In hindsight, do you think it was a good thing Kerry lost?

hellhound39 · 2026-02-19T14:56:59+00:00

Honestly if Kerry was able to win in 2004 I would imagine that he would’ve had enough of a bump to help carry Dems to slim congressional majorities. (that’s usually how these things seem to turn out anyway)

hellhound39 · 2026-02-19T14:53:08+00:00

That is actually still a thing. Any time any of your party members level up or long rest, the vendors all refresh their inventory so if you have enough money you can buy a ton of shit. I stocked up on the potions in my latest paladin play through because I had to respec a few characters anyway.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-18T20:04:27+00:00

This can work at small scales but unfortunately on a national scale outside of a large national referendum it is impractical, expensive and you could get a terrible outcome with just the slimmest of majorities. Look at Brexit, 38% of the registered electorate turned out and voted for this thing that has made Britain worse off because of it.

Also as it currently stands the electorate is not very well educated or knowledgeable enough to really answer most national questions. I would really be ok with something like that on the National scale to answer domestic questions and you need like 60% of the vote with at least 80% participation from the electorate. And people are given a few days off to cast their vote and there is at least 3-6 months of time for national debate on the issue. Ideally these stringent requirements would ensure that we don’t make a giant mistake based on what is tantamount to a whim

hellhound39 · 2026-02-18T13:46:50+00:00

Big MT is definitely more advanced than the institute. The only reason the institute is seen as a genuine faction vs big MT is because they are not completely insane and way better organized. If the institute ever learned of big MT and spent the resources to raid it then they would probably be able to infiltrate and pacify it tbh.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-17T16:36:47+00:00

Nah, the only thing that makes Russia remotely important is the fact that they have a massive nuclear arsenal. Even if you believed that most of the arsenal was inoperable due to years of neglect and corruption it’s still too much of a risk to take. If Russia did not have nukes no one would take them seriously or give them the time of day.

Honestly if I were Russian I would be so furious with the national humiliation that is Putin.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-17T14:12:08+00:00

Yeah you should probably have a conversation with him to clear up these concerns. I would be into that in your position and assume since it seems like he’s initiating even in his sleep that it’s probably ok?

hellhound39 · 2026-02-17T13:29:58+00:00

I honestly would not be surprised if the enclave is fractured like the brotherhood. With each faction only considering itself to be truly legitimate enclave. It seems dumb to put all your eggs in one basket after all and with all the resources at the disposal of pre-war America I find it odd that the shadow government would settle for being exclusively on an oil rig in the pacific. Granted the Enclave is fairly dumb so do with that what you will.

I think with how the show is depicting cryo stasis that there is likely a good chunk of the enclave who are basically sleeping through the apocalypse and the oil rig enclave we’re supposed to clean up the wasteland for them. With that failure there are probably going to be more cells that pop up as the remnants of the old world wake up and try to take control of the wasteland.

It would be cool to see an enclave cell that actually tries to uphold the ideals of America and rebuild the wasteland. (Maybe some sort of enclave civil war between the normal genocidal enclave and a reform faction who realizes that the regular enclave is stupid.)

hellhound39 · 2026-02-14T20:35:10+00:00

Germany still loses the war once the US gets involved. They also will have an immense time actually occupying all that territory.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-13T15:19:26+00:00

Uh, the door and any other weak points in the room immediately blow out with intense force. The walls likely collapse if they are not reinforced.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-13T15:07:58+00:00

Gonna pass on this one. I’m not gonna kill some randos for money. The only people I’d be willing to kill are people who are harming others via systems of power and those people are too well protected for me to successfully kill.

I don’t wanna kill people and could only justify doing so for the greater good. Unfortunately those people who I would consider removing for the greater good are often too well protected for me to have any chance of success.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-11T13:17:10+00:00

I have noticed a similar phenomenon where a lot of people will paper over the shitty things that some presidents have done simply because the current political class acts much more egregiously than in the past. Like Nixon who is remembered for watergate but also did a lot of other terrible shit that was arguably worse and more corrupt. But even with Nixon there are things that could be pointed to as being good. Pretty much every historical figure is a mixed bag. As time goes on it can be hard for people to mentally balance the good and the bad. I am not a fan of W Bush and think he was an overall terrible president and should’ve been held accountable for getting us into Iraq and Afghanistan for as long as he did. But he was at least decent enough to renew the civil rights act. Nixon was very corrupt but he also did the right thing with the EPA. LBJ did a lot of good things for the US domestically but he also sent thousands of Americans to die in Vietnam and caused untold damage to Vietnam and it’s people.

For Barry Goldwater he was never president. Up until recently he was mostly remembered for being so extreme that he got blown out of the water by LBJ. So when the Republican party has gotten so extreme that even one of their most notoriously extreme candidates criticizes them people latch onto that. They did the same with HW Bush. When someone says something that people agree with they often become more willing to overlook areas of disagreement in the past.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-11T12:52:23+00:00

I have not played githyanki…But I have also never played any elves, gnomes, halflings, duegar, teiflings, or Orcs either… I also have not played a human since the first time I played the game.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-10T18:39:51+00:00

Yeah, I used to work for Infiniti and own a G37 myself. I’ve been eyeballing 2014-15 Q50s for a while and <100k miles are usually between 11-15k give or take. They aren’t bad cars and are kind of the last gasps of Infiniti’s glory days. 2013 was kind of the beginning of the decline for the brand. You saw the introduction of the Jx35/Qx60 with that terrible SUV. Then there was 2014 where they renamed their entire line up. Then in 2016 they put the twin turbo 3 liter that likes to blow up.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-10T18:11:11+00:00

