Lurker > ElatedVenusaur

I've been fully vaxxed (Pfizer) since the end of April. I happened to have a bunch of time off the week CT opened things up to my age group, so I camped the hell out of VAMS. I was pretty impressed with how smooth it was, to be honest: my site was at some magnet school, they arranged for free parking at a nearby parking garage, they had a dozen stations, you waited in an auditorium under the watchful eyes of a few EMTs afterwards and made your follow-up appointment there.

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She/her

I mean, Blue has the benefit of having been your rival and the first game makes him being champion into this huge twist, and it's the only battle to get its own special theme Lance gets the Gym Battle Theme, the other E4 and Giovanni outside of his gym get the regular battle theme LOL. It has the benefit of you confronting the same dweeb who got a Pokemon at the same time as you, and has always been a smug jerk to you.

Cynthia benefits from being in a more advanced game: she gets not one, but two themes: the piano bit that plays when you're talking to her pre-battle(and the DS has a surprisingly great piano synth, even!), and then her pulse-pounding battle theme. Blue is actually a good analogue here, in the sense that both Lance and Steven/Wallace leaned heavily into one type, but Cynthia has a balanced team like Blue but gets the edge because her team consistently has really solid movesets(most Pokemon in RBY did not have access to solid movesets, but "Alakazam with Psychic and Recover" was still effective enough). And, of course, Garchomp. That thing is just a bulldozer, and hers has Dragon Rush and Earthquake for all of its hope-crushing OHKO needs(and it's level 66 in D/P! Platinum is a little gentler(level 62), but replaces the mostly-useless Brick Break with Flamethrower, just in case you thought you were going to stall it out with Bronzong or Skarmory, I guess....)
You get to rematch her in Platinum, even.

And yes, I noped the hell out of the one house in Undella Town. I wasn't ready for that. The mistake they've consistently made with her theme is upping the pitch too much.
I've always felt Red was more of an easter egg, but he's kind of easy in GSC, if you can grind, like...20 levels so Pikachu isn't OHKOing everything. HGSS makes him quite a bit tougher.

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She/her

Thats great! The state should promote the arts, but it cannot and should not make value judgments about them.

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She/her

Yeah, the series had a lengthy rough patch after Sonic Adventure 2 that didnt really end until Sonic Colors and Forces was a dud, of course. They wound up making the Sonic gameplay so fast they convinced themselves they couldnt make a full game of just that, and they really havent found a good solution to the problem they created.

At the very least, the series is now well removed from its post-Dreamcast nadir. Well see if it can stay away from those lows.

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She/her

No, but I am looking to go in a new direction. Im tempted to quit my current job every day though. Were horrifically understaffed and management is useless at best and abusive at worst.

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She/her

The future will be radical, regardless of what we do or don't do. The only question is if it will be radically bad.

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She/her

Indeed. Nothing is more divisive these days than honesty.

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She/her

Its a shame. I hope she tries again next year. Particularly given how low turnout was.

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She/her

I mean, Edelgard is an axe-wielding unit in heavy armor: she would play completely differently from any of the other FE reps(to be fair, Byleth is decent in this department, at least). You could even correct the hugely dumb thing they did in Three Houses and let her cast some magic in all that armor God that would have been siiiick!

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She/her

I imagine this is being handled by some contractor or perhaps a surviving yet drastically underfunded arm of the state government?
In any case, this is just an example of how atrophied our government is and how means-testing works to keep aid from those who need it most.

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She/her

If he doesnt resign, he should be removed from office with all due haste.
Heyis hating Andrew Cuomo something we can allagree on?

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She/her

Biden is just trying to wash his hands of the matter. They all are. If everyone blames some conveniently non-specific other, then its no ones fault really! They wish they could help, but its really the fault of the states or Republicans or whatever.

The only people who really care are the ones on the Capitols steps. The ones demanding a Dem trifecta take responsibility, postpone their vacations, and do everything and anything possible to avert the oncoming catastrophe or fail trying.

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She/her

Background_Guy posted...

Anyone who rates this a 1 is gayer than she is

Well, some of us voted 9 because we're as gay as she is!
Always have loved athletic types.

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mustachedmystic posted...

But what is it? Something to climb?

A good meeting place for Kindred after dark.

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ChocoboMogALT posted...

Yup. Kavanaugh said, basically, "No way we're extending this without something passed by Congress."

Oh...so now Judge Beer is the Supreme Court? If the Dems cared about the moratorium, Biden would have extended it and dared the Court to declare the extension unconstitutional while the Dems worked on a legislative solution.
Instead, the only thing Pelosi or Biden seem interested in is assigning blame for this catastrophe to some one else without specifying who that is: wouldn't want them to have to face actual consequences!, while Rep. Cori Bush camps out on the Capitol steps with various Squad members to draw attention to the fact that nobody is even trying to do anything.

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She/her

A disappointing ending that's only notable because people were obsessed with a trans woman competing and the usual idiots certain she would blow the competition away.

