Lurker > MalcolmMasher

No, don't bother with stat breaks against Magicites. Do bring a Support, but use them for Wrath/Entrust.
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Correct. 8* is also the current max for things that start at 6*; they have not released 6* Dark Matter, so these items can not be reforged.
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11-pull on the second FFXI banner got me Prishe SSB and Lion LMR. Lion's LMR extends debuff duration, but I don't have any of her other Soul Breaks and she can't access Support or Dance, so while it's not completely useless (Steal Power) I won't be fielding her for it. Prishe SSB, on the other hand, provides a 40% heal bundled with Last Stand and Regen on a character with access to Lifesiphon for SB gain and 4* White for utility. That has some definite appeal.
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how is the president doing something unconstitutional necessarily equal to "more government," though?

Because pattern recognition? I don't intend to claim that every single case of unconstitutional action is an overreach, but I think that if you and I were to launch a historical analysis of unconstitutional actions, we'd find a lot more impact from overreach than from "underreach". And I'm certain that SmartMuffin believes that government overreach has been, not just impactful, but more damaging than government underreach ever could be. (Because if the government ever underreaches, then the free market magically solves everything, of course.)
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I think you'll find that his "we shouldn't have a government" is tempered by "but until we can get rid of it, less government is better than more".

It's like, I want these damn kids to get off my lawn and stay off, but I hate the ones that play kickball on it more than the ones that just cut across the grass.
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What would you guys think if Lincoln had issued a blanket pardon for all violations of the Fugitive Slave Act?

Morally, I would approve. Constitutionally... Well. On paper, I think that a blanket pardon is overstepping the President's bounds; his branch does not get to decide what is legal or illegal. (Whereas, telling the Justice Department "make violations of the Fugitive Slave Act the lowest possible priority" is... sketchy, but not grounds for impeachment.)

However, Lincoln took office during what I feel I may conservatively call a major slavery-related crisis, and it got worse before it got better. I might well think this blanket pardon was unwise (if it were passed before Kentucky declared for the North, say) but under Lincoln's circumstances I would not consider it unconstitutional.
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I don't think the founders saw Trump coming

In fairness, one of their anti-Trump measures (the Electoral College) has, over the intervening centuries, been neutered but never actually put down.
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The unique thing here is that Arpaio was convicted for defying a court order. By pardoning him, Trump is fundamentally undermining the authority of the judicial branch in a way that a normal pardon would not.

Yes. It's repugnant, reprehensible, grounds for impeachment, and yet within the broad authority to pardon granted to the President by the Constitution.

Edit: It's like... Several scandals ago, I believe there was a tizzy about Trump releasing confidential information to the tragically forgettable Russian ambassador? And it was stated in the contemporary incarnation of this topic, as I recall, that the President can declassify any information he wants, to whoever he wants, for any reason he wants. He has the authority. That doesn't make it okay, but that does make it legal.

Where did voters come in here?

Jury? (I suppose I should have said, "the average citizen.")

Is the President supposed to be better informed than the judge on the case?

Certainly they have the power to be, although not necessarily the time. Though a better case for the pardon power would be something like, "yes this person is a criminal but I can't afford a diplomatic crisis with their home country right now" - the sort of circumstance a judge and jury, who are convened to determine justice and not national interest, should strive to disregard utterly.
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I cleared Bismark at 59:57 with two people standing; finishing blow was the chip entry damage from Relm's BSB. Jeez, magicites are vicious. Although, I could have made it a bit easier on myself by digging my Silver Pendant out of the Vault (FF9, moderate wind and water resistance) to go with my Mimic's Bracelet, Tidus' Necklace, and Maelstrom Armlet.

Bismark's water damage is so potent it might even be worth getting the Water Ring out, but I'm too proud, so I'll stick with the Necrophobe Ward on Character #5 for now.
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Though there's nothing explicitly forbidding him from doing it, it's clear that that wasn't what the pardon power was designed to do

I would agree that the pardon power was not intended to allow the President to make himself immune to criminal charges, even though the explicit inability to pardon impeachments does kind of address that.

