This week in Congress

So AOC had this wonderful bit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJlpS4vhKP0
You know what was amazing there? Not just how clear she framed and showed the corruption really is but that she was so clear not one Republican dared interrupt her to try and obfuscate and hide the corruption.  Normally we see a lot of theater and grandstanding for the cameras but here she made it so obvious that no one wanted to call attention to themselves or be caught on camera defending these practices and regulations.
Make no mistake, they will fight tooth and nail to protect that corruption but in this instance at least they knew they were outmatched.

Meanwhile in another committee we had Whittaker make a fool of Congress and showed he is loyal to Trump, not the United States of America. So did several Republicans.
This was all about theater and pandering to the audience with no real answers.

MSNBC stats review

Its short and worth the viewing if you want well researched facts.
https://youtu.be/ZTzBVpNlzQg

Review of In Nomine the Core Rule Book

The book is 212 pages and available on W23 for $16+
The first 24 pages are a cool story told from different perspectives that really helps you understand the mood and characters of the setting. The descriptions also explain a bit of some of the concepts.
After that it gets to explaining the setting and mechanics.
The book has a narrative style and is best read and understood from beginning to end. Attributes or characteristics are divided into three sets of Forces, Corporal, Ethereal, and Celestial and the player assigns a certain number of forces between them.
Corporal represents the physical world and covers Strength and Agility.
Ethereal represents the mind and covers Intelligence and Precision.
Celestial represents the soul of the character and covers Will and Perception.
As you increase a certain Force you get points to increase that Forces characteristics. Characteristics have a range from 1 to 12.
After that if your a Celestial you choose a Choir or Band (Kind of like race) and a Superior you follow.  You may get certain resources and special abilities based on how you spent your Forces, your Choir/Band, and even your Superior.

An interesting gimmick is most rolls are done by rolling what is called d666 whic is two matching die and one different. Sum the matching die and compare against the assigned target number (you want to roll low) and the third die is sort of a degree of success/failure die. This separates so called critical successes or failures from how difficult a task is and makes them more a matter of random luck.
Basic Target numbers are easy to determine as they are based on a characteristic and possibly a skill or ability. So for example a high strength score increases your chances of succeeding at strength checks. The GM may assign a modifier for certain tasks which is added or subtracted to the die roll.
This makes most task resolutions easy and obvious without looking things up during play.
Of special note is the rare "Intervention" which is a roll of 1,1,1 or 6,6,6 which I'll leave to your imagination!

I'll discuss special powers and more in later posts.

Summary

Overall the book and rules system feels less precise or simulationist, and more story driven where things have wiggle room for interpretation. That particular style doesnt suit my tastes but I'm an analyst by trade and personality so I like precision, heavy cross references, and things to fit in neat little boxes. If your like Vampire the Masquerade or games like that you'll probably like the book more than I did.

Like the above mentioned game,I really like the setting more than the rules.  A GURPS conversion was made, though that was a Third Edition project and I would like to see a Fourth Edition version.

Brand New Congress 2020 run

So Brand New Congress is one of the groups I support and they announce their first candidate for 2020 Cori Bush!
She ran for the first time last cycle and is taking those hard won lessons back on the campaign trail.
Most first time candidates lose, but only a few try again so shes to be commended,
Also she had a harder road than most since she was a grassroots no Corporate PAC money candidate. Unfortunately money wins elections :( but 2016 proved the power of grassroots crowd funding and 2018 Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats supported 11 winning candidates.  FYI that was the first election for both those groups so its an impressive win. But it would not have happened without great candidates and voters tired of the same old same old establishment politicians.
We need change so please take a look and support candidates who work for Americans instead of multinational corporations.

Upping the GURPS Mages Tactical Game

I really like the multitude of options in regards to different ways to handle magic. However one thing I find that needs a better option is countermeasures. I like the image of fueling wizards, say like this clip so here are a few suggestions.

Defensive Magic

Counter-Magic

IQ/VH

Defaults: None

Prerequisites: Magery, Thaumatology

The skill of applying the knowledge and ability to manipulate magic in a defensive manner to counter hostile spells. It allows a Power Block or Parry (GURPS Powers, pp. 167 – 169). A Block uses the mages magic to reinforce or tailor defenses against an attack while a Parry creates a small magical bolt that disrupts incoming missile attacks.

Spell Block: Roll 3 + (Skill + Magery) / 2 (Drop fractions) with success granting DR 1 or +1 to resist per level of magery or doubling a defensive magical ability such as Improved Magic Resistance or Mind Shield.

Spell Parry: Parry = 3 + (Innate Attack + Magery) / 2. A successful parry subtracts 1d damage from an incoming missile spell for each 1 FP spent. This cost must be declared in advance and is not reduced by high skill (same as a Blocking spell).

Modifiers: Typical modifiers such as Combat Reflexes apply, though footing and shield DB do not. – 1 per hex to subject when Blocking for others or use the Speed/Range penalties for the nearest of the attacker or subject when Parrying for others.

Increasing Effective Range

GURPS Thaumatology offers Adjustable Spells (Thaumatology, p. 39) and Techniques for specialists to offset those penalties, which can include Increased Range. The section Minor System Tweaks includes a section on range adjustments (Thaumatology, p. 35). Below is a variation on Zen Archery for spell casting.

