From your lips to God’s ears, gentle Albertan. I’m out in Ontario and get wildly different takes on how “serious” the Separatist movement is. Some people report is as you say, some say it’s “gaining traction”. Highly suspect sources go further, claiming the idea is popular. Even screening out Post Media, there are journalists reporting it as a “very real threat due to institutional support in the Premier’s office”.

I didnt learn much about ICE tactics or anything new about the state of things in MN right now.

What I did learn is that the Marshall family is fucking rad.

I don’t know where else to ask this question…or even if I’m formulating this question properly in my rage.

Violence in the streets seems to be inevitable to me at this point with the recent revelation that Minnesota will not be allowed to perform a state-level investigation in to Renee Nicole Good’s death. The sheer audacity of the injustice, the inhumanity before, during and after this event, the clear and shameless lying. Now, they are attacking your children. If Americans take this lying down then there truly is no Rubicon, so at this point I’m practically hoping for violence, because how many more dead would the alternative bring? That feels wrong to me, but if no one stands up for these victims, then obviously their number will rise exponentially. But that’s not my question.

My question is, when this thing explodes and the violence breaks out. When Trump and his goons do the only thing their limited minds can think of and try to “crack down”. When it all goes to fucking shit… then what? Line up on sides like a dodgeball team and States start rebelling like it’s 150 years ago? Isolated city-states locked out from Federal support and interference? Trump declares himself President for Life?

It’s not weird that those resisting fascism have no solid plan, this is being thrust upon them. It might have been predictable but I can’t blame people for not really believing it until folks started dying. But it seems weird that the instigators of this fucking circus don’t even seem to be able to tell me what their fucking goal is. Do they honestly think they can create a brutal Christofascist ethno-state out of modern America? That no one will stop them, just because no one has killed them yet? And more insanely, if they do succeed, do they think they’ll all live through that attempt?

Yeah, I wasn’t really clear in my language. I was saying that STS has steered the last 5 years, and might continue to steer it for another 5. I wouldn’t say we done with STS still influencing pretty much every other indie title released right now.

1. Bioshock - It’s essentially perfect, the only downside is I can never play it for the first time again.

2. Inscryption - It’s an odd choice, since it’s pretty meta, but it’s a game that I think about too much to live without.

3. Doom - Purely for historical relevance, which cannot be overstated in this case

4. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - I spent an embarrassingly long amount of time going back and forth between this and LTTP, but Ocarina also represents maybe the best year in game development history so it gets the edge.

5. Slay the Spire - Basically the same argument as Doom - this game is a fork point in all development trends for at least 5, maybe 10 years after its release.

Of course I agree with you completely, it just further illustrates ICEs intellectual dishonesty.

Obligatory “Fuck ICE” naturally, but this one is particularly jarring. For 3 reasons-

A) “from a pick-up truck travelling in the opposite direction”. What. Tha. Fuck. They are drive-by pepper spraying brown people without pulling them over?

B) Goes without saying at this point, but everyone in that vehicle was a US citizen.

C) DHS straight up lied, denied that anything happened in that parking lot, at all. When it comes to ICE misconduct, the Federal government’s official stance is “pics or it didn’t happen”. Which is a good reminder for everyone to film these animals constantly.

I want to ask, “When will this insanity end?” But of course I know the answer. When the American people make it end and not before.

Betting on Trump lying feels like a safe bet to be sure, and nothing about it is out of character for American foreign ops. But that’s not confirmation of anything. And the problem is, I have no more confidence in the other side of this equation.

In more grounded terms, If two known liars both give you their side of the story, and both sound plausible there is this overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and melancholy that hits me every time. What’s the point? Even if one of you is telling the truth, it was probably so distorted as to be worthless.

I don’t know if I was just naive or raised by naive people, or if something has genuinely changed in the modern age - but it pains me greatly that we don’t even pretend to value integrity anymore.

That’s a good point - if the mercenaries are identified accurately, that could be a trail someone could follow.

This is one of those frustrating situations where we will simply never know what actually happened.

Could Venezuela’s government have made this up? Possibly. They have motive and they are not the most honest people, to put it mildly.

On the other hand, Trump and his Goons have be been bragging about bombing boats, talking not at all coyly about land invasions, and said openly they had people operating in Venezuela.

So did those agents get caught? Or did Trump give the Venezuelans the idea to perform this hoax by running his fucking mouth?

The CIA’s not going to admit anything. Neither side has any credibility to speak of. I guess maybe a third party investigator with the press or a foreign intelligence agency could try, but that’s going to be one source at best. I’ll have been dead like 20 years before it comes out what actually happened, if anything.

I’m late to this party but I always like to chip in on Luigi threads:

1. That other people were inspired to kill CEOs by this killing is irrelevant. I mean, it’s debatable that it’s true at all. But even if it were, that feels relevant only insofar as this is a jury trial - and thats not a bug of a jury trial, it’s a feature. Public sentiment doesn’t really get a say outside the 12 folks in the box.

2. There is a serious chain of evidence issue with the supposed murder weapon. Body cams are turned off, (improper) when Luigis bag is taken from him, and according to filings, that bag wasn’t searched until back at a local station over 30 minutes later. That strikes people as suspect as it’s outside normal procedure for cops, who would normally search a bag right away during the arrest. The cops were alone with that bag for 30 minutes prior to “finding” the gun. Most unbelievable, they expect us to believe that someone capable of this killing, and producing an inherently disposable 3D printed “ghost gun”, then failed to ditch it and carried it across state lines? He couldn’t find a garbage can to pitch it in over 24 hours later?

