Among Us memes are on the decline, but they got a little bump with the votingest election in US history. The lolbaters haven't played it in a couple of months, but we did have a few rousing sessions of griefing and dysfunction.


Between the polarization, the pandemic, the contested election, and the personalities involved, the pillars of democracy have been slathered in a thick coat of meta. It's amusing, anyway:


Even Kevin came in with a dad joke:

kevin	Why can't Trump stay in the White House?
	Because it is For Biden!

So in September we talked about the signals that were being put up for an election that wouldn't be decided November 3rd. A couple weeks later, was it alarmism or are we basically Belarus? Let's look at each point of the strategy:

"Convince people that the electoral system and/or certain types of votes are untrustworthy."

Dead people voting, thrown out ballots, the illegitimacy of ballots *counted* (not cast) after election day. The talking points started months ago and have been repeated throughout the process.

"Send armed operatives appearing as official as possible to polling places to confront voters."

There wasn't much voter intimidation and it was dealt with swiftly.


In similarly small measure, there were Brooks Brothers Riot reduxes.

"Audit ballots. Find those hanging chads."

Post-election litigation has shone a light on the fact that sanctioned poll watching (observation of the counting) has been an important part of this election. There hasn't been much buzz about mail-in ballots being tossed on technicalities, but 'Sharpiegate' has been the controversy of Decision 2020.

"Contest results, demand recounts, take legal action."

The Trump campaign has contested the results in all of the battleground states - Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. The states and judiciary seem to have been prepared and dealt with the first round of litigation swiftly.

TBD

• "Take a page from the 2000 election and run the clock out when necessary."
• "Have state legislatures invalidate the polling results due to a flawed process and send their own results."

So, are we Belarus?

If it's done its job, EDO has tainted every battleground such that it can be litigated in court and in public opinion.

The post-November 03 script seems to have followed the one put forth by The Atlantic a couple months ago, but with substantially less vigor than you would expect from a group that makes itself so visible.


As I sometimes do, I dipped into the pond scum of zh comments but was rewarded with some mutual commiseration. It seems like the blueprint was there, but was not executed on the scale required to overturn the electoral system.

Source.

That's not to say that every lawsuit is dead and there aren't believers in Sharpiegate and the like. But with even Fox News calling the election done, it's hard to imaging state legislatures going the faithless elector route.


J and I wrapped up our Nioh journey. There were allies and enemies, samurai and monsters, community player ghosts and spirit animals.



The whole BL2 crew has finally all shown up with the Krieg DLC and Axton/Sal-hosted Arms Race game show/arena mode.

Arms Race

Arms Race crosses roguelike elements with a PvE battle royale in the style of Running Man or Moxxi's Underdome. Players start with nothing and work their way up from white-tier weapons by roaming the map and looting. A playthrough ends with - in Borderlands style - a boss battle that is understandably easier with better loot. Unlike most Borderlands gameplay, the map is surrounded by a shrinking BR-style bubble that eventually converges on the boss.

Coming from a max level, mayhem 10 playthrough, Arms Races is a refreshing return to weapons-based play where you don't need a minmaxed build to drop even the squishiest of enemies.


The map features a handful of loot caches and enemy clusters that are probably fun to check out for the first time. With a fairly static map, the game mode seems to primarily offer some gameplay novelty as well as a source for (unique?) loot. Afaik there isn't escalating difficulty or mapwide modifiers, making it a little less like a Moxxi DLC and more like a large arena.

Of course, seeing Sal and Axton play game show commentators is kind of fun and features some quality BL one-liners:

Like I told my ex-wife, if you'd been paying attention, it wouldn't have been a surprise.

Fantastic Fusterclick

In a story reminiscent of the Pre-Sequel's Claptastic Voyage, the Krieg DLC dives into the mind of the troubled vault hunter. The exploration of the subconscious allows for some trippy visual effects and nerdy references. As usual, the DLC isn't light on plot and character development - this one just has a lot more Krieg-isms.



While we haven't put together a god run on normal difficulty, we're having fun with the occasional drizzle sequence run. This opens the door for extra-hard Mithrix battles and - at last - we got a N'Kuhana's Retort.



Not much on home front. I guess there's fantasy and wheel trades. Having re-watched Contagion and 12 Monkeys, I'm looking for a movie to complete the covid trilogy.

Week	d'san andreas da bears - Medieval Gridiron -	Covid-20 - Password is Taco -	Dominicas - Siren -
1	Danville Isotopes 110.8 - 72.5 W (1-0)	Black Cat Cowboys 155.66 - 78.36 W (1-0)	TeamNeverSkipLegDay 136.24 - 107.50 W (1-0)
2	Screaming Goat Battering Rams 119.9 - 105.9 W (2-0)	[Random UTF characters resembling an EQ] 115.50 - 115.74 L (1-1)	Dem' Arby's Boyz 94.28 - 102.02 L (1-1)
3	Nogales Chicle 106.5 - 117.8 L (2-1)	Circle the Wagons 100.42 - 90.02 W (2-1)	JoeExotic'sPrisonOil 127.90 - 69.70 W (2-1)
4	Britons Longbowmen 122.9 - 105.1 W (3-1)	Staying at Mahomes 123.28 - 72.90 W (3-1)	Daaaaaaaang 138.10 - 108.00 W (3-1)
5	Toronto Tanto 105.0 - 108.2 L (3-2)	Robocop's Posse 111.32 - 134.26 L (3-2)	Alpha Males 86.20 - 76.12 W (4-1)
6	Only Those Who Stand 108.2 - 66.7 W (4-2)	KickAssGreenNinja 65.10 - 84.02 L (3-3)	SlideCode #Jab 71.60 - 53.32 W (5-1)
7	San Francisco Seduction 121.7 - 126.4 L (4-3)	Ma ma ma my Corona 118.22 - 84.20 W (4-3)	G's Unit 109.20 - 92.46 W (6-1)
8	LA Boiling Hot Tar 116.2 - 59.4 W (5-3)	Kamaravirus 118.34 - 109.94 W (5-3)	WeaponX 113.14 - 85.40 W (7-1)
9	SD The Rapier 135.0 - 90.8 W (6-3)	C. UNONEUVE 117.80 - 90.16 W (6-3)	Chu Fast Chu Furious 128.28 - 59.06 W (8-1)

Sepiks Prime cast a great shadow over our city. With its destruction, the Fallen Devils will grow weaker. But we must stay vigilant. The Fallen are Crafty. They'll find ways to survive. They always do.

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