Lurker > MalcolmMasher

No, I think Australian wildlife doesn't understand the concept of "safe space".
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I plan to spend 50 mythril on the Orlandu USB banner, but I do not consider this decision to be objectively defensible. <_<
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Apparently we're going to be getting the Realm Dungeon overhaul in about two weeks. DeNA is going to increase Clear and Mastery rewards from most of the realm dungeons. If you've already gotten the old rewards, you can't get the new ones; however, DeNA will be giving out a one-time bonus based on how many dungeons you have already completed (1-200, 201-400, 401-600, 601-800, 800+.) Basically, going up a tier gets you 2 Mythril, and also a smattering of other non-Mythril rewards.

If you're near a "breakpoint", consider pushing for it. If you're not, it's probably better to hold off on realm dungeon completion for now, since the new rewards are generally better. I believe you can find some direct comparisons on Reddit.
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3/11

Red XIII USB
Sabin BSB (dupe)
Cait Sith SSB

Red's USB is Haste, Astra, Atk/Def/Res +30. Pretty solid. Maybe having Astra on a fighter (well, Entruster) instead of a healer will let me scrounge up enough damage to kill Midgarsormr.
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Apparently, in the past the Illinois Republican Party has been able to remove him from the ticket through the usual Illinois methods, but this year he was able to get all his paperwork in impeccable order. Nazis 1, Deep State 0.
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Now, I need some clarification on the exceptions with Romney and I think McCain. I understood their parents were Americans, but also I thought they were born in military bases or something and that was what I previously understood their exceptions to be when they were born overseas.

I don't know about the general case, but I believe the Senate passed a formal resolution specifying that McCain was eligible for the presidency.
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I feel obliged to comment that if I were fiendishly rich, I'd still be posting here. <_<
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Keep in mind Chris in Japan in 4-5 months they eventually replace Cid's Missions with these book things where you get rewards for doing a variety of things that let you like, pre-select a bunch of relics of varying types (there's a SSB set, a Wall set, etc), and you can get Sentinel and Stoneskin II from that-- without missing out on much either cause yeah the sets you have to use that pick on don't have a ton of intriguing choices.

If I'm understanding it correctly, the opportunity cost for SG is zero, because the relic pool for Volume 2's "random" draw consists of Sentinel Grimoire and nothing else.
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Level up magicites in the EXP dungeon!

Sunday upgrades Orb Meadows. I don't know if that makes it worth caring about, but if you're lost for direction...
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Why is the OK banner so hyped? I have close to 200 mythril what am i looking for here?

Onion Knight has two USBs, Ninja and Sage.
Ninja: party Haste, party Atk +50, party Crit=50, personal Atk+30, personal boost to casting speed (of any action)
Sage: party Haste, party Mag/Mnd/Res +30, party short-charge spells 3, personal Mag+30, personal Black Magic +15
Party buffs last 25s, personal buffs (being EX Modes) only 15s

So OK Ninja gets Shout plus a party crit boost, that also increases his own damage and action speed. (The speed bonus gets better as you keep taking actions, but that's reset if the EX Mode wears off; since the USB itself doesn't deal any damage, I'm uncertain whether recasting it "early" would be worth it.) OK Sage is a slightly better Edward USB that also gives OK himself two extra layers of damage boosts. So, either one is pretty cool, although there's not much reason to cast both in the same battle.

The case against? Well, Ramza BSB2 is maybe better than OK Ninja - no party crit boost and no personal Atk/spd buff, but two good commands plus En-Holy for Ramza, and Burst Mode's +20% stats, too. Edward USB isn't as good as OK USB, because Edward supplies Quick Cast 2 instead of Quick Cast 3... but Edward can use Allegro con Moto, so he doesn't _need_ a SB gauge to give the party QC3. (And, weirdly, QC2 and QC3 actually stack with each other.) The fact that OK can also use skills like Meltdown, Dervish, or Curada only matters if you're going to take advantage of it; if all OK will do is Wrath/Entrust, these may not be worth your mythril.
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Mama don't take my Kodacoin
Leave your boy so all alone
Mama don't take my Kodacoin away
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Lion USB
Paine BSB
Agrias BSB
Auron BSB2
Curilla BSB

Paine BSB is the real headliner here (it's +Water armor) but I now eagerly await the return of the FF11 Torment.
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Movies are absolutely pointless to watch with people unless it's a comedy where laughter is contagious.

