Who I want to be President and Why

There are a lot of candidates running for President, several hundred in fact! Yes thats right, according to the FEC as of Aug 12 2019 we have 816 candidates who have filed to run.! Naturally we have never heard of nor are likely to most of them and of course most do not expect to win.
Lets take a quick look at some of the major candidates and my personal opinions.
Senators Sanders and Warren are my top picks so I'll start off with the others in the order I think of them.

• Marianne Williamson: Initially I thought she was kind of a nutjob but I have since listened to some of her interviews and changed my mind. She appears smart and well educated and has a good depth of knowledge on several issues, shes done her homework. Net Worth $1.5 Million, Progressive, Signature Issue is healing and uniting America. She has a lot of good plans to do that too, but I suspect some like reparations are too controversial to pass.
• Kamella Harris: I liked her more early on but do not feel she is handling the debates and interviews very well. In my opinion shes too evasive and has flipped flopped on several issues. I feel shes too worried about what polls well and not authentic. Net Worth $6 million
• Pete Buttigieg: Hes smart, maybe the smartest and best educated of the candidates. However he has not handled local division and races issues well as Mayor. I'd like to see him get more seasoning and prove his ideas. Also he is catered to by the big donor class far too much for my liking and I fear would work more for them than the average American.  Net Worth $100K, Socially left, otherwise more centrist and pro-establishment.
• Joe Biden: Far too establishment for my taste, also thinks he can work with #MoscowMitch even though President Obama was usually blocked by him. The establishment and big donor class love him and I think we have had them in control for far too long. Net Worth $9 million. Establishment and a bland moderate to Conservative. Signature Issue is "I can work with Republicans" and wont rock the boat.
• Andrew Yang: I initially dismissed him,that Universal Basic Income thing is a bit too socialist fir me. However listening to some interviews and its not as out there as I thought. Alaska does this already where every adult gets money from oil pumped out of the state. His proposal is to do the same thing for the tech industry. Considering how much they make off our personal data and the jobs they want to automate I'm ok with a tech dividend for Americans. I love that hes talking about the dangers of automation too.  No one else really hits on that but the fact is most Americans will lose their jobs to automation and sooner than most people think. Net Worth $1 million, Progressive, Signature Issues UBI and how to counter the massive unemployment thats coming.
• Inslese: An afterthought, i dint think he expected to win. I think he jumped in to get climate change talked about and I respect that dedication to a vital issue

Senator Sanders and Senator Warren

Both are strong progressives with a long track record of working for American people over corporations. 

          Senator Warren fought for us while she was a law professor and was responsible for creating the Consumer Protection Bureau. She was nominated to head it but Republicans feared her so much they killed that, she then ran for Senate and won and been a thorn in their side ever since. "Never the less she persisted" is a fitting theme.

          Senator Sanders has been a champion of human and civil rights his entire career, probably more consistently than any other serving politician. One of his early famous moments was when he was arrested at a 1963 Chicago protest for defending black civil rights. As Mayor and later in Congress he has continued to fight for human rights for everyone.

Both have the broadest appeal across the country of voters, where the others may be more popular in certain regions. This is best seen by looking at the small dollar donations and where they come from.

Both of these people are powerful progressives with plans to move the country forward and work for the people instead of the corporations. They have similar ideas, I would say that Warren is more focused on economic protections and preventing exploitation by corporations, while Sanders is more focused on health care and other basics. Either one would be great for the country.

My Preference is Bernie For President

This is purely my opinion and some of it based on feelings more than a comparative analysis.