But, I think that "the law says this man's a torturer, but I say he's a hero" actually is the kind of thing the pardon power is intended to cover. That the President, who is supposed to be better informed than the average voter, is genuinely supposed to have authority to say "the criminal conviction of this person does not serve our national interests and I am negating it".
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I would say that acknowledging that Trump has the authority is the correct move, because Trump actually does have that authority; he was selected as President by the Electoral College, and has all the powers of that position. Trump should still be censured for it, and impeachment charges against Trump should list this as one of the reasons he is unworthy of the Presidency; it doesn't become moral just because it's legal. But it is legal. And even if Trump were impeached tomorrow, Arpaio would still go free.
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Lee owned slaves; the man was no abolitionist. I don't think it's at all reasonable to say that he was anti-slavery. It's like saying that someone who voted for Trump because they despise Hillary more was casting an anti-Trump vote.
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I hope you're saying that 'cause you've already got levels on Squall! Axis Blade was the grand prize of that banner.
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2/11

Mustadio's Hyper Break SSB
Ramza's Stoneskin+Crit Dmg Up SSB

In the era of Cloud USB, Crit Damage Up will certainly make itself useful.
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I got a clear on Apoc Tonberry King (using Invinci-Galuf to tank, and after several S/Ls because of getting Galuf timing wrong), but not a mastery, because my Yuna USB user got doinked while the killing blow was already charging and so the fight ended with multiple people dead. It'd be a good fight to have CT0. ...So I should probably bring Raijin SSB next try.
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I personally don't expect Pence to be elected President once, let alone twice, but I am neither a Republican nor a member of Congress, and I think it's likely that some of the people who are both are optimistic about his chances.

(Also, "evangelicals" are not "basically no one".)
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At what point do they start thinking maybe President Pence isn't such a bad idea?

The "two terms per Prez" limit rounds to the nearest term, so that's an incentive for Republicans to wait until Trump has served two years before they bring Pence in.
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Maybe he thinks Martin O'Malley's mistake was not throwing his name into the ring early enough.
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I think it's supposed to be compensation for people who drew on the banner recently, but not during the glitch period.
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SG, two Bartzcaliburs, three Vanille staves, three Platinum Swords, two Gilgamesh katanas. Picked a Red Armlet as the bonus since it's fire+ and boosts both Atk and Mag.
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I actually got to break out Lenna's BSB against MP Seymour, which was neat, and she performed well (~6500 x4 from Cmd1). Of course, she was still dead by the end of the fight, because someone decided to miss consecutive Stops on Mortibody, RELM. But the "4+ characters alive" condition doesn't care if any of them were just Reraised and will die to a sneeze, so that all works out.

Apocalypse Seymour is mostly just annoying, 'cause he can flip weaknesses at the drop of a hat. He's quite frail by Apoc standards, so a "mitigated" OSB still stings him, but if yours is on someone like Tidus or Orlandu then I would suggest lining up a Powerchain.
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Just because someone isn't educated, doesn't mean they are stupid. It doesn't even mean they are more likely to be stupid. It does mean they probably come from a poorer family.

It sounds like you're suggesting that education does not make people more intelligent. Is this because you distinguish between being intelligent and being knowledgeable, because you think that education is fundamentally ineffective, or for some other reason?
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Comey said under oath he wasn't coerced about the investigation

Comey said under oath he wasn't coerced by the Justice Department about the investigation.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jun/06/context-james-comeys-past-comments-interference-fb/

Anyhow, before you go off on a screed about Politifact, I posted my thoughts on Comey because I actually reconsidered my opinion on Comey in the significant length of time between the election and Comey being fired, based on actions he took during those months, and I don't think I'm the only Clinton voter to do so. That's all I had to say, and I don't plan to embroil myself in a tangential discussion about Comey. (Or about which websites are trustworthy, for that matter.)
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Personally, I revised my opinion on Comey when he held a press conference to deny Trump's accusation of "wire taps", and in so doing showed that he was not going to do nothing while the President of the United States spouted baseless nonsense on Twitter. This happened before Trump fired him (and was, I expect, the real reason Trump fired him: he dared contradict the boss.) I don't think I am the only Democrat to see this event as significant!
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JP FFRK announced a buff to a bunch of 5*/6* abilities. They weren't willing to put forward much in the way of numbers, but I do recall seeing a casting time buff to Ultra Cure in the works; presumably, that's a fix for Ultra Cure randomly being slower than other White Magic.
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My understanding is that "dox" means "make personal information available to the public". Which would mean that if CNN didn't reveal his identity, they didn't dox him. Is that an improper use of the word?
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Are you suggesting there's a difference?

