Clown Car VII: Or "Gulliver's Travels 2: The Witch Hunt Continues"

And wasn't there some rumor that if Lucas was going to be in charge of the sequel trilogy, that it was going to be set in the realm of the midichlorians?
 
This is taking us far afield, but I've been toying with the idea of creating a campaign world for a tabletop FRPG. My idea is to have a set of adventures spaced over several generations. A slow-developing evil, like Sauron, that the forces of good are striving to hold in check. The players would play out one generation's adventuring, then retire--or die gloriously and become the stuff of legend. Then they would pick up a new set of characters and play out the next generation's adventuring in this larger cause, maybe sometimes meeting as NPCs the now-retired PCs of a previous generation. And in any case, revisiting locales that they visited as the previous generation of PCs, but also gradually exploring more of the world.

Anyhoo, one of my ideas for this is that there would be one set of adventures wholly set within the realm of little creatures: faeries, brownies, pixies, etc. (I'd have to get myself up on all of that lore). In the earlier adventure-sequences, such characters would serve mostly as color. But then suddenly it turns out that their realm is threatened in its own way by the Big Bad, and players shift their sense of scale and play out a whole generation's adventuring either in what they otherwise know to be some tiny space of the overall map, or maybe spread through all the whole map, but just representing a world that had been too small for the the PCs to really take notice of before.

Anyway, the circumstances of my life don't lend themselves to actually running such a campaign. But the fondest memories of my youth are of pen-and-paper RPGs, so I thought just as an exercise in nostalgia, I would draw up some maps, and sketch a set of adventure locales, NPC character-sketches, etc.
 
Does this mean Trump is a Neo-Con now?

The New York Times, 17 July 2023 - "Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025"

NY Times said:
Donald Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.
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NY Times said:
Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.
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NY Times said:
He wants to revive the practice of “impounding” funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon.
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NY Times said:
He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as “the sick political class that hates our country.”
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Alternate link.
 

Trump Says He Won’t Sign Loyalty Pledge Required for G.O.P. Debate​

The Republican National Committee has demanded that 2024 contenders pledge to support the eventual nominee in order to debate. The former president is refusing.

Former President Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he was unwilling to meet one of the requirements to participate in the first Republican presidential debate, refusing to sign a pledge to support the eventual nominee. “I wouldn’t sign the pledge,” he said in an interview with the conservative outlet Newsmax. “Why would I sign a pledge? There are people on there that I wouldn’t have.” The decision would seem to rule out the possibility of him being at the debate on Aug. 23, yet he also said that he would announce next week whether he planned to take part. Asked for comment on Thursday, the Republican National Committee, which sets the rules, referred to past interviews in which its chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, has defended the pledge and said the committee will hold everyone to it.

“The rules aren’t changing,” she said on CNN last month. “We’ve been very vocal with them.” In the Newsmax interview, Mr. Trump said, “I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president,” without naming them. “So right there, there’s a problem right there.”
Mr. Trump also said that he wasn’t convinced it was worth it for him to debate given how far ahead he is in the primary, and that he wasn’t worried that the debate would change his standing. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed him leading the field by an enormous margin, more than 35 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. “If you have a 20-stroke lead going into the 18th hole, you tend not to be that worried,” he said at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., on Thursday, as Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open winner, stood a few feet away.

Some other Republicans criticized Mr. Trump on Thursday for his refusal to commit to supporting a nominee other than himself. “Every Republican running for President would be better than Joe Biden,” Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said on Twitter. “Any candidate who does not commit to supporting the eventual nominee is putting themselves ahead of the future of our country.” At least two other candidates have already signed the pledge: Mr. DeSantis and Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump. “Alright fellas, your turn,” she wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Mr. Trump’s vacillation over the pledge is not new; he objected to signing the same loyalty pledge during his first campaign eight years ago. He ultimately did, but then took it back. That history underscores that the pledge is, in practice, unenforceable. Party leaders can refuse to let a candidate debate for not signing, but they can’t force someone who does sign to actually support another nominee next year.

One of Mr. Trump’s opponents, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, has said that he will sign the pledge, but that he would not support Mr. Trump if he is the eventual nominee: “I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” he told CNN.
Another opponent, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, has suggested that — if he otherwise qualifies for the debate, which he hasn’t yet — he would sign based on the far-from-safe assumption that Mr. Trump won’t be the nominee and Mr. Hutchinson won’t actually be tested.
 
Hygro said:
This is going to be the most fun primary of our lives.
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As long as I believe Brandon will win I can agree, but if I let myself think Brandon might lose then it's honestly terrifying. They're genocidal in the literal sense and they also want to burn the world in an increasingly literal sense.
 
Lexicus said:
As long as I believe Brandon will win I can agree, but if I let myself think Brandon might lose then it's honestly terrifying. They're genocidal in the literal sense and they also want to burn the world in an increasingly literal sense.
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Thinking we can and should win is good. But when democrats think we are definitely going to win, we lose, and when it's on the line, we win again.
 
Gori the Grey said:
B/c the question is whether DeSantis can piggyback on that slogan and not look like a loser who has stolen his ideas from Trump.
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DeSantis is sinking like a stone and appears to be cooked at this point. The Republican primary is shaping up to be a farce.

