Democratic (Party) Direction

the political incompetence of the people who have self-appointed themselves as the Only Alternative to Donald Trump?

As I recall, a goodly number of voters got involved in this piece of political incompetence. I suppose it is fair to call them 'self-appointed', but that is kind of built into the system. As for myself, my money went to Warren, then when Warren dropped out my vote went to Sanders.

What Alternative to Donald Trump are you proposing?

What Alternative to Donald Trump are you proposing?

― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless)

for the seven billionth time, identifying a problem does not require one to have the solution

it occurs to me today that the government of the united states could well be described as "anarchofascism"

now, i could be wrong, but when i see the dnc, i see a group of people who are much more concerned with the anarcho- than they are with the fascism

i am not an anarchist, but i am much more concerned with the latter than the former

fwiw thinking about US political culture re: Sierra On-Line, imho the key Jimmy Maher post is Splendid Isolation: Sierra at Mid-Decade. this makes a case for Sierra staging a mid-80s realignment with the Reagan cultural majority (following early dalliances with PNW cedar hot-tub vibes, and notwithstanding Larry): the whole company was basically saved by cutting deals with Radio Shack to put software out on their Tandy line of PC clones, and Radio Shack had this huge retail presence in small towns across America. so they really leaned into being the wholesome, family-friendly, mainstream PC gaming company. probably also explains why they were hawking sort of underwhelming but easily-grasped fare as Hoyle's Book of Games. i would say more about Willy Beamish but truly we do have other threads for that.

As I recall, a goodly number of voters got involved in this piece of political incompetence. I suppose it is fair to call them 'self-appointed', but that is kind of built into the system. As for myself, my money went to Warren, then when Warren dropped out my vote went to Sanders.

― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless)

why do you think i was talking about you aimless

why do you act like i was _accusing_ you of something

why do you feel the need to speak for "a goodly number of voters", surely they are capable of speaking for themselves

I have an enormous amount of nostalgic fondness for the SVGA remake of the first Quest For Glory game

I mean her VGA *nerd fail*

“just” not “her”

ugh sorry I’m done

Feel like we just scrolled by this, which made me lol:

We can name the thread Bores of Canada.

― Yerac, Tuesday, August 18, 2020 8:07 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh look to be completely fair the quest for glory series rules (i think they are doing a 100% of it at SGDQ this year?), and there's one of the king's quest games that jane jensen worked on - I think it was King's Quest VI? - that's supposed to be _way_ better than the others

and yeah it is, uh, not terribly great? the way sierra, which notably included a _lot_ of women designing its games, gets dumped on in favor of the lucasarts adventures, which really didn't

that's what i like about maher's post on doom, he doesn't flinch away from confronting realities that challenge his personal predispositions. he doesn't portray DOOM as this terrible evil that wiped out all that was good in gaming, even as he points out the many long-lasting negative consequences its success had for gaming culture

similarly, i brought up daryl gates' police quest before, maher has a great article on that as well that delves deep into the contradictions at the heart of sierra

https://www.filfre.net/2019/07/chief-gates-comes-to-oakhurst-a-cop-drama/

it occurs to me today that the government of the united states could well be described as "anarchofascism"

now, i could be wrong, but when i see the dnc, i see a group of people who are much more concerned with the anarcho- than they are with the fascism

i am not an anarchist, but i am much more concerned with the latter than the former

― Kate (rushomancy), Tuesday, August 18, 2020 3:27 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is an interesting point. I did find it notable that Bernie directly called out authoritarianism in his speech last night, but maybe as an exception that proves the rule.

for the seven billionth time, identifying a problem does not require one to have the solution

It's also much easier and much more fun.

for the seven billionth time, identifying a problem does not require one to have the solution

It's also much easier and much more fun.

― but also fuck you (unperson)

sarcasm and zings are also a lot easier and more fun than respectful discussion

There's a time and a place for everything. This hasn't been a place for serious, thoughtful, potentially productive discussion in quite a while.

EGA version of QFG1 forever

it occurs to me today that the government of the united states could well be described as "anarchofascism"

the fact that it "could" be described this way does not make this description particularly accurate

Yerac killing it in this thread today.

yes

Quest for Glory was the best; love the Coles for that contribution to my life. Carted those save files from title to title. I never did get around to playing the fifth one, though.
The SGDQ run is on Friday, thanks for letting me know about it!

Back on topic; had a disheartening text conversation with a moderate Dem friend last night. He hates Bernie and was "so glad" Sanders didn't get nomination. Depressing times. But ya know, he's someone who the system was pretty much worked out ok for, his family is involved in local party politics and his shot against AOC and the like is that they don't have the competence to run the country. Me, I've seen what happens when you don't have unions or healthcare and am utterly unhappy with the Democrats' performance on these issues over the past 30 years.

