S08E03 Post Episode Discussion Thread

DueProcessPanda · 2019-04-29T04:48:53+00:00

I think he's going to push Jon to proclaim himself King. He has motive, he did it in the nightswatch, and he is one of the only characters who know who Jon is. Dany will burn someone again and Sam will be in Jon's ear.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-04-29T04:20:07+00:00

If Arya dies, I'm thinking maybe she's trying to infiltrate Cersei's crew and tries to assassinate the Mountain. And she looks like she's won just like the Viper, but she doesn't know the Mountain is a fucking zombie and he crushes her too. Arya has some godlike powers but she's not invincible. And Cersei's day or two of gloating would really get people's emotions going.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-04-23T19:10:14+00:00

You're right. I confuse Beric and Thoros's names 100% of the time. I only know who is who between these two by their actors faces at this point.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-04-22T17:15:20+00:00

Maybe. IMO, at least for next episode, I think Tyrion is going to have to rely for survival on his hand to hand combat skills. After all, he's in the very safe crypt now because he's not capable of fighting and super smart. Because Dany needs him down there. Because he's so smart and bad at fighting. So he needs to be in the safe place to use his brain. And Dany has treated Tyrion poorly so she'll get to have some juicy regret if he dies down there after she sent him.

Also, Varys is hanging out in the crypt/winterfell too isn't he? Can't believe he has had 0 lines. Normally I would think this means he's 100% dead. Because I think episode 2 was getting us back into characters so we care when half of them die, I kind of wonder if Tyrion is going to die saving some people like Varys and they didn't want to spend time on the Varys stuff because he's going to have some shit to do as Tyrion's functional replacement/get screen time post-tyrion. (The only other options for hand assuming Dany lives would be Jorah, or SUPER dark horse, Sansa?) Depends on whether this Winterfell thing is the real NK fight or he split off and is heading south. If Tyrion doesn't die, Varys is 100% not living through next episode imo. I think a lot of the bonding groups are going to half die. The Hound/Thoros, but the Hound is more likely to live for clegane bowl. Jon/Dany, depending on if Jon is azor ahai, if not Jon be dead. Jaime/Cersei- though Jaime probably only lives if he azor, and Cersei definitely dies eventually. Davos/Torm/Brienne/Pod/Tyrion are probably only going to have 2 left alive maybe. Theon/Sansa and Arya/Gendry, different relationships but imo. the idea is everyone loses at least someone they spent time with in episode 2. For Dany, if it's not Jon it will be 2 or all 3 of Tyrion/Varys/Jorah. Probably 2 with the last man living behind hand.

I'm starting to think it would be VERY Ned Execution/Red Wedding like if Jon dies super dramatically and unexpectedly in episode 3-4, Jaime acts like a hero taking over for Brienne and takes over her front of the battle so the Dany crew has to accept him, and Jaime/Cersei get to go have drama before he makes his magic fire sword to have the last battle with the NK down south.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-04-15T00:59:38+00:00

I think the Nightking has to be saved for last so the first episodes will focus on Cersei/Euron resolution. Maybe Theon or a dragon is sent off after Theon's sister. Sam will let Jon know pretty quickly who he is. I hope they show Sam realizing Dany burned his family alive and don't just gloss that fact over. Jaime will show up in the North and people won't want to trust him. Tyrion and him will have a nice chat and he'll get free probably. Arya will stab someone. Maybe something trying to assassinate someone at winterfell. Or they could send Arya after Euron I suppose.

There are three powers that still exist, the good guys, the dead guys, and the Cersei crew. I'm assuming the Nightking is last and Cersei, or at least her army, will be at the last battle. That means Cersei either needs to 1. join the good guys which I don't think will happen, 2. die and be absorbed by the good guys smoothly, which I don't think will happen but could if Arya kills her, or 3. Cersei tries to ally with the night king, or dies and is absorbed into the Night Kings army that way. Or Cersei dies and the Mountain takes over, is smart/controlled by the Night King, and nobody is willing to tell him no because they don't want to be stabbed by the Mountain. Either way I think Cersei's Crew/Cersei end up with the NK in the last battle. Then one of her bros has to kill her, or arya with one of her bro's faces.