Christie has apparently pulled ahead of DeSantis in New Hampshire polling. In national polling, according to RCP which is a polling aggregator that trends conservative as a site, Trump is currently polling over 54% while DeSantis has dropped to just under 15%, whereas he formerly was polling as high as the 20s and 30s in November to March.

Meanwhile Ramaswamy has gotten to 6%. Christie is still under 3% and doesn't seem to be gaining much ground nationally.

Trump has stated that he would skip the Republican debates, as he is so far ahead that he doesn't need to bother attending them, which I tend to agree with. Whether Trump attends debates or not, they are going to be a sham since he is so far ahead.
 
DeSantis is toast.
 
Sommerswerd said:
DeSantis is sinking like a stone and appears to be cooked at this point. The Republican primary is shaping up to be a farce.

Christie has apparently pulled ahead of DeSantis in New Hampshire polling. In national polling, according to RCP which is a polling aggregator that trends conservative as a site, Trump is currently polling over 54% while DeSantis has dropped to just under 15%, whereas he formerly was polling as high as the 20s and 30s in November to March.

Meanwhile Ramaswamy has gotten to 6%. Christie is still under 3% and doesn't seem to be gaining much ground nationally.

Trump has stated that he would skip the Republican debates, as he is so far ahead that he doesn't need to bother attending them, which I tend to agree with. Whether Trump attends debates or not, they are going to be a sham since he is so far ahead.
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New Hampshire doesn't tend to go for the culture war stuff, generally, so DeSantis was never likely to do well here anyway.
 
IglooDame said:
New Hampshire doesn't tend to go for the culture war stuff, generally, so DeSantis was never likely to do well here anyway.
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The polling in for the Iowa Caucuses has Trump at 42% and DeSantis at 19% so apparently Iowa isn't going for it either.

The Republicans should have picked a unity candidate to be their challenger to Trump months ago. What they are doing now appears hopeless (in terms of having any chance to actually challenge Trump).

Trump has also formally announced that he is skipping the FOX News Republican debate, which essentially makes the debate an illegitimate, unwatchable farce. He's already filmed his counter-programming, apparently an interview with Tucker Carlson (formerly of FOX News). So this is a double diss of FOX News by Trump. They're going to lose ratings because he isn't at the debate, and lose even more ratings to the Tucker Carlson interview he did.

The hilarious part is that he isn't even doing the interview live, so he won't have to answer any questions about the debate as its going on. Instead he can sit on his couch and watch the debate live, to see what is being said about him :popcorn: ... or maybe even show up at the debate and basically crash it. Now THAT would be a hoot:lol:
 
Birdjaguar said:

Trump Says He Won’t Sign Loyalty Pledge Required for G.O.P. Debate​

The Republican National Committee has demanded that 2024 contenders pledge to support the eventual nominee in order to debate. The former president is refusing.

Former President Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he was unwilling to meet one of the requirements to participate in the first Republican presidential debate, refusing to sign a pledge to support the eventual nominee. “I wouldn’t sign the pledge,” he said in an interview with the conservative outlet Newsmax. “Why would I sign a pledge? There are people on there that I wouldn’t have.” The decision would seem to rule out the possibility of him being at the debate on Aug. 23, yet he also said that he would announce next week whether he planned to take part. Asked for comment on Thursday, the Republican National Committee, which sets the rules, referred to past interviews in which its chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, has defended the pledge and said the committee will hold everyone to it.

“The rules aren’t changing,” she said on CNN last month. “We’ve been very vocal with them.” In the Newsmax interview, Mr. Trump said, “I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president,” without naming them. “So right there, there’s a problem right there.”
Mr. Trump also said that he wasn’t convinced it was worth it for him to debate given how far ahead he is in the primary, and that he wasn’t worried that the debate would change his standing. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed him leading the field by an enormous margin, more than 35 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. “If you have a 20-stroke lead going into the 18th hole, you tend not to be that worried,” he said at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., on Thursday, as Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open winner, stood a few feet away.

Some other Republicans criticized Mr. Trump on Thursday for his refusal to commit to supporting a nominee other than himself. “Every Republican running for President would be better than Joe Biden,” Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said on Twitter. “Any candidate who does not commit to supporting the eventual nominee is putting themselves ahead of the future of our country.” At least two other candidates have already signed the pledge: Mr. DeSantis and Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump. “Alright fellas, your turn,” she wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Mr. Trump’s vacillation over the pledge is not new; he objected to signing the same loyalty pledge during his first campaign eight years ago. He ultimately did, but then took it back. That history underscores that the pledge is, in practice, unenforceable. Party leaders can refuse to let a candidate debate for not signing, but they can’t force someone who does sign to actually support another nominee next year.

One of Mr. Trump’s opponents, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, has said that he will sign the pledge, but that he would not support Mr. Trump if he is the eventual nominee: “I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” he told CNN.
Another opponent, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, has suggested that — if he otherwise qualifies for the debate, which he hasn’t yet — he would sign based on the far-from-safe assumption that Mr. Trump won’t be the nominee and Mr. Hutchinson won’t actually be tested.
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This thread should be merged into the Clown Car Thread
 
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