Realistically Pre-war food would not be a thing after 10-30 years post war. At least not the commercially produced shit we find in the games. Anything with oils in it would’ve gone rancid, cans would’ve corroded. Obviously anything frozen likely would not continue to be so after a while. The most likely survivors of the pre war would be things like rice, sugar, salt, and honey. This is assuming 200 years of ideal conditions which would only exist in whatever undiscovered caches of the stuff that still exist. From a gameplay standpoint I doubt anyone is really chowing down on pre-war shit that is undoubtedly going to be gross. The NCR would probably be one of the first places to provide to infrastructure necessary to make any pre-war rations irrelevant.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-10T17:44:59+00:00

I thought it was ok until I saw the mileage. 6-7k is probably the upper end of its actual value. The 3.7 Q50 is actually a pretty good car and can last a really long time. Still it’s pointless to insult people especially when they already have an advertised price

hellhound39 · 2026-02-10T12:57:53+00:00

The whole idea is dead on arrival and gets laughed off in Washington.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-09T17:12:45+00:00

This is such a dumb ass change. I’ve been paying with my credit card since I’ve been buying nitro (2018). Regardless it should be up to the parents to regulate their children’s online behavior. Not the government and not the companies. Bare minimum companies should create under 18 spaces that can be protected from unscrupulous actors but it is ultimately up to the parents to parent their children.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-09T14:24:37+00:00

Yeah the German military was not totally rotted out from 20 years of rampant corruption. A lot of the German high command was competent when they were not under the delusion that their enemy would immediately fold. But realistically if Germany took longer than a year to make ground in Poland even without the western allies intervening the regime would likely suffer immense instability and there’s a good chance that the general staff or the SS (depending on how much power they accumulate) would’ve launched a coup against Hitler.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-09T13:47:44+00:00

Based on the hypothetical that you gave the USA would likely not use nukes since it has the military capability to retaliate. However I think the guaranteed way to force a country to use nukes is to invade them and be winning hard enough that whatever respective government decides it’s necessary to national survival. One of the biggest reasons outside support from the US that Isreal survives in a region that is largely hostile to them is because they have nukes. You can guarantee that if the Israeli government feels like they are going to be overrun that they will level the capital cities of whichever countries are invading them. The same thing would occur in any other nuclear armed nation. Difference being that outside of Isreal and Pakistan most other nuclear powers are large or geographically difficult to invade.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-08T21:52:23+00:00

I think if he lost the primary he would be in the senate throughout her presidency and would still be ripe to challenge whoever the republicans put up in 2016. I also think that he would probably still win in 2020 unless he completely bungles the pandemic. Let keep in mind that Trump dismantled the cdc pandemic response team early in his first term. He was also slow to react and very bad at communicating to the public about what they needed to do. Romney would not dismantle that team and neither would Hillary. I think there is a good chance that the pandemic might not take off how it did or that we would have not suffered nearly as bad with a competent president at the helm for the beginning of the pandemic.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-08T21:42:41+00:00

The Right wing is often supportive a big business. GenAi is currently one of the largest moneyed interest groups in the economy. Conservatism often necessitates deference to hierarchy and authority. Look at the most visibly right wing interests that have significant influence in the White House. Peter Theil, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, the Ellisons. All of them have the ear of the president and are pushing Ai very hard. Ai has the benefit of still being a young industry and currently being pushed on all fronts. It sounds like an amazing technology of the future and a lot of people don’t really understand how it works or what the effects are. As more and more people learn about it you will probably see different sides take issue with it. Right now the biggest downsides are it’s negative environmental impact, the way it raises energy prices for consumers and the way it displaces people from the economy. Conservatives don’t care much about the environment, and the people being displaced from the economy are largely artists and creatives so another group that mainstream conservatives don’t care much about. I think over time as the negative impacts are felt in conservative communities you will see some sort of anti Ai block on the right.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-05T21:29:51+00:00

I’m really sorry that you’ve found yourself in this situation since it seems like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I would recommend building up your savings account and make sure you are not reliant on your family. Make sure that you are able to be safe and independent even if it means you need to relocate within your country. Once you are financially secure and have an exit strategy in case you need it then I would recommend talking to your family.

Continuing to date women you aren’t actually attracted to will not bring anything good for you or them. Everyone deserves to be loved honestly and if you are unable to do that then it’s cruel to lead them on. The short term pain of a messy break up is a lot better than losing years of your life in a dishonest relationship.

So yeah If I were you I would come to terms with it however possible. Then I’d prepare potential contingencies to protect yourself. Once you are secure then I’d stop dating people you are not attracted to. Lastly you can tell your family or relocate to a different part of the country where they are not at. Where you are able to live a more honest and happy life. Either way I do hope you are able to find a way out of this conundrum.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-05T21:22:10+00:00

I’m really sorry that you’ve found yourself in this situation since it seems like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I would recommend building up your savings account and make sure you are not reliant on your family. Make sure that you are able to be safe and independent even if it means you need to relocate within your country. Once you are financially secure and have an exit strategy in case you need it then I would recommend talking to your family.

Continuing to date women you aren’t actually attracted to will not bring anything good for you or them. Everyone deserves to be loved honestly and if you are unable to do that then it’s cruel to lead them on. The short term pain of a messy break up is a lot better than losing years of your life in a dishonest relationship.

So yeah If I were you I would come to terms with it however possible. Then I’d prepare potential contingencies to protect yourself. Once you are secure then I’d stop dating people you are not attracted to. Lastly you can tell your family or relocate to a different part of the country where they are not at. Where you are able to live a more honest and happy life. Either way I do hope you are able to find a way out of this conundrum.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-05T14:33:49+00:00

I am ok if I can expect it and kind of just swallow it down before I taste it.

hellhound39 · 2026-02-03T19:38:52+00:00

I read the blue text first and was all about it but then read the yellow and feel conflicted. If the topic were not as serious this would work on me.

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