#f to everyone who wanted a story based event but at least they have welfares

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

i think these were the events that won the rerun poll vote

[vrheadsets]

VR vs. 10 Franchises SEGA Would Be Crazy Not To Bring To VR – Part 2

Hello everyone I’m back to talk virtual reality (VR) and the House of Hedgehog for another week. As you may recall last week on VR vs. I started a list of ten franchises (and one honourable mention) that would – in my opinion anyway – be great for the leap to VR.  SEGA is of course no stranger to VR down the years, there was the SEGA VR for instance. A headset which was initially designed with the idea that it could provide support for not just the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis and the SEGA Saturn but the arcades as well. A project that would have seen a 1994 release date after being revealed at 1993’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) event. This in itself is not to be confused with the SEGA Master System’s 3D Glasses that allowed you to play a number of titles in quote-unquote “3D”. Yes such things existed.

But enough of the hardware of the past let’s get back into those games franchises, eh? What else, via way of a lick of virtual paint, could hypothetically make its way to modern VR? Well when it comes to SEGA sometimes you’ve got to make some tough choices (as any long time SEGA fan can probably tell you) and when it comes to this list there’s one or two games that could easily occupy the same space.  Such a dilemma can be found with our next title, it was a tough decision in the end but let me explain my reasoning.

  Virtua Cop: OVERKILL

Admittedly having a game with “cop” and “kill” in it isn’t going to win much in the way of good publicity, but this combination name should tell you everything you need to know about where I’m going with this. For you see when it comes to VR genres we have the ever popular (and increasingly railed against) wave shooter, and it just so happens that for SEGA two franchises – Virtua Cop and THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD*. I could give you very good reasons for both being on this list but I’ve gone with Virtua Cop. Why? Because put simply we’ve not had a Virtua Cop game for nearly fourteen years.

FOURTEEN FREAKING YEARS.

Yet people still think of the series fondly. HOTD on the other hand has had quite a few iterations, is a staple of SEGA’s All-Stars franchise and has proven itself to be an arcade mainstay. In other words, if you’re going to use VR to help elevate some old properties why not help the one that needs it more.  Increase your viable library of characters. Increase the interest and hence their and your value. At the very least you’d raise some interest in getting some ports of the older titles going.

For VR the idea is simple. We have wave shooters, and the idea of having such a game where hiding behind some oh so handy barrel or outcrop of rocks isn’t 100% infallible makes it a far more frantic experience.

But what about the suffix? Well people familiar with HOTD will like as not recall the Wii game THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: OVERKILL. UK studio Headstrong’s entry into the series took the franchise, supposedly back to the very beginning before all the nonsense at Curien Mansion and into the shoes of rookie cop and series protagonist Agent G. Except things weren’t quite as people were used to with the game. OVERKILL took the franchise to 18/R-Rated territory by spoofing the grindhouse genre. Partnering the straight-laced G with foul-mouthed Detective Isaac Washington a man incapable of finishing a sentence without a s***, f*** or m***********. (Except, ironically, at times when it would technically be accurate. Long story.) In fact there were so many swears it actually held the world record for number of swears in a single game for some time. Eventually only taken out by Grand Theft Auto 4 I believe.

The video below features some… examples of this. You have been warned.

OVERKILL might not have set the world alight with sales but it, along with another SEGA title, Platinum Games’ MADWORLD, certainly held up the ‘adult’ end of the Wii gaming spectrum. It was later ported to PS3 and given extra levels, ported to mobile and eventually PC where it was converted yet AGAIN this time adding old SEGA favourite THE TYPING OF THE DEAD into the mix. Four games from one game. Not bad going, huh?

The point is OVERKILL was very tongue in cheek about the franchise’s own foibles, and that’s in a series that was already very self-aware. It was so fresh and different why not do a similar trick with Virtua Cop? Turn it into a self-aware parody of all those 80’s cop shows. Or even the 90’s, you meta humour all over the place then about old VR tech. Make it these two ridiculously out of touch cops dealing with endless suited gunmen in shades, ninjas and all the other lightgun game staples who for some reason think this is perfectly normal. Make it Miami Vice on acid with smart mouth and a stick up its ass. Make Virtua Cop but HOTD: OVERKILL.

