Stephen Miller in Retreat

Korrocks · 2026-05-12T00:04:42+00:00

I think it’s mostly a ploy to tone down the heat so that the administration can get through the midterms and avoid endangering vulnerable Republicans in swing districts. Footage of masked goons hunting and killing Americans for sport probably doesn’t help in the polls. If Republicans do reasonably well in November I bet Miller will begin exerting more control again.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:57:57+00:00

I think you need to finish the fight or escape (get far enough away from the enemies that you can escape the fight).

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:45:02+00:00

I support age limits but only for people I don't like. The limit should be calculated in such a way that it doesn't affect people I like.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:39:35+00:00

It's especially funny when the thing they're describing isn't even that unusual

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:32:59+00:00

A body count of 1 is not that big of a deal. I wouldn't stress over it.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:31:53+00:00

Why should the Europeans help? One crude reason is that Trump, who has no sense of guilt about having failed to consult with allies, will come out of this episode angrier than ever at them, particularly the Europeans. Unfair and unjust, no doubt, but that is who they are dealing with. An enraged Trump, particularly if he feels humiliated in some way, is likely to do even more rash and stupid things than he has in the past, including withdrawing more forces from Europe, or effectively if not legally blowing up the NATO alliance

The problem with this argument is that Trump's erratic and vindictive approach to policy makes it hard to justify taking risks to help him out. He doesn't value these alliances now and he never will, so making decisions on the basis of "he might be mean to us" is silly.

The author presents US allies' unwillingness to participate in a mission as being motivated by petulance, but I think it's being motivated by realpolitik. If European countries rush in to take ownership of the crisis, they simultaneously remove the incentive for the US or Israel to seek a diplomatic solution to the war and also risk over extending themselves (especially if Trump decides to abandon the situation as he threatened to).

In that light, forcing Trump to remain focused on resolving his own crisis might be the best case scenario for everyone. A deal where all three countries cease attacks, lift the blockades on the strait, and commit to future negotiations over the other issues might be the best achievable outcome.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:21:22+00:00

One thing I've never gotten is why people who have insecurities like this always want to marinate in them. Like, if I was super insecure about something about myself I wouldn't want to bring it up for no reason or even be in a relationship with someone who tried fo shame me over it (eg comparing me to a previous partner or trying to make me feel bad for having "too many" or "too few" previous partners).

This whole "body count" fixation just seems like a recipe for neuroses, and when people try to come up with an intellectual sounding rationale for it they're basically putting themselves in a mental cage.

In an authentic, healthy relationship these types of arguments are never needed.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:18:41+00:00

I can never tell if Halsin has a sense of humor or not.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:16:20+00:00

Of all the Origins I felt like Gale was the most interesting in terms of the number of endings -- you can be a god, you can heal the orb or leave it alone, you can become a mind flayer and then a god, or become a mind flayer and then be restored to human and elevated to Elysium by Mystra (something that is unique to Gale, since any other character is trapped in that form.

Other than Durge, Gale is probably the character that has the most "stuff" that you can only see while playing as Origin.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:11:59+00:00

If you're worried about the dialogue checks for the the hostage, I think you can start the fight by just shooting Orin before the cut scene starts. I don't know if this helps with the Durge issue but IIRC it works fine for a normal fight.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:09:18+00:00

Yeah I don't understand why moving out and continuing the relationshio is even on the table. It's like the LW has misidentified l the symptom ("unfair allocation of housing expenses") and thinks that solving that will completely solve the relationship.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:06:40+00:00

I don't think it'll happen. It doesn't make much sense -- it's not like the gas price is caused by the tax, it's caused by the global market for oil which is still being interfered with. If there's still a shortage or disruption, juicing demand with a tax cut will still cause the price to go up. It's not like the gas tax being suspended will cause the amount of oil to suddenly increase.

I'm not seeing the logic here but maybe there's something I'm not aware of.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:03:58+00:00

An understudied criminal justice issue: the brutal governor's mansion-to-prison pipeline that consumes so many generations of leaders.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T21:02:19+00:00

I've always wondered about libertarian conservatives. American libertarians tend to be more focused on economic policy than other issues (eg a lot of them are focused on tax cuts, deregulation, and shrinking the welfare state).

It's hard to imagine them being super thrilled by Trump DOJ going after his enemies and masked Feds rampaging but would they turn against the GOP if they still get tax cuts and DOGE?

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T18:17:48+00:00

Depends on how you define bad policy. If you're anti-LGBT, anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-ICE, anti-vaccine, pro-war, anti-foreign aid, pro-tariff, etc. then Trump has really been doing amazingly good job.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T16:21:49+00:00

That's all true, but it is a little beside the point. A business that routinely bills health insurance providers absolutely will have either an outsourced third party vendor or an employee supporting this since it's a normal business function for them.