I don't agree with you, but if you feel that way, I can understand why you wouldn't like most co-op board games.

bad argument, gaming and movies both do not have to be social experiences.

I didn't say they had to be, I said they usually were. People invite others to go see the movies, people invite friends over for board games. I have several co-op games with single player modes (and most of them are perfectly doable if you're willing to play multiple characters) and I enjoy them more with friends.

for example, outside of playing smash bros or occasionally the last of us multiplayer, i do gaming entirely on my own

My statement was poorly phrased: I meant board gaming, not all gaming. Given that we're on a video game site, it is my fault that you misunderstood, and I apologize for my failure to specify "board games".

my brother also watches a ton of movies on his own, so he shows the counter argument for the movies bit.

Yes, I also watch movies alone sometimes, but I enjoy it more with friends. Even if it's in a theater, so we've just got some speculation beforehand, some discussion afterward, and a few quiet whispers during the film itself, it's more fun for me to watch a movie with friends than alone.
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It all comes down to the fact that a mutliplayer game that can essentially be played by a single person doesn't make for an interesting game for the whole group.

Gaming is typically a social experience. Would you say that it's pointless to watch movies in a group, when you could have watched the same movie individually?

You might also try games with a heavier "role playing" aspect; Mice and Mystics, for instance. I mean, I find it hard to imagine someone complaining that his Dungeons & Dragons campaign is pointless just because all the players are working together. Or a game like Legendary, where players lose together but win individually. (With that said, my own group tends to lose sight of the "win individually" part; we're co-op fans.)
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Because the ranger tree normally gives +1, +1, +1, +60HP, +2. Not +1, +1, +5, +60HP, +2.
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Apropos of nothing, I was Record Diving Meliadoul today and noticed an oddity: her 3* Ranger tree has +5 Res as the lv3 bonus. It works normally. Oh DeNA, you so crazy.
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Maybe not. But, I wanted to know if his response is f*** my ancestors or so on then.

F*** my ancestors? That's well past "age gap" and hip deep in "necrophilia".
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Like, say someone rings your doorbell and runs away and on the step is a newborn baby. Technically speaking you have no obligation here. But if you just shrug and close the door and let it die, you're still a huge dick and I'm going to shun you as if you were a murderer.

Then it sounds to me like you _do_ agree doctors have a fundamental obligation to provide care; you just don't believe it's appropriate to compel them to do so by threat of force.
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To play devil's advocate, Hillary Clinton is a professional politician. (Career? Veteran? Dedicated?) "Has experience, so makes fewer mistakes" is supposed to be one of her strengths. Saying something that the right-wing media can run away with is one of the mistakes she's not supposed to make. Trump, on the other hand, is an entertainer, and touts inexperience with politics as an asset. So it's not unbelievable that he is held to a substantially lower standard.
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When you engage in sexual intercourse you are accepting the possibility of conceiving a child, at which point you are obligated to give birth to it

Suppose someone invites you onto their helicopter, and then takes the opportunity to rape you, causing you to become pregnant. Do you have the right to abort this non-consensual proto-human?
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In the USA, it's law that a hospital cannot refuse to treat your critical condition just because they think you can't pay. I approve of this law. Given that addressing problems in the emergency room is inefficient, encouraging people to seek treatment sooner (by, in part, making other methods affordable) makes sense.

Do medical personnel, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and so on deserve compensation for unpaid/discounted time spent helping people that can't afford their normal prices? Certainly. I see public health as a common good which the government has an obligation to promote, and I think the government should use tax revenues to compensate those professionals.
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3/11 Lightning LMR, Serah BSB (dupe), and ancient Snow SSB. I do have Lightning's BSB2, so I may get some mileage out of the LMR.
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Someone want to remind the libs that the Trump team fired Flynn for lying to them?

In particular, they seem to have fired Flynn after Pence learned (from the media) that Flynn had lied to him. The rest of the Trump team didn't appear to care that Pence wasn't in the loop. Hmm....
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Or expand federal health programs to cover the people who still can't afford it, which I understand to have been the original plan, but which was generally blocked in red states.
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I can get a borderline sub 30 (needs luck) against Liquid Flame with the following:
Fran (USB) - Wrath, Entrust, Dr. Mog's Teachings
Ramza (Shout) - Phantasm, Magic Lure, Mako Might
Cait Sith (BSB) - Curaja, Protectga, Ace Striker
Squall (BSB2) - Lifesiphon, Engulfing Quadstrike, Thunder God's Might
Tidus (USB, OSB) - Powerchain, Sapphire Shot, Scholar's Boon (+30% dmg vs weakness)
Magicite: Bismark