Yes. Conservatives want things to stay the way they are, reactionaries want things to go back to the way they were before.
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Maw of Chaos Sephiroth is a right pain in the keister, guys. Radiant Shield is very helpful and sends a lot of damage his way, but watch out; Sephiroth responds to being hit below 80/60/40 with an immediate Ultimate Dispel and a few no-charge-time MT attacks, and the last thing you need is for Sephy to hit you with a strong MT attack, push himself over a damage threshold, and promptly follow up with some more strong MT attacks. I eked out a win by stalling against the lower forms to build up SB gauge; this is, of course, a lousy strategy if you're concerned about the timer.
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I don't see it happening. Maybe. We will see.

A lot can happen in three-plus years, so there's no guarantee, but from the evidence available Trump not only intends to run for re-election, but began making overt plans for his re-election campaign remarkably early.

Edit: I don't think Trump enjoys being President. But I think he very much enjoyed running for President. I expect that's why he was so quick to register the re-election campaign: he's actually looking forward to it.
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Clearly, they have to start by culling the weak.
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4/33, no dupes
Imperil LD: Kuja BSB, Guy SSB
Curaga LD: Aeris USB
BSB+ LD: Yuna BSB2

A good haul. I have a new best Dark Mage, a useful tool for the inevitable 3 Gigas Full Throttle, and my first FF7/FF10 (non-shared) medicas. Also, a Dark+ rod and a Holy+ light armor.
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I believe Terra USB has two notable traits driving the hype. First, its custom status lasts 25 seconds, while USBs normally wear off after 15. Second, Terra has another casting speed bonus in her Legend Dive, and it stacks with the USB boost. (Coming up: Magicite Dungeons, which offer better rewards for faster completions.)
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Cleared A++ Adamanchelid, solo. Jeez, that fight is a pain. I cleared it by building an imitation of my Nemesis team, which is to say that I brought Alphinaud (SSB) and two "other" white mages and counted on Radiant Shield to compensate for the damage loss. But even with three healers I needed SG RW to survive reliably, and there's no way I could have made it through the weak phase without Greg OSB ready to deploy (and R3 Hailstorm was worth its weight in orbs here, too.) Not to mention multiple S/Ls to Stun and Confuse. (And one to "damnit I accidentally selected the Witchcraft shared SB on the Witch's Hat" but I can't blame the game for that.)
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Impeaching the President requires a majority of the House. I think that'll happen after the midterm elections, when the Dems will (I expect) have enough votes that the Republicans can't protect Trump. However, actually removing the President from office requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate. That, I do not expect.
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Super-delegates were like 45-to-1 for Hillary which I suspect was much larger than the superdelegate gap of 2008 due to the DNC machine led by Debbie over those last eight years.

Not to suggest there was nothing untoward about the DNC's treatment of Bernie Sanders, but I would expect the superdelegates to be heavily slanted against against Bernie, because Bernie Sanders isn't a member of the Democratic Party.

Edit: Just so we're clear, I don't mean that he's not a real Democrat because of some policy disagreement, unless that policy disagreement is "willing to declare that one is a member of the Democratic Party." Bernie Sanders was officially an independent before the 2016 election season, and now that the election season is over, he is officially an independent again.
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Apoc+ is pretty lame, yeah. I had several S/Ls due to getting someone ganked while I was still trying to put mitigation up. I ended up throwing Gilgamesh's RM4 (Haste+Protect+Shell) on my healer just to give them a fighting chance.

I recommend having all offensive characters Defend until you get Protect and Wall up. Then have your support Defend while your Lifesiphon characters attack them until you're at three meters. After that you can actually get started.
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And given that the purpose of business is to actually make money, selling products that are not even part of the potential decision set for half the population would seem to be a poor strategy.

Sure. And you may freely criticize the strategy of any gastropub you like. But if you think "good burger" clearly and unambiguously means "burger produced by a company that represents a valuable investment opportunity", then I think you're going to encounter some difficulty in communication.
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Of course not, because everyone arguing with me doesn't have the slightest clue about how capitalism actually works.

