[Political Party] The Democratic Party of the United States

Name of Party: The Democratic Party

Nickname(s): The Dems, the Demonrat Party, The Party of Jackson

What the Nickname(s) Should Be: The Confederacy of Dunces, The Coalition of Not Republicans, The Beige Alert Party

Symbol: The Donkey

What the Symbol Should Be: A Bucket of Cold Oatmeal

Lying Quotient: 50% Lying

Semantics Quotient: High (All members and factions will tango with words for broken promises or meaningless diatribe making them impossible to relate to)

Social Arc: Slightly Left of Center

Fiscal Arc: Slightly Right of Center

Actual Social Arc: Risk Averse Centrists

Actual Fiscal Arc: Schizophrenic Centrists

Actual Commitment to Democracy: Moderately High

Well Known Leaders: Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer

Well Known Attempted Leaders: Joe Biden

Factions: Progressives, Liberals, Leftists, Corporate Democrats, The Confederation of Identities, Unions, Exiled Republicans

Short: The Democratic Party is a big tent with a dozen patches slapped over it to keep the rain out that stands for the bare minimum to be viably elected and not replaced by another more functional party.

Medium: The Democratic Party is Inept where the Republicans are Psychotic; they never met a plan that they couldnt screw up and turn into a chance for more shallow commitments and meetings.  They are largely still around due to the faulty nature of the 1789 Constitution which makes America a default two party state.  The Party caters to the loudest special interests and in the last few years has turned into a genertocracy that completely ignores the value of the youth vote whilst utterly ignoring it in terms of actual policy.

Maximum Verbosity: Tribal Democrats will howl at attempts to tell the truth about the Republican Party and consider it a violation of the Holy Democratic Charter to dare to criticize a party in any way.  Their mantra is "Vote Blue No Matter Who" whilst never actually putting any pressure on the Holy Leaders.  These people secretly look at the Tribal Loyalty of the Republicans and Wish Democrats were more loyal to each other and firmly believe that the constitution is fine the way it is and by simply believing high enough in voter turn out that things will eventually work out and that the arc of justice will do their bidding due to positive thought and pixie dust.

Will Rogers once said, "I don't belong to an Organized Political party...I'm a democrat" and this was in the middle of the 20th century when the party had a mandate to reform America in the New Deal.  The last effective democrtatic progressive leader was Kennedy with a leftover of Johnson and since then has had well meaning but inept (Carter); well meaning but drone obsessed (Obama), not at all well meaning but charming (Clinton) and inept but better than fascism (Biden).  Half of the democratic presidents of the last 50 years have had no realistic understanding of politics or how to wield the political power they held and the other half were so wrapped up in their aversion to bad press that they were barely willing to execute it.

Rome is on fire, and the democratic leadership are having a meeting to have a meeting to plan a meeting about a violin concert to play music symbolically showing their concern for the death of Democracy in America.  

[Political Party] Republican Party of the United States

 Name of Party: The Republican Party

Nickname(s): The GOP, The Party of Reagan, The Party of Lincoln, The Party of Trump

What the Nickname(s) Should Be: GQP (Grand Qanon Party), The Party of Hitler, KKK Lite

Symbol: The Elephant

What the Symbol Should Be: A Jack Boot

Lying Quotient: Lie like they breathe

Semantics Quotient: Low - The GQP stands for absolutely nothing

Social Arc: Conservative

Fiscal Arc: Conservative

Actual Social Arc: Theocratic

Actual Fiscal Arc: Kleptocratic

Actual Commitment to Democracy: None (Fascists)

Well Known Leaders: Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Mitch McConnel

Factions: Q, Club For Growth, KKK, Ammosexuals of America, Christofascist

Details

Short: This party started out as anti slavery, pro public infrastructure, pro fiscal responsibility and turned into slavery for women, pro corporate and pro theocracy.