3. People say Luigi couldn’t be the adjuster because of the height/build difference between him and the security footage of Brian Thompsons shooting. I find this less convincing as the footage is extremely unclear. But I will say at the very least, nothing in that footage has been brought to my attention that supports Luigi being the shooter. No shill pundit or sweaty former prosecutor desperate for their 15 minutes has got on TV and said “See, here’s what the prosecution is going to point to to build their case.”

It would seem to me, that Luigi is a troubled young rich kid who wrote some critical, if meandering, things about his frustrations with US Healthcare, got accused by a McDonalds employee who was financially incentivized to see a suspect, had evidence planted by some cops hoping to catch this rising folk hero before anyone else got any ideas, and then got railroaded by the most corrupt DOJ since the Gilded Age.

First, I’m going to heavily qualify this statement. Like, a lot. I have never served in any military capacity and I’m repeating something a member of the Canadian military told me, which could easily be wrong for 20 reasons.

National Guardsman are similar to our “reservists” and are not paid when inactive. If additional troops who were already trained but not active, we’re then activated, that would account for additional costs.

So yeah, massive grain of salt but you asked and someone gave me a reasonable answer that seemed to fit. I have done no fact checking, though.

I forget the title but there was a Superman game on original Xbox that gave Metropolis a health bar, Not Superman.

Beating up bad guys, stopping disasters and completing missions helped the city survive. Getting hit meant a few seconds where you were inactive and the city might take more damage.

It was a pretty inspired idea honestly. I don’t think the game was excellent but good design choice.

I mean you’re right, but it makes sense in context in both cases because the plot, or maybe better to say the driving motivation for action by the characters, isn’t the real story.

TLOU isn’t the story of two survivors trying to reach a goal- thats set dressing. It’s the story of a man who lost his daughter being given a chance to confront his grief and grow close with another young woman who would be the same age. The relationship growing, their mutual guilt and relief and joy in finding that familial connection in a dying world IS the story. And the climax isn’t Joel shooting 50 more people, it’s when he chooses her over the whole world. Even when thats obviously the wrong choice.

From a plot view, nothing has changed. What actually “happened” was entirely between Ellie and Joel. But lots of stories are like that. If you released a movie where a grieving man connected with his adopted, formerly abused or neglected, daughter- that could be a good movie and you wouldn’t say “nothing happened” because it would be honest and upfront with its stakes. But fewer people would play that as a game so they have to obfuscate their actual story with apocalypse and zombie trappings.

He self-identifies as Conservative, when talking to me, which is 99% of the time he spends discussing politics.

I dunno. Feels like we lost the thread here. If it makes you guys happy, sure. By “leans Conservative” I actually meant “center-right Liberal”. Everyone cool with that?

That’s bullshit. My friend is a wonderful person who hasn’t actually voted for a Conservative government in over a decade. “Sheer was a joke. Pollievre is a clown.” Are his exact words. He wants more military spending for the Canadian forces where he served for years, and he’s highly skeptical of higher taxes, convinced that rich people will always find a way to weasel out. He’s against minimum wage hikes because “the corporations will just raise prices”. Because of these reasons, he identifies as Conservative, albeit one who votes Liberal because the CPC is a joke. He’s right of me but thats where most people are.

This is a man who, is bi himself and strongly supports LGBTQ rights, and went no contact with his own brother because his coke-addled brother wouldn’t stop spouting racist shit.

Stop with bullshit “everyone to my right is Nazi” stuff. You don’t know anything and it helps no one.

I had a good friend who isn’t usually very politically engaged (we’re Canadian and he leans Conservative) text me this story. Along with the following:

“Wow. I know Trump gets away with a lot of shit, you told me ICE is arresting innocent people every day, but this shit is atrocious. No way conservatives let this slide…”

Oh sweet summer child…

The article specifically says she came here legally and was in the process of obtaining permanent residency - a lengthy process.

I believe the old adage is that a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich. It’ll be interesting to see what steps are taken to either turn the inevitable trial into either a political stage show, or a black box tribunal. If they think they can spin it hard enough that their propaganda machine can make this woman look like she did something wrong, we’ll get that option. And I think that’s most likely, since it’s black woman and attacking her will be easy to get the base onboard for. But if they claim its all “national security” issues and refuse to have any press attention, we’ll know they have less than nothing.

Either way, anyone paying attention saw the original footage last month knows these people did nothing wrong.

I’m going to get darker than is probably warranted for a moment, and just ask, how are none of these authoritarian shitbags not dead already? I know stochastic terrorism is primarily a right-winger trait, but no type of human ugliness is universal to just one side of the aisle. You’d think more people would be taking a crack at Stephen Miller, Russ Vought, Pam Bondi and the other ghouls.

I went in for chest pains at the end of last year, I was shocked at how fast I was seen. Once they established I wasn’t dying, I had a pretty long wait but overall service was really good and I paid nothing.

Well, not nothing, I’ve paid taxes my whole life. But I doubt I’ve paid the 6 figures amount that would’ve cost me in the US even if you add all my lifetime taxes together and during that time I still drove on roads and stuff.

Socialized medicine isn’t just a better option, it’s the only moral choice.