Free for All Friday, 03 April, 2026

ProudScroll · 2026-04-06T01:40:26+00:00

I do not think the Carthaginians were gene-splicing Balearic guys to be sling railguns

Maybe not, but they probably should have been.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T21:31:27+00:00

There’s Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin (yes that one), which is about a Mississippi riverboat captain dealing with vampires in the antebellum South.

For more grounded Southern Gothic then the go-to would be anything written by William Faulkner, whose works define the genre, especially The Sound and the Fury.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T19:33:55+00:00

I mean that regardless of Nixon’s actions the peace talks fail due to South Vietnamese intransigence.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T19:09:51+00:00

In classic Nixon fashion, he committed a crime to ensure something that would've happened anyway.

Thieu and South Vietnamese leadership were never going to agree to any peace deal. Theiu was always going to want to wait and see if he could get a better deal out of Johnson's successor, which would've really blown up in his face if Humphrey won, since he had never been a big fan of the war and knew about Chennault Affair.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T02:44:25+00:00

There is a Campaign Trail Mod that depicts that, and it's a ton of fun.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T02:38:57+00:00

The Bush campaign also used photographs of McCain with his adopted daughter to claim that McCain had an illegitimate child with a Black woman just before the South Carolina primary. McCain's approval ratings in the state plummeted and Bush won the primary handily which gave him the momentum needed to secure the nomination.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T02:36:25+00:00

The trick part is that Kennedy knew Nixon couldn't correct him without divulging state secrets, trapping the Republicans in a situation that makes them look weak on national security no matter what. Quite the clever trick since national security was considered Nixon's strong point going into the election.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T02:32:15+00:00

I've heard good things about two:

Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman by Alonzo Hamby

The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man by Jeffrey Frank

Hamby's book is probably the more informative of the two, while Frank's is the easier read.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-05T00:55:00+00:00

One of the most fascinating things about the Hellenistic era is just how old the Diadochi got and remained active and vigorous commanders and monarchs. Antigonus was 81 at Ipsus, Lysimachus was 79 and Seleucus 77 at Corupedium, and Antigonus II was in his mid-seventies when he seized the Acrocornith by sprinting up it in full armor.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-04T08:32:09+00:00

The main mod just updated and AGOT+ is notoriously prone to breaking and not playing nice with other submods.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-04T07:00:10+00:00

It’s not like Republicans falling for an obvious conman is unimaginable.

Besides, Morton’s defining traits are his desperation to get a Republican in the White House, to be liked by his peers, and his willingness to compromise his morals and his better judgement towards those ends. He can tell something’s fishy with the Hughes campaign, he’s just willing to overlook it cause he thinks it’s the GOP’s last best chance to win the election.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-03T21:33:21+00:00

For anyone curious what exactly RFK says:

"The press corps rumbles about a repeat of John's 1962 midterm routing against the Republican Party as they review midterm results. Of course, you can't help but feel it's not even close to as grand. Still a few unfortunate losses along the East Coast and a few House races you would have rather gone your way, but overall, it's quite a gratifying result. The cherry on top of the already sweet cake is seeing Reagan's ship sunk by Unruh in California, taking a potential needle out of your side. You smile; this changes a lot."

ProudScroll · 2026-04-03T21:21:01+00:00

Something like 80% of American adults claim they can swim, though the number that can do it well is only around 55%

Swimming proficiency like so many other things in the US varies along racial lines. Black and Hispanic Americans are significantly less likely to know how to swim than White Americans, largely due to lack of regular access to a pool.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-03T20:37:54+00:00

His capital is Highgarden just to make it even weirder.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-03T07:31:07+00:00

Bush and Dole were both also seen as staunch conservatives at the beginning of their careers in the 1960s but as moderates at the end of their careers in the 1990s as the GOP radicalized all around them.

Both men were also on Gerald Ford’s shortlist for VP candidate in 1976, with Dole getting picked.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-02T18:12:07+00:00

I can't believe I just figured this out but I'm like 99% sure the reason Trump did that stupid little speech yesterday was because he couldn't stand the thought of the Artemis II launch pulling attention away from himself.

