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.

Why Democrats Lose

The Democratic party demonstrably doesn't represent their constituents. They push for establishment contenders and oppose primaries which present constituents getting a chance to vote for their preference. The party also pushes for centrist and establishment views, even though polls and voting history show most Americans are sick and tired of the establishment and Congress.

When Americans say they want change why does the DNC think more of the same or incremental change is a winning strategy?

In 2018 a record number of House seats were flipped from red to blue, yet the democratic leadership and pundits till the record number of freshman to sit down and wait their turn. In other words, keep doing things the same way we have been. They ignore the fact that their voters put them into office to make change, telling the people they elected to just be quiet or follow their lead is a direct slap on those voters.

So why should Democrats expect people to vote for them if they A) Ignore the demand for change and representation B) Declare the people they voted for as radicals and unimportant youngsters who need to toe the line C) Refuse to fight for core demands of their base and say everyone should accept slow and incremental change. D) Take their base for granted by assuming they will vote for them without clear evidence the party is actually going to do what the voters want.

Summary

Democrats won big in 2016 and in 2020 they have a favorable electoral map (This time more Republicans are up for reelection, last time it was more Democrats up for election) and Trump and the Republican party are mired in scandals, criminal activity and in general ticking off the American people.  Their strategy of sowing fear and hatred to divide the country is backfiring on them as more people are wanting to fight back.

But the Democrats can still lose, and lose big if they dont start messaging better and convincing their base and Independents that the party will follow through and do what their voters demand.

They need a big win or at least the ability to put out a few big proposals that are killed by Republicans so they can tell their voters give us control and we can make this happen. Then they need to stick to it and make it happen.

The GURPS has no settings Meme

So I answered a poster over on the Steve Jackson Games forums and he made some observations that plague the GURPS community. I replied there but want to address the topic in more generalterms here.

People see a game system where the whole thing is based around some metaplot and your really playing in someone else's campaign, or a system where each country and sometimes cities introduces a new character class or you have so called adventure paths where you buy a series of connected modules and the players go through them in order. Or worse they say GURPS has not had a new edition since 2004?  It must be dead, because system X comes out with a new edition every 5 years or so.
GURPS does not really do that, so they think it has no support because its not what they are used to seeing.

• Fourth Edition GURPS has not had a replacement because it still works and works well. Why force customers to buy and learn completely new rules if the old ones are as good now as they were then?
• GURPS does offer new options and variety but this is handled with a "buy only what you need" approach.
• GURPS has no huge fantastic setting! 
• Fourth Edition has 10 original and 6 licensed settings.
• Third Edition has 21+ original and 26 licensed settings, all of which are easily converted to Fourth Edition as Fourth Edition was primarily streamlining and point cost changes
• The problem here is that its easier to support one setting than dozens, 4 books for one setting makes that setting look more 'active' than 4 books spread across 4 settings.
• What GURPS does is come out with books that can be used in multiple settings, things like Martial Arts, Magic, Psionics, Social interactions, etc.
• But where are my adventures? Fair question, adventures are limited. Adventures are harder to write if they can fit multiple genres and power levels so they are less effective sellers (A fantasy adventure wont sell to a gamer interested in SciFi or Modern Day so the market is smaller as a percentage of the overall GURPS audience.). Mostly we have fantasy adventures and at least 3 more by Douglas Cole are expected out this year.
• GURPS has published one supplement a month, plus a monthly magazine for several years now. A few exceptions when major products like OGRE was being reissued slowed things down for the rest of the company. Something brand new almost every single month is definitely not dead.
• The wide coverage of GURPS does make it harder to see when and how new material is put out for a specific are of interest to any given customer. However most GURPS material is widely useable.  For example, as of now (Jan 20 2019) one book has come out Action 5: Dictionary of Danger is ostensibly for one line, but its a list of environmental hazards (mostly modern day) that could be used in many settings, even science fiction and fantasy ones. The last supplement for 2018 GURPS Monster Hunters 6: Holy Warriors that came out in December is also usable for many fantasy campaigns, and the theology synopsis is useful for historical or other games.

Obviously not every GURPS book will be useful for every reader but Steve Jackson Games has a free PDF preview for every GURPS book that includes the Table of Contents and a page or two so potential buyers can get a good idea of its utility to them before they buy.

Personally, I LOVE that extra customer service.

Trump and FoxNews shutdown about to hit day 30

So Trump came out with his new offer.
He wants 5.7 billion for his wall, offered to hire 75 more judges (instead of the 275 or so requested by Senator Lankford last year), a 805 million on increasing security and inspections at Ports of Entry, 2750 border agents (where most of the drugs enter), 3 years extension for DACA and TPS (which he himself canceled and is being ruled against in the courts).

The temporary extension is meaningless since Trump has shown he is wiling to use it as a negotiating tool and cancel it at anytime. Plus its in the courts hands now.
Not enough judges so we still have to pay hundreds of millions for the extra internment camps he set up, at a whopping $680 per person per day! That huge price tag is why Senator Lankford proposed hiring so many judges. The faster the cases are pushed through the less it costs the taxpayers.
However certain people are making a lot of money with those camps and can you guess who is getting kickbacks to keep them open and full?

Trumps plan offers nothing the Democrats want or can rely on, costs the American taxpayers more money, and does not solve the Immigration or illegal drug problem.
Remember he was ready to sign a deal without the wall until Fox News laid into him, then he canceled on Senator McConnell (who is still hiding from embarrassment).

So it looks like the shutdown will go well beyond 30 days, possibly into the Feb timeframe Trump said he was prepared for (though not years). Soon a lot of federal workers will miss their second paycheck, and as people quit to get jobs where they will get paid replacements will be long in coming.
And contractors will never get paid for the lost time.
If this goes into February a recession seems likely.

Summary

Bottom line it, whats going on here?

Trump wants his wall and he is unwilling to negotiate in good faith. An actual negotiation is the concept behind what our government was founded upon. Different sides and points of view coming together and compromising until a mutually satisfactory deal is reached.

Trump has said and shown thats not what he wants, he refused deals when the GOP controlled both Houses and now is in a weaker position and wont act like it. Since he wont negotiate or give up something substantial in trade he chose to shut down part pf the government, just as last year he blocked CHIP (health care for poor children) and a VA benefits bill passed by the GOP Congress.

Without being wiling to trade something of value to get what he wants he has decided to hold American workers hostage by withholding their pay.

The Democrats could give into that tactic, but of course that just proves it works and encourages him to do it each time he wants something.