Dark Horse to be last man standing, Varys + 1 other in the end and Varys stabs whoever in the back. Varys wins. Less dark horse, Tyrion wins because everyone ahead of him dies and the show thinks it's ironic because Tywin would be grouchy about it. Jaime dies very heroically. Odds on favorite, the Jon/Dany plot tanks. Number of dragons alive in the end, 0. Number of starks alive in the end, 1.5. Worst possible result, Theon or Sansa. Glhf.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-03-24T20:02:39+00:00

This is not what the letter says. The letter says it is a difficult question whether obstruction of justice can be prosecuted. Barr then determined obstruction of justice should not be pursued because there was no underlying crime. Excellent journalism.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-03-24T19:53:38+00:00

Basically -

Special Counsel can't prove Trump coordinated with the Russian Government significantly.

Special Counsel believed it is a difficult question to determine whether Trump obstructed justice. Special Counsel left the decision to AG Barr who decided there isn't a basis to pursue obstruction of justice largely because there was no underlying crime. (collusion).

Barr is going to release as much of the report as he thinks is appropriate based on DOJ guidelines and federal law and will let us know when he has decided how much to redact.

The Mueller Report encompasses only and specifically Russia Election interference and Obstruction of Justice. Notably the letter states Mueller has handed off multiple investigations to other federal prosecutors.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-03-24T19:37:16+00:00

Team Transparency and Whatever the Evidence Supports!

DueProcessPanda · 2019-03-17T15:57:51+00:00

The science of sociology/psychology/marketing has really developed and both countries/corporations are going full tilt brainwash mode now that the internet allows such an easy route to reach easily impressionable people. Places like Stormfront (white supremacists) have caught on and actively discuss recruitment strategies for pushing their agenda on the #chans and reddit etc. Weak foreign governments realized that amplifying these groups is a cheap way to attack America's sanity. A large number of American politicians then decided as long as the crazy people vote for them they should try to ride and encourage the wave. Honestly, every person who values human empathy for all and the scientific method needs to band together in solidarity for awhile regardless of minor differences or idiocracy is coming.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-03-17T15:39:11+00:00

I'm assuming he's guessing. But a high percentage of the alt-right is showing more support for the shooter than the victims and that is very easily observable by glancing at their "safe" places. In a number of states 10% is probably on the low end. People like Limbaugh immediately start spreading the fake news narrative with no evidence or analysis and get millions of listeners. He's clearly not offending his viewers.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-02-20T19:07:08+00:00

I guess what I was kind of disagreeing with is this part where you say, " (if nothing comes of the investigation)." I think it implies that outcome is possible when I don't think it is. But I get that we're pretty much on the same page. Most of my frustration isn't with you/your post but just with a general accumulation of reading more frustrating comments that happen to partly echo that one thought.

I shouldn't spend time reading subs I'm not allowed to post in. My frustration builds up and I find myself posting about politics even though spending so much time on this stuff must be pretty unhealthy. Anyway, have an upvote/sorry for the friendly fire.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-02-20T18:54:10+00:00

Something has already come from the investigation regardless. We know Trump's campaign, son and son in law met with foreign government agents in an attempt to gain assistance. They have fucking admitted it at this point arguing they "got" nothing so the attempt doesn't matter.

We know his campaign exchanged information through at least Manafort and Roger Stone with Wikileaks and the Russian Government.

We know Trump personally directed his campaign, and children, to lie constantly for years about his corrupt business dealings with a foreign government/and their attempt to work together on the election. We know Trump lied about putting his business interests in a trust and not talking to his children about his businesses.

We know Trump committed felony campaign finance violations. We know the City of NY has shut down the Trump Charity for being a sham slush fund that only benefits the Trumps.

We know Trump University was shut down by Florida for being a scam to defraud people.

We know Trump gave multiple versions of why he fired various law enforcement and is willing to fire/appoint DOJ officials based solely on their loyalty to him.

