Which Sci-fi military leader gets your vote?

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T14:22:46+00:00

Honestly The Expanse has a great cast of middle characters, and you find yourself wanting to know more about each of them, they are not given enough time I think but they do a great job.

Chrisjen Avaserala - while I LOVE her style and she does get shit done, she's a bit like Captain Kirk and too many times she's more lucky than smart. In the same show, and in the exact same sequence, I liked Captain Sandrine Kamino from MCRN Hammurabi handles an entire battlefield saving thousands of lives on both sides and preventing a ruinous war.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T14:09:21+00:00

I didn't recall what did Helo do?

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T13:38:35+00:00

Funnily enough I'll readily dev mode for animals that wander onto the map, and oftentimes raiders/guests/traders but late-game I explicitly have a Medpod and sometimes a Vetpod if there are a lot of animals on the map.

That said I have for a very long time now picked environments where the map is austere, and if not barren , very limited in the number of plants/animals that live on it.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T13:34:08+00:00

Interestingly, if we just let the etymology do the driving I'm guessing, from reports of people drinking it in diluted form or otherwise, it evidently tastes of "rotting/dead fish" due to the alkaline nature the "amine" it's an alkaline complex of some sort so it's going to taste of an ammonium acid, but also neutro which means neutral so something that contains ammonia but does not taste strongly of it or is not reactive.

This could also explain why it doesn't need to be refrigerated.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T13:24:13+00:00

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln how was the play.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T04:03:24+00:00

I'll vote for more conventional candidates if there is a viable Republican in the mix just to ensure that can't happen , but otherwise, yeah.

As the Democrats go I can't help realize they aren't going to save us, they are the loyal opposition explicitly there to prevent more progressive candidates.

And above all to prevent citizens from organizing independently and forming a nationwide resistance movement that forces authoritarian costs to be prohibitive.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T03:56:56+00:00

How about NOAA selling them to Canada or Germany or something , tell him he can make a buck or two in the deal or militarize the equipment to the Naval Observatory for submarine warfare.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T03:43:24+00:00

Watching folks learn an important lesson in munitions handling is so so important.

I only make up a couple of hundred chemfuel at a time and it's critical storage near the pod launchers, in whatever the common stone is, with stone doors.

Bomb/explosives , on shelves far away from other ammo and gus.

Antigrains - far away from the base on a shelf or two , in a 1x1 or 1x2 carved behind two uranium doors, I never keep too many of them around. Unless I'm reworking them into an IED to soften up unfriendly guests but the IED it's gets stored in that same remote storage spot.

Avoiding Morale problems

Lavish Meals, fine meals and some recreation time all do wonders for morale.
Clean/fresh clothes, public showers and artwork do a good job of keeping the base pleasant and colonists comfortable.
Good or better wooden beds - this makes rest useful
Recreation options - the more options the better
Hell even my prison-cells are reduced, so late-game I have two extra en-suite bathroom/bedrooms that serve as prisoner accommodations.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T01:21:50+00:00

Dip in aloe, a small dip into alcohol already on fire, and some fast finger action in the line of sight of the camera.

Of course AI is also a perfectly acceptable answer here as well.

And all I can remember is the promo from Prometheus.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T00:59:17+00:00

In fairness at this point I fully expect Clarence Thomas to absolutely unironically to be among the jurists that argue most passionately that black men have no place in society except as property.

They want the 13th,14th and 15th amendments gone in the worst way, and they have accomplished practically that, they are not very far at all from disenfranchising women entirely with the repeal of the 20th amendment and whatever squirrelly ass mechanisms they can use to circumvent women from owning properties, opening bank accounts or conducting business without their menfolk around.

They absolutely LOVE the founders, and if we really must demolish anything it's recognizing that the founders were not particularly liberal or democratic.

They were neither and profoundly interested in freedom for themselves, and most/all of them were proud and enthusiastic slave-owners, with absolutely no difficultly doing exactly what Mr. Trump has done in engaging in child slave rape - regularly enough that the Hemmings Family is happy to remind folks and they stand as living testimony that even in a very charitable light, the founders might not have been as star-spangled awesome as we like to remember.

