Netzilla

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/27/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-hack-hillary-clinton/index.html
 
I don't think that's ever happened before, a presidential candidate calling on a foreign power publicly to conduct espionage on their opponent. Whoa.

So, back to the wikileaks release for a minute--
 
These files have been the topic of renewed discussion in some cyber forums, for obvious reasons.  In a nutshell there is virtually no question that the Russian government is behind the hack.  The emails were opened and edited on a computer set to use Cyrillic by default.  The hacker claimed to the press that he was Romanian but spoke and wrote very poor Romanian compared to his Russian.  Email communications with the "hacker" are clearly being written by several different people.  There is almost no reason for a private hacker or group to spend time on DNC communications--there's no profit model there.  And lastly it fits a now well-established pattern of the Putin regime to interfere in elections with well-timed leaks and hacks--it's just that up until now he's been picking on Eastern European countries.
 
On top of this Putin and Trump are thoroughly on record as supporting, if not admiring, each other.  It's also been pointed out that many of the 500+ companies that Trump is involved in are Russian or have Russian ties.  It's even been said that Russian money is keeping Trump's business afloat.  This last may be hyperbolic but there's definitely enough involvement to constitute a serious conflict of interest.
 
The worry is that the well-established Russian pattern doesn't involve one leak.  It involves a campaign of leaks and disinformation timed to cause maximum disruption.  As a result we can expect more such wikileaks releases, fabricated or not.  And people in the industry are now really, really worried about the security of electronic voting machines.
 
Sleep well!

On the contrary, it's pure realpolitik.  Hillary would have been much better off if the DNC had at least given the appearance of being impartial during the primaries.  Bernie's biggest plank was that the system is rigged, and DWS went ahead and proved it.  Now the DNC convention is kicking off, the point in the campaign that is supposed to unify the party around the nominee, and Bernie supporters are pissed.

For one thing, he might have saved the South... ironic to say but he wanted reconciliation where most of Congress wanted revenge
 
However, Lincoln isn't the guy I'd want reborn and running... give me  Theodore "Trustbuster" Roosevelt for our problems now

Definitely, feel better soon.

Feel better soon, Netzilla.

feel better soon

I'm only going to say this once and then I'll shut up.
 
A vote for Jill Stein, or any vote for a third party, is a vote for Donald Trump.
 
Trump knows he's not going to get the vote of Sanders supporters. And he doesn't want them. All he wants is for Hillary not to get them. If that happens, either by the votes going to a third party candidate or the voters just staying home on election day, he knows, he doesn't think, HE KNOWS, he'll win!
 
So unless you want to see Trump as President, do what I'm going to do.
 
Hold your nose and vote Clinton. No matter how bad she may be, I'm not afraid of her having the nuclear launch codes.  That should be reason enough but if you need another try this one on for size …

ANyhow, when is the Dems convention.  I need to know how much time I have to recover before I have to go through eye-roll fatigue, again.
 
 
Is it Just me, or do the conventions seem like glorified pep rallies among rival high schools who really hate each other?

About 2 weeks late with these...
 
Our cast:
Nymeria - Human huntress
Lexi - Human preistess
Braddoc - Halfling thief [bronwyn's brother]
Bronwyn - Halfling illusionist
Grim - Orcish monk
Danuwell - Elvish sage
Gar - Dwarvish preist
Griff - Human (angelic) fighter
 
We've made contact with the Spider Elves and have gained information about some MacGuffins we need to collect to help us get back home.  Unfortunately, since the elves are basically under siege, there are complications...
 
******
 
Dan: Where I come from, "You big, dumb bastard" is our highest praise.
 
Gar: Wait, you're not a dwarf.
 
*****
 
[Our host's 4-ish year old grand-daughter comes in with soaking wet pants.]
 
Granddaughter: I had an accident.
 
Host's wife: I wouldn't call it an 'accident'.  She jumped in a puddle.
 
Brad [OOC]: Ah.  She had a deliberate.
 
*****
 
[During a discussion about how the Spider Elves could possibly be getting proper nutrition in an underground environment with no sunlight or livestock.]
 
Dan: Okay, the mushrooms have vitamin D.  They're living under the ocean in caves, but we've figured out the vitamin D thing.
 
*****
 
 
Lexi [OOC]: It has toddler spit on it.
 
Dan [OOC]: That adds 2d6 damage.
 
*****
 
GM: Okay, dinner is over and your hosts retire to their quarters for the night.  What is everyone doing?
 
Bron: I thought we should riffle through all their stuff.
 