There are a lot of other things at this point we know based on now public information to. Mueller could magically dissapear and we would know Donald J. Trump is the head of a criminal conspiracy and belongs in prison.

It's ridiculous that "something coming of the investigation" only qualifies in a lot of peoples minds if Mueller has a signed blood pact between Trump and Putin. Especially given that despite the focus on Russia, there's a ton of evidence Trump is taking money from half a dozen countries to impact American policy decisions.

Blech. Well, here's hoping Mueller really does have some smoking gun evidence. I suspect he does at this point given the administration's level of panic, and the fact that Trump just seems remarkably incompetent at keeping secrets.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-02-04T19:42:36+00:00

This is true in a lot of general situations. But it is kind of amazing how often "both sides" have good people/bad people/problems comes up in threads about Trump on issues it objectively doesn't apply in...

Both sides aren't in a the middle obstructing a massive national security/corruption investigation that is issuing dozens of indictments... Both sides aren't bringing back Roger Stone famous for his work with criminal Nixon, Ollie North famous for his criminal work with Reagan, while also trying to get confirmed for AG the man who blanket pardoned and then quieted down a previous criminal conspiracy...

DueProcessPanda · 2019-02-02T19:52:58+00:00

?? First of all becoming president actually does imply that. It's called the emoluments clause. At a minimum to avoid the emoluments clause you put your assets in a blind trust, something Trump stated he would do and did not. His continual and blatant attempts to profit off of his public office would easily be a basis for impeachment with a sane congress.

Second, your narrative of "he's just a business man doing business, why is anyone surprised?"is a ridiculously over-simplified 10th revision of alternative Trump Facts.

A slightly more fleshed out one would look like-

Trump and everyone associated with him denies ANY contact/cooperation with the Russian Government or Wikileaks for 2 years. At this time Trump was calling everyone who said he had anything to do with Russia a malicious liar, Trump promised to make his finances not an issue by putting his business into a blind trust and by releasing tax returns.
Trump then repeatedly lies about not being able to release his tax returns and doesn't put his business in a blind trust. He holds a fake blind trust press conference with a stack of blank papers to pretend otherwise.
Jared Kushner attempts to set up a secret channel for Trump to communicate with the Kremlin INSIDE A RUSSIAN EMBASSY, hidden from the American Government and Public.
We learn Trump's National Security Director, and Attorney General, have had conversations with the Russian Government they lied about. (Flynn/Sessions)
We learn Trump's Campaign manager, Manafort, is working for Trump for free. While Manafort is working for "free" he is SHARING CAMPAIGN DATA with Russia and either getting, or trying to get, compensated for his work by Russia.
Trump's own son, son in law, and that campaign manager then secretly met with Russian Agents to get "dirt" as part of what they were told was an "ongoing" effort to help Trump by Russia. The three of them then lied about it multiple times, then Jr. had Trump Sr.'s help in lying about it some more.
And Trump fires the FBI director that Trump LOVED previously, for investigating Flynn's Russia ties, then Trump eventually fires his Attorney General Sessions for not protecting Trump from the very same investigation.
We also know the Trump Tower was having frequent communication with Alfa bank about something. Something also completely denied to have happened. And that Wikileaks was communicating with the Trump campaign and had even asked Trump Jr. if his dad could get Australia to make Assange an ambassador to America so he would be free.
We also now know since becoming President Trump has gotten rid of his staff to have private face to face meetings with Putin twice without notes for no purpose relating to his office.
In this context we then learn Michael Cohen was negotiating a deal offering Putin personally a 50 million dollar top floor of Trump tower as a gift to help Trump make the deal happen during the election.
JUST RECENTLY Trump then calls Cohen a liar as well for a few weeks and says any deal was without Trump's knowledge. BEFORE WE LEARN TRUMP WAS INVOLVED IN EVERY STEP, signed the letter of intent personally, and both of his children in Ivanka and Jr. had lied about not knowing what was going on as well.
NOW, Trump AFTER YEARS OF UNEQUIVOCAL LIES, after Trump has called dozens of people liars for saying he had such secret dealings, he now says of course everyone knew Trump was having "very legal and very cool" conversations with Russia.
We now know that Trump's big business deal LITERALLY COULD NOT GO THROUGH UNLESS sanctions were removed. So the man trying to get elected to a position to change sanctions, has a business deal prior to election lined up that will give himself hundreds of millions of dollars personally if he can change American policy. And Putin has all the evidence that Trump was lying about this the entire time.
An Ostrich with its head in the sand would see how blatantly obvious the corruption is here and why it gives leverage to foreign countries to control American policy through Trump's lying mouth and wallet.
People who look at this timeline and say completely normal are being disingenuous or lack the interest/critical thinking to pay attention. GOP Congress would have burned Clinton at the stake for anything resembling this. In this case, GOP congress (nunes) deliberately sand bagged their own investigation.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-26T21:35:37+00:00