In VR.

Then let me know so I can buy it.

Thanks muchly.

NiGHTS

NiGHTS is a pretty deep franchise, if you did but know it and one I have all the time in the world for. Not only do they have the most friendly fanbase I’ve ever met (no really, they’re all lovely) the game is fun, scary and promotes an array of ideas that would be very interesting to explore in VR. For a start there’s the obvious connotations of dreams and nightmares, and Sonic Team had no problem going dark. This shouldn’t be a massive surprise since in one of their games they once showed the moment a little girl gets shot for goodness sake**.

But NiGHTS isn’t just about dreams it is about the psyche itself.  The original idea is based on the works of noted psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.  The ideya you collect are aspects of the Id – your personality traits. hope, growth, intelligence, purity (white) and lastly courage (red). Even their colours weren’t chosen randomly. The game deals with the topics of freedom, confidence, growing up, parental issues, loneliness, friendship, the idea of two people sharing the same experience and trust. NiGHTS is after all actually a Nightmaren – the bad guys. Trusting the person based on their actions and not on the preconception of where they were born is also something NiGHTS (particularly Journey of Dreams which has more of an outright story) touches on.

It is also about freedom and flight. So I want you to now imagine a first person NiGHTS game, one where you actually get to feel the simulation of flying, where you travel through a colourful level doing tricks and collecting… balls. And things. Now take that landscape with its SEGA blue skies and popping colours and what if we added a touch of Nevermind to it? What if the game reacted to your character’s welfare and became more dark and twisted the closer you came to running out of time or whenever you take a hit?  It’s not that far fetched. The various levels in NiGHTS, the world of Nightopia is shaped by the Visitor (your character).  The levels are given subtitles such as “The IDEAL”, “The POSSIBILITY”, “The CONFUSION” and are all based on relationships and aspects of their lives.

The feeling of flight and a bit of psychology. Sounds interesting?

OutRun

We all know that driving games can be translated over to VR, some of which can be done very well indeed. But what about SEGA? It has a number of driving franchises that you could port. But All-Stars Racing was never going to be on this list. SEGA Rally was a distinct possibility but no, I turned down that too. Initial-D was a strong contender considering its arcade longevity and popularity specifically in Japan.  But ultimately the choice to fill this spot can only be OutRun.

So why OutRun over SEGA Rally let’s say? Because SEGA Rally is a game and OutRun is both a game and wish fulfillment. OutRun has, for decades, been not just about the game but about going as fast as possible in a sweet looking ride to impress the girl. About owning a Ferrari and being the personification of cool. It sells you a fantasy, one that gives tremendous satisfaction. A ‘long-medium right’ done well is one thing, but it doesn’t match slamming the steering wheel to full lock as you drift around a car and through a narrow gap between two buses in your Testarossa (or a British racing green Ferrari F40 if you’re me). It just doesn’t.

Taking a first person viewpoint and actually living the ride would be quite something. But there’s another reason VR would be an interesting mechanic for OutRun. Do you not remember you have a passenger in your car? A passenger who is very… needy in her desire for you to GO FAST! KEEP PASSING CARS! ETC! As she either falls in love with you or, you know, violently berates you because you clipped a barrier. If you’re actually in the car with her it gives the game an extra dimension as you’ve got to check how your would be lady (or gentleman – I think some choice on who your passenger and driver is should definitely be included at this point) friend is reacting to the ride. They also in doing such act as a distraction, and OutRun is always a balancing act – particularly in Heart Attack Mode – of balancing speed and safety.

For me it’d be a very interesting mechanic to explore.

  That’s all for this week. Next week we round off the list some more games including one I suspect none of you will have guessed is on my list. Until then!

* Old SEGA employee note: For some reason THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD is always supposed to be shown in capital letters. It’s part of the branding guidelines. If you see any SEGA official messaging with the game not in upper case it has actually been done wrong. #TheMoreYouKnow

** In Shadow The Hedgehog the moment young Maria Robotnik is fatally shot by government soldiers sent to wipe out the ARK facility is actually shown in the light of Shadow’s eyes at the end of a flashback. That’s messed up, Sonic Team. 