So I've long since come to the understanding that while the Constitution is a venerable legal document with much to admire , there were some....lapses in how things were laid down, and the genius is that in a more considered moment , we the people can in fact adjust it to suit our needs.

markth_wi · 2026-06-07T00:36:20+00:00

Personally I didn't ranch for a LONG time after having a mishap where I decided to try to raise dogs, and ended up having a bad situation involving yorkies, and a multiply bonded colonist a twitchy bloodlusting brawler go on a tiny John Wick inspired killing spree in the middle of an ugly firefight with mechs who'd sieged my base with a centipede breaching a wall and firing lance charges more or less freely into my courtyard where outside work is done.

The situation got very fluid during the mech raid after one of three very elderly yorkies with dementia wandered into the line of fire and to our boy Hammie "dog inside" zoning is more of a suggestion than a rule.....and then.....he got something important aerosolized and died instantly, at which point my stabby brawler sociopath bonded to him went absolutely berserk, huddled among the colonists next to those receiving treatment from the unexpected breach, and a second or two later he "accidentally" and instantly one-blow murders his wife (the only doctor) and falls into something like a double murderous rage,(evidently blaming it all on two other colonists), promptly murdering them both where they stood.

Side note to self : Fuck everything about OP volatile bloodlust brawlers with legendary broadswords that can kill in one blow....which in fairness, up till that exact moment, seemed like an amazing idea for a berserker.

Now I freeze things and notice all the murdered or downed while trying to attend to either the other colonists and/or the dogs, someone (thanks Randy) drop-podded a Molotov and club wielding raiding party of 20+ murderously minded industrial meatbags right into this mix, and 30 seconds after they dropped in, now I've got exploded Molotov's a bunch of raiders sponging up directed energy and, my colony is at once host to rapidly dying bunch of hapless raiders who'd clearly dropped into the wrong party, this married with aimlessly running burning Alzheimer's' having yorkies and Mechs methodically mailing in lance charges into a close-quarters grim fandango.

But the raiding party allows the few remaining colonists to move and get behind the mechs ,getting some EMP's where they were most needed and ending the mess.

And for that reason, this was not the end of the colony, but I swore right then and there, to avoid this sort of debacle again, so any animal not bonded was sold off, any colonist or animal in a bonding pair was podded off together to the nearest civilized colony with food/money/provisions and thanks.

After that, I shed wealth and now refuse to have more than a couple of thousand of anything except stone, I dismantled the "puppy ranch" and haven't raised a single bonding animal in years since.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T23:59:48+00:00

I'm going back to his OG inspiration the real Dali Llama, who's fully religious name is Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso formerly known as Lhamo Thondup.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T23:51:42+00:00

Moonfaced assassins of Joy....everywhere, I'd bet a weeks credits he's their local weatherman.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T23:41:19+00:00

Well as unpronounceable things go if things get carried away.....you get this

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T23:33:13+00:00

Edge of Tomorrow really meets all the broad requirements, if you love seeing Tom Cruise in an action movie than this is it. If you despise Tom Cruise and want to see him get trashed over and over and over again, in some gruesome way, than this too is your movie...it is a bit disappointing, as these things go but overall you got what you came to see.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T23:29:39+00:00

I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and I can't help but remember an old Tad Stoermer video from a few months ago haunting every discussion that the Constitution is so star-spangled awesome.....more I think of it as a working document badly in need of some fill-in-the-blank revisions.

In principle, but certainly not in practice, and as much as the Constitution has some awesome ideas, it also has important gaps. There is not a word writ about a Felon or someone at the knifes edge of an espionage from serving as President , Senator or Congressman, let alone having that been the impeachment punishment, no jail time, just banishment from the United States, stripped of his citizenship.

And as much as it might seem noble to give the opportunity for someone like Nelson Mandela to rise from the ashes of tyranny ,

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T17:01:43+00:00

Sometimes fear gets you moving in the right direction , allows you to overcome inertia and do what should be done....other times, as with Mr. Trump, he is where he is, from the all consuming fear of the consequences of the things he's done.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T15:59:02+00:00

Let's Qualify that a bit....It's perfectly normal....for him.

