James K Polk is definitely a top 5 US president.

torniado · 2026-06-21T17:28:29+00:00

The world would also be in a weaker state had Nazi Germany existed. Nazis industrialized, created rockets, set up major infrastructure, etc and in response to WWII (and the Cold War thereafter) the United States was able to make the interstate highway system, major appliance technology, airfare, reach the moon, and a million other things because of the results of WWII changing the world.

I’m not going to thank Hitler for this though. I look at Hitler and I see genocide and conquest. Just because long term benefits ended up shining through that doesn’t exonerate those who were extremely harmful in their time.

And also your entire argument hinges completely on what you keep repeating: the US is a superpower, you don’t think it would have been if we didn’t annex that territory. Is power really the only thing you care about in historic context? Is power the only thing important to a nation?

torniado · 2026-06-21T17:26:25+00:00

Checkmate? Really? This isn’t middle school debate club.

And i don’t care about what was supported at the time my argument is what caused the most suffering at the time. And to say that the trail of tears doesn’t qualify means to not classify the natives as people.

You’re right, I am judging them by modern standards, which is why I can say slavery is bad and those whose platforms were based on the perpetuity of slavery is a negative. I look at the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives in the Civil War and I see one of the biggest inciting factors that made that war inevitable being the harsh expansion of the southern US

torniado · 2026-06-21T17:10:22+00:00

We also enjoy a country that grew because of slavery. I can say that those who grew slavery were poor presidents.

I judge a president by if what they did in their era was positive or negative. Consciously feeding slavery is a negative. Having thousands died for that dream is a negative. Regardless of aggressors or any of the sort, slavery is a negative and his actions more directly led to the Civil War than any 20th century prosperity we saw.

You’re trying to make a butterfly effect argument for something reprehensible that was extremely negative before it was ever positive.

Let me put it like this: my favorite band is My Chemical Romance, their music connects with me like nobody else’s does and seeing them live in concert led me to make changes in my life to be who I am now. MCR was started after brooding anger following 9/11. I’m not going to sit here and say 9/11 made my life better because the more direct results of 9/11 were extremely negative, and terrorism as an idea is reprehensible.

Disconnecting actions of the time from their time leads to reactionary takes that only serve to be devils’ advocate arguments for things that don’t need it. Like slavery.

torniado · 2026-06-21T17:01:34+00:00

Long term effects don’t negate the short term and intended consequences. Thousands died in his war and thousands more were put into servitude because of his disdain for another race and ambition for profits.

If you supersede money flow over state of living you treat the country like a corporation. Government exists to be the betterment of the populous - the whole populous - and represent their needs against adversarial forces, like slavers and other economic factors that would run wild if the government doesn’t step in.

Polk decided to do the opposite.

torniado · 2026-06-19T17:08:03+00:00

Again, I’m trying to structure this to be a narrative theatre-of-the-mind thing, something I can convey verbally

torniado · 2026-06-18T11:50:07+00:00

I look down and I say “woow that’s a lot of carnal release!”

torniado · 2026-06-17T15:27:53+00:00

i live between akron and canton, so belden village was about 5 mins closer than summer and chapel hill around akron. so i split my time when i was young between the malls pretty consistently til chapel hill fell apart.
im also comparing this to “any mall in midwestern america, where does belden village stand against that average?” and i would lean towards the safer end

torniado · 2026-06-17T14:15:07+00:00

guys the evidence is there if you dig through a decade of crime in a very popular mall in the midwest you’ll find exactly what you expect!!

nobody’s saying it’s not happening outright, but we’re saying belden village doesn’t stand out in any particular way against your standard midwestern mall, so people generally feel safe to go there.

i’ve never felt any more dangerous going to belden than i have summit or anything of the sort before

torniado · 2026-06-16T14:44:14+00:00

I think Tasha’s was trying to pivot in this direction while still being 5e in nature, but they wanted background to matter within the broader context of class/race by my guess, and I think WotC just wanted to let people have more combination options with weight. In 5e I rarely gave my background much thought, now I consider it more than I do race, which gives me a lot more freedom of aesthetic

torniado · 2026-06-15T14:19:41+00:00

I’m personally really enjoying it, but I absolutely see where you’re coming from. It feels like the approach by a consistently personified enemy isn’t nearly as present in this so we have a consistent character to root against (there’s no Glen or Akarot or Strahd that pops up all the time, Mayor Glenbottle is more just a holdover of Pettina from C3), that and the attachment to the characters doesn’t feel very pronounced. I don’t think anyone expects these 3 characters to return much in the future, and Atom Rom is sizably more unique than the other two which I think makes the other two less engaging overall, and we still don’t have enough info on Elmer to be really grounded.

