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mapsmonstersamazing · 7 years

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Wild Magic!

So this is the first thing I’m putting up of my own - a 100-item wild magic table!

Yeah, I kinda like the sorcerer class in 5e, and I love the use of wild magic. But it feels like such a ridiculously specific use of a table which could bring some interesting chaos into a game. Do any DMs use wild magic for other situations? Perhaps an area badly affected by a magical war, where natural magic is latent; or a vengeful god warning a follower that their faith is waning?

However it can be used, here’s my very rough, still-very-much-in-progress wild magic table:

0: The current environment, up to 1 mile, is reshaped in your image.

1: Every other party member grows vestigial dragon wings.

2: Your spell fizzles; the person you aimed it at is in love with you now.

3: you summon a gun into your hands, it replaces any weapons you are currently wielding.

4: Goomba squish! When you cast 1st-level-or-higher offensive spells, you deal the damage by leaping on the target and squishing them. All damage is the same, but now after you cast your spell you automatically move next to the target.

5: whenever you open your mouth to speak, banjo music plays. This effect ends after 24 hours.

6: the spell that activated this effect is cast again, on the same target.

7: your race is now "wombatling". You have the appearance of a humanoid wombat. Your size is small, you can gnaw through thin wood, burrow 20ft, and you gain +1 AC when your back is to the attacker.

8: You are constantly pessimistic when you speak.

9: You meet your doom. But it isn't your doom yet - the thing which will kill you appears before you for one round/6 seconds, and you comprehend that this will be your downfall when you meet it.

10: The next battle or negotiation you are involved in becomes a cooking challenge. Whoever cooks the better meal wins.

11: The ground shakes and quakes. Before you, a hole opens up and reveals an ancient urn filled with copper coins.

12: You turn into a raven for one round.

13: You are slaved to the party member with the most hp; for the next hour, you copy their moves exactly.

14: Anyone within fifty feet of you has a broom appear in their hands. They roll WIS against your spell save; if they fail, they believe they are a street sweeper now (save ends).

15: the cover of all your books turns into "embezzlement for dummies". Every book in your inventory has the exact same cover, and is now the exact same size too. Effect ends when you kill the author, Saldiar Twofang.

16: your gold pieces turn into very high quality forgeries.

17: You gain the favour of a great fiend! When you next make a melee attack, a demonic arm aids you with fiery claws. Add +lvl d8 damage to your attack.

18: every building now has a poster with your face on it. It's not a wanted poster, it's just a plain poster with your face. There is no context for this.

19: gain proficiency in mining.

20: Happy birthday! It's your birthday all of a sudden. Everyone you meet wishes you happy birthday and gives you a small present. There is cake.

21: your face becomes an exposed steel skull. On the one hand, your terrifying visage gives you advantage on intimidate and +1 ac. On the other, disadvantage on all other charisma checks.

22: turn into three goblins in a trench coat. CON save DC15 ends.

23: the spell you cast to cause this effect has a purple aura. You can now change your hair colour at will. If your character did not have hair before, they now sport a cool cyberpunk hairstyle.

24: your hair colour changes based on mood. If your character did not have hair before this, they grow a moustache.

25: For the next three turns, you're an equally levelled barbarian in mid-rage.

26: You and everyone in your sightline are teleported to the middle of a busy market in a port city on the edge of a desert.

27: You have no context for it, but an arcade cabinet appears half-buried in the ground in front of you. It still functions, but you can't reach the coin slot as it's underground.

28: lose a skill proficiency in a skill with your best attribute. Gain proficiency in two skills that don't use your best attribute.

29: You turn into a small red dragon.

30: a mysterious envelope appears in your hands. It's an invitation to a murder mystery party.

31: You shrink. Change your size class to tiny. Your clothes and belongings shrink with you. Effect ends when you use a spell of any level higher than the spell that caused this. If the spell was level 9, another level 9 spell reverts the effect.