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2kL6imI

[repwinpril9y0a1]

HUFFPOST HILL - White House Preparing To Turn Back Clocks 100 Years

Like what you read below? Sign up for HUFFPOST HILL and get a cheeky dose of political news every evening!

Four Pinocchios: Donald Trump incorrectly marked his 50th day in office ― it’s already been three years. Sean Spicer’s America flag pin was upside down for most of his press briefing today – a sign, per the flag code, of “dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property” – the truest indication yet of how connected the deep state is. And the Labor Department reported roughly the same number of jobs were created in February as were created in February of 2016. However, it didn’t account for the recent departure of Bureau of Labor Statistics Director Bill Ayers. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, March 10th, 2017:

REPUBLICANS SUDDENLY HAPPY ABOUT JOB GROWTH - After “support for the nuclear option,” this might be the political belief most closely tied to whether your party is in the majority or not. Sam Levine: “President Donald Trump and other Republicans were quick to tout Friday’s job report showing the U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in February, but it’s worth looking at how they responded to similar good economic news under President Barack Obama…. Trump has long claimed that the unemployment rate released in the monthly jobs report is artificially low, saying, inaccurately, in 2015 that it could be as high as 42 percent. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee put out a statement on Friday touting the jobs numbers. ‘This is a great report. The fact that hundreds of thousands more people found new jobs last month is a good sign that our economy is moving in the right direction,’ he said in a statement… Brady also released a statement after the February jobs report came out last year, saying it was ‘disappointing to see so little growth in full time work and wages.’ That jobs report showed that the U.S. economy had added 242,000 jobs, more than the number of jobs added in February of this year.” [HuffPost]

FREEDOM CAUCUS RUSHING TO DADDY - Mommy Paul Ryan is not letting them have their Capri Suns with dinner.  Matt Fuller: “Leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, unhappy with the Republican health care legislation being rushed through the House by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), are taking their concerns directly to President Donald Trump. Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and former Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) spent Thursday afternoon at the White House, meeting with budget staffers, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, and Trump himself. The group met for ‘hours,’ according to Meadows, and Trump attended for ‘a very lengthy time.’ … Freedom Caucus members are demanding changes to the health care bill that Republican House leaders refuse to make. While Meadows wouldn’t provide details, he said the group discussed amendments to the legislation with Trump, as well as the president’s broader concerns about health reform. ‘The president actually shared with me that he wants to make sure he lowers premiums for Americans, and he wants to make sure that we get this done quickly,’ Meadows said.” [HuffPost]

HEALTH CARE PROVIDING DEMS SOME LIFE SUPPORT - See what we did there? Eh? EH? Michael McAuliff and Laura Barron-Lopez: “For Jill Hanauer, who runs the progressive election research and strategy outfit Project New America, the landscape is starting to remind her of Colorado in 2004, when Democrats did especially well, running in part on a health care message. ‘The way we really won in Republican-leaning districts of the state legislature was talking about the specifics of health care ― particularly breast cancer and prostate cancer and other cancer screenings and other prevention,’ Hanauer recently told The Huffington Post. ‘Thirteen years later, those same issues are, I believe, going to tear this party potentially apart if they don’t smell the coffee.’ … A survey her group commissioned with Myers Research delved into Nevada, where Republican Sen. Dean Heller faces a battle for re-election in 2018…. Hanauer pointed to findings from the survey that suggest voters will give Heller even less love if he helps carry out the repeal bid, especially if the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is replaced by the proposal currently moving through the House of Representatives.” [HuffPost]

CONGRESSMAN (R-PARK BENCH) HAS A THEORY - Crazy old men use to elect people to Congress, not become congressmen. Sam Levine: “A Republican congressman claimed that former President Barack Obama has chosen to stay in Washington in order to run a “shadow government” aimed at undermining President Donald Trump…. The Obamas have said they would keep living in the nation’s capital until their younger daughter, Sasha, graduated from high school. But Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) saw more devious motives at work. “I think we oughta pitch in to let him go somewhere else because he’s only there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to run a shadow government that is gonna totally upset the new agenda,” Kelly told a gathering in his home state on Saturday. [HuffPost]

Read ClickHole for the truth about the real Obama scandal!

