James Arryn

The Bible talks about what you can eat, how, and when a LOT. Just gradually over time some Super Important things to biblical writers were ignored, others that got less mention in the bible somehow became so important as to kill/die for. All (monotheistic, anyways) religions look like cults from the outside. Some would say with good reason.

In terms of their decisions as leaders, in spite of all the Monday Morning Quarterbacking, neither has made too many obvious errors where better ones were clearly available. Dany has made more, but she’s had a lot more decisions to make, too. I think I trust Jon’s personality…not leadership…more than Dany’s because he tries to account for his own temper…each of them has that as an issue…more, whereas I think Dany has been ~ taught that her temper is a strength. But for their ages, they have both been remarkably good leaders in very difficult circumstances aided by tons of plot armour, so hard to say.

I’d trust a one-eyed man over a two-eyed man, all else being equal. Trouble is just one of many things that must be harder to get up to without binocular vision.

Bypassing Tyrosh, Lys and Myr? (Not disagreeing, I haven’t given much thought to her Essosi progress, just curious).

What do you mean, fleets would be burned for being hostile? Are you talking wildfyre? Because there is no need for the fleet to disembark on the Blackwater. In fact, given the size and complexity of her army that would be idiotic. Disembarkation spots are plentiful but depend on factors like how secure the seas are, the need for relays and how many, and the proximity to defensible terrain nearby. The huge advantage for any of this is air support, for scouting, harrying opposing scouting, etc. I think symbolically Dragonstone/Driftmark make the most sense, but probably only for a detachment; unlikely to have enough fresh water sources for a massive army. But she has a lot of options to choose from. Dorne if they’re on board, otherwise not worth having to fight their way through the deserts and passes. Stormlands coast is doable but fleets tend to get disorganized by the weather. I think my best bets would be a landing somewhere in the Bay of Crabs once DS/etc. has been secured, only issue is the land might be too wasted by the Wot5K, depends. Or alternatively either by Oldtown or the Mander’s mouth and come up the watercourse, that’s a longer march but mostly open cavalry friendly terrain and lots of forage. As to the actual shipping logistics, GRRM usually either makes a big deal out of them or ~ ignores them, which makes perfect sense as they make for boring reading to most. I think he’d make the iron fleet workable if that’s what he wants; victarion has captured enough cogs and the like. Horses will require imagination and some will die to retain grimness, but an author is rarely constrained by logistics for too long in books with magic and dragons.

Said it before, I’ll say it again; the US is great at many things, but the thing it does best is forgive itself.

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951 “Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”*― Adam Smith, 1776 *Yes, I know, but carry his counters forward and it’s even more profoundly apt today than when he wrote it.

I don’t think the world economy in Planetos is as inter-dependent as a modern economy, so one institution failing won’t have the same ripple effects we’re used to seeing. Moreover we’re not even sure how the IB uses it’s capital other than other loans, so liquidity shouldn’t be able to get too out of hand. A lot of this is guessing based on RL ~ parallels, so early/medieval banking, so like the Templar’s or getting later like the…can’t remember the full name, but ____ Bank of Siena, which was originally a kind of Salvation Army type of deal for religious charity through like pawnshop transactions and then later loans. So not too exposed, as they would not operate under the normalization that modern banking does, so they would be very reluctant to have much more out than in, if you get me. Now the downside of that is that they would be MUCH more vulnerable to an old fashioned bank robbery. The cash, or at least a lot of it, is there, in the banks. If you managed to rob them blind, that might well bring down the institution and might seriously affect Braavos. They might not keep it all in one or two locations, but if you got their primary holdings you could do serious damage. But I think that would mostly just affect Braavos, I don’t think the Planetos economy relies on loans, period, either from the IB or any other, it’s primarily a basic economy. The Dothraki seem to be the prime economic movers in Essos and they have a very simple economic system.

And in addition being good for the final product/art in ways not limited to her on-screen contributions. Rian Johnson credits her in the extreme for getting the cast to buy in and enjoy the slightly new/odd filming experience of Knives Out. That’s not fluff, it can make all the difference on set.

