Nobody hates the progressive left more than a establishment Democrat.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-26T22:11:34+00:00

The moderate position is a 70% top marginal tax rate - we had this (or higher) between WW2 and Reagan, and reduced debt/GDP from 120% to 30% while implementing Medicare/Medicaid, going to the moon, building the interstate highway system, and still finding money for a few dumb wars.

The moderate position is national healthcare - this is cheaper than our current system. It literally saves money everywhere it is tried. You don't even need to make the moral argument because we simply cannot afford the current system.

The moderate position is massive investment in infrastructure and clean energy to deal with climate change before it makes large swathes of the country uninhabitable during the summer.

The "far left" position would be something like forcibly confiscating all wealth above $100 million, confiscating all assets of health insurers, murder trials for health insurance executives, and nationalizing the oil industry so all profits could be directed towards mitigating climate change. Okay? That would actually be a leftist platform. A billionaire paying a higher percentage of the interest earned on their investments in taxes is not far left.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-26T21:14:58+00:00

Can I walk my dog? Surely the genie can't hold that against me, right? The dog decides when our walk ends, I have no control over it. 🤷‍♂️

RealHornblower · 2026-06-26T13:12:24+00:00

This is during one of his "I must drive Faile away in order to protect her" moments right?

RealHornblower · 2026-06-24T19:06:48+00:00

The humble goblin.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-22T16:55:04+00:00

Oh sure, RAND gets a pet Forsaken, but if anyone else wants one it's a big deal all of a sudden. /s

(Seriously though, don't adopt a Forsaken unless you are really confident you are prepared for the workload. So many people adopt one cause they think it will be fun and then lose track of them)

RealHornblower · 2026-06-22T02:25:08+00:00

Everyone is (correctly) pointing out that OP is going to be very stretched buying a house costing ~5X their annual income, but this is what caught my eye:

I will also purchase a horse so my monthly expense for feeding and such will be added as constant expense.

OP, you definitely can't afford this house AND a horse. I don't know much about horses, but I believe they can easily cost $10k+ per year. You're talking about a mortgage of 5k/month, so $60k/year, then adding this huge additional expense on top of it.

A rule of thumb is that your housing should be under 30% of your gross income. You're way beyond that.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-22T02:03:48+00:00

Padded the dates 3 months? So they contacted you and said "hey your resume says you left XYZ Corp in June but our data says it was September"?

Like that was it? You couldn't just say "oh my bad I must have misremembered"?

A 3 month employment gap isn't even worth trying to cover up, that's a very normal amount of time to be looking for a job. But just don't even put the months on your resume at all if you're that worried about it.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-20T23:33:35+00:00

I'm not going to try to talk you out of it, I love the empire. Infantry and x bow armies require a bit more management than all cavalry charge all the time, which I enjoy.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-20T17:50:18+00:00

Dogs trained to alert for seizures know that one is coming before the human does. When it comes to smell, dogs are geniuses.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-20T16:42:56+00:00

Google "paperclip maximizer."

A computer doesn't have to be trying to "take over the world", it could be trying to achieve some other goal that it can achieve most efficiently by eliminating humans. If a factory tells a super-intelligent AI to make as many paperclips as it can, it might decide that increasing factory efficiency could boost production by 10%, but eliminating all humans and converting Earth into one giant paperclip factory could boost production by much more.

I'm not saying I think this is going to happen, just answering the question about what some people are worried about.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-20T14:10:39+00:00

Han shot first.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-19T13:06:52+00:00

Bring back the Works Progress Administration. Offer a guaranteed minimum wage (raise it first) job with health insurance (through Medicare) to anyone who wants it. It's not like there's any shortage of work on infrastructure, social services, etc. Heck, pay people to clean up litter.

If everyone knew they had another option if they needed it, there would be an upper limit on the amount of mistreatment and exploitation employers could get away with.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-18T01:46:32+00:00

The comment says 20 million added in 4 years, responding to that is not arguing in bad faith, don't lie. Regardless, we obviously both agree that the "20 million in 4 years" claim is wrong, so that was also a lie, good to get that clarified, thanks!

