Washington Post: Trump rejected plans for a White House statement praising McCain

tl;dr: Trump lets his personal bias get in the way of carrying out his duty to a long-serving member of Congress. (And it is personal - they're both Republicans, so inter-party rivalry doesn't apply.)

It's unknown whether the President will be attending the funeral, even though it's traditional for Presidents to do just that:

Quote:McCain requested that Bush and Obama deliver eulogies at his funeral, while not inviting Trump. White House aides said it is unclear whether Trump will go to Capitol Hill, where McCain is to lie in state on Friday.

Not as narcissistic as the president, but pretty damned close -- in the very brief time between McCain announcing he was ceasing treatment for his cancer and announcement of his death, Arizona GOP candidate Kelli Ward posted a Facebook message where she basically said McCain's announcement was a tactic to take media attention off her campaign. Quote: “I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that they hope is negative to me."

She has since deleted the message, but you know the Net -- there's lots of copies of it elsewhere to prove that she was being a self-centered jerk who thinks everything's about her.

AP: Federal judge rules Trump "exceeded his authority" in issuing orders curtailing collective bargaining for federal workers

"This court finds that these provisions conflict with congressional intent in a manner that cannot be sustained"

Anybody want to bet that Trump learns from this that the US President is not an unlimited monarch? Anybody? Anybody?

Now you can. Fully automatic, and electric powered.

Kalashnikov, gunning for Tesla

The Kalashnikov.

For work.

For School.

For summers in the park.

Really. The marketing material writes itself for this one. It'll be popular for the obvious pun alone. The black mask is a low cost option...

Environment minister sends Canso spaceport company back to drawing board

She wants an environmental impact statement on the possible effects of a hydrazine spill if a rocket needs to be destroyed before reaching the upper atmosphere. Which is fair, considering there's some prime fishing areas along some of the possible launch paths, including the Grand Banks... but this delays the project by as much as a year.

An American woman is suing the US government's Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection to get the data border agents copied from her phone.

Bob, the case is being heard in a New Jersey court, so the decision will likely be of interest to you.

Okay, just wanted to get all this down real quick before I forget any of it.

I'm still trying to figure out how Garrick gets so monstrously powered up.  One idea that I have is that he can essentially use the corruption in soul gems, basically purifying them while also powering him up.  He's able to get away with it because after all the hurt, pain, and despair he's been through, he can not only tank it, but use it in a sort of positive/negative mana reaction - the magic equivalent of a matter/antimatter reactor.  Which is probably how the Incubators' overseers were going to use it.

Anyhow, what's even more amazing is that he can even 'purify' a witch.  The trouble is, they're still very much broken little girls in the aftermath.  The best they're able to do is bring them to a state-run psychiatric hospital.  But the hope they have is that each and every one of them has a faint glimmer of something in their eyes.  Like there is a newly rekindled candle flame in their souls because they know now that somewhere, out there, there is someone that cares enough to actually come and save them.

Garrick will go through several loops like this and amass a HORRENDOUS amount of negative energy to use as fuel.  Of course, the Incubators sic other puella magi on him, but once he's able to demonstrate his ability to purify their soul gems, suddenly they all turn against the Incubators.

I'm not sure how, but at some point, something pushes Garrick over the edge and the all the negative energy he's been carrying just cascades and he winds up causing a... what was it called?  Dimensional incursion?  Reality quake?  Basically, does the same thing Tenchi does in OVA3 and it's fucking bacon in a frying pan for the Choushin.

They now know where Garrick is because his soul just lit up the all the dimensional layers like the Griswold's house in December.

The Incubators and their masters are PANICKING.  They have never seen anything like this, and they know that its starting to rip apart the fabric of reality itself.  Meanwhile, Garrick is beholding time from a non-linear perspective.  Everywhen is now.  Now is whenever.  And with all this time on his hands, he is able to sort things out at long last.

This is when he starts working his way through the ages, starting with the very first Puella Magi, and working his way forward, offering each and every one of them the same choice.  Come with me.  Be my family.  You will have love and support and finally do the good you really wanted to do.

The hell of it is that they are all perfectly wonderful little angels, each in their own way.  The Incubators targeted them on purpose like this because they'd be the most likely to turn into witches themselves.  And so they all jump at this new chance.

And so he goes filling up his own little 'Chamber of Guf' until there are no more Puella Magi to collect.  And then he sets his sights on the Incubators and their masters.  Simply put?  Their shit is fucked.

Once he deals with them (I'm thinking of following the one example from that Dr. Who/PMMM Crossover where the Doctor dumps Kyubey into the realm of the Weeping Angels or something like that - only doing it with the entire damn group of races that was spearheading this thing) He then goes ahead and skips off towards home... only he pulls a Washu and seals his power and the memories of all the experiences he had while in God-Mode.  He has a basic idea of what he did, and he can somehow recall every face of every girl he 'saved', but otherwise it's all a rather pleasant feeling blur, like the gaps between early childhood memories.

And then he winds up back in the Tenchi-verse's past because while he was still in God-Mode, he noticed there was a certain little pink haired Juraian Princess and her erstwhile bodyguard-oni that need some help.  Afterwards, Washu fishes him out of the past, and everyone is happy. 

Soooooo, thoughts?

Some time ago, I saved an appealing picture off the 'Net.  https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=pos...id=2192468

I wasn't at the time paying attention to the character's name, what series if any, or who the artist was; I just liked the image, and saved it under the title, "The Music Is Strong in This One."  But after a while, by which I mean yesterday, I got curious and tried to track it down to find those details, and learn if there was a story behind it.  The emotion in that story is such that I almost wish I hadn't.

The title is Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, or Your Lie in April.  It did NOT make me, a hardhearted 60-year-old S.O.B., cry.  Not quite. (Edit: Not YET.)

Spoiler

Very last lines:  “Spring will be here soon.  Spring, the season I met you, is coming.  A spring without you… is coming.”

I just had a thought: Do we want a wiki?

We can have a private wiki on Miraheze, with pages we can all edit (get rid of the PiratePad that's been acting up), pages that only their creators or an admin can edit, and the ability to turn collections of pages into PDFs. We could even do background pages for the characters and locations - with maps with pointers.

The downside to a private wiki is that it's private - somebody has to grant access to it to new members. What we have here can be read by anyone.

As for running the wiki, well... I am a bureaucrat-administrator on FenWiki, All The Tropes, and Poser & Daz Free Resources, so I have experience and a public track record of my behaviour. Of course I'll share the responsibilities and rights; it's bad if a wiki has only one admin.

EDIT: Also, on Miraheze we can decide to make the wiki public at a later date, if we wish... but then anybody could edit it.

I don't redd or twit, so feel free to repost this if you like. May the likes and upvotes be with you. (This one is my own art, but the thread is meant to be general purpose. And yes, that means you can put pro-Trump stuff in here as well if you want. It's an open forum )