Yea, I read this as a biomed and was like “We’re definitely not getting this.”

FFXIV.

Would I be the Warrior of Light or some random scrub? Random scrub that world has godlike beings that just absolutely dominate your will just by existing, plus just massive monsters, and some terrifying organizations.

WoL, hooboy all the moments the story made me be quiet.

Another question is do I go as myself, or can I be a catgirl?

This one so absolutely fucking much, holy shit. After a year of dating apps and literally only getting one actual conversation (that didn’t go anywhere, but they were very nice) I’ve pretty much just said fuck it, I do well enough being a hermit I don’t need to be dating.

Frankly a lot less stress.

Oh no, instead she has step-children so was referred to as a “Childless cat lady” by checks notes the running mate of the opposing party.

The only place to the conservative crowd for a woman to be in is in a single relationship with her own kids. Though I’m sure they’d have a way to gripe about it too.

This… is difficult.

See, the oligarchs love Putin because he keeps them wealthy and comfortable at the cost of his people. If I come in and start helping my people, it’ll come from the oligarchs, then they’ll turn on me. Which comes to the other Putin thing, he’s absolutely feared in Russia. Someone annoys him, polonium tea. To those that are absolutely loyal to him, he has an iron fist with a velvet glove. To those not in positions of power, the glove isn’t there. That’s what his power is.

I’d like to think I’m cutthroat if it were in the name of good… but we’re talking Ex-KGB with top tier paranoia, deservedly earned. I’m pretty sure Putin-Me would have a “self inflicted gunshot” to the back of the head within hours.

US Here, I’d like to but not having the skill sets right now makes for difficult to move to another country.

Which leads to another problem, if I do I leave my entire social network behind to a culture that I don’t know and trying to live there. While I’m not against that, I realize that can be VERY isolating so not sure where the place I’d want to go right now.

I mean 2 parts. 1: Ukraine is fighting off a bigger countries tanks with Molotovs.

2: Logistics, supplies, etc is a HELL of a fight in two directions and the US has a hell of a home field advantage. If someone (I’m going to say from the Asian continent for this argument) any supplies they want has to cross the ocean. Then right now unless we do something to massively piss them off, we’ve got allies to the north and south so no country is giving a foothold next door (This is why South Korea and Japan being allies is important to the US, and why China really likes North Korea being there. So far the only foothold the biggest enemies to the US can get is Cuba… which right now involves circling the globe the even longer way).

But now our hypothetical military force has beaten back the US navy which is filling the oceans with all sorts of attacks, they get to the shores where they contend with the US Coast Guard, the US’s second navy. That gets beaten back, and now the land war has started. Lets say they take LA and that’s where the invasion is starting.

“Defeating” the US Military is truly a defeat of the US because now it’s a home front war. You’ll have the US military fighting on US soil, which I think the last time that happened was the civil war (correct me if I’m wrong), the Reserves are getting called in. Then even before you get to the “random guys with guns” the actual US militia gets mobilized where the National Guards of each state is called in. And you better believe they’ll definitely take their gun nutty neighbors in this because the national guard works day to day in civilian world.

So now we’ve gotten to logistics. The US likes to beat its chest when it comes to military, but the true might of the US in history has been logistics of “We need x here today” and we can ship troops to the other side of the globe faster than Amazon can deliver a package to a doorstep in country. The US has a robust interstate system, designed after the autobahn of Germany for the same purpose, moving hardware. So whatever military is fighting now has to contend with whatever front line is existing getting supplied by the factories in the middle of the country with semis running supplies daily as well as military hardware from the side of the country not getting attacked at the moment (I live near multiple military bases that’s as far from any border as one can logically get, where there’s tank divisions just waiting).

But we’re calling a defeat scenario for the US, so the hypothetical beats back the US military, who’s probably tearing apart the infrastructure as it backs up if it’s smart and plays like the Russians do. Granted the US doesn’t have a Russian Winter, but if you’re coming from the West you have the Rockies, coming from the East you have the Appalachians. Mountain ranges that makes mobilization difficult if the infrastructure is fucked, but the infrastructure is fine on the other side.

I legit cannot imagine a country, even the US, with the infrastructure to break through that wall scenario delivering hardware across the world.

