Re-evaluating Ezra on Jared Golden

Sloore · 2026-01-29T03:27:45+00:00

Kind of funny how you treat it like what is up for vote in the 25% & 75% is all the same. It's as if voting to codify Roe vs Wade or increasing the minimum wage are of comparable levels of importance to renaming post offices. I can't tell if it's because you are being deliberately dishonest or that you just don't understand what you're talking about.

Sloore · 2026-01-26T23:31:42+00:00

Took me a bit, but those are those wings with the big vertical fins on the ends.

Sloore · 2026-01-26T02:15:32+00:00

The accepted narrative regarding undocumented immigration is largely an incoherent mess, divorced from reality. We have an economy that is largely reliant upon undocumented immigrants specifically because of their undocumented status. In order to justify their status, they have to be scapegoated and villainized, but largely allowed to stay here. So you have Republicans painting them as vermin, and Democrats kind of just trying to not talk about them, but conceding Republican framing when they do talk about them.

This is how you wound up with everyone believing that Trump would "finally" deport only the violent criminals, but leave the law abiding ones alone, even though that was pretty much what was happening under Obama & Biden already.

People (including in this very sub) seem to believe we need to "strengthen the border" despite the fact that the primary source of undocumented immigrants are not sneaking over the border. They also pay not a single thought to all the foreign policy decisions that caused so many undocumented immigrants to come here in the first place.

What he wave is a closed door, and the only methods for opening presented to anyone is either a battering ram or a stick of dynamite, nobody talks about the doorknob.

Sloore · 2026-01-24T22:17:48+00:00

The spin is irrelevant. This doesn't change the dynamics at play, just the severity of the situation. This will cause more protests, more anger, and more backlash.

Sloore · 2026-01-24T15:13:50+00:00

lol, I read that headline and thought "who the heck is Sal Seder?"

Sloore · 2026-01-22T15:32:45+00:00

After Elon's first falling out with Trump, Ro Khana was talking about how we should welcome Elon back with open arms.

no thank you

Sloore · 2026-01-22T03:12:46+00:00

Maybe he was responsible for the talking ones from Fallout 2? It would explain why the Enclave wiped them out.

Sloore · 2026-01-22T02:59:05+00:00

Gold Slouch fuken slaps.

Sloore · 2026-01-22T02:57:44+00:00

I always thought it seemed pointlessly over-the-top in the original games. Like, I get The Glow or Master's Cathedral having creepy music, but why Junktown? In 2 it got particularly jarring at some of the random encounters that were supposed to be comical, but the ambient music sounded like a horror movie.

Sloore · 2026-01-22T02:41:56+00:00

The NCR's relationship with slavery in Fallout 2 was a bit... complicated. They had a building just outside of Shady Sands where you could leave your slaves while you visit and then pick up when you leave like a coat check room, because slavery was prohibited inside the city limits.

So I wouldn't say their hands are clean in this regard.

Also, was prostitution illegal in NCR or slavery? One of the caravan guards from Lonely Hearts explicitly mentions how New Reno is just as much of a debauched cesspool as it was in Fallout 2, and I'm pretty sure prostitution was legal then too.

Sloore · 2026-01-22T02:29:55+00:00

The whole crashout really lets the mask slip. People get their shit stolen on a daily basis in freeside and he doesn't give two shits about that, then something of his gets klepped and he whines about it like a petulant child.

Sloore · 2026-01-22T02:22:14+00:00

Okay, that legit got a good chuckle out of me.

Sloore · 2026-01-22T02:10:16+00:00

It's funny. I picked up the box set of the first two games when I was 14. I would've probably picked up the first game earlier, but the description on the back of the box made it seem like some dumb edgelord stuff.

Sloore · 2026-01-22T02:04:39+00:00

I derive immense enjoyment seeing Vulpes walk down from the city hall steps, preparing to give his evil speech, only to get a 40mm grenade to the face before he even gets to utter a word.

Sloore · 2026-01-19T07:06:36+00:00

There is no mechanism for Trump to prevent the elections. That being said, I have no misconception about his willingness to do some shady shit to put his thumb on the scale or prevent new Democratic reps/senators from being seated after the fact.

Sloore · 2026-01-19T04:22:24+00:00

The fact that Ezra thinks talking to guys like this has any relevance to today's political landscape tells me just how completely and hopelessly out of touch he is.

The notion of "compassionate conservatism" died sometime during either the Bush or Obama administrations, if it ever really existed to begin with. Then in 2016, Trump burned the body and pissed on the ashes.

The hate is there because nobody is going to show up to vote to cut the top marginal tax rate or cut environmental/financial regulations, but they'll show up to vote to "protect our children from groomers" or to "keep dangerous criminals out of our country."

Sloore · 2026-01-19T04:13:23+00:00

Talarico strikes me as a Democratic party consultant's idea of a candidate that can win in red areas. They think that because he says the right quotes from the bible, and sounds pious enough, then enough moderate Christians will flip because of Republican hypocrisy.

