Lord Liaden

I assumed it was a drop-bear. I wonder what they think of us?

You wouldn't be your endearing self if you didn't.

Well, I was trying to be as diplomatic as possible.

I would suggest going back to the origin of such creatures in myth and folklore, the trolls of Scandinavia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll One of the early alternative root words for "troll" listed on that page might be suitable. Given your examples, IMO the Proto-German noun Trullan sounds like a good choice.

Wait, this is something private citizens can buy?! Is this in America? 'Cause if it is, I'm sorry, but your country is crazy.

I thought of that too. Honestly, I don't think there's any outcome that will lead to a clean win.

I guess someone was bound to mount a cow-catcher on the back eventually.

Closing in on the Beach Mummies.

I don't wish death on anyone, but if it's going to happen, it would be really helpful if it happened before November. I have seen it. I agree, it's brilliant. And hilarious, in a bleak way. But I used to think the behavior of some of the characters was too crazy to be real. Now, not so much. 😞

I hope that when we can finally travel to other stars, somebody tracks down that 'bot and recovers it. It deserves to be enshrined among humanity's other good and faithful space servants.

I can't tell you how much it pleases me that Joe Biden, and other Democrats, have finally taken the gloves off and are going after Trump and the MAGA Republicans, calling out their BS, showing what buffoons they really are. It's long overdue. You can't stick to the high road when your opposition is wallowing in the mud. You have to sling some mud yourself. It doesn't hurt that the mud the Dems have to work with has some sharp rocks in it.

If you haven't checked out the Osmonds, trust me, you're missing out. And I think that's about as far from politics as we can get. 😏

D&D has experienced quite the resurgence in recent years. Granted, the upsurge in interest is mostly confined to that game, but it does offer a gateway to expand new gamers' horizons.

You guys think we can only move on in one direction?

Impasse reached. I'll be moving on.

Have you looked at Syzygy, most recently in Champions Villains Volume Three? It's a robotic AI villain with some unique gimmicks, a sort of "Mechanon Lite." It has the directive to conquer the Earth, but is less powerful and has fewer resources than Mechanon. It works as a second-tier master villain with plenty of room to grow, and seeks alliance with other Terrestrial supervillains in pursuit of its goal. And its origin includes a hook that could lead to an epic scenario.

Alcoholics Anonymous?

Yup, that's the crux of our disagreement. You see the appearance of such a successor to Trump as likely, I see it as unlikely. We'll just have to see which of us is right. I hope you don't mind that I really hope it's me. 🤞

I disagree. There is no heir apparent to Trump. If there was, with all the detrimental developments that have swollen around him, an heir would have appeared by now. And there's no MAGA hierarchical command structure for someone else to step into when Trump is gone, like Stalin after Lenin. The alliance between corporate elites, white supremacists, and evangelical Christians that Donald Trump forged is not natural. There was no such mass movement in America for him to have seized control of. He inspired it, and its disparate elements are invested in him and him alone. There are many other greedy, ambitious, evil people, who could do much harm, but they don't resemble Trump, and they can't replicate his brand of success. Donald Trump is a unique phenomenon. Thank God.

I don't think so. Abbott, DeSantis, Carlson, have tried to co-opt the MAGA message, but have failed outside their bailiwicks. MAGA coalesced around Donald Trump, his image, his reputation, his inexplicable but undeniable charisma. People who think and feel like them have clearly long been part of American society, but Trump catalyzed them. They're as chaotic as Trump himself, with no unifying organization to speak of. I believe that without him they'll become like bees without the queen, satellites that lose their planet. We used to worry about someone who employed Trump's methods but was smarter and saner than him. The problem with all the more competent pretenders to Trump's throne is that they're too sane. For MAGA, crazy is the selling point. They revel in the irrationality, the chaos that Trump fosters. Others can try to imitate him, but they can never replace him. Like Elvis.

A very good description of Donald Trump. Also fits well within the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. At the time Van Vogt came up with his "Right Man" definition, NPD was probably not widely known outside the medical community, if it had even been diagnosed yet. Per that Mayo Clinic description of NPD symptoms, note, "Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, humiliation and fear of being exposed as a failure," and, "Withdraw from or avoid situations in which they might fail." Donald Trump's massive ego is also an overcompensation for massive insecurity.