Fran Entrusts to Tidus immediately, Wraths up a USB (imperil ice and party quick cast 2), then tries to Entrust enough SB to Tidus for a finisher OSB.
Ramza Shouts and then spams Phantasm. (It does better damage than the 3* water ninja skill.) Magic Lure isn't really worth an action.
Cait Sith uses RW, then Protectga, then heals. He enters his BSB (party +atk/def/crit) as soon as possible.
Squall Lifesiphons into BSB2, uses Cmd1 until he has 2+ stocks, then uses Cmd2.
Tidus uses Powerchain, USB, Sapphire Shot x5, and hopefully gets enough SB from fighting and Fran to finish with USB again -> OSB before the 30s mark.
Bismark gets summoned the first time I'm worried about eating Ultimate Firaga; he's instant entry and stops the next fire attack against each party member.

This team does not _reliably_ clear below 30s. It has no way to prevent or cure Paralyze, Cait's gauge is unreliable, and Squall's damage is competent against man/whirl forms (neutral to ice) but plummets against the hand form (negates ice). The simplest way for me to improve it would be to make Ramza into another Wrath/Entrust user (which, yes, seems pretty standard for Magicite speed clears.) I have thus far been too proud to craft a second Entrust for this purpose. I did get Paine USB, and once she's up to level 99, I'll sub her in for Squall and see how that changes things.

I have completed legend dives on Ramza, Squall, and Tidus, although Ramza's isn't really relevant here.
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Guardbringer can also get to four hits, if you jump through the hoops. (I think JP eventually buffed it from "2-4 x 1.0" to "3-5 x 0.8", also, but I don't know when we're getting that.)
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Very tricky situation but Trump has stopped arming the Syrian Kurds.

I can't say I'm happy to hear that, but I won't fault the decision. From what little I know about the Kurds, they're kinda-pseudo-allies less because of any common cause and more because the Kurds aren't much more popular than we are in the region, so when the US shakes the pillars of heaven, the Kurds have nowhere to go but up.

I do hope it was a choice made based on strategy briefings and not Fox News, though.
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Bro, didn't you read Ayn Rand? Only selfishness is worthy of respect! All else is virtue signaling.
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In the Mom Bomb fight, if you kill several of the mini bombs at the same time, the game won't even let HP Stock trigger between their Explodes. So that's not as useful here as it should be. (But, if that means the game treats simultaneous Explodes as one attack hitting multiple times, Guts / Last Stand could be really helpful here.)
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I did not realize there was a wage cap on that. That is pretty lame actually.

In theory, the money you pay in to Social Security is the money you will receive, and there's a cap on what you get, so there's a cap on what you pay. In practice, I don't think our government even pretends to set the money aside nowadays.

Still benefits the rich more though in total numbers.

Granted. But consider a hypothetical: the payroll tax rate is jacked up to 100% of the first $100,000. The rich guy's taxes increase by $90,000, and the poor guy's taxes only go up by $45,000. But the rich guy still collects income, and the poor guy is _screwed_. This increase was clearly harsher on the poor guy. So, I don't think that total numbers are the metric we should be concerned with.

Is there not a way to get this number balanced more on a tax CUT towards the not upper class?

If we are not willing to reduce net income from payroll taxes, then any tax break must be accompanied by a tax hike elsewhere. The standard Republican strategy is to lower taxes and hope that the reduction will spur economic activity, enabling more opportunities to collect taxes and bringing in more total revenue. This is not inherently outrageous; at some levels of taxation it should be true. But I don't think that, say, cutting payroll tax rates by 50% and hoping that twice as many people will have jobs next year is a good plan.
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Corrik, let us suppose that I make $50k a year, you make $250k a year, and the payroll tax rate is 10% with the cap at $100k. I am below the cutoff, so all my income is taxed at 10%, for $5,000 owed. You are above the cutoff, so only a portion of your income is taxed: you pay 10% on the $100k cap, for $10,000. I paid 10% of my income, you paid 4% of yours. It's a regressive tax, because it takes a bigger cut of a poor man's income than a rich man's.
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Right now, with Roy Moore not taking her up on her offer, the situation appears to be that Roy Moore claims it's a forgery, but doesn't want anyone in a position of authority to investigate. That would, I hope, bleed some support.

