1. #23656
    I am invenitable Jack Dracula's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hellion View Post
    Goddamn Republicans. 45 of 'em just voted that this second impeachment trial is unconstitutional.

    I've got my minions at work making me a dartboard of Rand Paul's face.
    Disgusting. These weasels are disgusting.
    Last edited by Jack Dracula; 01-26-2021 at 08:12 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnakinFlair View Post
    While I hope he is okay and he comes back soon, I'm really starting to fear we have another RBG situation here. Someone getting up in years who maybe should have rode off into the sunset earlier who suddenly dies (god forbid) and who get's replaced with a Republican conservative pick.
    Well Leahy's situation is not the same as RBG. RBG refusing to retire under Obama's Presidency and the last Dem Senate was a major selfish, and short-sighted, decision on her part.

    In the case of Leahy, his seat is not his to give or the Democrats to trade. It's elected by the people of Vermont. He was a long time senator for Vermont for the Democrat party. Governor Phil Scott was elected as a moderate Republican in 2017, and he voted for Biden, so it depends how much hold the national Republican party has on Scott but who's to say he won't be a party loyalist at the crucial moment. Scott intimated (back when Bernie was considered for Labor secretary) that he would replace Sanders with an Independent who shared his views but with Leahy, who knows?

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    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon

    I am a game designer with experience in a very small niche. I create and research games designed to be played in reality. I’ve worked in Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), LARPs, experience fiction, interactive theater, and “serious games”. Stories and games that can start on a computer, and finish in the real world. Fictions designed to feel as real as possible. Games that teach you. Puzzles that come to life all around the players. Games where the deeper you dig, the more you find. Games with rabbit holes that invite you into wonderland and entice you through the looking glass.

    When I saw QAnon, I knew exactly what it was and what it was doing. I had seen it before. I had almost built it before. It was gaming’s evil twin. A game that plays people. (cue ominous music)
    QAnon has often been compared to ARGs and LARPs and rightly so. It uses many of the same gaming mechanisms and rewards. It has a game-like feel to it that is evident to anyone who has ever played an ARG, online role-play (RP) or LARP before. The similarities are so striking that it has often been referred to as a LARP or ARG. However this beast is very very different from a game.

    It is the differences that shed the light on how QAnon works and many of them are hard to see if you’re not involved in game development. QAnon is like the reflection of a game in a mirror, it looks just like one, but it is inverted.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    Well Leahy's situation is not the same as RBG. RBG refusing to retire under Obama's Presidency and the last Dem Senate was a major selfish, and short-sighted, decision on her part.
    RPG wasn't psychic, and Obama did have trouble getting his nominations through congress. She held on as long as she could like anyone in her position would do because there were no guarantees she wasn't going to be replaced by a conservative, after Garland's failure to get on the court. You want someone to blame? His name is Mitch McConnell.

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    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steel Inquisitor View Post
    RPG wasn't psychic, and Obama did have trouble getting his nominations through congress. She held on as long as she could like anyone in her position would do because there were no guarantees she wasn't going to be replaced by a conservative, after Garland's failure to get on the court. You want someone to blame? His name is Mitch McConnell.
    RPG? Took me a minute to realize you were talking about RBG.
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  6. #23661
    My Face Is Up Here Powerboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    Clinton's Impeachment cost the Dems the 2000 election. Not directly but it affected it significantly.

    Because of the scandal and controversy, Clinton didn't tour or accompany Al Gore personally, and Al Gore had to take paints to emphasize himself as a clean ethically fair candidate, and backtracked from touting the economic achievements of the Presidency. He campaigned to the center and W. did so likewise and that meant that voters felt neither party or candidate was all that different. That also allowed third party saboteurs like Nader to make inroads and compromise the Dems. Had there been no impeachment, or if there was and Clinton resigned and Al Gore took over right away and campaigned as incumbent, you could have had Gore run a more positive campaign based on a strong economic recovery.

    So yeah, it's not a case that the Impeachment didn't affect Bill Clinton or that it didn't cost the Democrat party. And again, the entire issue of Bill's sex life was one of the reasons why the Access Hollywood tape (which looked like it could sink Trump) didn't stick because conservatives were able to flip it back to Bill and his own manwhore tendencies, and it compromised HRC's women's rights credentials that she was married to a guy who cheated on her multiple times. In 2020, Clinton was so marginalized that during the DNC convention, Clinton got a small bracket to speak next to Jimmy Carter. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (which came within one vote of getting 2/3rds conviction) compromised him so badly that he didn't run for President after he finished Lincoln's term.



    Again it's too early to say and argue.
    That is a valid point. Clinton's impeachment had no impact on the diehard Democratic voters. But how much impact did it have on the swing voters? How many more votes might Gore have gotten had someone as charismatic as Bill Clinton been really out there campaigning for him?

    With Trump, who knows? Lying about the virus and his abysmal handling of it. His racism, ethnic bigotry and wasting money on a primitive wall. Lying about voter fraud. Inciting a riot to overthrow a lawful election. Getting impeached, even twice, barely makes the top five and probably at number five if it does.

    Also, there was talk of finding an excuse to impeach Trump before he even took office and that just lends itself to the Conservative opinion that it was totally partisan. Unfortunately, at that time, it was. But he gave plenty of real justifications soon enough.
    Power with Girl is better.

