Authentication tokens - Some heirloom jewelry or letter of permission from the local royal family used to prove you are on their mission.

Gap analysis - when your party finds a crevasse or pit and determines if they can jump across.

Buffer - party member who casts buffs, usually a bard.

Microservices - when you barter with gnomes to repair your gear.

The thing about King is, and he’ll admit this now, he used to do a bunch of drugs and hammer out several novels back to back. He’s an incredibly talented writer, but sometimes his stories are just some cool shit he thought of that doesn’t really go anywhere. Sometimes there’s deep introspection, sometimes it’s just a big scary dog that terrorizes a family.

And Cujo is great. Read it. Read all his books. Just not all at once. The Dark Tower series is another good example, because it does a lot of world building, but also sometimes the story just happens and everyone moves on to the next thing. The Stand has a similar issue. It is well written, meandering, thoughtful, and mindeless all at the same time.

There’s also a loosely connected universe between the Shining, It, The Dark Tower, The Stand, and probably a few others I’m forgetting. These are all good books/series, but my recommendation is not to read them back to back. You’ll start to see the patterns and fall backs he uses as an author when he just needs to wrap things up and publish the book.

OK, but that’s the answer he gives when he doesn’t know the answer. Are we sure he understands what contraception is?

I don’t believe for a second that Trump doesn’t know the situation, but how is that lie better? “Here’s a picture of you endorsing a self-styled Nazi.” Well, I’m out of the loop on that one. “You endorsed him.” Yeah, but they just tell me what to say and do. I don’t ask a lot of questions. “Would you denounce him now?” I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to say here. Let me check with Vlad and see what he wants me to do. I’ll get back to you.

I think you mean “provenance” instead of “providence.”

Donations can’t be clawed back, but ongoing donations can be stopped. And you’re right that bigger donors exert more influence, and usually get something in return like naming rights for a building or changes to school policies. And that should be transparent, I don’t oppose requiring large donations be made public. My point was just that it’s always give and take. If the school changes the policy the big donor liked, they will shut off the money faucet. If the school does something most alumni don’t like, many of them will stop giving. Recipients of donations always want to keep donors happy, the difference is a matter of scale. How far are they willing to go to keep a donor happy depends on how big the donation is.

Oh, you sweet summer child.

The way they are doing it is horrifying.

Sure, but not just generally “charity.” You pick and choose who you donste to, and you donate to charitable organizations that you think do good work. If they started smelting orphans, you’d probably stop writing checks.

I mean, I can also understand the knee jerk reaction, but I cannot imagine that he hasn’t had a new phone with a new number since the moment they knew their data was compromised.

Ok, that made me chuckle.

So, basically what you would have gotten from the white pages, and an incomplete social security number. Is he worried someone is going to try to steal his identity? Mail him anthrax? Text or email him dick pics? Wasn’t he already concerned about those things? He’s the nominee for VP, and his running mate tried to have his predecessor killed on national television. He has tied to Russian oligarchs who defenestrate judges, and he’s the target of international spies who want his access to state secrets. He’s worried about half his social security number?

JFC Putin is going to drop a nuke as an October surprise.

Smartmatic is a business, and they need to answer to shareholders. Part of the deal was almost certainly guarantees from Republicans that they wouldn’t block future contracts.

Bats on the floor are obviously Rats, because the bottom of the B is obscured by the puddle they’re standing on.

Oh no, Vance’s full name? How dare he? Now everyone will know his middle name is “Mertrude,” which is weird because he changed his own name, so he picked that, spelled it that way, and then thought his middle initial was “D.”

And of course none of that’s true. But if it were true, on the list of 100 weirdest Vance facts, it wouldn’t even rank.

Literally every donation to any organization anywhere comes with strings attached. Nobody just gives money blindly and says “Here, somebody else use this.”

You drop money in the collection plate, it’s because you want your faith to be shared and your church to prosper. You drop your change in the box at the convenience store, it’s because you don’t want to be walking around with three pounds of garbage money jingling in your pockets like Santa’s nutsack. There’s always a motive for giving.

I don’t know that he’s guilty. I would guess he is, but I wouldn’t deny him a fair trial. If he’s guilty, send him to prison.

Things you won’t hear from Democrats:

This is a conspiracy!

The FBI is being political!

The evidence was AI generated!

But what about… (insert Republican bribes)?

This was a perfect and legal arrangement.

Everybody does it this way.

He should have executive immunity.

It can’t be true, because he’s too rich to bribe.

I don’t care, he’s good for the economy/going to deport illegals/someone I’d drink a beer with/going to protect gun owners and bigots.

Things you will hear from Democrats:

He’s guilty? Put him in jail.

There are an infinite number of numbers between 1 and 2. Infinite doesn’t mean boundless. So if you had a number line, and you place an infinite number of points on that line, you could then extend that line to be between 0 and 3. There would still be an infinite number of points, but those points would be further apart.

Likewise the Universe is infinte in time and space. There’s always more time, more space, but also the time between points in time can grow and shrink, and the space between points in space can grow and shrink.