Like HuffPost Hill? Then order Eliot’s book, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide To Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It’s free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to eliot@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

PAUL RYAN SO AMPED TO TAKE YOUR MEDICINE AWAY - Shout out to the cancer your state’s block grant will be unable to cover. Arthur Delaney: “House Speaker Paul Ryan sees repealing Obamacare as a historic opportunity to reduce the welfare rolls. ‘This is so much bigger, by orders of magnitude, than welfare reform,’ Ryan said [in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday]. Obama’s Affordable Care Act made more people eligible for Medicaid, which currently provides health insurance for nearly 70 million Americans. The Republican health care bill would roll back Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and also dramatically reform the way Medicaid works. States currently administer Medicaid with a commitment from the federal government, amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, to help pay for as many enrollees as might be eligible due to low income. The Republicans’ American Health Care Act would limit that open-ended commitment by capping federal funding for states based on the number of enrollees rather than the cost of their medical claims.” [HuffPost]

CITY ON A HILL MOVING TO LOWER ELEVATION - Also installing tinted windows, a privacy hedge and placing shotgun-toting fella named Curtis in a rocking chair on the front porch. Alissa Rubin: “When the State Department released its annual human rights report last week, it contained many of the usual tough American judgments of other countries. What was notably missing this year, however, was the usual fanfare around the report and a news conference promoting it by the new secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, as Democratic and Republican administrations have almost always done…. [F]or observers of American foreign policy, it was hard not to interpret the low-key rollout as another step by the Trump administration away from America’s traditional role as a moral authority on the world stage… Interviews with more than a dozen former diplomats, professors, human rights advocates and international politicians, both abroad and in the United States, suggested that the United States under President Trump was poised to cede not only this global role, but also its ability to lead by example.” [NYT]

Someone buy Earl Blumenauer’s LD a beer: “Today, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) introduced the No Taxpayer Revenue Used to Monetize the Presidency (No TRUMP) Act to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to pay for events, overnight stays, food, or other miscellaneous expenses at hotels owned or operated by a president or his or her relatives.” [Press Release]

IT’D BE SWEET IF YOU WOULD DELETE YOUR TWEET - Given the nature of your seat. Patricia Cohen: “The enthusiastic reaction of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was understandable on Friday when the Labor Department reported a gain of 235,000 jobs. ‘Great news for American workers,’ he proclaimed, ‘in first report for @POTUS Trump.’ But that message on Twitter, posted 22 minutes after the Labor Department report, may have violated a federal rule barring executive branch employees from publicly commenting on principal economic indicators for at least one hour after the official release time...Announced in the Federal Register on Sept. 25, 1985, when Ronald Reagan was president, the rule was adopted “to preserve the distinction between the policy-neutral release of data by statistical agencies and their interpretation by policy officials,” and to avoid affecting “financial and commodity markets,” according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget.” [NYT]

DON’T GET US WRONG, WE HATE MILLENNIALS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE (INCLUDING MILLENNIALS), BUT… This is downright silly. Mark Berman: “The latest massive leak of government secrets – a trove of apparent CIA documents posted online this week by WikiLeaks, an anti-secrecy organization – is still so new that federal officials say they are only in the early stages of investigating the breach. Still, the former head of the CIA has a theory about a possible root cause of the leak: Millennials. Michael V. Hayden, who was the CIA director until 2009, said that in order for the agency to engage in the digital espionage described by the documents, the agency must ‘recruit from a certain demographic’ – in this case, younger hackers brought on to help with these efforts. ‘I don’t mean to judge them at all, but this group of millennials and related groups simply have different understandings of the words loyalty, secrecy and transparency than certainly my generation did,’ Hayden told the BBC in an interview this week. “ [WaPo]

CONDOLENCES, JUSTIN AMASH - Justin Amash will now solemnly walk into the ocean, unblinking and resolute in his knowledge that somewhere, an awkward guy named Seth is lecturing a woman about the Austrian School. Rachael Bade and Jennifer Haberkorn: “Rep. Justin Amash has long boasted about not missing a single vote since he arrived in Congress in 2011 – 4,289 in a row, give or take a vote, if you’re counting. But on Friday, as he was railing against the GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill off the House floor, Amash failed to notice a roll call had just closed. When he realized his streak had just ended, the blunt-spoken congressman broke down in tears…. Now, Rep. Steve Womack, who was sworn in the same day as Amash, holds the record for the longest voting streak in the House: 4,294 votes. The Arkansas Republican’s office wasted no time in touting the accomplishment. ‘I have been sent to Washington by Third District Arkansans to make sure their voices are heard; voting is fundamental to that duty,’ Womack said in a statement released just moments after the episode.” [Politico]

Kind of a dick move, Congressman Womack.