9ers sign Javon Hargrave. Interesting move. Because of Kinlaw’s knee and Kochurek’s magic, they had been kind of going with rotations of lower picks or bargain basement signs that then play great and sign big deals elsewhere. This signing seems to signal that they’ve always wanted a star there, and that Kinlaw’s freakish talent kept them hoping he’d be that guy if he could ever stay healthy, but I didn’t think they’re holding their breath and this signing more or less confirms it. I have a general sense of what kind of player he is, but my toddler-caused scarcity of games watched over last few years has left me pretty ignorant of many good players on other teams, so any comments would be welcome.

I have not seen the film, but on JLC, I have seen several directors say that she has for years now been an absolute treasure for them during filming, like going several extra miles to keep the set loose but professional, mentoring younger actors, and routinely described as ‘making everyone else’s performance better’. FWIW. I have no particular opinion of her as an actress either way, haven’t see all that many of her films.

Ah, okay. It was both more and less than your initial reaction suggested. Less in the sense it was not in any way a snide remark or intended to take a swipe, and moreover it was only tangentially connected to this latest bank crisis. It was more that I had been thinking about recent events….East Palestine, the banks, etc. and it was starting to seem to me to be approaching a kind of inevitability for Trump to win; all the excuses are there for one of those classic ‘let’s get back to the objective business adult in the room who can make the tough choices’ Schlick which almost always means ‘rich man’ regardless of how he got it or how far he deviates from the actual conservative model’ moments in US/western history. And the resultant I.R. assessment/father of 3 year old girls/nuke anxiety/China ~ escalation kind of boiled my fears down to their essences, which was what I described is in my initial post. Moreover my Canadian comment was absolutely not meant in the ‘looking down my nose’ way’…I am guilty of occasional outbursts of serious criticisms I have of especially US foreign policy, but this wasn’t that. This was very much more ‘this affects us all’ kind of sharing the dread kind of comment, especially as it’s mainly domestic problems recently. I suppose if I dig deep enough there will probably be some anger at the constancy of being in a situation where US fuckery negatively affects so many people around the planet who have no voice in the lunacy unfolding regardless of how it affects them (which often exceeds how much it affects Americans themselves) but I swear that’s just something I feel I’ll be able to find because I’ve felt it many times before*, but it was not at all how I was feeling when I posted above. But, lastly, about the ‘but not even thoughts and best wishes’ because I can’t vote/ergo non-American: is this the standard for commenting on the political situation in the US in a US Politics thread? No? What about if it is interpreted of being critical of the US? Still, no? So what is it about me or my comment’s not being ‘thoughts and best wishes’ that makes that the bar I’m supposed to meet? Something about…not voting there? Something about criticizing the US and not being American? Well, if so this has got to be a first for me, never met an American who gets super hostile at the criticisms of their country’s actions by foreigners regardless of how much those actions do or could affect non-Americans. This might even be the first time anyone has encountered this phenomenon, if that’s what this is, I’m still not 100% sure I’m reading you right here. If wrong, sincere apologies but much confusion over what that last bit meant. Am having a really rough few weeks, at home, might be hypersensitive. *The late John Le Carre had a nice phrase for American attitudes towards the effects of their foreign policy on non-Americans from my POV, close as I can remember: ‘The victims who survive never forget because they cannot, but the conquerors forget, and all too quickly’.

Other than that you clearly think I have somehow been unhelpful to someone or some situation, I honestly don’t understand the nature of what your, I think, objection with me or my post is. My side…in what? I honestly have no idea what you mean here.

Every now and then I wonder if MAGA is to Corporate America what the Dothraki were supposed to be for Dany’s invasion. It does sometime seem like the two most likely outcomes for America are for the proto-fascist elements that have always formed a large part of their core finally fully form the exterior and try to replicate Augustus or for the words Corporate America to change from being a label describing an aspect of America to being used the way ‘Democratic France’ or ‘Autocratic China’ are used. Needless to say neither of these developments bode well for us up here in Canada.

Renly didn’t take Stannis claim, he had one of his own.