PoTayToes @ PoTayToes @sh.itjust.works

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Joined

2 yr. ago

Sorry for the delayed answer.

I fail to see how using OpenSecrets is a problem. Be it private donors or foreign groups/governements, all the money is (officially) there, is that not so?

Because in the comment you are answering to, the comparisons are done also against groups funded by private donors. Which should also not be registered under the act. And again, those other groups massively outspend the pro-Israel ones.

What other foreign nation lobbying group donates $14M to the opponent of a congressman and pays for attack ads against him to hurt his chances in an upcoming election? It’s unprecedented.

I have honestly no idea? But from my understanding, any other random lobbying group could also do the same, if they had an interest into it. Hell, maybe they do already but there has been no reporting on it because it's less interesting if it's the NRA or Lockheed-Martin?

Sure, but even in other categories AIPAC is far from a top-player from what I understand.

Here are the numbers for the 2022 cycle, since 2024 isn't done yet I found 2022 more relevant.

American Israel Public Affairs Cmte Contributions $13,423,002 Ranks 46 of 34,495

Lobbying Ranks 247 of 8,586 in 2022 $2,723,081 in 2022 $2,757,247 in 2021

Here is the section for the "Pro-Israel" Interest Group, which includes other groups than AIPAC. It still totals 44m$ for 2022.

Here is the page for Lobbying -> Single Issue category, for 2022. Here also, "Pro-Israel" is far from a top player. The "Human Rights" category, which many say is pretty much opposite of what Israel's governement is doing these days, outspends them 16 to 1.

So everything I've seen so far really doesn't push me to believe that they have such a massive influence that OP or whoever that Cenk Uygur guy is can honestly say "AIPAC controls everything". Unless someone can show me there are numbers that are not taken into account in OpenSecrets (and then, if that's the case, give me a comparison in how other groups use those alternative channels), then this is basically antisemitism ("Jews control the world") from OP and Cenk, currently upvoted at +200.

You can see which country spends money in US politics on OpenSecrets, actually.

Link for 2023 spending: https://www.opensecrets.org/fara?cycle=2023

• Country | 2023 Spending
• Liberia $235,465,089
• Saudi Arabia $93,058,680
• China $85,378,704
• Japan $69,410,221
• Hong Kong $55,957,695
• Bahamas $52,861,943
• Marshall Islands $45,711,184
• United Arab Emirates $40,491,794
• South Korea $30,982,223
• Canada $21,529,601

I for one am quite hyped about this new expac. They have really sold me on the Homestead.

You can still try the base game for free if you want to give it another go.

And when it goes on sale, the "Complete" Collection (First three expacs + the Living Story 2, 3, 4 and 5) is a steal at 50$/€. That's 10 years of content you can catch up to. Even full price I'd say worth it, if you're looking for a casual-friendly MMO with enough content to keep you entertained for a long time.

Another rec for GW2. I'd recommend you try the F2P game so you get a general sense of the mechanics and see if you like it, then wait for a sale to buy the "Elder Dragon Saga—Complete Collection" for half-price. I mean, there's enough content for it to be worth 100 bucks, but for 50 it's a bargain.

Not 100% but 99.9%... IIRC Guild Wars 2 servers had like 1 actual outage in 11 years. They have pretty amazing structure.

Aye

How do people still live without uBlock Origin is beyond me.

You know you can support the Palestinan cause without having to lie egregiously right. In terms of support, this is not "A first world, heavily subsidized, safe government" [...] versus "a poor destitute region" alone.

Like Israel has the US as an ally, there is massive financial support from different oil-rich, Middle Eastern countries in the infowar in favor of Palestine. From one side Iran, which is sworn enemies with Israel, and is financing Hezbollah in Lebanon. From another Qatar, where Hamas leaders are (were? I've seen reports of them moving so I may be out of date) living in luxury. Hell, even Russia is probably using their troll farms because making Israel look bad makes the US look bad and there is no way they would miss that chance.

Our sense of humour is worse than germans, what did you expect?

Average PF2e boss

So why not lean into it fully and make the GM responsible for the whole balancing?

Because having things balanced properly in regard to the myriad options that are possible in people imaginations is hard, especially related to combat. Improper balacing leads to people having a bad time, while having an established, fair ruleset lets the DM and the players focus on other things.

No need for the framework to do balancing, because a good GM will do that.

But at this point why even have rules? A "good GM" can just entirely improvise a system.

An Elf and an Orc Had a Little Baby

https://online.anyflip.com/xnqnc/kxqe/mobile/index.html

https://anyflip.com/sbrcr/tztn

https://anyflip.com/hveyv/kjfi

I mean, to each group their own, but 4176 is the total of all together, which is a very unfair way of presenting it.

You'll never have to choose between all of them, or even a decent fraction.

While leveling up, you'll have to choose between 4-8 class feats accessible at your level, and you would usually prioritise ones available from your current levels to those available beforehand. Plus, at some point many feats require prerequisite, which means you can cut down half of options you can choose from really. Same thing with the race feats, skill feats and general feats.

8 possibilites maximum at every level up might be too much for some people, but really isn't in the same ballpark of having to choose between 4000+ every time.

Switzerland has a new Federal Act on Data Protection coming up in September.

Though to be fair, if you keep getting hit by goblins at a high level, they're probably custom-made.

Standard goblins have +8 to hit, so by level what, 10 latest they will never manage to hit you again.