Brad: That's my sister!
 
*****
 
Brad: I sneak around, find their sentries and leave them notes that read, "you suck."
 
GM [rolls a d20]: Yes you do.
 
*****
 
[We've reached the location of one of the MacGuffins and have gotten into a fight (of course) with some kind of magma golem.]
 
Brad: It doesn't dodge as well standing in a puddle of my sweat.
 
*****
 
Nym: Hey, guys, is it okay if I fire an exploding arrow?
 
Gar [standing right next to the golem]: No.
 
Nym [pouting]: Fine!  A regular arrow.
 
*****
 
Bron: You made the mean girl cry!
 
*****
 
Nym: That goes on the list of things Gar is too harry to do.

If the law for speed limits stated that you needed to show either intent to cause harm (modifying US C 793 here) or gross negligence, then no you shouldn't.  
But that's not how the speed limit laws and regulations are written.

Interesting. I keep getting Professor X references. Strange works better though
 
Juan Paolo just sent me another commission he finished for me. This is Kamapua'a, a Hawaiian deity. I love adapting lesser known gods into supers. I feel Celtic, Egyptian, Greek and Norse have been done to death.
This guy has a cool back story, one of adventure, love and sorrow. Perfect fodder for a super, right?
Here is a site that tells his story. This is what sold me on him being an interesting character 
 

A lead-in note: be very careful going forward about quoting only those parts of an article or statement that agree with the point that you're looking to make.
 
From Comey's statement:
 
 
 
 
Email is fundamentally different from data at rest.  An obvious enough statement, but one that has been often and repeatedly overlooked in this whole discussion.
 
Now...I can't speak to hostel actors, who are generally concerned with finding cheap lodging, but hostile actors appear to be defined in Comey's statement as those who serve nation-states whose interests conflict with those of the U.S.  Saying that hostile actors likely had compromised the accounts of some of those Clinton was communicating with is not saying what you think it is -- it's saying that it doesn't matter in the slightest how secure the system she was sending from was, the recipient's system was compromised.  She could have been sending from an email server located in the depths of NORAD with 24/7 armed guard, it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest.
 
This is part of the problem with email -- it is communication over insecure channels, often to parties/systems with whom you have no direct control or oversight into.

Enterrifying!

Yeah, awkward is being hesitant, shy and not knowing what to say.  Lewd sexual innuendo (never mind inappropriate physical contact) isn't even in the same ballpark and people claiming that they're just being 'awkward' when they do those things are flat out lying.

Sanders hasn't formally conceded; of course Clinton won't formally be the nominee until the July convention when the delegates vote.  Bernie just released an op-ed:
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/23/bernie-sanders-heres-what-we-want/#comments
 
It basically reiterates all his campaign's main priorities, and that he expects most/all of these to be present in the party platform.  Some folks are accusing him of being a sore loser; I think it shows a lot of integrity to continue the fight, and not immediately bargain away his grassroots support in some bid to increase his personal cachet of political power. 

Bring me a blowtorch, stat! The wound must be cauterized before he bleeds out!

90125

90125

The fact that the process has been so unconventional this election year has probably led to much greater public scrutiny of it than usual. Looking at the process from outside your country, I have to say it leaves my head spinning. And ye gods, it takes so long! Here in Canada our last federal election campaign was the longest in our history... at 78 days.

Player 1 has summoned two demon meat shields, nicknamed Shock & Awe. They both just got hit hard, and one is now dead/dispelled.
 
Player 1: “Shock and Awe are down!”
Player 2: “You still have Shock; you just lost Awe.”
Player 3: “Awwww…”

Oh, so that was the inspiration for this comic:
http://www.thefrumps.com/comic/2016/04/04/make-a-wish
 
Learn something new every day.

It is perfectly within the system to fight it out to the last ballot and to try to convince the super-delagates to switch sides based on better polling numbers against the eventual rival. That the odds are very strongly against that happening is a separate consideration and the Hillary supporters who are trying to shame him into quitting on their terms are, quite frankly, being undemocratic because they don't like that the system hasn't silenced their opposition (yet).
 
As for the runner-up endorsing the winner: it may be tradition and good politics, but I see absolutely zero moral value in the act. Nor do I see nominations as being of any value whatsoever if they are made pro-forma and only because its expected. If a runner-up were to refuse to endorse the winner because they believed they are a sad-sack candidate and a poor choice for president, I wouldn't shed a single tear over it. 
 
