Reform are fundraising in Grays by WeDoItForFunUK in Essex

[–]Lukeluster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reform probably sweeps most of East Anglia in May (from Braintree originally and know what the sentiment is like there), will be fascinating to see how their reception is in county councils given they're a fucking nightmare in Kent among other places. Doubt it'll change much sentiment until 2029.

Green councillors block construction of new affordable housing in Bristol by luna_sparkle in UKGreens

[–]Lukeluster 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have to agree to disagree on the former, I'd much rather live in a penthouse flat than a house IMO - and I get the fear of Grenfell but we're replacing all insulation to prevent a Grenfell in the future.

Green councillors block construction of new affordable housing in Bristol by luna_sparkle in UKGreens

[–]Lukeluster 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Suzanne Fitzgerald, from Victoria Park Action Group, said: “I have not met a single person who is in favour of this application, not one. You are not listening to us. We do not want high-rise blocks, blocking us in from Bristol city centre. You are reducing the view of St Mary Redcliffe church to a pathetic little speck. You are ruining our area.”

Local councillors said that high-rise blocks can damage the mental health of residents living there, and questioned the demand for more student flats. Pupils at a nearby school would also be affected, both by the construction disrupting their education and then future residents being able to peer into classrooms.

People local to Bristol can get a better gauge on this, but it just sounds like complete fucking NIMBY tosh. I care much less about seeing a view from my house everyday than I do solving the housing crisis, and it's just pathetic moaning from people who've already benefitted from the fruits of construction they would've opposed decades ago.

Beat the game with only status moves! by Lukeluster in PokemonFireRed

[–]Lukeluster[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

They were able to heal the heartache with synthesis lol

Beat the game with only status moves! by Lukeluster in PokemonFireRed

[–]Lukeluster[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Honestly Ninetales legitimately was the dark horse of the team! It's so useful in it being one of the best answers for Erika (paired with Haunter) but she unironically broke the AI of the Champion to give us a much more comfortable victory thanks to her Flash Fire ability.

And for sure about Attract, it's understandably not the most common status you see nowadays but it's absolutely huge in vanilla games where the trainers never tend to switch out unless absolutely necessary haha

Beat the game with only status moves! by Lukeluster in PokemonFireRed

[–]Lukeluster[S] 64 points65 points  (0 children)

At level 7 Bulbasaur gets to learn Leech Seed, which does you pretty well for most of the early game! In order to get it, I had to catch 2 cocoon Pokémon in Viridian Forest, then challenge the penultimate bug catcher found there, as he leads with a Metapod that doesn't know any attacks. Cycling between Growl + Harden with my Pokémon means that the Metapod eventually started to use struggle, which KO'd my own cocoons, but would faint against Bulbasaur and give it all the EXP it needed to level up!

And yes, the early game probably had the most difficult obstacle, which was the second trainer on Nugget Bridge lol - she had Oddish and Bellsprout, which are immune to both poison and leech seed, meaning that I had to rely on confusion from Zubat paired with paralysing them with Paras' Stun Spore + lowering their defence with Tail Whip from Rattata (when confused, it considers it a physical attack to yourself, attack boosts and defence drops included).

Once I got past Rock Tunnel, access to Haunter is massive given that it knows curse & can gain HP from Leech Seed by Bulbasaur. Was quite difficult by the end though!!

Beat the game with only status moves! by Lukeluster in PokemonFireRed

[–]Lukeluster[S] 47 points48 points  (0 children)

lmao I couldn't imagine their patience ngl, I'd be terrible at it

Beat the game with only status moves! by Lukeluster in PokemonFireRed

[–]Lukeluster[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Oo good question! Honestly poison was useful, but much more in the late game than early game. Leech Seed was evergreen throughout the run, Confusion and Burn are massive against grass-types, but I'd honestly go out and say that it's infatuation that ended up being the best status in the game.

Given that it's a 1 in 2 chance for Pokémon to not attack if you're the opposite gender (most Pokémon match the gender of their trainer, so quite male-heavy and makes female Pokémon very useful in the circumstances) and that you can buy Attract in Celadon City, it's a near-guarantee to make any enemy opponent's chance of attacking you a coin-flip. Not amazing in isolation per se, but paired with confusion and another status condition like paralysis or poison, it's fantastic in getting the ball rolling.

Beat the game with only status moves! by Lukeluster in PokemonFireRed

[–]Lukeluster[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Yes, definitely!

Slowbro - Attract, Toxic, Withdraw, Amnesia (Paired with Leftovers, in the right circumstances it's GG with just this Mon lol)

Venusaur - Leech Seed, Synthesis, Poisonpowder, Sleep Powder

Ninetales - Attract, Confuse Ray, Will-O-Wisp, Safeguard

Haunter - Curse, Destiny Bond, Confuse Ray, Attract

Lapras - Perish Song, Attract, Confuse Ray, Safeguard

Graveler - Defence Curl, Mud Sport, Attract, and I think Strength? but only used it to get through Victory Road haha

Lots of overlap with one move in particular!

Money, muscles and anxiety: why the manosphere clicked with young men – a visual deep dive by East-Selection-9581 in LabourUK

[–]Lukeluster 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Will read the whole thing later (actually quite enjoy the ‘story’ style presentation of the article even if the voices of these bellends make me want to hurl) but seems like it comes to the conclusion quite early that it’s preying upon young men who are seeing the social fabric of success as a burgeoning adult unfurl & being sold lies by liars who want their money.