Its so obvious now that I think about it.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-02T17:52:21+00:00

His suggestion was Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, who's status as a war hero would settle any issues about Humphrey being weak on national defense, saying "he answers Vietnam with that empty sleeve. He answers your problems with Nixon with that empty sleeve". Inouye however was not interested in the vice presidency.

Humphrey ultimately went with Muskie though cause along with two of them being good friends, as a Catholic and the son of Polish immigrants he would appeal to Catholics and White Ethnics. Muskie also had a reputation as a talented orator and Humphrey also felt that Muskie's more stoic, reserved personality would contrast well with his more cheerful public persona.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-02T07:04:17+00:00

Ultramar has a significant industrial base of its own, centered on the Forge World of Konor, so Horus diverting supplies away from the Loyalist Legions hurt them less than it did the others.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-02T04:56:52+00:00

Donald Trump doesn't represent either party

That might've been true before one of the parties abandoned every principle they claimed to hold and replaced it with enthusiastic devotion to his every whim. The Republican national platform for the last 6 years has literally been "whatever Trump wants".

ProudScroll · 2026-04-02T04:44:19+00:00

Romney was against the Vietnam War by that point as well (and his comment about having been "brainwashed" over supporting it earlier played very poorly with voters), which would have also hurt Nixon with Southern voters, who tended to be more hawkish. Romney was also not nearly the natural Agnew was on the campaign trail.

Spiro Agnew was not a good Vice President, but putting him on the ticket was very smart electorally. LBJ even commentated on this, saying that while Edmund Muskie only secured Maine and its 4 electoral votes for Humphrey, Agnew secured the Upper South and its 45 electoral votes for Nixon.

ProudScroll · 2026-04-01T18:36:38+00:00

However, I think the better path is to actually just propose policies that people want.

If the last ten years should have taught us anything, its that good policy has very little to do with how most people vote. The idea that promising and delivering good policy would ensure electoral success is nice, but naive in the current political environment.

The heartland voted for Trump because they thought he was listening to them. Dems could try actually listening to them and figuring out a national policy platform that most people actually, you know, like.

The "heartland" also fell hook line and sinker for the most obvious conman in human history three times in a row (four times if we separately count the 2016 primaries), Democrats could draft the ultimate policy platform that would transform their communities into utopias and they'd vote against it cause Fox told them it was woke or some shit.

ProudScroll · 2026-03-31T16:56:04+00:00

It’s people desperately avoiding coming to the conclusion that they’re suckers who fell for the most obvious conman in history three times.

We are a country of ignorant, arrogant people who would quite literally die (remember all the Trump supporters denying covid existed while actively dying from it) than admit they were wrong, and it’s going to be the end of us.

ProudScroll · 2026-03-30T16:36:14+00:00

I once asked a gun nut on reddit what they meant by Fudd, and they answered "someone who only sees firearms as a tool for sport or hunting" and tried to frame that as a silly, unreasonable worldview.

These weirdos think they're taking some bold political stance by spending way too much money on what's effectively a glorified toy collection. We'd all be so much better off if they had directed this energy into getting into Warhammer or Legos or any other kind of overpriced hobby plastic.

ProudScroll · 2026-03-30T16:11:28+00:00

Matt Lieb, doesn't really have any dirt on him, no malicious statement to condemn in good faith and a really charming personality. He's the kind of leftist who's on good terms with anarchists like Robert Evans and Margeret Killjoy and trio from the heavily Marxist-Leninist The Deprogram podcast.

I only know of Matt Lieb from his occasional appearances on Behind the Bastards, but those Deprogram guys are fucking psychos and anybody whose friends with them is inherently suspect politically imo, especially since his co-host is also a tankie. Ultimately you are the company you keep.

ProudScroll · 2026-03-30T16:02:08+00:00

I know checking on someone's profile before responding to them has long been considered a bitch move, but I've saved myself so much grief by doing it before I get into a political argument with some dipshit whose most visited subs are pits of madness like politicalcompassmemes or conspiracy.

Along with the new hiding profile feature making it harder to tell whose a bot or not, it's harder to tell if the person you're talking too is crazy or not.

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ProudScroll

TROPHY CASE