But hey, we don’t have to talk a complete invasion of the US. Just some area. Remember, many US states are as big as countries, especially the western ones. So an invasion happens, now you’re dealing with large swaths of territory. Russia had trouble with the Finns in the Winter War, with Russia being right next door because the Finns didn’t just up and fight the major people. No they’d let tank battalions pass, then when the logistics crew following the battalions showed up they’d get sniped. Or the US tried to fight in Vietnam and were beaten back by civilians. Or occupied Afghanistan and ultimately the Taliban managed to regain control. Occupation is REALLY hard because even for a small territory you have to have a large soldier to civilian ratio for those “military grade” weapons and tactics to beat civilians (the difference between a “military grade” AR-15 and a civilian one is the ability to turn it to fully automatic. That is something that modifications exist to do.) And if an invasion is coming I guarantee you every Scheels, Bass Pro, Cabelas, Academy Sports, and every mom and pop gun store will be having a fire sale on ammunition.

TLDR: It would be a logistical hurdle to even shut down US military bases before reaching one of the mountain ranges, while the US would be sitting in its logistics hub. Invading forces only really truly succeed historically long term when the civilians are on the side of the invaders because occupying long term is really hard, and I think you’re underestimating the military logistics of a country that has ammunition vending machines.

And while the Navy is brought up, lets not forget the Coast Guard.

While the Coast Guard is joked about as dollar store Navy, it’s a legit military service that has been actively at war against drug smugglers past few years, but gets sent over in previous wars to fight in riverways. This gives the US navy the entire pacific to fight against Russia, and when they do get to the US, there’s a second home based one under a completely different administration to fight at the shores.

the right’s attacks on her are likely to be a lot more openly bigoted

They’re already dusting off the ole Obama birther playbook and asking if she’s qualified to be President due to citizenship.

From the US and I pay a lot of attention to politics.

Her past is she was a bulldog in the courtroom, absolutely a firebrand and ready to take on anyone. By making her VP, her job was mostly to not make the administration look bad, which is a tough job for a firebrand so for years it felt like she was put in the back and kept quiet.

Roe v Wade decision happened, making the abortion argument on the side of the Republicans getting what they wanted, Biden is a Catholic and male so completely uncomfortable using the fact that abortion is the winning ticket item for the Dems so Harris has been beating that drum hard and getting out. GRANTED the media has been focusing on “Biden too old!” (Legit had to learn a Biden policy from BBC because American news isn’t going to talk about that) so she’s still feeling a relative unknown to the country at large.

There are people calling for wanting the DNC to do a vote, but we’re past that marker, there’s people disappointed, and then there’s a lot of people excited. Right now this election is going to shape up to be more “interesting” than Bush v Gore or Trump v Hillary.

I’d get a block of houses, not mansions, just 6 small houses where the backyards are all together and make that into a little community where I can get the people I’m closest to into an area with a shared community space in the backyards. That’s my expensive one.

Rav4 hybrid. I just want a fuel efficient car I can go camping in.

Set up a trust to make sure that I don’t have to work if I don’t want to, get to retire.

Then the rest… I’m stuck between which is better, dumping it into becoming a non-profit to get as many homeless people housed as possible, or build into a superpac specifically meant to bring down Citizens United.

Lets be honest, the “fight” part people are too comfortable and aren’t going to do anything. I’d love it if it were so, but I"m not a leader.

So my realistic plan is buy in bulk, start a garden, try to convince friends and neighbors to do the same to be able to help each other out when the worst of it comes. Which frankly is the exact same plan if Biden wins, but with a lot more fear behind it.

Immigration? Come on in, we’ll worry about it later!

So many takes but the legislative branch built together an immigration plan, one that involved quite a lot of money to the border to help enforce it and crack down. Both Dems and GOP worked together on that one. Then Trump said to bail on it, that immigration was a winning ticket for Presidency and congress Republicans sank the bill.

So… legit the thing you’re bitching about is a political tool by the Republicans.

I keep saying it. Hamas knew what it was doing, and literally the whole world danced to the song they put on, and I’d be legit shocked if the ones in charge that came up with the attack are actually in the strip.

Hamas attacked Israel in one of the most aggressive and heinous methods that has been seen in a long while, the Israel that has a history of retaliating with absolute and overwhelming force with zero chill, at a time when the leadership of Israel was looking for an opportunity to invade. So Israel is gonna Israel, and now the Palestinians in Gaza who would go against Hamas, as you said that would be happy to subjugate the Palestinians, are going to be more supportive of Hamas where the two-state solution isn’t even being as supported as it once was because the calls for revenge are coming.

Regionally, Israel gained it’s zero-chill attitude because it was surrounded by countries that want to exterminate it, it’s required western backing to keep there. But Egypt and Israel haven’t been quite at each others throats as much anymore, and Saudi Arabia and Israel were working out a deal. This put Israel back at square one in terms of local diplomacy.

