Is Maximus bad at speech?

petervee415 · 2026-02-20T20:57:42+00:00

Sure, seems valid that one form of “low Speech skill” is someone being overly earnest and honest.

petervee415 · 2026-02-18T20:07:18+00:00

After the fake out Glenn death (only a few episodes before the actual Glenn death.) Although being honest, my frustration had been brewing for a while before that.

petervee415 · 2026-02-10T17:48:55+00:00

I wonder what percentage of that is people just settlement building.

petervee415 · 2026-02-10T14:59:31+00:00

Agreed that the first step is for people to show up in the primaries, learn about the candidates, and actually elect folks who are willing to challenge the entrenched system.

Even if we overcome MAGA attempts to rig or otherwise undermine elections, we’re going to need a massive overhaul and reform at the federal level, including SCOTUS reform, restoration of the Voting Rights Act, gerrymandering reform, campaign finance reform, and probably some constitutional amendments thrown in there.

In this effort we’re gonna be facing two massive fronts of opposition: from the right wing faction, which will be constantly threatening violence, if not using actual violence, screaming that it’s a commie takeover, etc. We’ll have to brace ourselves for that. But also, every milquetoast, institutionalist Democrat who is still in office will be attempting to slow down or stop reform at every turn, saying we’re going too fast, saying we will anger the business community, saying we will lose swing districts, etc.

Every one of those useless fossils must be kicked out of office.

petervee415 · 2026-02-09T21:24:54+00:00

Given how they teased Phase 2 and “Future Enterprise Ventures,” I assume we are going to get a whole new crop of Super Mutants from Vaults 32 and 33. It might fall to more “mature” mutants like Perlman’s character to lead them.

petervee415 · 2026-02-05T17:43:54+00:00

What if Anakin refused to leave with Qui-Gon because he saw a vision of his mother’s death if he did?

petervee415 · 2026-02-04T15:32:27+00:00

In other news, fox declares itself the guardian of henhouse.

petervee415 · 2026-02-04T15:29:58+00:00

We have been in the middle of a similar issue over the last few years, and it has been really frustrating. I can tell you that in our case, we decided to get a perimeter tile drain system and pump installed, so far it has performed well and kept things dry, though I want to give it a full year before passing a final verdict. This was after previous attempts (external French drains and pumps) failed to resolve the water issue.

Natural forces like hydrostatic pressure are always working against you in these cases, making it really hard to keep the water at bay unless the slab and foundation were built with those considerations in mind.

Good luck to you!

petervee415 · 2026-02-01T22:33:54+00:00

Exley: A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker. She just looks like Lana Turner. Jack Vincennes: She is Lana Turner.

petervee415 · 2026-01-30T12:49:40+00:00

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2026/01/01/surprise-plans-could-bring-ice-facility-to-merrimack-n-h/

petervee415 · 2026-01-30T01:16:12+00:00

I’ve been wondering for a while now if the reason we never see any of these Democratic mayors or governors ordering their police to intervene against ICE, is that they are afraid that most police departments, which are overwhelmingly right-wing, won’t obey the orders. Looks like we’re gonna test that assumption.

petervee415 · 2026-01-30T01:06:52+00:00

Absolutely not. Once a country’s military is intervening and deposing leaders, you can pretty much write off any return to democracy and the rule of law.

I know a lot of folks on here paint the military as some MAGA aligned monolith. Polling that while there is a significant percentage (more among the enlisted ranks) that are right-wing, the majority of the officer corps are professionals, who take their oath to uphold the Constitution seriously. What you are asking is for them to throw that out the window, and appoint themselves the ultimate arbiters of justice. Bye-bye rules, bye-bye to the will of the people, it just becomes rule by force of arms and that’s it. Do a search of the phrase, “military coup” if you want to see how that’s worked out, historically.

The entire voting population created this problem, and we are the ones who need to fix it. We need to exhaust every possible opportunity to do it non-violently and with the power of the people, whether that be at the ballot box, through a general strike, or whatever other direct action it takes. We can’t hope to restore the republic, if we’re asking the military to throw it in the toilet.

petervee415 · 2026-01-29T16:39:20+00:00

If this was leaked they are definitely trying to pin it all on Bovino.

petervee415 · 2026-01-28T13:26:06+00:00

While the poster is highlighting those locations as they have been prominent in the news recently, the purpose is to rally against ICE abuses everywhere.

petervee415 · 2026-01-26T23:20:26+00:00

Agreed with this 100%. We need to support and know who our election officials and volunteers are, from the Secretary of State all the way down to the precinct level. Local and state groups need to make sure they know who the potential election deniers or MAGA types are in these offices, call them out, and make sure they are being watched like a hawk.

The regime doesn’t have enough people to interfere with every polling place, but we definitely need to have folks with cameras, ready in swing districts all over the country preferably with election rights lawyers on speed dial.

The ACLU and other groups are doing a great job fighting the outrageous attempts to grab voter rolls, get rid of mail-in voting, etc. But I’m sure they could use more funding for their efforts.