(I'm not inclined to respect handwriting analysis, myself, but I would consider an appraisal by an expert selected by Congress more credible than that of one hired by either accuser or accused.)
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I just don't see what she has to lose by having a third party just prove it and shove it in his face real fast.

Raises the stakes. Suppose that the signature is genuine. Then Moore is already lying about it, and if a third party concludes that it's a genuine signature, Moore will simply accuse them of being part of the conspiracy against him. But if Congress has gotten formally involved? He'll make the same accusation, I'm sure... and in the process create a group of Senators of the "that jerk called me a liar, I want him out" bent.

Edit: I should also point out, Corrik, that people who do not believe the overwhelming majority of scientists about global warming are unlikely to believe some random 'handwriting expert' telling them things they don't want to believe.
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Well, I was going for... What you view as Racist today by our standards may not have been really by then standards.

Ah. Yeah that's a can of worms, and one I believe we've personally gotten into before. Let me say this, though, and then fall silent: I don't think it's relevant. I believe the objections to the Star Spangled Banner are from people who are offended by (their reading of) the lyrics, not from people who are offended by America choosing to honor the author. (Now, it had been written by Jefferson Davis...)
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That said, we kind of went horribly off tangent.

Um, I did kinda figure you were going somewhere with this. <_< Corrik, have you led me astray with your wiles and historical questions?
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I knew about Liberia; I didn't know Lincoln was a supporter, but it's plausible. To the Wikipedia!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Colonization_Society
TLDR: Lincoln was not a founder but did support their goals; he unsuccessfully attempted to arrange resettlements early in his presidency; he may have changed his mind during the Civil War, but it's not impossible that he simply stopped talking about it. A different page (Abraham Lincoln and slavery) provides the reassuring addition that Lincoln only supported resettling people who were willing to leave, a belief which I expect was prevalent, but not universal.
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Do you think Abraham Lincoln's goal was to have a freed African American population in the United States?

Technically there were already some free African Americans in the United States, but I get what you mean.

Lincoln was a Republican, at a time when Republican meant "anti-slavery". If I recall correctly, though, in campaign speeches Lincoln stated that, if elected, he would not attempt to stamp out slavery but would prevent it from spreading. I think this was sincere. My conclusion is that Lincoln personally opposed slavery, but professionally felt his first obligation was to preserve the Union, and would therefore have chosen to avoid attacking slavery directly and risking civil war. I think that if the South had said "okay fine, let's see how this works out" and stayed part of the Union, then there would still have been slaves in America at the end of Lincoln's term(s). So... his dream, yes, but his goal, no. I think in Lincoln's long-term plans, freeing all the slaves would be something done through legislation after decades of free-only expansion gave the free states a veto-proof legislative bloc. (Though I'm sure if Congress _had_ managed to legitimately pass a bill banning slavery under "Alternate Universe : Sedate South" Lincoln, he'd have signed it.)
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It is a good attempt at a backdoor technicality argument. I admire that. However, traitor is a word I added and wasn't present in the song verse. Thus, your argument is more directed at me than the song itself.

Acknowledged. If you would like to restate your interpretation of the song to remove the word 'traitor', I've no objection. However, I don't think your use of 'traitor' was inaccurate; I think Key did believe that slaves who defected to the British to gain freedom for themselves were doing something morally wrong.

To you personally though, do you consider Abraham Lincoln racist?

I haven't made any personal study of his writings, but my understanding is that Abraham Lincoln thought that A) black people were inherently inferior to white people, but B) that did not justify enslaving them. Therefore, I would say that Lincoln was racist, although I feel an obligation to qualify this by pointing out that for his time he was less racist than the average American.
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You can interpret anything in literally any way. However, you need actual supportive reasoning for said interpretation to have any considerable merit.

OK.

Your own interpretation of the poem referred to the "hirelings and slaves" as traitors - but if they're not really Americans, they can't be traitors. Surely we wouldn't call British POWs "traitors" if they managed to escaping and return to the British forces, just because they had been previously incarcerated within America. But it's fair to use the term to describe escaped slaves? Just because our forefathers robbed them of their own homelands does not compel them to offer loyalty to ours.

If the Star Spangled Banner does, as your interpretation suggests, proceed under the assumption that slaves have an obligation to be loyal to the country that enslaved them... that's pro-slavery. Given the history of slavery in the United States, I do not mind linking "pro-slavery" with "racist", although I recognize that these terms would not necessarily equate within, say, Ancient Rome.

Discuss.
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The California NAACP wants to ban and remove FFVI because it is racist and anti-black.