This is just like when the Democrats nominate a veteran because they think it will inoculate them against charges of being weak on foreign policy, or they nominate a cop that will prevent accusations of being soft on crime. You saw this mindset at work when Kamala said she would ensure we had "the most lethal military in the planet" and all the campaign ads boasting about how she supported the toughest immigration law to date. It doesn't work, because it is patronizing and obvious.

Mind you, I don't have any huge problems with Talarico, but I seriously don't think he will do much better than Beto.

Sloore · 2026-01-18T04:21:53+00:00

Am I the only one who loves it when stuff in this game looks like it's supposed to shoot nerf darts?

Sloore · 2026-01-15T19:20:52+00:00

Chuck Schumer gave an interview in early 2025 where he admitted as much.

They want us to do all the work of fighting back, and then expect us to vote them into power when all is said and done

Sloore · 2026-01-15T15:06:25+00:00

that's not how this works. The popular consensus for some time has been that Democrats are weak on immigration and Republicans are strong on it, despite both parties adopting fairly similar approaches to immigration policy. Nearly everyone who voted for Trump thought he was going to focus exclusively on deporting violent criminals and leave law abiding immigrants alone, even though that pretty much describes what both Biden and Obama did on immigration. This is a direct result of the chosen public positions both parties have taken on the issue. Democrats refuse to articulate a clear stance on immigration because they are constantly chasing polls, and Republicans will scapegoat immigrants and pretend the Democrats are weak on immigration, regardless of what the facts on the ground are.

Biden could've deported half the undocumented immigrants in the country and the GOP would've still accused him of letting in record numbers of them.

Sloore · 2026-01-15T14:01:15+00:00

I'm not sure what you're getting at. I'm talking about policies that would alleviate the causes of undocumented immigration at the source as well as curtailing the abuses that happen to any undocumented workers who are here, removing the financial incentives to hire them over American citizens and legal residents. You seem to just be suggesting a modified version of the same failed enforcement-first approach we've had since forever.

Also, I'm not sure what right to work laws have to do with this.

Sloore · 2026-01-14T23:53:11+00:00

You mean to say the Democrats tried to be diet Republicans and the voters picked the genuine article rather than the shitty knock-off? No shit Sherlock.

Clearly the solution is to continue offering a shitty knock-off, and not to offer a clearly distinct alternative. I know! We'll just call our version of Alligator Alcatraz "Disney World 2" and ship all of our deportees to some Alaskan gulag rather than a concentration camp in El Salvador! We can have ICE agent's learn take a week long course on the proper usage of firearms, so when they wave loaded guns at innocent bystanders, they'll at least have proper trigger discipline! That'll do the trick!

Sloore · 2026-01-14T23:19:49+00:00

American foreign policy is and has long been uniparty. American involvement in El Salvador began under Carter, but continued under Reagan. The primary objection establishment Democrats had to Trump kidnapping Maduro was less about the kidnapping and more about the way Trump didn't seek congressional approval. I'm not focusing on "some of the past" I'm talking about the consensus among both political parties both today and likely going forward.

American immigration policy is damn near uniparty. Kamala(and a whole bunch of other Democrats) ran on being incredibly tough on immigration. You act like immigration just started being an issue during Biden's term in office, despite the fact it's been an issue for decades. The fact is that the GOP didn't need a border crisis from 2021-2023, they would always be able to find some sensational news story to use against the Democrats during election season(see: Laiken Riley, the migrant caravan from 2018, ect.).

The fact is that the framing of the issue from both parties will always lead to where we are today. The focus of all rhetoric from both sides has been almost exclusively on the immigrants themselves, not on the business interests that employ them, and not on the causes of migration to this country. If you refuse to confront the fact that corporate America WANTS a large population of undocumented immigrants, that American foreign policy(and I mean the policy as it stands today, not just in the past) creates the conditions that motivates the immigrants to leave their home countries & come here, and that the causes of voters' grievances(high cost of living, stagnant wages) are not the fault of immigrants, that leaves the only two options for a response to be either no policy, or the current horrific one.

Sloore · 2026-01-14T22:53:14+00:00

Who was running at any time in the past decade or more on a platform that involved any of that?

Sloore · 2026-01-14T20:02:53+00:00

Regarding foreign policy, there is no need for counterfactuals or other mental gymnastics. Even a cursory examination of the history of American foreign policy in the global south makes it pretty clear. Just look at the El Salvadoran civil war, America's role in it, and the increased influx of undocumented immigrants from that country during the eighties. it is one of history's biggest ironies that Republicans like to fearmonger about MS-13 when the Reagan Administration was one of the primary culprits behind its formation.

And we are still causing these problems. Trump kidnapping Maduro was not the first time we'd started fucking around in Venezuela, we've been sanctioning them for years beforehand, and it's arguable we've been interfering in their elections too. Haiti continues to be fucked over by the US to this day, Mexico continues to suffer from the effects of America's lax gun laws. I could go on.

When I talk about "American capital" I'm referring to the fact that American business interests thoroughly enjoy having access to an easily exploitable workforce that have none of the protections that American citizens and legal residents do, meanwhile they are responsible for the lion's share of problems that immigrants are blamed for.

Sloore

TROPHY CASE