I mourn the downfall of "literally", but it remains lamentably correct to use the word to mean "figuratively", now. English, SmartMuffin: do you speak it?

Suppose a man with no present vehicle wants to buy a fast car, and the lot has a car that does 60 MPH for $1000 and a car that does 135 MPH for $20,000. He only has $5000. Obviously he buys the cheap car. But the other car is still faster.

Now suppose we're talking about overall quality, which we have somehow objectively measured, and not just speed; the pricy car has GPS support, leather bucket seats (they'll double the price!!), and so on. I for one feel no remorse for saying that the pricy car is better, i.e. "more good", than the cheap car. The choice to buy the pricy car is not better, because that choice is invalid; we have declared that it is out of the buyer's price range. But the car itself is.
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I wonder if that's the same definition that everyone Muffin is arguing with is using?
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The literal only way to increase brand value is by making good products.
[...]
If by "best" you mean "best at appealing to a wide variety of people" then yes, it is. And that's the only "best" that really matters in business. You get no points for having a technically superior product that nobody wants and/or can afford.

I submit that McDonalds does not increases its brand value by making good products, but by making adequate, cheap products. You can rephrase your statement to "efficient" or "good for the price" or suchlike, that's fine, as long as you don't end up arguing that McDonalds products are good because they increase the brand value, and that they increase the brand value because they are good products.
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Over these 6 Nightmare Lucky Draws, I have gotten 15 relics, five of which were 6* (Rinoa OSB on Summon, Gilgamesh OSB on Combat, Terra OSB on Black, Selphie and Eiko USBs on White). It may be true that these banners are an attempt to trick Mythril out of people before Cloud USB shows up, but I'm feeling pretty good nevertheless!
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Good, worth playing, worth paying normal price for. I believe they're both pretty expensive on the secondary market, so I'm not willing to give a blanket approval.
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Orlandu's BSB grants a net +56% Atk; even above the soft cap, BSB-OSB-OSB outdamages OSB x3. (The BSB Cmd1 offers a weak Atk/Def debuff, too). However, because Orlandu's charge times are so long, I wouldn't recommend using his BSB without Powerchain or TG Mode available. Say, fill up to three-ish bars, then OSB, Lifesiphon x2, BSB, Cmd1, OSB, OSB, Cmd1, OSB?

Hailstorm is probably part of the modern TGC as well, since it's a two-hit ability that offers a stacking Attack buff.
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I would not count on a door to protect me from a zergling.
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The second (classic) stage in the FF8 event, and its elite counterpart, have a non-standard medal condition: instead of the usual "don't get KOed", they have "use a lightning attack on a Terminator". If you don't bring a lightning attack, you can't get mastery. So if you're used to auto-battling through all the low tier stuff (as I was)... well, you'll have to pay a bit of attention this time around. (And if you're counting on, like, Valigarmander/Tritoch, don't waste it on the first wave, which has only Soldiers - no Terminators until the second and third waves.)
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Combat - Gilgamesh OSB (dupe)
Summon - Rinoa OSB
Support - Wakka BSB, Sazh SSB2, Red XIII SSB1
Celerity - Leila BSB, Shadow BSB, Lightning BSB2, Reno BSB (2 copies)

Feeling good about these Lucky Draws so far.
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There are no randoms, it's just the Biran and Yenke fight, and they're not anywhere near "endgame" standards. Use an up-to-date RW and two casts should win you the fight.
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That's exactly what it means.

Shredding documents is legal and fine. You have a right to shred documents. But you don't have a right to shred documents that you know are wanted for a criminal investigation - that's obstruction of justice. It is legal for Trump to fire the head of the FBI, but if Trump is firing the head of the FBI in order to hinder a FBI investigation of Trump and associates, that is Not Okay; it is grounds for a reasonable Congress to contemplate impeachment. The President is not supposed to put their personal interests above the interests of justice.
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In fact, going by taxation compliance statistics, we have absolute proof most people would rather be enslaved than killed. >_>

Even if we assume that we have no right to demand compensation from people living on our land, which seems rather silly, taxation is considerably less onerous than slavery. Force me to choose between "work for free one week a year" and "you and your children are to be treated as pack animals forever" and, well, one of them is clearly softer!
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People are not compelled to worship their ancestors. <_<
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