Magical Alignment and General Engagement (M.A.G.E)

IQ/VH

Defaults: None

Prerequisites: Thaumatology

By using the Laws of Contagion, Names and Similarity you can reduce range penalties. On a success, add up the penalties for size and speed/range (or Long Distance Modifiers), and then divide them by 3 (round down).

Modifiers: Sympathy section (GURPS Thaumatology, pp. 243 – 246). -10 if used instantly, dropping to -5 after 1 turn of concentration, -4 after 2 turns, -3 after 4 turns, -2 after 8 turns, -1 after 16 turns, and no penalty after 32 turns.

Political Victories are More Important Than Responsible Leadership

The Senate failed to pass a bill to open the government today. The Republican bill actually failed to get more votes than the Dem bill, even though they are in the minority. This shows the problems the Republicans have had since they took over at the beginning of 2016. They cant agree even among themselves what to do, like Repealing and replacing ObamaCare they were unable to agree among themselves how to improve it.  Sure they have been able to gut it pretty effectively, even when they were a minority party they were great at sabotage.
Its coming up with and agreeing on solutions is where they keep coming up short.  The only priority they managed to get done in 2 years of controlling the government was tax cuts. And that is because their billionaire donors demanded it of them.

Whether you agree with the Republican goals or not, the above is simple fact.
President Trump keeps sayins everyone is willing to sacrifice for the wall and they just need to make adjustments.
While Wilbur Ross says just go get a loan, no big deal. Wilbur Ross goes on another interview to say its not a gigantic number overall its less than 1/3% GDP so its not a big deal.
Lara Trump "Its a little bit of pain, but good for the country"

Think about how out of touch or how little these people really care for American workers.
Republicans dont understand that for most Ameicans a missed paycheck, much less 2 and the threats of this going on through April (or as Trump said even years) is a big deal.

Does that sound right to you?
As everyone tries to spin this it is important to remember.
The shutdown started under GOP control when FoxNews told Trump he was weak if he did not get the wall. Te House voted on day #1 after taking control to end the shutdown, the Senate led by McConnell has not even voted to open it until today.
Trump wants something he can call a Wall for a political victory and he is willing to take Americans hostage by withholding pay to get it.
Republicans so far have chosen to back that play.
The Dems have funded increased border security but not the wall.

Who is right? Do we need a wall or not?
Honestly, that does not even matter anymore. Trump and the Republican party has decided a wall is suddenly the most important thing and are willing to withhold pay for 800,000 workers plus contractors (who will simply never get paid) and force many to work, preventing them from getting another temp job to pay the bills.
Republicans say that this is all the Democrats fault for not surrendering.
Democrats, however know that even if they do surrender or in fact make ANY kind of deal Trump will simply use this tactic again. In March, if the dems deal now the Republicans led by Trump will simply do it again since they know its a working strategy.

Summary

We need leaders who can negotiate in good faith and compromise so both sides walk away from the table satisfed they got what they want. Every Congress person represents Americans, Republican, Democrat or other and what our so called leader forget when they blame each other that people are behind the votes.
Please contact your legislatures, tell them to pass a clean funding bill, no strings or deals attached. Get the government open and people back to work. Than negotiate with each other in good faith and without using Americans as leverage for your petty political victories

Why Republicans Win

The Republican agenda is counter to what most Americans want, yet they win more often than Democrats. Why?

Divide and Conquer! 

The Republican party is very aggressive in its messaging and has their own dedicated cable channel to push the messages aimed at stirring up anger, fear and hatred. The strategy is divide and conquer.

Rather than come up with popular solutions they take the easy path of blaming everyone else for the problems the country faces. This was the strategy of Stalin and Hitler (not saying all Republicans are the same, just that they use the same strategy) and it is an effective one. Much easier to blame someone else than it is to come up with practical solutions for improving things.
Think about it, who is more responsible for wages that dont keep up with inflation or rising medical prices? Immigrants working minimum wage (or lower) jobs or the people in charge of the banks and big corporations? More people each year from prescription drugs than illegal drugs but the Pharmaceutical companies donate money to GOP coffers so the focus is put on illegal drugs.  Sure, stop those from coming in or being made but lets not ignore the major killer just because they pay you off.

Who caused the last recession? Illegal Immigrants, poor people tricked into taking out loans they could not afford? Or the banks that knew they could not pay off the loan but aggressively conned them into signing up? The banks knew that they could confiscate the homes and other collateral and even if they lost money the taxpayer would cover their losses.

Summary

Divide and conquer and lying to their base is an effective strategy, at least until they get caught too often at those lies. It is not very American and has numerous long term problems (you eventually run ot of people to blame and of course waste a lot of time and energy looking for victims rather than working on solutions) but its suitable for those who focus on the short rather than long term.

For example the GOP ran for 7 years on repealing and replacing ObamaCare or the AHCA but once they had power it turned out they never worked out an actual plan they could agree on. They of course tried to blame not having a super majority for the failure but the reality is if they could not get all Republicans on board (Mostly the House Freedom Caucus kept sabotaging their efforts) how can anyone take them seriously?  I mean with 7 years surely YOU would have put in work on something you ran on as a key issue right?

It seems Trump, who is not as smart or sophisticated in his lies is slowly hurting the party but he is good at playing up peoples fears. Those who favor smaller government and fewer regulations need to break off and join the Libertarian party. With that influx it has a better chance of winning, I think Trump has irrevocably damaged the Republican party.