  7. #23662
    My Face Is Up Here Powerboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tami View Post
    Interestingly enough, when Biden was sworn in and nothing was happening as QAnon predicted, the first post I saw somewhere from someone realizing hey had been duped was a post saying that he now realized it had been a LARP all along and he said it as if he knew precisely what that was.
    Power with Girl is better.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steel Inquisitor View Post
    RPG wasn't psychic, and Obama did have trouble getting his nominations through congress. She held on as long as she could like anyone in her position would do because there were no guarantees she wasn't going to be replaced by a conservative, after Garland's failure to get on the court. You want someone to blame? His name is Mitch McConnell.
    There were calls for RBG to retire way back in 2013 and 2014 when the Dems had the senate. It was only in the 2014 Midterms that McConnell became Sen. Maj. Leader (a position he enjoyed until early 2021).

    At the time she was 81 years old, the oldest on the bench.

    Quote Originally Posted by Powerboy View Post
    Also, there was talk of finding an excuse to impeach Trump before he even took office...
    That's because of his significant corruption, his failure to divest his business into a blind trust as per precedent, his refusal to open his tax returns (which per the NYT would have disqualified him as a liability had he been up for any other federal job), significant evidence of collusion with Putin. Likewise, there was the open admission of sexual assault via Access Hollywood and several credible rape allegations which was corroborated several times over. Trump was a sketchy candidate who deserved impeachment on taking office, just like Robert Bork deserved to have his nomination rejected.

  9. #23664
    Ultimate Member babyblob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post

    That's because of his significant corruption, his failure to divest his business into a blind trust as per precedent, his refusal to open his tax returns (which per the NYT would have disqualified him as a liability had he been up for any other federal job), significant evidence of collusion with Putin. Likewise, there was the open admission of sexual assault via Access Hollywood and several credible rape allegations which was corroborated several times over. Trump was a sketchy candidate who deserved impeachment on taking office, just like Robert Bork deserved to have his nomination rejected.
    This is true. but to hardcore Trumpers or even GOP who are not Trumpers they just saw the Dems talking about impeaching their president before he even took the oath of office. So it was very easy for Trump to start his witch hunt narrative. And a lot of those same people are buying into that witch hunt this time around. In the end a second impeachment will not change anyone's views. it does need to be done. But one side will care about it. The other side will call it a witch hunt, get worked up and be angry. I wonder if this will drive them to the polls in the midterms. i dont know. But when Trump is not convicted they will go on and on about them being correct.
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    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnakinFlair View Post
    ...

    While I hope he is okay and he comes back soon
    , I'm really starting to fear we have another RBG situation here. Someone getting up in years who maybe should have rode off into the sunset earlier who suddenly dies (god forbid) and who get's replaced with a Republican conservative pick.
    Let's just stick with what's in blue.

  12. #23667
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  13. #23668
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Hey, WBE. Got this guy? Because it sounds like if one were to scratch, you'd probably find a lot of crazy and stupid.
    Republican state Rep. David Clark (R-Buford) was removed from the House chamber Tuesday after refusing to follow rules requiring lawmakers to get tested for COVID-19.

    "We have a member of this body who has deliberately failed — at all — to be tested since we began session, clearly in violation of our testing policy, jeopardizing the health of other members in the chamber," House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) said, before asking the Georgia State Patrol to remove Clark from the chamber. "I don't know about y'all, but I've been to too many funerals."

    Speaking to reporters, Clark compared his removal to when 33 Black lawmakers were expelled from the chamber post-Civil War for their skin color, and said Ralston was a "dictator."

    "Two tests a week is wrong on my conscience, when teachers can't get it and first responders can't give it," he said, providing no evidence to support his claims that these groups can't get coronavirus tests.
    https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/01/26/...-testing-rules
    Last edited by Tendrin; 01-26-2021 at 08:49 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by babyblob View Post
    I understand you point. I have never worked in Social Service so I dont know/understand your experiences or point of view. I wish I knew more more about how the world worked. Sadly I know more about criminals and the legal system then I wished to.
    The thing is, you don't end up with the world's largest prison population by accident. Americans aren't any more violent or lawless than anyone else, nor are our law enforcement particularly efficient at catching criminals, nor has jailing so many made our streets any safer or cleaner compared to the rest of the world. Those 2+ million prisoners are there, by and large, because the people in power think that them being there is a positive good, whether because it grants access to a large pool of cheap labor, or because it helps to stifle the aspirations of certain troublesome communities. This is not to excuse the actions of people who turn to crime as just purely driven by environmental factors, but just to recognize that a fairer society wouldn't be putting so many people in those conditions in the first place.

  15. #23670
    Ultimate Member babyblob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PwrdOn View Post
    The thing is, you don't end up with the world's largest prison population by accident. Americans aren't any more violent or lawless than anyone else, nor are our law enforcement particularly efficient at catching criminals, nor has jailing so many made our streets any safer or cleaner compared to the rest of the world. Those 2+ million prisoners are there, by and large, because the people in power think that them being there is a positive good, whether because it grants access to a large pool of cheap labor, or because it helps to stifle the aspirations of certain troublesome communities. This is not to excuse the actions of people who turn to crime as just purely driven by environmental factors, but just to recognize that a fairer society wouldn't be putting so many people in those conditions in the first place.
    There are some who should not be in jail. bs minor charges and things like that. But there are a good number who do deserve to be in prison and i am not upset about them being there. I was one of those people. i should not have been walking the streets after my crime. I proved I was a danger and needed to be removed for a time. An adult time out. More people go there then they should. But having lived around them for 24 hours a day for four years and then 8 months in a half way house. Yea I am glad there are prisons.

    Now there has to be work done on prison reform. i will admit that and have worked for that with a group since I have been out of prison. Not really since Covid but I was very active in this group trying to change the conditions and situations for other inmates.
    Last edited by babyblob; 01-26-2021 at 09:53 PM.
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