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She/her

Meh.

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She/her

This isnt doing anything so far, but its nowhere near as bad Sperm episode.

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She/her

It's a really neat pokemon and a fun inversion of an existing animal. They nailed that one, for sure.

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She/her

toadfan64 posted...

I didn't want this fucking guy from the start. Sam Bradford or Case Keenum would have been much preferred in my books.

Bradford might be better for one-to-two games before he snapped in half and died. Keenum probably not even that.
Not saying Cousins is great, but those two were/are even further from it. Hell, even Bridgewater sucks.

Luckily for the Vikings, no games are being played, and meaningful ones are still a ways off. But with how ridiculously infectious Delta COVID is, we're going to see at least one running back or wide receiver starting at QB again or maybe even a TE!

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MrMallard posted...

Apparently, one about how only trans girls should have guns

Which is BS.
Non-binary people can certainly be trusted with firearms as well.

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She/her

hockeybub89 posted...

It's like people don't want her to control her own life.

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She/her

Im not sure. I think its increasingly likely the U.S. winds up in some sort of failure state, and this could result in some kind of dissolution. However, I think something like the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is more likely. Basically, the federal government will become increasingly incapable of governing outside of lightning-in-a-bottle type exceptions, and the societal elites will become increasingly distant, nepotistic, and involved in petty factional infighting. The courts will chip away at Congressional authority and peoples rights, and de facto decentralization will occur. American influence will gradually decline.

Another likely probably likelier! fail state is one thats all the rage in faltering democracies worldwide: quasi-fascist majoritarian autocracies. Minority rights will be eroded, voting will become increasingly harder and increasingly meaningless, and economic inequality will grow ever greater and more and more people will fall into a permanent state of precarity.

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She/her

Duck is more expensive and less productive than chicken, as well as harder to prepare.
But damn is it good!

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She/her

And people act like manufactured consent isnt real.

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She/her

You say that as though there's any difference in how to protect them(and yourself).

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Krojen posted...

Centrists will say she has to do this to appeal to other centrists theyve never met.

It's just what she has to do to appease Arizona voters they say, as they nod sagely and look at you like an idiot for questioning a Democratic Senator's actions and motives.

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She/her

Were going to live to see dozens of modern Atlantis(es?), arent we?

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She/her

GregShmedley posted...

https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1420955173149683716?s=19

The CDC has done a pretty bad job with this pandemic, hasn't it?

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She/her

Welcome to our new normal anyone! Please ignore the ever-growing pile of bodies, it is a monument to ARE FREADOMS, and, in any case, our God demands blood in exchange for economic growth.

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She/her

Modern American conservatives *do*, in fact, stand for things, mostly related to protecting/restoring their status in society and aggressively policing/suppressing the other.
You'll note that there wasn't a surge in conservatives getting vaccinated from Trump urging them to get vaccinated. This is because they don't mindlessly do what their politicians tell them to do, they just love politicians who tell them want they want to hear, and Trump was the first Republican politician who would do that unconditionally. They don't respond to things they don't want to hear.

Previously, the Republican elites would always maintain a certain decorum i.e. John McCain's campaign being complicit in/engaging in a whisper campaign to suggest Obama was unamerican while McCain the candidate goes on stage and tells the crowd Obama is an American and a good man who he just disagrees with. Trump does the former with a bullhorn and doesn't do the latter.

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She/her

Yeah, he's missing the key difference: that eating disorders are based in delusions, whereas gender dysphoria simply isn't.
They both hang out with anxiety and depression though. Anxiety is what I have in SPADES.

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She/her

Ice resists Ice.
Ice takes 2x damage from Rock, Fighting, Fire, and Steel(which are all great offensive typings which are commonly packed by sweepers of all kinds).
Ice does 2x damage to Grass(join the party lol), Ground, Flying, and Dragon(the last two are really consequential, to be fair).

Some one mentioned Ice resisting Electric, and that...would be really good, actually. It would be a major boon to Water/Ice 'mons in particular, and Electric won't really notice.

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She/her

Tyranthraxus posted...

If it passes with a supermajority vote does the president even get a chance to veto?

President Biden supports this bill, as well as the proposed $3.5 trillion bill aimed for reconciliation. However, it would still need to pass the House.

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She/her

Bumping flopic.

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She/her

https://www.axios.com/12-trillion-infrastructure-bill-vote-senate-4247fdc0-e46b-4ab5-ab86-42a1f984d715.html
It will still need to pass the actual vote, but with this many votes for invoking cloture, it is likely a formality.

This is the lame one that mostly repurposes unspent money: only $550 billion is new spending(you can see the breakdown in the article). Speaker Pelosi and House Progressive Caucus members have said they won't advance the bi-partisan bill unless/until the more substantial $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill put forward by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders passes the Senate, though Sen. Sinema has already indicated she objects to that price tag. The Sanders proposal includes insufficient funding for combating climate change and expanding "human" infrastructure, such as lowering Medicare eligibility to 60 and including dental and vision care as well as additional spending on "hard" infrastructure


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She/her

hockeybub89 posted...

