Python would prefer slavery just didn't exist because it makes Americans feel bad....

It says a lot that the first thing that came to mind was "Dom" and 'Sub" as a replacement.

Praising him for "being strong" and assuring anyone likely to believe him that Manafort would never turn state's evidence like "that rat" Cohen.

Well...

Mueller Wins Manafort’s Cooperation in Plea Deal

Time until Trump fires off a tweet painting a man who last week was his "good, great friend" who'd "never turn on" him as another rat he barely knew who has nothing to do with him?  Five, four, three...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkIWmsP3c_s

effect: Possibly the most useful song in his arsenal as a law enforcement officer, if Doug knows, or is at least relatively certain, with or without admissible proof, of who committed a crime, or at least of the time and location of one, this song will let him divine what evidence of it exists (his song knows what they did in the dark) and where to find it (it lights it up) so he can make sure it gets collected in a legally useful way, though in the second case it will just be solid evidence that a crime was committed and only incidentally by whom if the same evidence (or other material that can be found nearby, subject to the usual vagaries of luck and perception) would point to that. If he actually had a LEO position on his trip it would be horribly unfair and from a storytelling perspective probably a plot-breaking shortcut, but that hasn't been the case as far as I can recall at any point in his chronicled adventures.

Exactly what constitutes a crime (by local standards, by his, by some collection of local custom and tradition ingrained into the magical field by collective belief?) and standards of admissibility and so on may vary, but as its entire effect is divination of the present, collecting that data as well is not outside the scope. The only problem I can see is that his usual range is not that large, but that could be a reasonable restriction to the effect for storytelling purposes.

So, there's a book - written by somebody with a reputation for publishing verifiable stories about politicians, that is highly unflattering to the leader of the country, that got a lot of hype before it was published, and that has a catchy name that makes it obvious what the slant of the book's contents is.

Thirty years and three days later, there's another book...

What, you thought I was talking about US politics? Nah. The book I'm talking about is Reign of Error, and it helped to remove a Liberal Prime Minister from power.

Retrospective: When a book 'written with acid' made headlines in Ottawa

Quote: On the Monday following the weekend, the Liberal leader didn't want to discuss specific allegations in the book, though he suggested it was intentionally negative.

"I'm not going to give it to anybody for Christmas," he told reporters.

Others in the Liberal party also were upset by what was in Weston's book — though most of the people he'd spoken to after the book was published didn't take issue with the overall work.

"They weren't happy, of course, that there were some unflattering parts in it, but they also recognize that it's a true representation and some of them, actually, said they thought I went soft in some spots," Weston told CBC's Midday, the same day Turner spoke to reporters.

May as well start a thread about the midterms...

The thread title is from this analysis piece, which to me looks to be fair and balanced: How Fear and a White House witch hunt changed the stakes for the midterms.

Quote:The U.S. economy is expanding, unemployment is down, wages are up and yet Donald Trump's approval rating is suddenly falling in each of the most respected national opinion polls in America. In one survey, he's down six points in just a month.

I know there's a Florence thread in General ... but this is pretty much guaranteed to go political.  Oh me of little faith!

Pat Robertson has cast a magic spell — errrrr, I mean, said a prayer invoking Jesus — that he's sure will turn aside Florence as long as enough people have faith.  Break out the thoughts and prayers, everybody!

*****
God made me an agnostic — who are you to question His wisdom?

Has anyone covered Royals yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcIKh6sBtc

I could see it clothing Doug and his allies in nouveau riche attire while granting them an aura of somewhat tacky charisma (bonus reputation with the lower class/lower reputation with those of high class).

Not something for everyday use, but it can come in handy if he needs clothes quick or needs to dress to get into a trendy club. Doesn't he have a song that'll extend another song to last all night? That'd certainly help with this one. Alternately he can use the song "I'll Play For You" to inflict the effects of on another group.

If you live anywhere near the path of the storm, now is the time to be finishing preparations. The damn thing jumped from a Category 2 this morning to a Category 4, and some models have it doing a Harvey and stalling off the coast so the state or states (depending on where it makes landfall) could be seeing up to 4 days of rain.

This is an analysis by Dr. Jeff Masters of the multiple threats posed by the storm.

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Hurric...=hp-slot-2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLexgOxsZu0

effect: Turns off Doug's powers for some amount of time - based on the lyrics, this could be up to the whole day, or until he does a key action like answering a telephone. May also have a mental effect that makes him less likely to want to do anything active or social, especially the key action to end the effect. Mainly useful for when he wants to listen to some music for fun, or to be really, truly, most sincerely certain he's not going to affect something with his chaos field or accidental enchantment, or modified with "I'll play for you" to shut down someone else's powers for the duration.

One of Brent's comments in the Halloween party planning discussion got me to thinking, and this is something that I'd like to see everybody comment on.

What things are all of the apartments set up with?

Obviously, all of the buildings have the things that every apartment building has - residences, utilities, etc.

Have they all been strengthened in some way? Westwoods has physical stiffening thanks to Belldandy, and Blossom has mystical bolstering thanks to Usagi and Rin. (I don't know whether Appartements Mont-Royal Sud would have the same mystical bolstering despite that being where Rin lives; there's a question whether the wording of the ritual would conflict with the whole Grail War thing, even if the Grail War is on hold.)

BA's suggested the Good Neighbor System - a set of sensors that alert all residences of physical attacks at any building.

Panic buttons are good. Blossom's is installed in Rob's cellphone, and connects directly to the Goddess's private line. But they know Rob does his best to have his building be self-sufficient (almost as if he's subconsciously expecting it to become the Silver Millennium Embassy to Canada) and wouldn't use it except in an actual emergency.

Bolt-holes for the non-combatants? With Washuu-tech, a pocket dimension in each building is possible. OTOH, Aria House is almost completely non-combatant; Brent might want something that turns the entire building into a refuge (especially after Cinder attacks).

Full internet access is a given (except at Warehouse 13, of course). Blackberry-level encryption is also a good idea - strong enough to keep casual prying eyes out, but not so strong that a non-paranoid government would become worried about it. Once the code on Akari's laptop is reverse-engineered, that could become the basis for an encrypted system that would worry non-paranoid governments, so we wouldn't use it except in emergencies.

What have I missed?

And a related question: What goodies does each residence have? These are things that make sense to be present in one or two buildings but not for other buildings.

Blossom would have an electricity accumulator and storage system as soon as Washuu can deliver one that can stand up to the task (which would depend more on Washuu's schedule than on her ability). This would give the building the capability to go off-the-grid (or sell electricity to the grid), as long as Makoto and Mikoto are willing to shoot it with electric bolts every so often.

I expect 7 Henrietta might have a studio - at least a practice studio, if not a recording studio.

Any other ideas?

This is a brainstorming thread - no ideas are too off-the-wall. (Remember, somebody somewhere had to suggest making a movie about a tornado filled with sharks, and look how much money that off-the-wall idea made IRL.)