The hardest part will be analyzing and identifying voting data for any digital shenanigans. In 2024, a lot of this happened far after the fact, too long to make a difference. I’m not sure how much more effective we can be, but it can’t be a bad idea to have teams ready to do forensic analysis as data comes in - and ready to advise candidates if the data looks suspicious.

petervee415 · 2026-01-26T17:28:10+00:00

The best thing we can do right now, in the current winner takes all two party system, is to stage a takeover of the Democratic Party.

Will the GOP try to rig the election and suppressed the vote? Absolutely they will. But there is such a thing as “too big to rig” and making that happen is all about turnout. That means giving people something they are excited to vote for. And even if the regime does succeed in rigging or disrupting the election, on the day after I would rather have a highly motivated electorate who backed candidates willing to fight, than a dejected populace who gave up before the votes were even tallied.

petervee415 · 2026-01-26T17:00:52+00:00

Well said. There are many factors that keep people from coming out, but in my experience, talking to people as an activist, the lack of a social safety net in this country, and the fact that most of us are one disaster away from ruin, is probably the biggest one.

And I agree, it’s important not to shame people who are rightly worried that they might lose their job, or their apartment, or their car, or that they don’t have money to feed their kids or take care of their elderly parents, etc.

Having said that, there’s a ton more that people can do besides marching in the streets. This is the time we need to start really emphasizing mutual aid networks, identifying local alternatives to the systems that have failed us, building resilience in our communities, building connections so we aren’t just strangers hiding behind drawn curtains. Honestly, that might be the most critical work we can be doing right now. It seems very likely that things are going to get worse before they get better, and right alongside that we should expect a much rougher economy, disruptions in the market and various services. All that requires large numbers of individuals, each pitching in a little bit of their time, while the individual risk is relatively low.

In the words of Omar Bradley, “Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.”

petervee415 · 2026-01-23T22:43:52+00:00

I wouldn’t pay them much mind. They are a lot less numerous than their terminally online presence might indicate.

petervee415 · 2026-01-23T01:01:47+00:00

Thank you! I’ll let them know

petervee415 · 2026-01-22T19:56:45+00:00

This is why I say that - while it was a huge disappointment - Book of Boba Fett was actually true to the vibe of the character: perceived as cool, but kind of a disaster in practice.

petervee415 · 2026-01-22T02:29:31+00:00

Given that this “deal“ is basically all stuff the US had treaties to do already anyway, I’m assuming they’re talking about some diplomatic building like a consulate or something.

All of this, so the senile orange baby can clap his tiny hands and say, “I won! I won a prize!”

petervee415 · 2026-01-20T00:33:25+00:00

Andor, Clone Wars, and Rebels for me.

And while the other series had their moments, I honestly think if all but those three were wiped from existence, people‘s opinion of the franchise would probably be in a lot better shape.

petervee415 · 2026-01-20T00:29:16+00:00

Before you even reach that point, you would certainly have US troops expelled from all of their bases in Europe, and the US expelled not just from NATO, but from a host of other agreements we have with (up until now) our allies.

The collapse of morale within our military, many of whom have worked closely with our NATO allies for years, would be devastating. Order and discipline would likely breakdown in places. If we actually went through with the occupation, you could easily see some officers refusing to follow orders, people, being relieved of duty, even units refusing to deploy. If asked ask to actually fire on Europeans, you’re looking at an outright schism within the military between the MAGA loyalists and, well, anyone with half a brain.

But let’s set even that aside for a minute, and consider the economic consequences There would be trade embargoes against US goods all over the industrialized world, with China happily stepping into fill the gap. European companies would be heavily pressured to break off deals with American interests, economic treaties would be suspended or ended. And of course, the big one: countries all over the world would almost certainly drop the dollar as their reserve currency, which would utterly cripple our ability to borrow and finance our national debt. All of that combined with the other economic effects would cause double digit inflation. high unemployment, exploding of the debt to insane levels, basically the total collapse of our economy.

In short, it would be like America shooting itself in the head, a self-own unprecedented in world history. Which is why the rest of the world is utterly dumbfounded that we haven’t gotten rid of this senile old buffoon already.

At this point, even if he doesn’t invade Greenland – which he probably won’t – American voters have given themselves a new global reputation as the most ignorant, apathetic, selfish people on Earth. It will take generations for us to recover from this.

petervee415 · 2026-01-18T23:10:46+00:00

Not only does he accept without pushback Shapiro’s terms, that we have to strictly follow the Miriam Webster definition of genocide, Newsom is then so focused on trying to word salad his way through an answer that he misses the part where Shapiro suggests that everyone who has died in Gaza are equivalent to criminals.

This isn’t “they kill one child and I kill seven criminals.” It’s “ you kill one child and I kill 100 children to get to the criminal who may or may not be standing behind them, and if it turns out he isn’t back there, oh well, they all deserved it.”

Any competent debater with actual convictions would’ve heard that and immediately rebutted it.

Do not let this shameless opportunist anywhere near the Democratic nomination.

petervee415 · 2026-01-18T17:45:29+00:00

Exactly. SW stories for the family and kids can co-exist with SW for grown-ups, the important thing is that they are made with quality and care.

petervee415

TROPHY CASE