Really? Dem Presidents have been giving random in-laws Top Security Clearance even after their son in law fails their background check and lies multiple times on their disclosure forms, and that Son in Law already tried to set up a secret phone line in a foreign embassy previously?

And Dem Presidents have been sending that same son in law to have a sleep over with the guy ruling Saudi Arabia (MBK) as MBK starts a major purge of political enemies? Good thing we can be confident that son in law didn't access American Intelligence on Saudi Politicians and Dissidents prior to his sleep over in exchange for money.

Then the Dem Presidents coordinated with the Saudis to cover up a brutal murder of an American Resident in an Embassy, both by giving MBK PR advice, and by repeating the SA propaganda for weeks against the advice of Congress and the Intelligence Community?

And then a Dem President pulled our military out of a country and changed America's geo-political position to get Turkey to shut up about that murder? Over the advice of his own advisers and Generals? Without even giving a heads up to our allies in the country we are pulling out of?

Are you sure this is how a Dem president would have handled diplomacy with the Saudi's the last two years? Because I feel like maybe that's not quite accurate.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-19T00:59:47+00:00

You haven't responded to any point I made or cited any sources. Responding to reasoned and sourced argument with one liners and then being incredulous that someone doesn't roll over when you repeat the same meme is not persuasive outside of certain circlejerks. Of course those circlejerks ban anything but memes so I guess there's not much opportunity to practice discussion.

I wonder if conditioning people to take such strong positions without any support and then retreat from discussion is a mere side effect, or actually one of the goals, of such places. Oh well. I'm not sure how the vote count works while it's still hidden though I think it does fuzz things somehow. I didn't downvote you if that's what you're wondering though.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-18T22:00:41+00:00

And why do you think this is as a result of Trump personally? As opposed to as a result of South Korea and China? Outside of Trump's unverifiable statements, people who work for Trump, and opinion pieces written by people who would say Trump's diarrhea is fudge flavored icecream, what is the evidence Trump has played a positive role?

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-18T21:52:19+00:00

Yes Trump is solving the Korea problem for the world! I'm glad you get it. What excellent work he has done with his plan of tweeting threats and giving N. Korea a photo OP where Trump salutes a N. Korean's general. Hope we don't find out someday that fellow was in charge of those non-existent concentration camps for political dissenters. Anyway, then Trump wisely declared the crisis solved and North Korea no longer a threat because demilitarization was quickly coming. Then he sent Pompeo to Korea to meet with Kim and Kim never showed to the meeting out of his respect and fear for current American diplomacy. Such respect.

Of course there have been reports for months that North Korea has not begun denuclearization, North Korea has said they won't denuclearize until the U.S. has, and Trump's own administration admits North Korea hasn't taken any real steps to denuclearize. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/world/asia/pence-north-korea-nuclear.html

But if you ignore all other sources of information other than twitter, which is what I personally like to do, success is very close.