• Sanders is the underdog and I like underdogs. Hes hated by corporate media, Republicans and Democrats both fear him and each are working hard to push the narrative that hes too left and extreme to win. With that many powerful organizations after you, your an underdog- and hes winning!
• He pushed the Democratic party to the left and we know he means what he says because hes been pushing it for 40+ years. Others have come to his ideas much later as polling shifted so we have less reason to trust them.
• Hes willing and able to fight for us, anywhere and anytime.He went on Fox TV and defended his left wing policies to a right wing audience against right wing moderators who were trying for a got'ya moment and he got a standing ovation.
• Health care is a major economic issue for Americans and he will fight hard to give it to all of us. Media trying to kill the idea of Medicare for All happily point out that his plan will raise taxes to pay for it. Where most politicians dodge that he comes out and says the truth. I love that honesty and integrity, we need more of it! I have blogged about Health care several times so wont repeat it here, check out the blog using Healthcare as the keyword.
• Climate Change is the other key issue for the country, even if climate deniers try to push it away. He has plans for that too and if we dont act soon and vigorously nothing else matters.
• Campaign Finance Reform is another important issue.  We need to change things so politicians work for the citizens, not the corporations and special interests. He is another pioneer here and while many talk about he has been fighting it for years. He is an independent to avoid the "Dialing for Dollars" routine and stand aside from the corruption rather than help it. His 2016 grassroots campaign proved individual donations from voters could fund campaigns without being bought by corporate PACs. Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats were inspired and successful because of him in 2018 and likely will be more so in 2020.

I'll be perfect;y happy with Warren for President but Bernie is my first choice. Both are fighters with proven records of working for Americans rather than against them, but for me the edge goes to the stubborn goat who has been fighting the establishment the longest. I want the underdog to win and the more the mainstream media and establishment Democrats say he can't the more I want it.

All that fear and dismissive asides tells us all what we really need to know about this race.

Critical Thinking Applied to Politics

So you believe everything politicians tell you?  How about the media?
The fact is many people lie, and even more spin things so they only tell us part of the truth. Its frustrating and people lose confidence and do not know who to trust or what to do about it.  However there are things we can all do to improve things.

Pay Attention to Agendas

Everyone has one, often more than one. If you understand someones agenda or the bias they have you can more easily spot the spin or half truths they tell you.

• Politicians want to get elected or reelected so will tell you things that he that goal. They are vey unlikely to tell you anything bad about them, many wont even own up to it when they are caught. Likewise they will tell you things to hurt their opponent, even if its not true or certain details are left out.
• Politicians have donors and often put those donors ahead of everything else, after all donor money pays for ads and other campaign expenses to get them elected or keep them in office. Sometimes a politician gets personal favors or expects a job from the donor after they leave office.  Many politicians get very cushy jobs as lobbyists or otherwise working for industries they helped while in office.
• News and political media have advertisers, donors, or subscribers they need to stay in business. Legitimate news organizations have legal and ethical standards so wont lie to their audience, but they will spin and slant stories certain ways.
• Political media is subject to far fewer restrictions and sometimes outright lies to their viewers. How do you know the difference? These are the talking heads who give opinions rather than simply report facts. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and in America allowed to share it. The trouble is when they express their opinions as facts, so watch for that.
• Mixed media is a blending of both, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc all have legitimate news and talking heads so mix it up. We need to pay close attention to who is reporting the news and who is trying to make or change the news.

Follow the Money

For media look at the advertisers, they will tend to favor stories that help their advertisers. After all if you put out stories that make your advertisers look bad they will stop advertising. They don't give the money for charity, especially to for profit companies. So look for that bias.  Also this means boycotts are powerful as the advertisers are effectively pushing the stories and do not want to be associated with bad images that may hurt them.
Also look at donors and subscribers. If the owner is a Conservative they will be more likely to hire conservatives and push a conservative agenda, similarly expect liberal owners to push liberal agenda.  However most media push an establishment agenda and that is often not talked about and overlooked. Whats an establishment bias? The idea here is that the media and advertisers are making a lot of money so want things to stay as they are and fear change to the status quo.

Whats the Bias?

• CNN and MSNBC are primarily an establishment bias. They are making money off the current system and Fox has the Conservative side locked down so they are pro-establishment and sometimes tend liberal to differentiate themselves from the competition.
• FOX News is heavily conservative, relying heavily on drug manufacturers and advertisers aimed at older demographics. The company was founded for the purpose of helping the Republican party recover from the Nixon debacle.
• The Young Turks is an online Progressive company so has a left wing agenda.
• Print and web based media are mostly donor or subscriber based. They often cater to specific audiences or demographics. Subscriber based will tell their audience what they want to hear and donor based will support the agenda the donors want.

How do I Find Out the Bias?

