FredEffinChopin

I've never been big on AC/DC, so my opinion doesn't hold much weight. That being said, I don't think Axl sounds bad with them at all.

I like the joke that if a handful of others had stayed in, they might have avoided this altogether. I kid Kasich as much as the next guy, but a few more attitudes like that could have divided the vote enough to take it to the convention.

Catchy level: Japanese/Retro-American/French Feel free to enjoy the rest of my P5 playlist that the track belongs to

I agree that Trump can win. This entire primary has been an exercise in removing our collective foot from our mouths every time we write his candidacy off. I've been told for a year now that he can't win anything, and that it's going to be over any minute, yet here we are. He's tapped into a new (for our time/setting), unique blend of political discontent and, simultaneously somehow, political and social ignorance. Conventional wisdom has gone out of so many windows in this election that it barely has a pulse at this point as far as I can tell. It should be getting carried around the woods or snow somewhere, searching for a three-eyed raven. I understand that the Republican electorate hardly represents the political landscape in America, but he seems to be galvanizing a portion of it that was largely inactive until now. Republican turnout so far is the highest it's been in my lifetime, and the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign has managed to alienate a large portion of its base, and underwhelm much of the rest of it to boot. When your PACs are paying people to pretend that they like you on the internet, you have a problem. The thing is, Trump actually has a platform. It's mostly incoherent, and he constantly contradicts itself when he tries to articulate it, but it's enough. This vague notion of restoring America to some unnamed point in time has resonated with people, and excited them. It's the prospect of change. Clinton is trying to sell the country on the idea of incremental progress at best, and a fight for the status quo at the worst. Her single strongest selling point might actually be Donald Trump's candidacy at this point, and it's admittedly a potent one, as there is constantly talk about this or that Republican considering voting Clinton in the general. It seems to me though, that this doesn't bode well in terms of a strong Democratic turnout. A lot of voters might find their couch to be the most compelling item on their minds after work on election day. None of this even considers how the actual campaigns leading up to the general will play out. For all the braindead comparisons that have been made between the Sanders and Trump campaigns, one true common characteristic that they share is a portion of the electorate who are primarily fed up with what they perceive as corrupt and exclusive political establishment that mainly works to serve the donor class. Clinton has become the posterchild for that status quo for many voters. Sanders talks about it constantly, but his approach limits the rhetorical force that a more direct, personal attack against his opponent would have. Donald Trump does not pull punches though, and if there is a person who is situated in a better vantage point from which to attack that weak spot than the candidate who donated, not just to political campaigns, but to HER political campaigns, I can't imagine who that person is. He can make up whatever narrative he wants around the donations, it doesn't matter. What matters is how he hammers it home as he continues to position himself as the anti-establishment candidate as he calls Clinton out for claiming to regulate the interests that facilitate her candidacy. Even something like pointing out their shared Delaware tax haven is something that helps him in this regard. He doesn't have to adhere to the same standards that other politicians do. He's a "businessman," and his supporters can overlook any behavior that is done legally for the purpose of maximizing his profit. It doesn't work so well for a candidate that is struggling to convince the progressive portion of her party that she's going to make the nation's wealthiest pay their fair share in taxes. And how can we anticipate her responding to this? Sanders' assault represents the mildest forms of political attacks that I've seen, despite their potency. His offensive largely amounted to identifying items on Clinton's record/history and contrasting it to his own, as well as framing her as representative of our corrupt campaign finance system. The response from the Clinton camp mainly amounted to screaming bloody murder and flailing in every direction. Are we going to see a Trump Bros meme pop up? Can we expect that to be effective? His voters don't register that frequency at all, and she's cried wolf enough in the primary that people who are disenchanted by her primary strategy might stop listening by then. I don't know, she seems incredibly vulnerable in this election. She has problems with likability and trustworthiness, she's mired in scandal, and she excites almost nobody. The DNC's support has been a tremendous asset in her primary race, but I'm not sure how helpful it's going to be in a general election.

Good album all around.

I just voted! I'm so smart. This was the best episode in a long, long time in my opinion.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/28/politics/john-boehner-ted-cruz-lucifer-stanford/ lol. It's not the best time for American politics, but sometimes it's the little things in life that you need to bring a smile to your face. In all seriousness though, the Republican party might be history in all but name. I'm not sure the Democratic party is very far behind though, as there might be a left-leaning tea party brewing right now, readying itself to swallow the party in similar fashion. Perhaps these are the ashes from which a viable third party rises... One can only hope.