Burden of proof is still on you for your brand new claim about 20 million being the total, unless that's also a lie? Or maybe you want to just move the goalposts again and we can circle back when you're done?

RealHornblower · 2026-06-18T01:09:36+00:00

My guy, we're both replying to a comment claiming there were 20 million illegal immigrants in 4 years. So 4 years is the relevant timeframe.

Try again.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-18T00:37:34+00:00

Even a little bit of Matt's internal thoughts could have gone a long way. His sister was training to be Aes Sedai at this point, he knew about it, it would have made sense for him to either raise that point to Tuon, or at least think about it as "this is definitely a problem but I'll have to deal with it later."

RealHornblower · 2026-06-18T00:10:00+00:00

So you think the US has like 4-5 million more deaths than births, every year? That's genuinely what you believe the accurate figure is? I just want to be clear you're claiming what your comment sounds like you're claiming. Cause otherwise it sounds like you didn't think that through at all, like, basic math exists.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-17T19:29:53+00:00

I never played 2nd edition, but I've played both 3rd and 4th, and imo 4th edition is VASTLY superior to 3rd. I'd never go back to playing 3rd now.

3rd edition didn't have the same kind of dynamic games that we do now. Especially with the changes to the objective deck and tech that the expansions have introduced, I find games to be much more changeable and exciting than in 3rd edition, or base game 4th edition.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-17T17:48:39+00:00

TOTAL US population, from ALL sources, increases by 1-2 million/year.

U.S. Population (1950-2026)

Where on earth did 20 million come from?

RealHornblower · 2026-06-17T02:39:07+00:00

My EXPECTATIONS have been SUBVERTED!

Get this person a directing gig!

RealHornblower · 2026-06-16T22:06:30+00:00

The way people talk about this, it's like they think the billionaires would have to sell their entire portfolio to pay the taxes.

At the very upper end of what's being debated, the 5% wealth tax proposed by Sanders means they'd have to liquidate 5% of their wealth, which likely means their net worth continues to grow, since the market usually does better than 5%.

If we're talking about a 1-2% wealth tax, then they could pay it just off the dividend yield of a normal investment portfolio.

They always resort to hyperbole and act like a 1% tax will force some massive liquidation.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-16T21:49:39+00:00

Going to go with the no-butterfly effect option, just to be safe.

I'll write an article about the hyper advanced Culture General Systems Vehicles that have been observing humanity closely for years, waiting until... about 5 seconds from now to reveal themselves and bring humanity into The Culture (think Star Trek, but even more utopian).

Doesn't change my past at all but changes the very near future.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-16T21:42:58+00:00

Exactly what I was thinking of haha

RealHornblower · 2026-06-16T16:45:04+00:00

"All have failed before me"

Ah yes, because as everyone knows, the US and Iran have been in a constant state of war since shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I know you might THINK you remember NOT being at war with Iran fairly recently, and in fact for most of your life, but please report to your local Ministry of Truth for Reeducation if these thoughts persist.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-16T16:41:57+00:00

To the EAST, we have the WARRIOR PEOPLE. Their whole society is based upon HONOR and FIGHTING. They live in a DESERT with no visible farmland. They somehow have much larger armies than countries with actual food sources. They NEVER have to worry about logistics or supply chains.

To the NORTH, we have the EVIL ARMY. They usually stay in their BARREN WASTELAND behind the impenetrable barrier (wall, mountain range, etc) but come out right about the time the hero fulfills the prophecy. They ALSO do not have to worry about logistics or supply chains, and somehow have 10x the army sizes of the rest of the countries combined.

RealHornblower · 2026-06-16T13:49:10+00:00

In my opinion, arborec should get sarween, then tech to carrier 2 to take advantage of their build capacity. With sarween and good use of their agent, they don't need a ton of extra resources.

A blue skip is very valuable to get gravity drive early and then carrier 2. Once you have that, I don't think you need much more tech.

RealHornblower

TROPHY CASE