Medium: The GQP stands for absolutely nothing except power, they were absolutely willing to hand the keys to Permanent Presidency to Donald Trump while paying lip service to the constitution and now pretend this did not happen.  Their primary tactics include psuedo debate, whataboutism, sensationalism, propaganda and lying.  They stand for nothing and no one if it will get them power and have absolutely no loyalty to each other whatsoever.

Maximum Verbosity: There are a handful of political organizations that are totally beyond redemption; the Khmer Rouge, the CCP, the National Socialist Party of Germany, The Soviet Communist Party and now the American GOP.  They are beyond reform and are actively working as enemies of the state and humanity itself.  Their active allies includes viruses, fascism, conspiracy theories, kleptocratic capitalists, liars, pedophiles and anything and everything that one might consider dark and evil.  They are not 'Shades of Grey' like well done cartoon villains and make even the one dimensional cartoon villains of Captain Planet look like well rounded characters.  The only thing not utterly predictable about this party is the depths to which they will sink and the callousness with which they will treat their fellow man.

They worship guns and the 1789 constitution even though they routinely defecate on and defile the latter with a gusto reserved for only the most fanatical of cult members.  There is not a 'good side' though there are good members but 'good' must be held in perspective such that Liz Cheney, daughter of well known torture advocate and international fugitive war criminal Dick Cheney actually believes in Democracy.  These 'good' members are greatly threatened by the majority of the party and frankly, if there was ever an organization that one should proudly leave, it is the GQP.

[Social Media] Counter Social

 Counter Social has existed for a few years, but recently gained a lot of prominence as self declared union enemy, Elon Musk made a bid to buy Twitter.  It was founded by a skilled programmer and social activist called The Jester, who all around basically seems to be a decent guy even though he is a "Lincoln Project" Republican.  Counter Social is a safe, bot free, fascism free place run by, developed by and (as of now) controlled and moderated by The Jester.  It's a one man band, and there are paid accounts and monthly donations to keep the place running.  It has no algothythm of any kind which is good and bad.  Its good because you can see your friends or general feed without the app telling you what you want to see; and bad because its frankly kind of just flat out boring with equal amounts of random music links, comments about cats and rants about politics.  It sounds nice but after seeing content that filters for your engagement and relevance, Counter Social feels like eating Graham Crackers just after a meal of Filet Minion (and I hate hate HATE most social media companies.)

Facebook is a blight.  Daily Kos is a hazard on progressives.  Tiktok routinely harasses liberals, LGBT, and minority creators.  So while I was originally thrilled (if not bored) on Counter Social I had a long term view and wanted to help promote and encourage people to join a fascism free spot for progressives to discuss things, especially constitutional reform.  Then, the other day, several pro Amber Heard people on the app said that certain fans of a male actor had hurt the metoo movement.  Given the involvement of fascists Elon Musk and Ruprect Murdoch, I told these people they were blocked.  I believe one of them was a friend of the Jester, because when I posted facts about the effort to magnify Murdoch's obsession with this actor, I also mentioned the highly abusive Bot Sentinel.  Then the Jester popped on and said that he thought Chris Bouzy was a great guy and that the people he called out were jerks.  Remember, the Jester is a Lincoln Project Republican, so if he doesnt like you, he can throw you out because he just wants to.  

I immediately left.  If you like wonderbread, counter social is a great place for you if you are a centrist middle of the road not totally evil member of the GOP.  But if you are a progressive, know that anyone who thinks Chris Bouzy is right will come after you.  Build a community on COSO at your peril.  You have been warned.

[App] Bot Sentinel

Bot Sentinel pretends to be about proving people to be bots and for a while they did that.  I approved them and used them, and so did many others.  It supposedly monitors bot activity.  In a world where fascists run rampant all over social media and kill people who wouldn't want a service like that?

Only it isn't.