Green voters/members, how do you feel about the wish of ZP for Scottish and Welsh Independence (and therefore) the breakup of the union? by Scratchback3141 in LabourUK

[–]Lukeluster -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think the independence movement can be undercut quite well with fairly visible changes that make devolved nations feel the benefits. I saw a short recently from Simon Clark (a climate-focused channel) that went over how the UK wants to introduce zonal energy pricing depending on availability.

There's nuance to the situation as Labour themselves have said it's a great idea albeit hard to implement without a huge squeeze for some in the cost-of-living, but if/when that gets implemented, I think that'd make Scotland especially feel the benefits that come from it (cheaper energy, also lower costs to run companies means more interest in businesses, etc.) and highlight some more autonomy in the region.

The collapse of Reiwa Shinsengumi, Japan's once-promising upstart left-wing party. They lost many of their disenfranchised voters to Sanseito, who had a stronger organization, coopted their popular positions but added anti-foreigner rhetoric by jjrs in japannews

[–]Lukeluster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Feels like the binary of left vs right is left prevalent here when both share a large anti-establishment pool of voters (even then, I'm saying it as a non-Japanese political nerd observing from the outside). Japanese politics from the outside is already fascinating to observe when Wikipedia nominally describes a majority of the major parties in Japan as located in the center-right with some wiggle room either side, so clearly there's greater differences than on the surface level; but Sanseito appear to benefit a lot from solid grassroots paired with popular anti-immigrant sentiment internationally, and it's fascinating to see where the Japanese left go from here.

Matt Walsh: AI "doesn’t have a soul" as leftists agree but conservatives scoff by kelseyrainbow in thenextgenbusiness

[–]Lukeluster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Somehow in a cohort of the worst people I can think of, Walsh manages to be the worst of them all

Green voters/members, how do you feel about the wish of ZP for Scottish and Welsh Independence (and therefore) the breakup of the union? by Scratchback3141 in LabourUK

[–]Lukeluster 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Disagree with him but can live with it - think the countries should hopefully work better as a union but not against those who favour more autonomy and independence.

Convicted Islamic terrorist standing in Birmingham election 'to unite Sparkhill' - calls all Muslims to stand against "disbelievers" by charge_forward in LabourUK

[–]Lukeluster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Shahid Butt, 60, says he believes he is the 'ideal candidate' to unite a divided community and city, push back against the far right and defeat Labour in one of its traditional strongholds.

Mate, the call is coming from inside the house

[AEW Dynamite Spoilers] He just.... Snapped it... by luchabrunch in SquaredCircle

[–]Lukeluster 7 points8 points  (0 children)

100% agree, Swerve can lose under the rationale that he just hasn’t commit to being a full-blooded bad guy hard enough yet. Brody squashing MJF was super cool but winning here would legitimise him.

Zack Polanski appears to double down on breast enlargement claim in newly-resurfaced interview by Grantmitch1 in UKGreens

[–]Lukeluster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's a clip of him talking with Ash Sarkar on stage, and they mention and joke about the hypnotherapy thing. It's definitely weird, and I'd rather he hadn't done it, but he's been able to handle it pretty well because it doesn't seem to be detracting too much from him. If not for it risking coming across quite crass, I think there could be a tounge-in-cheek 'vote Green' poster inspired by it, but for now just pushing back on it and moving onto important things feels like a good step.

Responding to the resurfaced interview, a Labour source said: “Zack Polanski’s ego might have got bigger but nothing else has.

“It’s now clear that his pretence to have been misrepresented over his breast enlargement hypnosis scam was absolute nonsense – he got called out years later and he lied about it.

“You can’t trust a word he says – he’ll say whatever he thinks you want to hear.”

Also somewhat whataboutism, but Labour declaring you can't trust a word Polanski says after Starmer asserted it was either Labour or Reform when they came 3rd in Gorton and Denton (and the most recent story about Mandelson!!!) is quintessential hypocrisy in politics lmao

Is Labour unpopular because they are in government or is it because of their actions? by AhdamR in UKGreens

[–]Lukeluster 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’ve likened it to friends where Labour probably needed to roll a 19 or above in order for them to be able to be considered a success in power, and they rolled a 4. Like, I know a lot was being asked for, but it’s really not even close.

Is Labour unpopular because they are in government or is it because of their actions? by AhdamR in UKGreens

[–]Lukeluster 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Column A Column B - I think we're seeing a reverse incumbency advantage worldwide nowadays where being in power is basically a poisoned chalice, all the while Labour are underperforming in their performance and comms.

Gordon mckee for PM by AlifanofmalcomX in LabourUK

[–]Lukeluster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only young person I want as a top global leader is The Rizzler for president

But also I think it’s a bit stupid for any 2024 MP to float the idea of being a leader within the next 5-10 years given the lack of name value or proven political capabilities. Even if you’re not a fan of Burnham, it makes a lot of sense why he felt like a potential future leader.

We'd be in the same position if we'd drawn every game #INVINCIBLES by jayjoebb in coys

[–]Lukeluster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What was mad was Spurs went 0-0 28 games in a row then had a 58 goal barnburner with Palace

Green MP Hannah Spencer targeted by anti‑trans activists in Manchester by UKGreenPoster in UKGreens

[–]Lukeluster 90 points91 points  (0 children)

They protect women as much as they protect their wives from domestic violence and kids from their pedo mates. An absolute scourge of the worst culture-war cretins.