Also, the way in which Amash expressed his pain is in dispute.

BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a dog wedding.

PLEASE STOP BLAMING SHABBAT FOR TRUMP - Though we might want to change the “Sunday scaries” to the “Saturday scaries.” Annie Karni: “The prevailing narrative about when President Donald Trump launches his most reckless tirades involves the absence of the two people viewed as the great moderating influences in his life: his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. The couple are Orthodox Jews who observe the Sabbath, which runs from sundown Friday until sundown on Saturday – the time when Trump has been most likely to go off-leash…. [S]ome rabbis say the conceit is misguided and potentially inflammatory amid the recent rise in anti-Semitic threats. They include Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism in 2009…. Kushner and Trump have traveled with the president to Mar-a-Lago five out of the past six weekends, and there’s no reason why Kushner couldn’t discuss matters of state – or Twitter – with his father-in-law on the Sabbath, Lookstein said.” [Politico]

COMFORT FOOD

- The wind is terrifying, as this young child learns.

- Parakeets try to make sense of a stuffed parakeet.

- A map of Washington’s biggest spy haunts.

TWITTERAMA

@tripgabriel:

‘Americans ready for a break from Obama economy” ―RNC on 255k jobs in July 16

‘Praise rolling in for Trump jobs report’ -RNC on 235k jobs

@badgalsam1998: You millennials and your obsession with public healthcare. Back in my day we just died

@CrudTweets: A reality TV show for republicans where people claim they’re poor but after the dramatic cliffhanger break it’s revealed they have a toaster

Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com)

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2mKEeDA

[repwincoml4a0a5]

HUFFPOST HILL - White House Preparing To Turn Back Clocks 100 Years

Like what you read below? Sign up for HUFFPOST HILL and get a cheeky dose of political news every evening!

Four Pinocchios: Donald Trump incorrectly marked his 50th day in office ― it’s already been three years. Sean Spicer’s America flag pin was upside down for most of his press briefing today – a sign, per the flag code, of “dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property” – the truest indication yet of how connected the deep state is. And the Labor Department reported roughly the same number of jobs were created in February as were created in February of 2016. However, it didn’t account for the recent departure of Bureau of Labor Statistics Director Bill Ayers. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, March 10th, 2017:

REPUBLICANS SUDDENLY HAPPY ABOUT JOB GROWTH - After “support for the nuclear option,” this might be the political belief most closely tied to whether your party is in the majority or not. Sam Levine: “President Donald Trump and other Republicans were quick to tout Friday’s job report showing the U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in February, but it’s worth looking at how they responded to similar good economic news under President Barack Obama…. Trump has long claimed that the unemployment rate released in the monthly jobs report is artificially low, saying, inaccurately, in 2015 that it could be as high as 42 percent. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee put out a statement on Friday touting the jobs numbers. ‘This is a great report. The fact that hundreds of thousands more people found new jobs last month is a good sign that our economy is moving in the right direction,’ he said in a statement… Brady also released a statement after the February jobs report came out last year, saying it was ‘disappointing to see so little growth in full time work and wages.’ That jobs report showed that the U.S. economy had added 242,000 jobs, more than the number of jobs added in February of this year.” [HuffPost]

FREEDOM CAUCUS RUSHING TO DADDY - Mommy Paul Ryan is not letting them have their Capri Suns with dinner.  Matt Fuller: “Leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, unhappy with the Republican health care legislation being rushed through the House by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), are taking their concerns directly to President Donald Trump. Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and former Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) spent Thursday afternoon at the White House, meeting with budget staffers, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, and Trump himself. The group met for ‘hours,’ according to Meadows, and Trump attended for ‘a very lengthy time.’ … Freedom Caucus members are demanding changes to the health care bill that Republican House leaders refuse to make. While Meadows wouldn’t provide details, he said the group discussed amendments to the legislation with Trump, as well as the president’s broader concerns about health reform. ‘The president actually shared with me that he wants to make sure he lowers premiums for Americans, and he wants to make sure that we get this done quickly,’ Meadows said.” [HuffPost]

