Joe Walsh

Wonder Woman 2 will arrive in theaters on December 13, 2019. http://variety.com/2017/film/news/wonder-woman-2-release-date-1202506799/

Yeah, you wonder how much they're able to manage him, or even give the appearance of managing him, at this point. Still, it jibes with an editorial I read shortly after the election, that was from someone from a country that went from democracy to dictatorship (Venezuela?), warning us that the administration will try to distract us with stuff that seems vitally important and extremely outrageous, while they're doing the stuff that more fundamentally affect the country. It's just something I've kept in mind over the last 6 months.

And, just to review: Democrats spend more than a year trying to make health care better for all Americans. They hold public hearings, get input from all parties (including Republicans!), and ultimately pass a bill that, while very much imperfect, does extend coverage to millions. Republicans loudly denounce the process as undemocratic, the outcome unAmerican, and immediately launch legal actions against it. They succeed in giving states the choice of whether to use Federal money to cover the working poor, and many red states immediately refuse such coverage for their citizens. That means that poorer, sicker people are forced into the exchanges than anticipated by the law, so the costs borne by insurers are much higher than anticipated in those states, leading to large premium increases and, ultimately, forcing many insurers out of those states' exchanges entirely. Republicans claim this is all a sign the health care law is evil. But before the law even takes effect, the American people promptly vote Democrats out of power in Congress for passing this health care law. Now, many years later, Republicans are in complete control of the Federal Government. They are using secretive, rushed processes to pass their own ideas about health care into law. Every time anyone gets a look at their proposals, it's easy to see that they will result in millions of people losing coverage. That means more bankruptcies, more suffering, more death. The health care industry doesn't want the new law, and it's even unpopular with Republican voters. Yet, Republicans are going to jam it through, using as undemocratic a process as possible, to appease the minority of Republican voters who do want this, because they are also the ones who are most vocal and engaged. It's a great time to be alive.

So, just as the Senate's getting ready to strip health coverage from millions of Americans, Trump tweets out that he's banning trans people from the military. Doesn't that just scream distraction, or is it just me? Don't get me wrong -- it's sad for the people the ban will actually affect, and it's yet another indication that Trump's presidency is an abomination, but come on! Headlines are screaming about something that affects the career choices available to a tiny number of people, while the issue that's life-or-death for millions is relegated to below-the-fold status. Exactly as Trump's team intended, I'm sure.

I've been trying to figure out what that reminded me of, and you're right, that's it!

I think it's awesome that John McCain is heading to the Senate floor for the healthcare vote. He's everywhere and always a good Republican soldier. All that stuff about being a maverick is just branding. He votes with his party almost all the time, just like every other Republican in Congress. And it doesn't matter that Trump said horrible things about him while on the campaign trail, McCain still comes to heel when his party's leader calls him. The media's so in love with the myth, they never really look at the man. He's still the same guy who was one of the Keating Five, after all.

Espionage: There's Merle Rasmussen's Top Secret: New World Order on Kickstarter. And of course there's Classified (a James Bond retroclone, updated for modern tech), as well as DWD Studios' Covert Ops. Post Apocalypse: Goblinoid Games has Mutant Future and Goodman Games has the current edition of Metamorphosis Alpha. There have been several westerns recently. Aces & Eights has been mentioned, and there was another recent one. But the biggie to me is that the award-winning Swedish role-playing game Western is finally getting an English translation via Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1152089861/western-the-roleplaying-game I'm sure there are others, but it's hard to keep up with the plethora of new products coming out all the time. The barriers to entry are so low in this market, we get tons of new product all the time, and they tend to stay around forever now, one way or another.

I've been a fan of Classic Traveller for decades. It's one of the RPGs I've run the most, along with AD&D and HERO. I like GURPS Traveller, too. Some day I hope to own physical copies of Traveller HERO. Have you read the Out of the Box blog posts about the original (1977 edition) Traveller? I've enjoyed those quite a lot. He has a lot of good insights into that original edition, versus what it became over the years. https://talestoastound.wordpress.com/traveller-out-of-the-box/

That would be require huge and sustained demand from We The People, because we'd have to amend the Constitution. But there are things we can do state-by-state that are legal under the constitution, such as instant runoff voting and proportional representation. FairVote.org is working toward both, and I'm thinking of contributing.

That El Camino quote is perfect.

Well, we know our president is on Russia's side. And now we know which side the Republican House is on:

Remember all that stuff about Republicans wanting small government? Yeah, it's a bunch of guff. They want a big government, they just disagree with Democrats about what shape it should be. Case in point, Jeff Sessions plans to make it even easier for government to permanently seize your assets if the government decides you're "suspected" of a crime. No conviction necessary. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/17/jeff-sessions-wants-police-to-take-more-cash-from-american-citizens/?utm_term=.c3476e5fd73e

Makes sense. You have to draw the line somewhere! If I were still following all the games I've loved over the years, I'd have no room left to game in.

Here a good (but long) article from the business press about how and why Taco Bell and other restaurant chains come up with those crazy food items that are loaded with cheese: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-07-19/the-mad-cheese-scientists-fighting-to-save-the-dairy-industry

That one is very good indeed. Initially, my post listed my top fantasy RPGs and what I like about each of them and concluded with the GURPS comment, then I decided to just cut to the chase. Briefly, though, Fantasy HERO 1e is on my 'top fantasy RPGs' list, too (along with RuneQuest 2, 70s/80s D&D, and the aforementioned GURPS).

Debt to GDP ratio is important, having debt denominated in a currency you control is important...but, ultimately, yeah, having zero national debt isn't really an important goal. The existence of the large national debt is most useful politically as a way for each party to beat up the other over tax and spending policies.

About that tax reform... https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-07-19/americans-aren-t-so-excited-about-tax-reform And, the money quote: Sad.

My experience is similar. When it comes to fantasy, there are lots of choices. I've tried quite a lot of them over the decades. There are reasons to use this one or that for specific instances, but in my experience the best fantasy RPG all-around is GURPS. And that's been even more true since GURPS 4e.

As far as I can recall, it's been mostly about packing the courts with as many conservative judges as possible, as quickly as possible. In regards to Obamacare, it's so disingenuous to say they're going to "let it fail." Sure, after fighting it every step of the way, getting as much tossed out by the courts as possible, and doing everything in their power at every turn to signal that its days are numbered, they're going to "let it fail." Kind of like taking a big dump in the community pool every day for 7 years, getting the courts to disallow the use of chlorine, and then saying you're going to "let it fail."

Yeah, the repeal plan fell apart pretty quickly. Now they're on to, "Our plan is to do nothing." Really, after all these years, that's the best you can do? What a bunch of losers.

Plan C (or is it D?) is to repeal Obamacare and then replace it with...something...someday.

If it had only been implemented fully everywhere, there would be far less problems. But the act does have flaws, and those need to be addressed. Unfortunately this reasonable proposal has no chance in the hard-right House.

They changed the name at my request.

Get Out, a horror film with a message on race in America. It was an OK movie, but it doesn't really all hang together. The script needed a bit more work.