The debates about whether General Leo is black like his character art can be seen to imply or white like his sprite have finally gone TOO FAR!
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OK. Do you believe that is the only possible interpretation? How about the only coherent interpretation?
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I will go outright and say that if the author literally rises from the grave and says that yes when I talked about hireling and slave running in fear from the United States or going to the grave after going into combat against us in battle I was absolutely being racist.

Corrik, what is your non-racist interpretation of the line?
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Tornado form won't work for that, it only does one Ultimate Firaga per shift and all the rest is self-healing. I think human form would be the choice for stalling - it's got no magic so you don't need Shell, its big damage is gravity so Wall is not essential, and its status is inconvenient Sap instead of hand form's run-killing Paralyze.
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I recall reading an argument that the Star-Spangled Banner was racist, based primarily on a line in the third verse ("no refuge could save the hireling and slave, from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave", meaning "the slaves who defected to the British for freedom are gonna get their asses kicked, aw yiss".) I do not consider this to be an issue, because who the hell knows anything past the first verse anyhow, let alone sings it?

So while I understand how the descendants of slaves could view the song negatively, I think attacking it is a waste of time, and even gives ammunition to the people who would rather conclude "clearly, our political opponents are un-American commie mutant traitors" than try to understand the issue.
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2/11

Tidus USB
Sazh SSB

I have Tidus OSB already, so I guess a Tidus Legend Dive and a R4 Sapphire Shot are in my future. Sazh SSB is the outdated Protect-Regen-Faith buff package, but it's actually my first and only pure Faithga, so it'll stack with the others.
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It should not be law enforcements job to literally tell people to not talk/confess. It seems like people in here want cops to basically sit suspects down and go Now hold on. Before you say anything, repeat after me: I want a lawyer. Okay, good. Now we cant talk to you.

You are, I hope, aware that American police absolutely do have a legal requirement to inform the suspect that he doesn't have to talk to them. "You have the right to remain silent" is how it's normally phrased. They also have a legal requirement to obtain counsel for the defendant at his request, since they're hardly going to let the suspect leave their custody and find one himself, and this is true even though that counsel's first piece of advice for the suspect is generally going to be "Stop talking to the police, immediately". So, yes, the police absolutely do have legal obligations to do things that make their job harder. That's why it's important that cases like this one be subjected to scrutiny; the people 'on the spot' who are deciding whether it's a real request for a lawyer have built-in incentives to decide that it is not.

Edit: And if the suspect has to say "Begin request: I would like a lawyer. End request", verbatim, in order to secure his right to a counsel, then someone needs to tell him so, and the only "someone" guaranteed to be on site are the police. So if we're deciding that suspects must be clear, succinct, and explicit when requesting counsel or the police are free to disregard that request, then the police now have a new responsibility to inform the suspect of that requirement.
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Do you truly believe the man is innocent of the crime?

I don't know, and I don't care. A judge shouldn't decide how many rights a man has based on whether they think he's guilty. (Nor should the cops.)
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The spirit behind the law, believe it or not, is not to provide loopholes for criminals

Incorrect, sir. The spirit behind the law is to protect the innocent. Until and unless their trial concludes otherwise, the person accused of a crime is presumed innocent.

Like consider the following-- if the man had straight up not mentioned a lawyer whatsoever, would the interrogation have been questioned at all?

If he had never requested a lawyer, then no, I do not believe this would be questioned. The law does not protect people from being stupid. It does try to protect people from being ignorant; that's why the Miranda warning is an actual thing that exists. That's why the police were required to, and presumably did (or his lawyer should have challenged that instead), notify the suspect that he had the right to an attorney. Because he does have the right to an attorney, and for the police to infringe on that right is reprehensible. That right is not conditional on his ability to speak perfect legalese. Hell, it's not conditional on his ability to speak English.
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They didn't choose not to get it for him. They chose not to spell out the law that requires him to be 100% unambiguous with the request, but they did give him an opportunity to be 100% unambiguous with the request.

I do not think that accused persons should suffer because the police are able to parse their statements in ways favorable to the police (and unfavorable to the accused). That's a really bad road to go down. Your ability to gain your legal rights under the U.S. justice system should NOT be dependent on your experience with the justice system. That's the reason why you're entitled to someone who is familiar with the justice system in the first place!

But, we're getting circular here.
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Right. Telling him the best way to approach the interrogation is a job for his lawyer, who they chose not to get for him.
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