Pretty absurd to complain people are incapable of running things when you never let them have much power

lol

Chait assumes that all of us who didn't go to Ivy League schools spent our days gluing macaroni to construction paper pic.twitter.com/FHrWaqeN9P

— Bradford Pearson (@BradfordPearson) August 19, 2020

yes the Biden wing of the Democratic Party has been doing a crackerjack job of “running things” for the last 40 year I tell you what

ffs they lost to DONALD J TRUMP

ran right over to Iraq lookin for those WMDs jfc

so i'm gonna nerd out even _more_ here

i woke up this morning thinking about lord of the rings and sam gamgee (if that's how you spell his name, i only know the movies)

they're all walking right into mordor, sam and frodo and this creature called gollum, who we're told used to be a basically ok hobbit but the power of the ring fucked him up really bad

and frodo is like look we gotta have gollum with us, he can help us, and anyway he's not even all bad, i mean he does some weird shit sometimes but look at all the hurt and pain and suffering he's been through, but sam just sees a monster who tried to hurt him and hurt frodo, and he sees gollum trying to steal the ring and run away with it and beats the shit out of him and frodo wakes up and says "SAM WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU WHY ARE YOU BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF POOR INNOCENT SMEAGOL" and smeagol makes those fucking anime eyes at frodo

it's a bad scene

so they get to the center of mount doom and it's time for frodo to destroy the ring and he says "no". sam... i think sam sort of knew this was coming, this was where it was going to end up. he hoped it wouldn't come to this but it did anyway. sam pleads with frodo, reasons with frodo, tries everything, but you know, frodo ain't gonna listen to him. the ring is more important to frodo than sam is.

that's when gollum comes barreling out of nowhere screaming "MY PRECIOUS" and grabs the ring

now, in the book, frodo and gollum fight for the ring, and in the fight gollum grabs the ring but in doing so destroys both himself and the ring.

it's a blatant and intentional deus ex machina. this is a miracle, and it happened because, you know, that's how tolkien wrote it

so what if that doesn't happen? what if gollum gets the ring _without_ destroying himself? and what if where we are now is frodo standing here, in the fires of mount doom, with gollum dancing around and rejoicing, and says to sam -

"sam, i need your help. help me persuade gollum to give the ring back, and we can take it back to the shire, and we can forget all this ever happened."

and sam, like, he's looking at frodo like he's gone completely fucking batshit crazy. this is frodo's idea? the idea that he can just politely talk gollum into giving back the ring? and that, even assuming that's possible, which it isn't, the plan now is to go against everything he said he was going to do, everybody who's fought, everybody's who's died, and just walk back to the shire? to say "oh no, there was no war of the ring, it was just some kind of misunderstanding?"

so sam looks at frodo and says "mr. frodo, i can't do that"

and frodo says to him "oh, so you _want_ gollum to have the ring?"

lol i love that post

https://earther.gizmodo.com/democrats-quietly-cut-opposition-to-fossil-fuel-subsidi-1844768172

is Joe Biden Gollum

i only know the movies)

now, in the book,

Which one is it?

Excellent post though.

democrats are quietly dropping climate change as a top issue, in general.

It’s called “Build Back Better”

they're just building up to their post-fatal-hemorrhage pivot, "bring back beto"

Which one is it?

Excellent post though.

― peace, man

it's the movie, i get confused writing sometimes :)

is Joe Biden Gollum

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

no

when does bl**mb*rg speak

I think that's in the Silmarillion

a+

damn tonight's agenda is truly a parade of bipartisan war criminals

plus: the ghost of John McCain!

i'll be watching pandemic baseball

watching hilary and pelosi talk i am deeply struck (speaking solely as an outsider) by how deeply MONIED usa seems - by the sense of wealth and power's co-mingling in ways that are signaled over and over again, unapologetically. the message embedded in the message. reminds me of President Snow or some kinda Hunger Games transmissions.

this place really sucks, no doubt

Xp otm

squintin...b i m....bim...what could it mean...an an acronym? Bomb islam more? Warren has done it again! https://t.co/pwDe9DAr87

— Y (@YSAB87) August 20, 2020

hey hey hey, bim's on the way

https://i0.wp.com/thenoise-boston.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/bimCDweb337.jpg

fuck nancy pelosi, would donate like a hundred dollars to her progressive primary challenger in 2022

Speaker of the House endorsing a primary challenge to a sitting senator https://t.co/ai5UYuKv7U

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 20, 2020

THAT SURNAME IS MAGIC!

As Clinton said 4 years ago, "Not gonna promise anything," we've had enough of that.

You should be speaking not Kasich https://t.co/0LTE7eQtsO

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) August 18, 2020

Enough with fucking political family dynasties, goddamnit. No more Bushes, Kennedy’s, Clinton’s, etc.

No Elvis, Beatles, or Rolling Stones

As I alluded to in my piece, a lot of this is about the career aspirations of young moderates - many of whom, of course, are in the House. This is to placate them. Meanwhile, Senate Dems dislike Kennedy & back Markey - except Sinema who was one of these guys. Just a strange race. https://t.co/FoKzX1utNC

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) August 20, 2020

"If a scrappy young up-and-comer like Joe Kennedy can do it, maybe I can too!"

I read somewhere his people hope -- you have to chug vodka to believe this twaddle -- the public remembers how Ted Kennedy didn't become a great senator until the 1980s. And that's true. But how pathetic. "Please have faith I won't remain a mediocre bootlicker reliant on my name."