• The money is key here.  Find out who is paying the bills and you find out who they are most likely really working for.
• Politicians have to list their donors with the FEC, its a bit hard to read but you can get very detailed information here. Open Secrets gets its info from the FEC and lays it out in an easy to read manner, though it skips a lot of the details. Follow The Money does the same thing but goes into more detail. These sites are used by news media and politicians for opposition research but are also available to any voter. We can see donors based on industries, special interests, or individuals.
• This is Important! Ideally a politician gets most of their money from voters and small donors (usually listed as under $200). If they get most of their money from companies or large donors they will work harder for them than they will voters. Often you will see groups of companies in specific industries and often based on committee assignments.
• Media is harder but pay attention to their primary advertisers and owners can be looked up.

Polls

Polling is often used to push an agenda but works the same way. While a reputable poll wont lie, they can spin things. What questions are asked, how they are phrased, and whom they ask all can affect the answers. So Conservative organizations will phrase things to encourage answers that favor their agenda, same with liberals. Note however that most polls have an establishment or conservative bias, this is because they are run by companies. Entrepreneurs and young companies tend to be more liberal and willing to take risks, bigger established companies tend to favor deregulation (conservative) because that saves money and fewer rules favor the big guys over the little guys. As for the establishment bias obviously if they are successful the way things are they tend to want things to stay that way. Also big companies are often less nimble and able to adjust as quickly as smaller companies.

So pay attention to who made the poll.
Real Clear Politics has aggregate polls so you can filter out the bias, further since the sources are named you can see who is biased for or against a candidate or issue.

Summary

By figuring out the agenda and who is financing someone we can usually spot their agenda and more easily know when they are trying to put one over on us. It can take a lot of work but if more people did it America would be a lot better for it, regardless of your political leaning try to see the bias of those talking to you.

At the very least use Open Secrets to see the main income for your politicians,

Chalice World Setting: The Dwarven Federation

This is a cosmopolitan nation of several races. The main race is the dwarves, but there are several member races. The Dwarven Federation includes all of the Barrier Mountains and they have steam powered trains connecting thier settlements as well as to major trade centers in other lands, They also maintain a rail network in the Commonwealth that humans use for trade and the Federation in return charges a tax that is paid primarily in agricultural products.
The Federation mainly exports high quality craft items, primarily metal and jewelry work. The primary role of the Federation however is to protect the world from things coming over or through the Barrier Mountains. These are mostly chaos spirits called Jotun, though Elder Things and such also try to break through.

Dwarves

Pretty much your typical fantasy dwarves, though built a little different than other GURPS examples. They are well adapted for underground life with Night Vision 5 and Filter Lungs (also handy for working around fires) and their advanced craftsmanship is represented by being an overall tech level higher than other races in the setting.

They live and work in extended families or clans and work towards enriching and strengthening the clan. They also engage in ancestor worship.

Glowers

This is a race of sentient crystals and are essentially a servant or pet race. They are a highly intelligent and communicate using light. Because most people cant understand them and they are unable to move under their own power they are limited in normal interaction, hence their being treated as valued pets. This is fine with the glowers who prefer to sit around and gossip most of the time. However they do have valuable roles in society, primarily as communication but also in handling information.

Gravers

Another race often mistaken for an animal they appear as small bears, though they have five claws on each limb, can stand semi-upright, and are extremely good with their fore claws. They have an extraordinary sense of smell and often engage in rescue duty during cave ins. Younger ones tend to be scouts and go on patrols, adults tend to become merchants and jewelers.

Stone Keepers

One of the more exotic races in the setting, stone keepers have a third eye in their forehead. This eye possesses extraordinary visual capabilities, being able to see through objects, in complete darkness, and with amazing detail. They also have tentacles instead of hands and forearms and are able to manipulate even extremely tiny things. These abilities make them great surgeons and jewelers.

A Fantasy Computer race

So with the recent release of GURPS Template Toolkits 2: Races I am going through ans rebuilding a few of the races for Chalice World. The book in particular added a few new traits but also organized things in one place and gives good ideas for building custom races.
Today I just updated the Glowers.
I wanted a crystal computer as a fantasy race but communication was hard, the old version had Lase Comm with Broadcast (Not RAW) but the new Signals, Blinker advantage does a much better job and lets them interact more with others.
I doubt a PC will be playing one but they make a great background feature to the setting. Also they can be useful Allies carried around as heavy lanterns or a PC mage or sage type, possibly even a bard variant.
Check them out!

