best ideas were already used in the previous 2 games. Especially for DKC2. They were definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel in places..

Yeah, wow. He definitely sounds certifiable.

MfA(legit MfA) would be more transformative and have a much larger positive impact, especially over time. It could even make our politics better.

At the rate they're going, hearings will begin August 2023.

DezDroppedFreak posted...

Why is this assclown still polling well

Boomers identify with his brain rot? I hope it's just because no one's paying attention.

ShadowElite86 posted...

If this is who the dems are bringing to the table in 2020 then we're all fucked.

This is my fear: what's better? Trump gets re-elected, becomes ever worse, ICE becomes bolder and more violent, but his presence maybe makes 2022 a great year for the Dems.
Biden gets elected, futzes around, constantly making terrible gaffes, kisses McConnell's ring repeatedly and is punched in the face repeatedly, doesn't do much but obviously isn't even half as bad or evil as Trump, Dems lose bad in 2022 and possibly 2024 as well.

I think Joe Biden is trapped in 1976.

Her entire rise was based on her doing well in the first debate, and her campaign helped play into by playing her up as tough and hard-knuckled.
Then she does poorly in the 2nd debate, gets owned by Tulsi Gabbard, and finally admits she doesn't support Bernie's Medicare for All bill. Plus, Warren continued to do well, and they're basically playing for the same base(well-educated middle class and up voters, particularly but not exclusively women).

I have to wait 2 weeks for the Bills game to be televised(live, anyways).
I'll content myself with watching Daniel Jones.

I would, of course, demand work begin on Victoria 3, the Perfect Game.

I just donated a little to Julian Castro, because I think he deserves to be on stage more than many of the people already on stage.
Just LOL if Tom Steyer makes it on-stage.

ssjevot posted...

Why are people pretending like young people are a significant voting block or that Democrats demographic problem is young people?

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/dissecting-the-youth-vote/507416/
Young voters are actually an important Democratic constituency. Big margins with millenials helped propel Barack Obama to victory in 2008 and 2012, but Hillary Clinton performed worse with young voters, and nearly a third of voters 18-35 voted third party. Harnessing a (relatively) strong youth turn-out is potentially the difference between victory and defeat in 2020; or the difference between a modest victory and a decisive one.

Flanders is a great neighbor. He'll give you the shirt off his well-muscled back, and he occasionally sings in a metal band.

Krojen posted...

He trying to hit 0% among 40 and under? Think hes hovering around 3-5% atm.

It's like he wants to repeat Hillary's showing in the electoral college, but lose the popular vote to boot.

It's hilarious they even tried.
Like, couldn't they have asked Secretary Vazquez to hold down the fort for a little while while they did things properly with Pierluisi? What was the rush?

DaveTheUseless posted...

When are some of the lesser tier candidates gonna drop out

Probably soon, IIRC, the only candidates who have qualified for the September debates are Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, Beto, Booker, and Klob.
The only other candidates who appear to have a shot at qualifying before the deadline are Gabbard, Yang, and Williamson.
Not getting on-stage is probably a death sentence and you'll see most of the no-chancers drop like flies(though some may be dumb/stubborn enough to keep running if they can get the money).

DarkRoast posted...

Obstagoon losing Gluttony is going to really screw up the classic Gluttony + Belly Drum + Extreme Speed Linoone sweep combo.

Although he might be bulkier and could actually survive a hit this time

Plus he has Guts. Imagine pulling off a Guts + Bellydrum Extreme Speed combo

Yeah, Obstagoon looks beefy. He probably has some actual defense and better power. Possibly slower, but thats not the end of the world when you have STAB Extreme Speed.
Now imagine he had Scrappy...

Also, I never realized I needed gentleman smokestack Weezing, but that is precisely my jam.

I think Yang just needs one more qualifying poll, or something like that. I think he has the donors tied-up.
And if you're worried his presence will dilute things, Booker, Beto, and freaking Klobuchar have all already qualified.

CommonJoe posted...

We should do both. We dont fix a problem then tell all the prior victims to get fucked.

Exactly this. This is why Bernie pairs his student loan forgiveness plan with free public college: it ensures that no one will ever struggle with student loans ever again(unless they go to a private school, I guess) and that most education costs are handled directly by the government.
Doing just one of those things would suck: if you don't try to fix education costs, we're just going to end right back here, if you don't help the people who have already been screwed, you're going to embitter them and possibly disillusion them or turn them against the whole idea of reform.

ThyCorndog posted...

NinjaBreakfast posted...

Michael Bennett: 15

I cant imagine how disappointed those 15 are

Proof positive that billionaires waste money.

Maggie Haberman is terrible, news at 11.

I liked Eugene, OR, but I was really weirded out by it being even whiter than my suburban CT hometown.
I would rather live somewhere more diverse than my hometown.

creativerealms posted...

Mitch should be proud. This is his legacy.

Not even his worst, to be honest.

Her support base seems to be comprised of Trumpists, tankies, and people who fantasize about her sexually.
Plus, you know, she's not nearly as progressive as her posturing suggests. Plus, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren exist and have none of her downsides.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-gravel-to-formally-endorse-bernie-sanders-campaign
Fmr. Alaska Senator Mike Gravel has ended his "campaign" after not making the debates. The 89 year-old has decided to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders and will speak at a Sanders event soon. His teenaged campaign managers have gotten fellowships with the far-left magazine Jacobin, and all remaining campaign funds will be donated to charity. What a fun little footnote.
It's a shame he didn't make the debate stage, but we all really needed to hear from John Delaney, I guess.

Southernfatman posted...

Another franchise probably ruined by assholes who probably never even watched a single episode or movie in the series besides the also not-Trek Abrams movies. I wouldn't care if it was in the Abrams universe, but they shoehorned it into the OG ST universe. Bastards.

I can't believe people have faith in the Picard show. It's made by the same people as Discovery like Alex Kurtsman, writer of such classic films as Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and The Mummy (the Tom Cruise one, not the good one).

Might as well have a giant middle finger up for 50 minutes to all us ST fans.

I mean, Picard has Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, etc. It has a really good cast, in other words.
Whether it will be good and its own story or an empty reference machine("Hey, remember this holographic doctor? Gee, wasn't Voyager wacky, bet you wanted to see how Picard and the gang would react to him!")