Anyone who wants to know of the personal, frightening and frankly creepy experience I have had with Twitter here or here.  So with Twitter allowing treason, bullying and tactics that favor conservative astroturf movements like Gamergate, Pro Russian and Ccp Agitprop, you can understand why I would have had reservations of the relationship between Bot Sentinel and Twitter.   I had a personal experience of a strong rating of 84 that overnight went to 42.  A lot of other people had a similar experience and people started writing negative reviews of the app.  Mr Bouzy has had a slick campaign of saying that his critics are bots, that they are jerks, and a large number of centrists and civility democrats and semantics democrats have decided to agree with him.

Mr Bouzy walked back some of his changes, but a quick search on Twitter and of reviews in the app store indicate he still attacking conservatives.  Mr Bouzy has begun championing Amber Heard, known ally of Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and the former PR Firm of Mr. Depp.  Know that if you use botsentinel, you are empowering the very corruption that makes the United States and Oligarchy and a Dystopia.

City of Hope Mush

 So if you look on the mush list, one of the most populated mushes you can can find is City of Hope.  Ask anyone in the mushing community and you will likely get mixed reactions on this but I can tell you I've tried the mush three times, and it ended the same way every time.

Let's start with the positive.  The mush is huge, the grid is well populated, the staff is active, and as long as you dont cross certain lines you an do most anything.  Hangouts are occupied, plots are strong (they come and go) but if you are basically bored and wanting to pass a lot of time and do the main advantage of mushing in general which is stories with other people for free, City of Hope is not a bad place to be.   It is a refugee from the heydays of the mushing era in the 90's where there were a dozen mushes with City of Hope's size and level of depth.  It supposed a number of spheres actively and has a close knit community that works to include new members; the spheres that do this tend to vary but the last time I was there that was Demon or Mage.  

So what's the problem?

The problem is GMPCs.  They are myriad.  They are gods.  And they are not to be Crossed.  (Let's not even talk about  Cross which is its own problem, but every mush has one of those) but the concept of fair staff adjudication absent interfering with your own plots vs their characters? Does not exist.  The techno mages in particular are a basic justice league that will drop the hammer IN CHARACTER on any character that they feel is a problem and the Garou, IN PARTICULAR, will hunt down and murder with extreme prejudice anyone they believe breaches the veil.  To be clear, my personal experience was just petty arbitrary stupid rulings but I saw this stuff going on around me ALL the time and just couldnt in good conscious remain on a mush where this lasts.  To be fair, the staff only uses fig leaf language to understand that this is their playground and they can do as they like.  Over the years, the after the fact, "We had to discipline XYZ person" because he slept with the rival of my PC and I made up this reason" has lessened though they still occasionally do it.  And also to be fair, I havent been on the mush in about three years; so MAYBE its stopped, but I doubt it.

Either way, if you want to enjoy a character that can do as they like until it is randomly and arbitrarily snuffed from on high, this is the place for you.  

Modern Nights Mush

 This is a review about a text based world of darkness game.  So this mush has a lot going for it; specifically a doom clock that is actually enforced, this is important to a game like World of Darkness, because it means that there are real story consequences for the game like breaching the Masquerade.  It's a curious mix of Mage and Vampire, mostly vampire with Mage at about half the population of Vampire at the time of writing the review.  The game is described as Street level, and it is set in San Francisco.  It also has a somewhat engaged staff, and they adapt based on player feedback.  Finally, it is the first mush I've seen to use M20 and V20 rules.

That's where the positive ends.

The real problem with the mush is the head wizard, Batty.  And it isnt going to change.  Basically, once Batty gets it into her head that you dont fit in the game, she is not going to give you a fair shake.  I went through three total rewrites for a minor sorcerer character and a mortal and kept being told no. On the surface, this is what a mush should do, but its more complicated than that.  The initial reason I was told no was because a vigilante and 'powerful' technosorcerer were not thought good fits for the game.  I was originally transferred to Cylon because the mortal mage, Google, was idle for a while.  Batty was distant but nice.