I have to agree on both points. N64 was responsible for the only real lull in my gaming habits in my life... and yeah, I was hanging out and getting laid and doing drugs and stuff at the time, but still, I can recall popping into stores and looking for something new to catch my eye, and just seeing the same tired lineup most of the time. It took a couple of years of Playstation owners throwing their libraries in my face for it to finally penetrate my skull, but I eventually realized that if I wanted a console that was going to feed my appetite, I was going to have to look elsewhere. The only thing I disagree with is the idea that Nintendo has any dignity left.

^^^ That was my favorite record back in the mid-90s. I haven't heard a track off of it in a long, long time. I have the urge to hear Who Wrote Holden Caulfield. Or Words I Might Have Ate... Anyway.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/28/11317638/playstation-vr-pc-compatible If this thing can act as a Rift or Vive on the PC, I'm in.

Pardon the double, but I forgot to post the video, which is nothing short of adorable. Also this person won Twitter today (I don't know, for some reason the image refuses to load in a post).

The animal kingdom has chosen its candidate

He whines like one too. He slips into it in debates pretty frequently. It's amazing that he hasn't gotten that under control with all of his rehearsal. Trump can definitely beat Clinton. Especially if Trump decides that he's going to discuss whatever favors he might have received in return for funding her campaigns. It seems to me that he's the only candidate that may be able to make Sanders' case (at least with her in particular) better than Sanders can, or at least better than Sanders is willing to. She's also about a scandal (fake or not) away from being even more unlikable than she already is among many voters. She also doesn't seem to move independent voters in any meaningful way as things stand. Don't get me wrong, I think it's still Clinton's race to lose, as I expect a strong anti-Trump sentiment to have settled in even deeper among voters by the time November comes around. She's a pretty vulnerable candidate though. Not much would surprise me in this election at this point. I feel like I'm living in some sort of didactic novel, or a satire film. Or a mental hospital.

I'll just leave this right here: https://youtu.be/PyUj-XsvF5k

Who do I have to pay extra money to to get them to update the console versions with the online component that the last three editions of the game had? This is interesting though, and of course I would like it to come to PC. I'm curious to see how that particular corner of the market responds to it at this point in time. If I thought there was any chance in hell that I'd be able to access my DLC library I would actually preorder myself a copy.

Why am I posting a Halloween pic in February? God only knows. I thought it would be a funny costume, and easy to pull off. It ended up just causing some awkward discussions at the Halloween party I went to. That moment when you have to explain that you think that the person that someone else is voting for is an asshole and a child... Ugh.

I was fortunate enough for the unthinkable to occur when I revisited this game in December or so: I had 4 actual friends who happened to be down to play at the same time, two of whom had already gotten most of the stuff in the game done, and could hold the rest of our hands through things. They selected one person who they had played with in the past, and who they thought would get along with the group (let's face it, I'm really the difficult one when it comes to tolerating online strangers), and they were right, and I had a full clan to get moving with. As such, I've actually gotten just about everything of importance done. At this point we pretty much just hit up the guy with the difficult schedule to see when/if we can get raids done every few days. So if anyone in this thread still needs to get things like Nightfalls or raids done, feel free to hit me up. My schedule is completely spastic and random lately, so I can't guarantee any regular times. I do seem to usually be up and on the couch late nights EST though, so that might be a good time to try me. If it's something like a Nightfall (that only requires three people), and if one of my clanmates is on, you don't even need to worry about light level or a third member, as we can carry people through those pretty easily.

....Stop laughing at me.

Kasich. He's the most earnest, and has expressed the greatest interest in matters of governance.. He's not nearly as morally repugnant as most of the other candidates in a social sense, and also seems to be the single Republican candidate who understands the importance of (or at very least the appearance of) an inclusive and rational rhetorical approach to selling his stances, rather than running around screaming with a pitchfork. He also campaigns on his own merits, rather than against the Obama administration and his primary opponents.

It's a talking point that Marco Rubio repeated in three consecutive mic-ups nearly verbatim in the last Republican debate. It was doubly embarrassing because it wasn't even close to relevant to the discussion/question (depending on which leg of the spectacle we're talking about) at hand. It was triply embarrassing because opponent Chris Christie called him out on his first repeat of the talking point... and then again on the second repeat of it. It wasn't the only time Christie very effectively took it to Rubio's doorstep during that debate, but it was certainly the most memorable. There are some videos that cut it up for you, but it's all in one block, so I've just timestamped the full debate for you in case you would like to see it unfold (it begins at 13:10, in case the timestamp doesn't work for anyone). Here.

Haha I came to post that too. The visuals are gorgeous, and the voice acting sounds great too. It actually looks like a lot of that time in the oven was spent creating a strong narrative to boot. I hope it comes through. I'm psyched. I think I'll start replaying the first one within the next couple of weeks. This is a good time to remind Amazon Prime members that all console pre-orders are 20% for you. And with that I'm off.