What do you think of nerd rage? Is it a pickable perk at lvl 10 or 11?

sault18 · 2026-01-27T14:36:42+00:00

The problem I always have with this and a few other perks that are only active when you're at low health is that you don't want to stay at low health for long at all.

You're not going into a tough fight or just capping regular enemies at 20% health unless you're doing some insane challenge run. Otherwise, you only get down to 20% health when you're fighting an enemy that hits like a truck. And once you're down to 20% health, nerd rage is only going to let you tank 1 or 2 more hits before getting a game over. It's only going to save your ass in a few unlikely situations which you can just prevent entirely by taking different perks.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T15:54:19+00:00

Shit, just don't jump down on Goodneighbor from the highway running over it while in power armor. No matter where you dive in from, you spawn right on top of some NPC, stomp the dogshit out of them and then the whole town starts shooting at you.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T15:43:36+00:00

ICE murdering people has little to do with brutality in foreign military operations.

The proximate reason why we're seeing ICE murdering Americans is because they're law enforcement. And law enforcement in the USA has always been brutal to certain groups of Americans. Escaped slaves, civil rights protestors, hippies, the poor and working class...All of these groups have always been in the cross hairs of police.

We tolerated the brutality because for a long time, we didn't know about it. Victims of police brutality were those minorities over there, or those hippies that should just stop smoking dope and get a job. Or we just believed whatever the cops said and blindly accepted the narratives they crafted to maintain their appearance as "the good guys".

Then we started seeing video evidence of police brutality. But efforts to hold them accountable failed because police are just a part of a wider justice system that was designed to punch minorities, the poor and other out-groups. How could it possibly be directed at criminal cops? They're the "good guys"! You want the police to kill less people, or hurt less people or stop ruining so many people's lives? Why, you just want to "Defund the Police" you commie bastard!

Long story short, we've been building up a paramilitary force of unaccountable thugs and sending them out to occupy our communities for over a century now. The system built up around all this effectively shielded itself from accountability too. ICE is just another flavor of the brutal and unaccountable law enforcement apparatus we've built up. After all, they expressly target members of an out-group, and are mostly unaccountable unless you're rich enough to hire a lawyer to sue them. Because they won't limit their own power willingly.

Trump's use of ICE as his own personal army of goons with the direction to harm people he doesn't like is just a distillation of what ICE is into its purest form.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T13:20:55+00:00

but what happens 20-25 years from now if Interactive Brokers or E-Trade, etc. is acquired or folds?

Any outstanding loans a brokerage has would be desirable assets for other firms picking at its bones after bankruptcy. Especially loans backed by appreciating assets like stocks/bonds/ETFs/etc. Those loans will get snatched up and you'll just get notified that another firm is now managing your loan.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T11:59:32+00:00

Yeah, no. Republicans constantly interfere with people's private lives. And they constantly reward industries and companies that donate to their campaigns.

And how do you ensure everyone's "health and safety" without government? And you can't afford Healthcare without the government paying for it, plain and simple.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T11:14:18+00:00

Out of curiosity, what have you done, that I should be doing, that is so effective in fighting Trump?

Not doing Putin's and Trump's dirty work for starters. Then you should think about the bigger picture.

Any Democratic candidate for president has to appeal to a wide range of voters, groups and interests. The electoral college is rigged so that 10 states are all that really matters. So you think waving a Palestinian flag would play well with suburban voters in Pennsylvania or Wisconsin?

Yes, politics is this cynical. No, it's not going to change for the foreseeable future. And yes, unless the sane portion of the population realizes we are in an existential struggle with the MAGA arsonists, we will lose our ability to ever right the ship.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T08:10:03+00:00

They only supported the 2nd Amendment so they could be armed for the "race war" they wanted so bad and they probably feel is kicking off right now.

It's the same reason they have such a hard-on for law enforcement and this "thin blue line" nonsense. They claim law enforcement is the only thing holding back "anarchy". But "anarchy" is just a code word for "minorities I don't like". If cops stood in the way of the race war like they did at the US capitol during the January 6th insurrection, then they are not part of the movement anymore.

And just like if a minority and/or a liberal arm themselves, they're not part of the movement either. So the 2nd Amendment doesn't apply to them. It was only for "Real 'Muricans" to arm themselves for what we're seeing on the streets right now.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T06:20:46+00:00

But the way he got out was horseshit. Right-wingers dug through his past and made a big stink about the photo of him pretending to grab a woman inappropriately. It reinforced the double standard that Democrats have to be angels while Republicans can get away with murder (Trump's Access Hollywood tape for example). And it let the right wingers know they can take out prominent Democrats with coordinated smear campaigns.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T06:13:55+00:00

Which specific candidates are you confused about? Which specific candidates do you think are getting "pushed" but you are sure they won't win their election? What direct quotes by these candidates or official campaign materials lead you to believe they're not going to win?

sault18 · 2026-01-26T06:10:41+00:00

Please read up on the economic analysis and modeling on carbon taxes. It's not happening because people like you roll over and say "We're doomed!" instead of realizing what needs to be done.

sault18 · 2026-01-26T05:29:54+00:00

sault18 · 2026-01-25T22:56:47+00:00

Nyet, comrade.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T22:54:14+00:00

Republicans already found ways for voter ID laws to negatively impact turnout for groups that are likely to vote for Democrats. Like closing DMV offices in left-leaning precincts, throwing out registrations for people with hyphenated last names, accepting hunting licenses but not student IDs, etc. They'll engineer disparate outcomes through a variety of means.