I am sure, should Bernie lose (which I believe is likely), that he will endorse Hillary on the grounds that she is not Trump. He's said he thinks she has the intelligence and competence to do the job. That does not, however, obligate his followers to vote for her in any way shape or form. Its not incumbent on Bernie to convince his followers to vote for Hillary. In the absence of substantive policy overtures on her part, I see that as pure nonsense.
 
Its 100% on Clinton's shoulders to convince us to vote for her. If she can't, then she deserves to lose.
 
Four years is not an eternity.

From Saturday's game.
 
Our cast:
Nymeria - Human huntress
Lexi - Human preistess
Braddoc - Halfling thief [bronwyn's brother]
Bronwyn - Halfling illusionist
Grim - Orcish monk
Danuwell - Elvish sage
Gar - Dwarvish preist
Griff - Human (angelic) fighter
 
After the last fight, we're now searching an abandoned manor house for one of the keys we need to open the magical gateway so we can try to get home again.
 
*****
 
[From the pre-game discussion of why time travel is an ability too dangerous to allow any single human to possess.]

GM [ooc]: I wouldn't be able to resist the urge to meddle and there's know way to predict all the consequences.
Bron [ooc]: You mean like giving [politician's] parents condoms?
GM [ooc]: I don't mean killing anyone.  I'd just meddle.
Bron [ooc]: That's not killing anyone.  They just wouldn't exist.
Brad [ooc]: And that's why [bron's player] shouldn't have time travel technology.

*****

[While exploring the manor house for the first of the keys we need.]

Nym: How many races do we know of that have a poison pantry?

*****

Nym [ooc]: Quick!  Add juice to the list of things you can't breath.

[group laughs]

Lexi [ooc]: How do you do that?
Nym [ooc]: Do what?
Lexi [ooc]: Be funny?!

*****

[in a previous game, while we were foraging for food, Nymeria explained to everyone the proper process for finding out what's safe to eat: first you rub a bit on your skin and wait a few hours to see if you get a rash, then you lick it and wait a few hours then you eat a small amount, etc.]

[bronwyn, while searching the manor, comes across some jewelry.  Someone brings up the oddity of keeping it out in the open rather than under lock and key and that maybe we should be careful handling it.]

Brad: Well, we have rules about strange jewelry.
GM: You just put it on immediately, right?
Gar: No, we have to lick it first.
Nym: That's not the first step!
Brad: No.  We've already established that she has to rub it all over herself first.

*****

[Many sessions ago, we discovered that Nymeria and Lexi were both pregnant.]

Nym [ooc to Lexi's player]: Yeah, you don't want to give your baby Fetal Alcohol Syndrome!
Brad [ooc]: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?!  You've been testing strange substances for allergies for weeks now.
Nym [ooc]: Not allergies!  I was testing for deadly poisons.  If you're going to accuse me of being a bad mother, do it for the right reasons.

*****

[We've had a pretty good evening so far with many jokes and much laughter.]

Bron [ooc and wheezing a bit]: I didn't bring my Advare. [asthma medication]
Brad [ooc]: You have your rescue inhaler with you, though, right?
Bron [ooc]: Yes.
Gar [ooc]: Okay, we going to have to stop being funny or we'll kill [bron's player].

*****

Bron [ooc]: What's granpled?
Brad [ooc]: It's when grandpa gets grabby.
Nym:

*****

Brad [ooc]: Death noogie?!  I think I've found the name for my new punk band.

*****

Brad [contemplating climbing down the side of a building]: Being in the Underdark, I assume there's no rain gutters here.
Nym:
Gar: The stalagmites are dry this time of year.
Nym:
Gar: Hah!  You looked up.  I said stalagmites, when I should have said stalactites!
Brad [deadpan]: Ah, geology humor.

*****

Gar [also contemplating how to get down to the ground and deciding to jump for it]: I parquor like a parked Ford.
Grim: Aim for the halfling, he'll break your fall.
Brad:

*****

[After a nasty ambush leaving Lexi unconscious and nearly dead.]

Gar: Well, I could apply an old Dwarven healing method.  First I have to find a big rock [mimes repeatedly bashing someone with a big rock].  Are you feeling better yet? [Goes back to bashing.]

*****

Grim: So we have to go back to the elves to lick our wounds.
Lexi: I don't want any of you licking me!
Nym: Well, I'd have to rub you on my arm to make sure it's safe first.

*****

Lexi: Gar, heal me!
Brad: Get your rock.
Lexi: No! Not the rock!
Brad: That's the thing about the rock.  Once you've used it once, they don't ask for it again; so they must be healed.
Gar: You understand Dwarven healing magic!