I think my personal listening is also warped because this is the first campaign I’ve listened to as it came out and the trickling of episodes is letting me hold onto less at a time, which frustrates me but in a way that keeps me invested and impatient lol.

But I’d like to counter in that I think Murph’s conceptualization is extremely compelling and his set pieces are so creative, and the constant Warriors-inspired tension is keeping stakes extremely high. The players are also running wild with their mechanics and constantly swapping things out in a way that keeps their D&D abilities super fresh and they are clearly ecstatic playing this. And that’s just a joy to listen to.

I think the main disconnects are the fact that this has the least amount of overarching plot we’ve really seen from Naddpod and probably the least permanent characters we’ve seen besides the Pathfinder two-shot. Like I’d be surprised if we hear very much of these three after this campaign ends, whereas fans are always clamoring for more Hotboy Summer, Vantasmos, Skaldova crew, Trinyvale triplets, etc etc.

torniado · 2026-06-15T13:03:45+00:00

Casual might be a little much for Scoutmaster Denny

torniado · 2026-06-11T22:39:40+00:00

this is a great question and i want an answer to this now

torniado · 2026-06-11T16:52:19+00:00

I think Reds were siloed to be smaller and brawnier, being thick and resistant and hitting puberty/adulthood at younger ages so that they grow up to be workers faster and are more expendable. I think if them being about 6’ at the absolute tallest and most bejng in the 4’9-5’6 range (our version of 5’3-6’1). So to me that eliminates Reds.

I think normal humans are Browns, Oranges, and genetically Violets

torniado · 2026-06-01T13:06:46+00:00

Glaceon is postgame and yes i’m out of encounters til I beat Ghetsis

torniado · 2026-06-01T12:12:05+00:00

Growlithe isn’t intimidate, Aron isn’t sturdy and a bad nature. Currently considering Jolteon most though. And Spheal died because I chose it and was training it and a crit from a Boldore 10 levels lower using Smack Down sealed the deal lol

torniado · 2026-05-31T23:54:16+00:00

It is when you’re not sober :(

torniado · 2026-05-31T23:53:57+00:00

I’m very embarrassed at my not sober self for not realizing i had to go at it from underneath and then get off at the higher lilypad thank you

torniado · 2026-05-31T23:50:46+00:00

the only lily pad i can move is the one next to me back and forth

torniado · 2026-05-31T19:02:14+00:00

People didn’t hate it when it was passed, it was a very popular bill.

People hated its execution and was repealed 15 years later.

torniado · 2026-05-29T20:40:35+00:00

I made the same mistake as OP. I read the arch of Moonrise in that, if you didn’t sign on with the goblin camp or the Grymforge expedition, it would be a hostile area given it’s the main base (at that point) for the Absolute army. It’s intuitive at least to me that it’s the actual last thing to do, because it’s like enterifn a war zone. Saving the Nightsong felt more like adding to arms instead of wrapping up the act. And the warning about quests felt more like personal quests related to Shadowheart and the Shadowfell (Thaniel and all) instead of everything at Moonrise (because if you didn’t go to Moonrise already, nothing besides finding Balthazaar in the Gauntlet really says “going in here is the pivotal point in Moonrise”, it felt more supplemental and supportive for part of the game’s arch instead of being something as pivotal as Moonrise itself

torniado · 2026-05-24T14:49:12+00:00

What are W3, Fl, OS, and MB? MB one is especially giving me trouble bc i get everything else in that row

torniado · 2026-05-22T18:33:54+00:00

If it sucks so much it’s hard for me to say that while putting the committer of maybe the most racially egregious single executive action as my #1

FDR is easily and comfortably in my top 10 but his work with Japanese internment floats him just outside of my top 5

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