Senator Sanders Medicare for All Plan. Will it Save YOU $$?

Senatars Sanders plan will raise an employees payroll tax by 4%. But before you decide thats good or bad you need to look at the bottom line to find out the real answer.
According to PeopleKeep https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/what-percent-of-health-insurance-is-paid-by-employers,
Also....
https://www.patriotsoftware.com/payroll/training/blog/what-percentage-health-insurance-employers-pay-how-much/
If you work for a good company your employer pays part of your premiums.
Single coverage costs $6,435 in 2016 according to Kaiser Health.
Family coverage costs $18,142 for the same period.
If your employer pays the average of 80% and you pay the remaining 20% plus any deductibles and copays the break points are.
Single coverage workers who make more than $25k a year will pay more in his proposed payroll tax.
Family coverage workers need to make about $120k a year before they start paying more under his plan.
This assumes a couple of things.

• If your Employer pays a different percentage, or none than the the number changes. Lets say you have no employee health insurance, either you work at a small business, are self-employeed, or just changed jobs in the last 90 days divide $6,435 (single) or $18,142 (family) by your salary to see your basic rate. If you are paid hourly double your hourly rate (assuming 40/ hour work week) to estimate your salary.
• Remember this is your premium cost, you also have deductibles and co-pays under normal insurance,
• You are also paying income tax on whatever your company pays in benefits.
• Remember this is just premiums, if you actually use it your costs go up with co-pays, deductibles, caps, and things the insurance company refuses to cover. Sanders plan adds a lot of the stuff medicare recipients use supplemental plans for now such as hearing aids, eyeglasses, etc.

80% is pretty rare in my experience but it varies company to company, and small businesses dont even offer health care. Also Part time employees usually do not get benefits. The thing to remember though is what they pay also counts towards your income taxes as if it were wages so your paying taxes on that coverage. Plus the company has extra costs from HR departments dealing with it and doing the annual shopping. With Single Payer they can skip all that, they might even give some of that difference to you in higher wages to stay competitive. Look at your paycheck to see if this is better or worse. For a single member coverage average is 6.4k and $18k for family coverage, look at your paycheck. If you make $50k thats 12% for single payer plus out of pocket expenses like deductibles and copays. If you make more than that its a lower % (like most of these news anchors) and if you make less your paying a higher %. Some low income people get a tax subsidy but were already paying for that in taxes. Senators Sanders plan linked here https://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/options-to-finance-medicare-for-all?inline=file Employers pay 7.5% payroll so save huge. Employees pay 4% income tax so all but the richest save huge. Why is it so much cheaper? Lower overhead from more efficient Admin costs, no insurance lobbying (multi- Billion dollar industry), no need to advertise, no agents whose job is to prevent you getting your expenses paid, etc. Plus bigger pool better shares the costs. Also additional tax money paid by taxing capital gains and stock traders as if they were working for a living like most Americans, now they have a loophole to avoid taxes. A few other taxes on billionaires and some multi millionaires. Estate tax, Increase in their marginal rate, etc. So billionaires still get to be billionaires they just pay more in taxes. I'm ok with that.

Review - GURPS Template Toolkit 2: Races

I've been looking forward to this book since it was announced and here is my review.
The book is designed primarily to help a GM design a new race or model one from another source. You can purchase it here or check out all of the authors work on W23 here

Publication History

This is the first edition of GURPS Template Toolkit 2: Races. Many existing GURPS supplements have racial templates for various sorts of beings; e.g., biologically created or modified species in GURPS Bio-Tech, fantastic races in GURPS Fantasy, monsters in GURPS Horror and GURPS

Zombies, and robots in GURPS Ultra-Tech. This book borrows from them all – but puts all those borrowings into a comprehensive framework, with a lot of new material.

Racial traits in this work come from the GURPS Basic Set; from GURPS Powers; and from GURPS Power-Ups 2: Perks and GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks. Traits from other supplements, along with a few new traits, appear in Appendix A.

I chose to borrow that from the book itself as I feel it describes things better than I would.

Chapter 1: Racial Templates and Meta-Traits 

8 pages

Explains the basics about templates and races and gives working definitions. If your an experienced world builder the first section may seem like a rehash but I recommend reading it anyway. The next section is a bit more crunchy in identifying specific traits for various races. It includes several new meta-traits and a hit location table for different forms. Its followed by a list of relevant Features, including several for vehicles and robots or computers as Allies.