HEALTH CARE PROVIDING DEMS SOME LIFE SUPPORT - See what we did there? Eh? EH? Michael McAuliff and Laura Barron-Lopez: “For Jill Hanauer, who runs the progressive election research and strategy outfit Project New America, the landscape is starting to remind her of Colorado in 2004, when Democrats did especially well, running in part on a health care message. ‘The way we really won in Republican-leaning districts of the state legislature was talking about the specifics of health care ― particularly breast cancer and prostate cancer and other cancer screenings and other prevention,’ Hanauer recently told The Huffington Post. ‘Thirteen years later, those same issues are, I believe, going to tear this party potentially apart if they don’t smell the coffee.’ … A survey her group commissioned with Myers Research delved into Nevada, where Republican Sen. Dean Heller faces a battle for re-election in 2018…. Hanauer pointed to findings from the survey that suggest voters will give Heller even less love if he helps carry out the repeal bid, especially if the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is replaced by the proposal currently moving through the House of Representatives.” [HuffPost]

CONGRESSMAN (R-PARK BENCH) HAS A THEORY - Crazy old men use to elect people to Congress, not become congressmen. Sam Levine: “A Republican congressman claimed that former President Barack Obama has chosen to stay in Washington in order to run a “shadow government” aimed at undermining President Donald Trump…. The Obamas have said they would keep living in the nation’s capital until their younger daughter, Sasha, graduated from high school. But Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) saw more devious motives at work. “I think we oughta pitch in to let him go somewhere else because he’s only there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to run a shadow government that is gonna totally upset the new agenda,” Kelly told a gathering in his home state on Saturday. [HuffPost]

Read ClickHole for the truth about the real Obama scandal!

Like HuffPost Hill? Then order Eliot’s book, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide To Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It’s free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to eliot@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

PAUL RYAN SO AMPED TO TAKE YOUR MEDICINE AWAY - Shout out to the cancer your state’s block grant will be unable to cover. Arthur Delaney: “House Speaker Paul Ryan sees repealing Obamacare as a historic opportunity to reduce the welfare rolls. ‘This is so much bigger, by orders of magnitude, than welfare reform,’ Ryan said [in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday]. Obama’s Affordable Care Act made more people eligible for Medicaid, which currently provides health insurance for nearly 70 million Americans. The Republican health care bill would roll back Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and also dramatically reform the way Medicaid works. States currently administer Medicaid with a commitment from the federal government, amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, to help pay for as many enrollees as might be eligible due to low income. The Republicans’ American Health Care Act would limit that open-ended commitment by capping federal funding for states based on the number of enrollees rather than the cost of their medical claims.” [HuffPost]

CITY ON A HILL MOVING TO LOWER ELEVATION - Also installing tinted windows, a privacy hedge and placing shotgun-toting fella named Curtis in a rocking chair on the front porch. Alissa Rubin: “When the State Department released its annual human rights report last week, it contained many of the usual tough American judgments of other countries. What was notably missing this year, however, was the usual fanfare around the report and a news conference promoting it by the new secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, as Democratic and Republican administrations have almost always done…. [F]or observers of American foreign policy, it was hard not to interpret the low-key rollout as another step by the Trump administration away from America’s traditional role as a moral authority on the world stage… Interviews with more than a dozen former diplomats, professors, human rights advocates and international politicians, both abroad and in the United States, suggested that the United States under President Trump was poised to cede not only this global role, but also its ability to lead by example.” [NYT]

Someone buy Earl Blumenauer’s LD a beer: “Today, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) introduced the No Taxpayer Revenue Used to Monetize the Presidency (No TRUMP) Act to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to pay for events, overnight stays, food, or other miscellaneous expenses at hotels owned or operated by a president or his or her relatives.” [Press Release]