All of that changed when Batty thought I was trying to make a technomancer.  I tried to clarify that I wasnt, and she accepted it, but it was obvious that she was on edge after that.  The response I got to my character the last iteratoin was THREE PAGES, and she took it over directly from Cylon.  Suffice to say, I politely replied, "I think we have incompatible views on your game" NOT because her game was badly run but because I've dealt with mush staff for over 30 years, and I know when a battle is lost.  If you can get on the good side of staff, have at it, but if you feel that they are against you, they probably are and you should stop wasting your time.

[Book] If you give a Pig the White House

3 of 5 stars.

I bought this book because I was curious why it was getting so many bad reviews that contained absolutely no details on it.  As it is, I waited a few days for it to arrive and it is adorable.

Short: This book is basically a parody of children's books like "Go the F*ck to sleep" with adorable art and an excellent summary of all the things that are wrong with putting a pig in the white house.

Medium: It covers an excellent highlight of all the things that Donald Trump (the subject clearly being parodied here) has done wrong while at the same time offering tons of Easter eggs for anyone who follows the white house.  I think the biggest problem with the book is the fact that so many of its best jokes require an extremely high amount of political education for the reader; now granted, who else do you expect to be buying a book like this? Its definitely not for children, but a casual non trump fan will see a pig doing pig like things and immediately reference some of the awful things we all know Trump has done like hang out with dictators but some others are really quite obscure.

Verbose: When you factor in the sheer amount of CRAP there is to make this book from, you can easily appreciate the fact that choosing what makes the best images and the best choice of words would be a challenge, but the fact is, the image of a pig in the white house is indeed apropos but the book barely chooses to go in that direction.  The pig only acts like a pig in 3 of the pages of this excellent 32 page book.  There really are a lot more 'pig' references that they could do but instead its basically Donald Trump being ....Donald Trump.  The language also breaks up the excellent possibility of parody in the sense that while 'go the f*ck to sleep' is clearly targeted for adults, it keeps its reading level designed for an 6 year old, whereas this has more of a 9th grade reading level but much more advanced illustrations.

If the book was simply constructed to piss off opponents of President Trump it does that singularly well, and definitely covers it in a way that exposes their rampant hypocrisy and lies as well as the total moral vacuum by the current occupant of the white house. Some of my favorite pages includes a simple image of him hanging out with "I Like Beer" Kavanagh (without ever naming names) and simply says "Sometimes Pigs like Locker Room Talk" or something along those lines but is obviously powerful imagery and invokes quite well what was wrong with the administration.  The most pig like of images is when he wants more for his meal than everyone else and shows the other two people with him getting absolutely nothing comparatively speaking.

It also does an excellent job of showing how randomly distracted he is, and how utterly unfocused the actual individual it is based on is; randomly tweeting or not paying attention to utterly important things but is a little bit guilty of the things that it is criticizing him of, not showing any disastrous consequences for tweeting while the world is one fire.   It does some gray areas that make sense like him staring right into a solar eclipse but doesn't take the natural bit where the gag could have gone which is making the pig blind for half the book or having whole countries on fire; sure some of that didn't actually happen but this is parody which makes it half the fun for the genre.

The best page of the book is the last one, which does an excellent job of conveying the feelings of anyone who buys it by showing a large rainbow with said pig out on his ass with all his garbage IN the garbage clearly indicating that the pig in the white house will be removed from the white house, but the book could have gone into much greater detail about how the pig got into the white house in the first place or the dangers there of.

There is only so much you can do with 32 illustrated pages, but I think this book wasn't entirely sure what it wanted to be.  I am glad I bought it but am not immediately sure who I am going to recommend it to.  I think finally, the timing of the book failed to wait for the inevitable downfall of the pig and doesn't (obviously) show the Ukraine nonsense that gets him thrown out.

Money well spent but not something I am recommending to anyone but the patriot with a large budget to support artists and authors who had the right  idea even if their execution was a little lacking.