Western countries have had to be the supporters to Israel, it kinda exists in that sort of meddling. When Israel attacked the strip, there were multiple countries ready to throw in and escalate it from a small war to a full all out multi-national war. That much rattling sabers means the west continues its support, even when they hand the weapons to Israel to say ‘don’t use it over here.’ and watches Israel do just that.

The west supporting Israel has only helped fan the flames of anti-semetic rhetoric with the feeling of Israel pulling an excess of political power upon itself. The right wing hawks are willing to help keep escalating the war because, well they’ve never had a problem starting wars in the Middle East. The political left is tearing itself apart because it typically is a coalition of differing beliefs, the US is having a problem that the not-ultra-right wing party of the Democrats got where they are because depending on the state it was coalitions of Muslim and Jewish voters, both of whom are mad and are threatening to stay home despite the other runner is someone who will make things worse, which could be the sort of thing to rally the religiously held Muslim countries together.

What angers me is how much of this I predicted when Hamas attacked. I’m just a guy who works on equipment, one would hope the world leaders would see this exact same train of thought and turn off the music instead of getting in line and waltzing to the beat.

I’ll say it once, I’ll say it again, Hamas played the whole damn world like fucking puppets with one attack.

I’d be absolutely shocked if the actual leaders that planned the attack are in the strip. Now any Palestenians that might have been against Hamas in the strip are stuck fighting a nuclear power in full “us vs them” mentality, Israel reacted exactly how Israel does any time it has been attacked, which is with overwhelming and vicious force now putting the country doing monstrous actions against civilians going for what looks like a full genocide, your exact point on a rival religion suddenly now giving a lot of voice to the conspiracy theories, it has created an even bigger divide in the US (but then again what doesn’t anymore) and Saudi Arabia who was working on deals with Israel has backed all the fucking way off and NATO is sitting there awkwardly trying to decide exactly where on the line it wants to walk seeing as the US can’t bring itself to go against Israel while Russia is rather uppity at the moment.

Taking away any conversation on ethics, which is nearly impossible… I just can’t believe these leaders are this fucking short sighted.

The trouble with every “vote” argument on the left is always about the POTUS. The Republicans had a mission for decades that not a single non-Republican would run unopposed across the entire damn country no matter how small the vote was. Is it a sheriff for some backwater town? Yup, better make sure a Republican is there. How about a superintendent?

From the ground they have worked absolutely hard to make sure they had control of as much of the government to control every vote.

To use your analogy of fighting a war. As you said they’re celebrating taking a hill in an attempt in every four years. But that’s because one group is only doing the charge every four years and wondering “Why are we losing?” when the other side is digging the trenches advancing every year. Yes, this is the Democrats fuckup because they certainly aren’t investing in them like the Republicans but then among a supply of left wing friends I’m the one informing “Here’s the important fucking local vote about abortion/taxes/who’s running for x seat” and finding out often that I’m the only one who was faffed to vote.

I agree Biden is 100% fucking this up. I agree that I’m worried that the Democrats will somehow snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by losing to an opponent beaten once before because of how truly awful Trump is.

But I’m absolutely amazed at the free Palestine folks who are threatening that they’re the vote between Biden, who’s wagging a finger at Israel going “don’t” and fuck all else… and the guy who calls Netanyahu by his first name, buddied up to Israel, moved the embassy to Jerusalem, wanted to ban Muslims from the US, and is cozied up to the evangelicals who want to support Israel starting a holy war just so they can have Revalations go off.

Like both parties are bad, but there’s bad… and there’s “lets throw styrofoam containers of gasoline on the fire, that’ll surely put it out.”

But I guess sometimes you need your house to burn down before you realize why we need a publicly funded fire department.

Question… were you bringing up the house out in Tennessee that burned down because the county didn’t have a publicly funded fire department? Because if so, that’s a hell of a deep cut.

Honest answer, should’ve been investing in canned food yesterday. Today is the next best day to start.

Matthew 23 is Jesus absolutely bitching out the religious leaders “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”

As you say, the so-called ‘Christians’ really act like the Pharisees in the Bible that is called out against. If the bible they claim to believe in is true, then a loooooooooooooooooot are probably going to be in for a rude awakening because they were warned in the same book, Chapter 7 verse 23 when the person they claim to follow says “I never knew you.”

There’s a quote attributed to Ghandi but it’s not verified to actually be by him. But is a very appropriate one in my day to day “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”