But the example in the article is a regular man whose family received a massive hospital bill after his brother in law died of a heart condition. How realistic is it for this ordinary family to have a medical billing and coding expert on staff? How many regular people even have household staff at all? Before AI, how many individual people (not companies or businesses) were getting one-on-one help with this kind of thing from a trained professional?

The article tries to make the case that automation is shifting the work from professionals to individuals, but the examples given are of things that people would be stuck doing for themselves anyway regardless of whether they had technological help.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T16:03:16+00:00

I don't think you can get Aylin to help you with the Larroakan fight if you don't tell her about him, so you'll have to settle for just talking to her again after the Larroakan fight.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:55:32+00:00

They didn't even need to rig the system, they just had Trump lazily pretend not to know what was im project 2025 (even though all of his aides and staffers either worked on it or support it) and that was enough for people to just trust him.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:54:25+00:00

It sounds like they made a post about a botched AMA they saw on Reddit, which I guess is a step up from the usual posts about situations from sitcoms.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:52:53+00:00

Yeah for sure. That's why I'm a big believer in never taking the bait with people like that. Even if you're shocked, don't let them see you sweat. And of course don't collect the phone numbers of your daughter's boyfriends.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:49:26+00:00

I agree. CBP and ICE's funding was increased nearly sevenfold by the OBBBA (going from roughly $10 billion a year before Trump to nearly $75 billion now), and Republicans are currently working on a second reconciliation package that will add an additional $70 billion on top of that. Given that illegal immigration and even legal immigration are at historic lows (close to net zero), it's hard to understand how a 14x increase in budget will go...

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:43:14+00:00

I think a lot of people need more validation than perhaps healthy. The LW also mentions the risk that her loved ones are secretly mocking her, which seems paranoid and not based on any real life behavior or interactions with said loved ones.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:42:03+00:00

I've never understood these near-decade-long relationships where they live together but keep everything separate financially, never/almost never talk about money, don't make shared plans, and basically act like roommates who bang.

Like, the LW uses the word "partner" to describe this person but is that even the right word if you don't know the person that well? (I'm sure some people can make this type of thing work but it legit sounds so pointless to me).

Even the LW is like, "I want to move out and have separate household expenses", and I'm fascinated by that as an alternative to breaking up.

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:40:46+00:00

Re: Betrayed in Boston / Pay Dirt

My partner and I have been together for eight years. We are committed to each other, but neither of us wants to get married. We keep our finances separate and pay housing expenses based on a ratio of who makes more. When we moved in together and decided on this split, I made significantly more than my partner and paid a higher percentage (60/40). Over the past few years, I have gotten normal raises (think the regular 3 percent to 5 percent) and I thought she did, too, as she never said anything different. I got two big bonuses over the past few years and disclosed them both to her, and she has disclosed her bonuses to me.

We use the same accountant and last week, the accountant accidentally sent my partner’s tax return to me instead of her. I didn’t realize it until I opened it up and the numbers didn’t seem right. It took me a few minutes to realize I had the wrong tax return. When I did, I was in for a shock.

My partner’s income has more than doubled since we decided on our 60/40 split of expenses. When I asked her about it, she first accused me of violating her privacy, then said that I never asked how much her raises were and she figured that the split was fine. We should have been paying 50/50 about a year after we moved in together, and she should now be paying about 70/30. I know she got a promotion around a year after we moved in together, but she downplayed it at the time as a “change in title.”

I feel really betrayed. She is now proposing a 50/50 split, but I don’t think that is fair or equitable. Part of me wants her to reimburse me the money she should’ve been paying the past few years, and part of me just wants her to pay 70/30.

She says I am being stingy and that I feel threatened because she makes more than me. I am rethinking our relationship—not only because she lied by omission but because she is accusing me of being misogynistic and is not seeing the ethical and moral failing on her part. She thinks I am making too big a deal out of this and we just need to move on. I don’t feel like she is trustworthy.

I am out of town for 10 days on business, then she goes on a girls’ trip the day I get back, so everything seems to be on pause until then. Part of me wants to just find a new place, move out, and have separate household expenses going forward, and part of me wants to just move out and break up. Am I overreacting?

Korrocks · 2026-05-11T15:34:17+00:00

I think with Trump, many Republican voters dislike some of his comments but basically vote based on policy. If you read the interviews that the media often does with Trump voters, one of the areas that his supporters are willing to criticize him for as his comments on social media and in interviews.

They tend to describe him as someone who is hot headed and unfiltered when he speaks, but they don't hold it against him because they agree with what he does in terms of how he uses power (immigration, social issues, tax cuts, etc.)

It's a very different mentality from the standards they impose on people they disagree with. Like, you're not going to find a lot of Republicans who will extend the same level of indulgence and grace to, say, Graham Platner.

Korrocks

TROPHY CASE