IT’D BE SWEET IF YOU WOULD DELETE YOUR TWEET - Given the nature of your seat. Patricia Cohen: “The enthusiastic reaction of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was understandable on Friday when the Labor Department reported a gain of 235,000 jobs. ‘Great news for American workers,’ he proclaimed, ‘in first report for @POTUS Trump.’ But that message on Twitter, posted 22 minutes after the Labor Department report, may have violated a federal rule barring executive branch employees from publicly commenting on principal economic indicators for at least one hour after the official release time...Announced in the Federal Register on Sept. 25, 1985, when Ronald Reagan was president, the rule was adopted “to preserve the distinction between the policy-neutral release of data by statistical agencies and their interpretation by policy officials,” and to avoid affecting “financial and commodity markets,” according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget.” [NYT]

DON’T GET US WRONG, WE HATE MILLENNIALS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE (INCLUDING MILLENNIALS), BUT… This is downright silly. Mark Berman: “The latest massive leak of government secrets – a trove of apparent CIA documents posted online this week by WikiLeaks, an anti-secrecy organization – is still so new that federal officials say they are only in the early stages of investigating the breach. Still, the former head of the CIA has a theory about a possible root cause of the leak: Millennials. Michael V. Hayden, who was the CIA director until 2009, said that in order for the agency to engage in the digital espionage described by the documents, the agency must ‘recruit from a certain demographic’ – in this case, younger hackers brought on to help with these efforts. ‘I don’t mean to judge them at all, but this group of millennials and related groups simply have different understandings of the words loyalty, secrecy and transparency than certainly my generation did,’ Hayden told the BBC in an interview this week. “ [WaPo]

CONDOLENCES, JUSTIN AMASH - Justin Amash will now solemnly walk into the ocean, unblinking and resolute in his knowledge that somewhere, an awkward guy named Seth is lecturing a woman about the Austrian School. Rachael Bade and Jennifer Haberkorn: “Rep. Justin Amash has long boasted about not missing a single vote since he arrived in Congress in 2011 – 4,289 in a row, give or take a vote, if you’re counting. But on Friday, as he was railing against the GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill off the House floor, Amash failed to notice a roll call had just closed. When he realized his streak had just ended, the blunt-spoken congressman broke down in tears…. Now, Rep. Steve Womack, who was sworn in the same day as Amash, holds the record for the longest voting streak in the House: 4,294 votes. The Arkansas Republican’s office wasted no time in touting the accomplishment. ‘I have been sent to Washington by Third District Arkansans to make sure their voices are heard; voting is fundamental to that duty,’ Womack said in a statement released just moments after the episode.” [Politico]

Kind of a dick move, Congressman Womack.

Also, the way in which Amash expressed his pain is in dispute.

BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a dog wedding.

PLEASE STOP BLAMING SHABBAT FOR TRUMP - Though we might want to change the “Sunday scaries” to the “Saturday scaries.” Annie Karni: “The prevailing narrative about when President Donald Trump launches his most reckless tirades involves the absence of the two people viewed as the great moderating influences in his life: his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. The couple are Orthodox Jews who observe the Sabbath, which runs from sundown Friday until sundown on Saturday – the time when Trump has been most likely to go off-leash…. [S]ome rabbis say the conceit is misguided and potentially inflammatory amid the recent rise in anti-Semitic threats. They include Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism in 2009…. Kushner and Trump have traveled with the president to Mar-a-Lago five out of the past six weekends, and there’s no reason why Kushner couldn’t discuss matters of state – or Twitter – with his father-in-law on the Sabbath, Lookstein said.” [Politico]

COMFORT FOOD

- The wind is terrifying, as this young child learns.

- Parakeets try to make sense of a stuffed parakeet.

- A map of Washington’s biggest spy haunts.

TWITTERAMA

@tripgabriel:

‘Americans ready for a break from Obama economy” ―RNC on 255k jobs in July 16

‘Praise rolling in for Trump jobs report’ -RNC on 235k jobs

@badgalsam1998: You millennials and your obsession with public healthcare. Back in my day we just died

@CrudTweets: A reality TV show for republicans where people claim they’re poor but after the dramatic cliffhanger break it’s revealed they have a toaster

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