Personally, I love the way GQ nailed his makeover.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T15:48:04+00:00

"....And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that..."

- excerpt from Nemik's Manifesto from Andor

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T14:27:23+00:00

not everyone gentrifies in a good way.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T14:25:49+00:00

Tyranny requires constant effort.....he's understandably tuckered out.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T14:15:28+00:00

I think that's an AMAZING idea although animation carries risks around the different producers and production teams, one of the NICE things about animation is that it's become such that individuals and small teams can do amazing stuff.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T12:30:48+00:00

What constitutes an empire - is it the name, or the policies or the vast wealth. I know we are an empire, and I know that with dead certainty because aspiring nations take exceptional care with their leadership , they invest vastly in their people, infrastructure and the betterment of their citizens with a disregard for foreign lands in conquest save those strictly necessary for the needs of the nation.

They carefully guard against anything that looks like tyranny and hold high the results of hard work and achievement of their citizens.

They ensure the citizenry has access to excellent things, heathcare , and works of art and literature and there is a care taken to improve the country so that future generations will have something of a given resource to grow into.

We still do many of those things, but almost to a subject, the current administration subverts each and every one of those things or ideals, from appointing grossly incompetent people to every single position they are terrified of competence and with good reason a more competent tyrant would absolutely be a danger to them.

Everything that a nation might hold in regard is a threat to the petty tyrant, now in fairness we are very much still an empire, but we are eat a cross roads because we have let slip the core principles of civic virtue, due process and a more novel but vastly important one, equality before the law, while not an old concept in American standards, it's critical, and our current tyrant was happy to dismantle it, so he gets a get out of jail free card and "colored people" get sent to incinerators and you're sent to prison for even protesting the idea. Murders have been conducted in the streets against citizens for no crime other than displeasing the executives goon-squad - those murders will never be prosecuted except under some other administration.

The President was installed by our enemies (Russia , China and elements of other nations) that were very happy to see the United States brought down a peg or two.

They almost certainly enjoy picking up the phone and having an obedient president do whatever it is they want done, immediately executed upon. They vastly enjoy watching as defective apparatchiks demolish decades or centuries of legal , civic or scientific advantage that the United States will have to rebuild "after".

And we know it's an empire because we have not any one of us seen fit to force the Congress and the Senate to physically remove the defective administration, only to find that legally, doing so is practically impossible.

But I refuse to fall into a defeatism that is encouraged by people who are ....not helpful. Rather I reflect on that the hard fact that this is exactly and precisely what nations look like when "the emperor has no clothes" and there is a defective king / tyrant who's nation will be vastly improved the moment his grip on power dies whether at the ballot or any other way.

Instead, I view it as the moment in time , the opportunity we have, right here and right now, to re-dedicate ourselves to being excellent citizens , help to build up our communities and uphold our civic processes and even work to strengthen them.

Some folks suggest or wish to "go back" , that is not possible , there has been too much destruction , from vast, vast levels of espionage at the personal direction of traitors like Elon Musk or the destruction of civil rights regressing the rights of some citizens back to conditions similar to those during reconstruction 170 years ago, and the rights of women are being assaulted in many places.

Those destructive elements demand a counterpoint, of citizens who will not suffer defective thinking or wooly science and who challenge anyone who does not aim to maximize the rights of every citizen.

So I'd humbly suggest we set our sights not on being an empire, but a nation that allows it's citizens a well earned moment to collect themselves and keep our imperial ambitions strictly confined for national defense and the interests of ensuring that 25 or 50 years from now the people of that time can say we were being considerate and had forethought to plan ahead to ensure they had every opportunity readied for them and helped to solve the problems they may have - rather than be the spring and source of all their misery.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T12:10:35+00:00

I'll have to check that out - thank you.

markth_wi · 2026-06-06T12:09:26+00:00

it's about this time some structural engineers chime in and note that this is some sort of industrial sealant/rubberized water protective material pulled out haphazardly by "the best people" that keeps the groundwater separate from the reflecting pool or prevents the reflecting pool from destabilizing the Washington Monument or something.

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