Chapter 2: Basic Parameters

8 pages

Leads off with a size and weight table along with HP and ST based on size and different values for various Injury Tolerance types such as Unliving and Homogeneous and Diffuse. I love that table, it saves a lot of math and thus time when figuring out appropriate values for your new race.  Its followed up by some explanations and math, including alternate methods, including a discussion on swarms. The Scale section is probably worth two dollars all by itself.

Habitats is next, at first glance it looks similar to whats in GURPS Space but the differences are significant and include a lot of really weird atmosphere types and the traits needed to survive in them.  This is especially true in the remaining sections of the chapter and widens the GMs options, especially useful for Aliens settings. Though the Body of Energy is also useful for some Supers campaigns.

Chapter 3: Choosing Traits

13 pages

This chapter gets into the actual design of your new race. It starts off with the concept and different approaches then moves into traits. Physical traits covers a lot of ground and gives solid guidance, more useful than expected. The Mental traits section includes material from GURPS Space (mostly the tables) but is set up not as a random generator system but a choose your level and trait. Social Traits is pretty short, which works for me.

Chapter 4: Races in Play

6 pages

Most of the crunchy stuff was covered in earlier chapters so this is more a chapter on advice. An interesting bit is how much space is devoted to transformations which I suspect will displease some but be an eye-opener for others.

Appendix A and B

7 pages

Appendix A is a list of traits, it includes several new modifiers (some from other books, including Itch which I thought was in GURPS Basic but nope) so this is a useful consolidation that does not take up too much space. Also the new material is nice, Good Grip and Signals are new advantages I think many will like.  Though I wish Good Grip had a bit more detail. Perks and the rest are good also.

Appendix B gives us some worked examples, including a Biplane, an electrical based amphibian, a demon, prosthetic (robot) body, and a raven.

Summary

I liked the book a lot. Its dense as is most of Bill's work but the subject lent to more organization and it will be an easier reference work than some of his books (I'm looking at you Supers).

CH01 and CH02 are valuable primarily as consolidating and reworking material from multiple books in one place. The rest adds other things.

Several modifiers, good ideas for vehicles as Allies, Signaling, Good Grip (suckers and such). etc.

One minor quibble is that I wished certain books had been given a call out so people might check them out. Note the first two are my articles so I may be biased..
Animal Combat Styles, Pyramid #3/111 gives martial arts styles for animals. Good for animal allies and some of its new techniques could be used for races created with this book.
An Alien Way of Thinking, Pyramid #3/110 gives ideas for how races with different properties (especially senses) might think.
Animating Your Life, Pyramid #3/101 A good treatment of Toons for GURPS, really should have had a call out in the Animating box.
Unfortunately I dont think the author read any of these Pyramids, its hard to have everything after all.

Supers Code of Behavior

The following are expected codes of behavior and legal requirements for metahumans.

State of Emergency

In the event of a declared emergency at either the Federal, State, or Emergency level the following rules apply.

• MASK Agents: All are expected to report for duty and support designated authorities until the emergency is over.
• Villains: All villains who report to appropriate authorities and assist during a declared emergency will be exempt from arrest for the duration and for 24 hours after that so long as they are not committing crimes and offering appropriate and substantive assistance. Villains who violate the temporary amnesty by committing any felonies are subject to additional penalties.
• Other Metahumans: Expectation is to help out, failure may result in loss of civil benefits.

Use of Force

The use of metahuman abilities during criminal activity comes with additional criminal and civil penalties.

• MASK Agents: Are expected to use appropriate force, Excessive and lethal can result in unnecessary property and personal damage. Increasing the risk of harm to civilians is unacceptable. Do not escalate force levels without authorization, including Standing Orders (see MASK manual).
• Villains: The use of powers that harm people or property imposes additional penalties. The levels of force used by villains can be matched by MASK agents, law enforcement personal, and even civilians. Property damage results in fines, injury results in compensation to civilians (including confiscation of assets), lethal or excessive force (including mental trauma) severely escalates the sentencing guidelines.

Powers Guidelines

• Mind Control powers count as kidnapping and unlawful restraint. Penalties for torture may also apply.