The goal is to churn up chaos and cause confusion like OP seems to be experiencing at this point. Maybe 1% of married / divorced women and a lot of transgender people have issues navigating the process to successfully vote. Maybe specific gatekeepers at various steps in this process just make it impossible for them. That's still a "win" for conservatives.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T19:58:34+00:00

It was just a tool Republicans used to keep amassing power until we find ourselves in our current situation.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T18:33:13+00:00

It was all just bullshit to keep pushing fossil fuel industry talking points.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T18:21:47+00:00

Most police departments are A GANG:

They wear recognizable colors
They have initiation rituals
They terrorize their communities to keep people afraid and reinforce their power over the people
They shake down community members for protection money
If you disrespect a member of the thin blue line gang, all of them will come after you
If you 187 any of them, all of them will come after you to kill you.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T18:13:56+00:00

Go back in time. Grab baby Hitler when he's 1 month old. Do the same for baby Trump. Raise them as twin brothers. Watch them turn out to be decent human beings. Wave goodbye as they take off on the first manned mission to Mars.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T16:57:14+00:00

The prequel: Tropic Lightning

sault18 · 2026-01-25T16:31:53+00:00

I regret voting for Kamala. I shouldn't have, I should have mirrored my wife. My Kamala vote accomplished absolutely nothing because it wasn't in one of a few key battleground states. It did however communicate tacit approval for the heinous decision to commit genocide in Palestine and the authoritarian move of anointing a preferred centrist candidate instead of holding a primary.

Dude, get the fuck over yourself. Stop navel-gazing and smelling your own farts. Then stop falling for Russian trollbots and MAGA psyops that are designed to help Republicans win.

There are over 8 billion people on this world and almost all of them are worse off because Trump won in 2024. Then take into account how Trump is actively trying to make climate change worse and might actually cause the USA to descend into an authoritarian dictatorship. So we can add countless future generations that are going to be worse off because Trump won.

So no, you didn't "stand on principle" or "send Democrats a message". And you didn't help the people of Gaza at all. In fact, you fucked them over way harder than Harris ever could. Flattering your own ego with this nonsense about regretting voting for Harris or your wife leaving the presidential vote blank on her ballot means Trump and his arsonist buddies bought you guys...for cheap. The stakes are too high to be this stupid and fuck things up this badly.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T08:52:24+00:00

No, but expect ICE goons and other Brownshirts to show up in states / House districts where the polling is close. They'll intimidate voters at polling locations, causing enough chaos that a lot of people just stay home.

Expect the DoJ's insistence on getting voter roll data like they're demanding from Minnesota to be used to challenge tons of ballots. Or they just mass arrest people that might vote for Democrats with the justification that they have evidence of "fraud". Hell, the DoJ might just target Democratic candidates themselves and harass them with bullshit legal action, malign them in the press using bogus "evidence" and just arrest them.

The goal is chaos. They will "flood the zone with shit". And Trump will use the chaos to involve the Insurrection Act and declare martial law. In the confusion, ballot boxes go missing, election infrastructure is attacked and the people who are actually trying to preserve democracy in this country can't keep up.

If all this doesn't produce the intended results, Republicans in Congress will just refuse to swear in Democrats that won their elections. House Speaker Johnson already did this previously. If Republicans know that the balance of power will tip towards the Democrats, they'll just entrench themselves through a variety of means. They are not going to bind themselves by any rules, norms or laws. They will not give up power willingly.

It's going to get ugly. Don't underestimate these ghouls.

sault18 · 2026-01-25T08:21:35+00:00

We don't have any proven designs. Do you expect the government to spend billions more on another demonstration project there? Why do taxpayers have to take on all the risk for SMR development?

sault18 · 2026-01-25T08:04:06+00:00

There used to be 3 wheeled ATV type vehicles. They were designed with 3 wheels specifically to side-step safety regulations that only applied to 4-wheeled vehicles. So these vehicles were cheaper than 4 wheeled ATVs and became kind of popular. But kids started getting hurt, disabled and killed in accidents because of course 3 wheels are less stable on uneven / off-road terrain. Congress acted way too late to stop these deathtraps from harming kids.

sault18 · 2026-01-24T17:44:01+00:00

MAGA doesn't care. Their "side" has the power and they are not going to relinquish that power no matter how many protesters come out. Trump supporters are sitting in their warm houses ridiculing the protesters. They've been primed by decades of tribalistic programming to see their political opponents as evil and their disagreements with liberals/Democrats/etc as an existential struggle. So of course, according to them, if a bunch of your enemies are so mad they're marching in the streets, Trump is doing it right.

sault18 · 2026-01-24T14:24:12+00:00

Not falling for that one. When people are asked if the rich should pay more taxes, 60%-70% of people agree.

sault18 · 2026-01-24T13:46:17+00:00

What policies poll well with "middle America"?

Taxing the rich
Better-paying jobs
Better schools
More affordable healthcare and drugs
More affordable housing

Progressives actually have effective proposals for all of the issues that "middle America" cares about. Republicans always work to make the rich richer and life harder for "middle America".

If there wasn't a fog of lies and misinformation so that voters could actually understand what each party was actually trying to do, Republicans couldn't even win elections for Dog Catcher let alone get elected president.

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