You're right Everyone should stay home so Trump, De Santis, or Tucker Carlson can. That would totally be better.

Yes, all we have to do is vote even harder than last time. Because voting will be harder for a lot of people and the Dems aren't going to even try to do anything about it because they don't give a damn about us.

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She/her

Don't f*** around and expect not to find out.
I hope he recovers well from COVID-19 and anti-vaccine quackery both.

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Graycap posted...

This is why various morons should've never said it's fine to go unmasked now.

Yeah, the CDCs previous decision was obviously partly the result of political pressure from many quarters that it was time to get back to normal, which led to a decision which was reckless in public health terms.
Unfortunately, I think they have already let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Theres going to be at least as much resistance to resuming masking as there was to begin with, but probably more.

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She/her

Courtney Barnett - Rae Street
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUXvlpS0TvE

Freezepop - Queen of Tomorrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvMrHQ3s4I
I was dying towards the end of my work-out earlier...and then this came on. It breathed life into me, and I crushed.

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She/her

Man, like, if only they could remove him from office somehow, for all that sexual assault he did?
Oh well, better continue giving the toxic corrupt sexual assault man what he wants then...

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She/her

A lot of places have trials: 100 nights is common, though theyll usually penalize you for returning it before day 30. And they generally expect you to donate it somehow.

The easiest thing is to go to a store and just lay on mattresses. It helps to have an idea of what you might be looking for ahead of time, of course.
I can tell you side sleepers benefit from good edge support and either plush mattresses or firmer yet pillow-topped mattresses. If youre back, I cant help you. And Ive always assumed stomach sleepers are made up.

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She/her

Gotta love dat 7/4 time signature!
But yeah, this is maybe even more unnerving than the original version.

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She/her

True. Most trans men who go through female puberty first are cursed to be manlets, for better or worse.

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She/her

I'm afraid I already tossed it, and am drunk and tired, but I had a genuine Belgian Quadrupel. Lovely drinking.

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She/her

LOL! Jerruh won't be impressed.
Also, an awful lot of people have no goddamned clue what HIPAA is, sooo...
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html

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She/her

It's worth asking: what is meant by "successful" and what is meant by "communist"?

For example, with the latter, if we're going by a strict definition of the proletariat(i.e. workers) "owning the means of production", then the answer is "what communist states?" Probably Marx would have no end of complaints about the states that, today, identify themselves as "communist", but, then, he was nothing if not a fusspot. But he commended the Paris Commune for being so dedicated to democracy, even as he criticized it for not taking decisive action against the French Republic. Typically, modern communist countries don't have many meaningful elections.

As for "successful": are we talking in terms of economic growth, or in terms of quality of life?
The former case points directly to the old Soviet Union and the PRC, which achieved relatively rapid industrialization and explosive GDP growth(at least, for a time). If the latter, well...Cuba, generally speaking, has a way higher quality-of-life than basically any country with a similar GDP: Cubans tend to be healthier, live longer, etc. etc. than similarly developed countries.

On the subject of Cuba: some info about the embargo:
-It applies not just to Cuba, but any ship that docks at a Cuban port. Any ship found to have docked in Cuba may not dock in a US port for six months and may be subject to US fines. And the USN regards the Caribbean as Mare Nostrum. Basically, it makes doing any kind of business in Cuba at all a total pain.

-Under the legal terms of the embargo, the only way for it to end is for Cuba to make full restitution to everyone(or their heirs) whose property was seized by the communist government. Doing so would result in mass privatisation of state assets, impoverish the country, and partially restore the economic status quo that existed under Fulgencio Battista. Any company found to have trafficked with the owners of these "stolen" assets may be subject to litigation by its "legitimate" owners and may be excluded from doing business in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba

And, as for free trade: it effectively strangles most industrialization schemes in their cribs. Like, South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Finland, and Singapore all used extensive state investment, tariffs, and blatant piracy to develop their industrial bases(just like Western Europe and the US, in fact). Firms in relatively undeveloped countries simply can't make, say...cars or steel or cell phones as well or efficiently as firms from developed nations, and firms. Hell, the US and most other industrialized nations still have tariff barriers and/or heavily subsidize certain sectors(agriculture, for instance.)

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She/her

Apparently, back in the 80s, their running back got to over 1,000 yards rushing late in the last game of the year, and they had a big celebration for it.
Then he was stopped for a 5-yard loss the very next play and ended the year with 998 rushing yards.

The Atlanta Falcons are just one of those teams thats always been a certain way.

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She/her

Really generic, but at least its not stained with racism. Could have used more time in the oven. And its not Steamers, which, as we know, is unforgivable.
Wonder what the Football Team will wind up doing?

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She/her