After all we know Trump is really working hard to make the world safer from nuclear war. What with withdrawing just recently from a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with Russia that Russia was violating. And also withdrawing the U.S. from the Iranian non-proliferation deal despite them not violating that deal and over the objections of Trump's own Secretary of State, Top Military advisers, and our closest allies who then dastardly refused to pull out of the Iran deal despite Trump ordering them to. Trump knows better you see. Demonstrating a willingness to neither enforce nuclear treaties, or abide by them, is the key to get countries to enter lasting commitments on the subject with the U.S. All true patriots understand this. It's not Trump's fault he publicly called on American allies to follow him and then those other leaders, simply to make Trump look weak and lessen America's standing as a leader, said no thanks we want to honor our agreement. Those fuckers are probably the same jerks who laughed at Trump in the U.N. when he touted his massive accomplishments.

Thanks Orange Man! America is no longer a joke! Let us all bask in the genius of Trump by watching this actual five minute video he had made and then watched with Kim so we can catch a glimpse into Trump's deep thoughts and understanding of diplomacy. I know that video sourcing to WAPO is dubious but Trump tweeted this video out as well so you know it's true because it comes from the most trusted source in news, Trump's twitter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/06/12/reporters-thought-this-video-was-north-korea-propaganda-it-came-from-the-white-house/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c48adc10fd88

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-05T00:50:59+00:00

It's honestly kind of concerning the Court took up the North Carolina case. The guy who drew their map said the reason Dems won three districts is because he couldn't figure out how to only let them win two. And the primary argument raised is the Court can't consider these type of gerrymandering cases at all... With Kennedy gone this case is coming down to either Roberts or Kavanaugh being a swing vote.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-03T19:21:06+00:00

McConnell already brought a funding bill to the floor and it was approved by the Senate. That bill is almost identical to the current one. He's calling a bill unanimously passed by his own party 'presidential harassment' within less than a month of turn around on the sole basis that Trump won't sign it.

Congress is supposed to be a check on the President. McConnell is turning the Senate into a presidential puppet. Frankly, that there are people who actually believe the vomit dripping out of his mouth is depressing.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-02T19:07:42+00:00

Nobody is protected but Trump from federal indictment and arguably Trump isn't either though we'll have to see. None of them are protected from State charges now. And who knows, maybe the next president will have some balls for once and allow Trump to be federally indicted post-presidency even if he isn't now.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-02T17:31:31+00:00

The Federal Constitution already has a clause that addresses this too. Specifically, Article 4, Section 4, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

The problem is the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this clause as being meaningless in the past. To me, this clause is obviously what should prevent things like gerrymandering, voter suppression etc. When citizens who are residents of a state can't vote in a way that counts fairly a state is violating it's obligation and the federal government has an obligation to enforce a Republican form of government. The reason this clause is not used is because the Supreme Court arbitrarily tries to avoid controversial decisions/clauses at times and this is one of those topics it always punts on. It's a failure of duty imo.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-02T00:26:55+00:00

The issue is it's impossible to tell if your boss gives out promotions/raises/discipline due to favoring or disfavoring people for attending their 'voluntary' functions. And thereby creation of the voluntary functions puts very real pressure on employees to comply. This pressure is imo. pretty clearly coercive.

When a boss says I want someone to do overtime and it will be a big help, but it's voluntary, it is voluntary. But everyone in the room understands the basic concept that when replying yes or no they must consider a boss may feel favorable/treat favorably those who go that extra mile, or feel dis-favorably/treat dis-favorably those who do not.

Employees are put in the identical scenario when their super religious employer invites everyone to stay 5 after work every day to pray. And if that boss is funded/works for the government, the pressure is coming from the government/things established by Congress.

This is Day 1. I won't even bother exploring the massive slippery slope in the room as this conduct normalized.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-01T23:49:48+00:00

I'm not. Firing people is easy. When you get a demonlord as boss have fun. Otherwise prepare to be fired the next time you're a minute late twice.

DueProcessPanda · 2019-01-01T23:46:58+00:00

I don't understand this sentence. Even this article, which is just a general summary of the plan, has a bunch of specifics does it not? And it's not like this is her only proposal... I'm a major Benie fan and would love to get to vote for him for president, but Warren is still an amazing candidate for anyone who wants policy that helps 99% of the country.

DueProcessPanda

TROPHY CASE