32: You grow huge. Change your size class to huge. Your clothes and belongings grow with you. Effect ends when you're knocked unconscious.

33: roll 3d6 for the next thirty seconds. The numbers you roll are your strength score for the days following, equal to the number of rolls you managed.

34: The entire party is spontaneously nude, and their charisma scores are all 18 or above, for the next hour.

35: Every melee attack you make is directionally explosive. Deal +1d10 force damage when you attack with a melee weapon. Effect ends after the next persuasion check.

36: You gain the ability to cast silent spells. Which is good, because you're mute for the next day.

37: Gruumsh One-Eye appears before you, gives you the finger, and disappears.

38: The target of your next spell also receives a pot of healing gumbo. It heals 1d6 hp when consumed and has 10 uses.

39: All fighters are affected by wild magic. When using a fighter ability gained above third level they must roll on the wild magic table too.

40: a bucket of ice water falls on you as you cast the spell.

41: An elf appears beside you and reassures you that everything is going to be okay.

42: whenever you make a ranged attack with a weapon, such as a crossbow or longbow, gold coins fall out of the target on hit.

43: unresolved romantic tension within a mile radius is forthrightly resolved.

44: You gain a robot friend! If you roll this again, you lose a robot friend. The cycle continues.

45: You burn all your spell slots at once. Roll all necessary damage dice against a target, and armour and buff effects stack. Roll all necessary wild magic rolls - if this one comes up again add another d12 damage.

46: You summon a flock of angry, biting geese in the square next to the one targeted by your spell. They attack the nearest target with +2 to hit and deal 1d6 damage.

47: the target of your spell turns into a stone giant.

48: demonic possession! The target of your spell is possessed by a demon and deals an extra 1d6 fire damage when using a melee weapon, but they must make a WIS save DC14 to perform the actions they want.

49: Your offensive spells, upon hit, now split off into two smaller spells which fire at 90 degree angles to the original spell.

50: Bisect one enemy.

51: You are hunted by a demon. It appears in the middle of your next battle, sets up a chess set, and stops time. You must defeat this demon in chess or face him in battle.

52: You make a deal.

53: If you're in a battle, the fighting stops as everybody takes their union mandated five minute break. If you're not in battle, a fight breaks out as the people around you begin their union mandated five minute fight club.

54: Your skin becomes transparent. Everyone can see your insides, giving you disadvantage on charisma checks. But everyone gets advantage on medicine checks to heal you.

55: You no longer get drunk. Alcohol heals you for 1d4HP. Drinking any other potion ends this effect.

56: You split the earth in two. A jagged crack runs down the ground between your legs, before widening to 10 feet and forcing you to choose a side.

57: You summon a frigate into the space around you. It puts you into the cannon deck - if the space is not large enough to accommodate an entire ship, it takes up space around the room, expanding to other rooms or filling out through the earth.

58: any metal scraps attach themselves to your body, granting you +1AC.

59: You are somehow really easy to hit. Take -1AC.

60: You're suddenly a sprite in a top-down shooter. For two rounds your height is zero and ranged attacks have disadvantage against you, but your ranged and melee attacks have disadvantage against their targets because they're literally non-existent on one plane of vision.

61: Everyone in a 20ft radius has true strike cast on them. Attacks by those affected have advantage.

62: A pit opens up beneath the target of your spell and drops them five feet behind their original location. If there is a wall or obstruction, they are instead dropped at the opposite end of the space, in front of the next obstruction.

63: Everyone turns into mice. No, literally everyone. All locations are three times larger. Stats are unchanged. Your race is still the same, but you add "-mouse" to the end of it.

64: the target of your spell falls asleep.

65: Your party members gain your-level+1 temporary hit points. When they are struck by a melee attack while they have these hit points, they deal those hit points as damage on the attacker. This effect only ends when they take damage which costs them their temporary hit points.

66: You clone yourself. Your clone is a perfect copy of you in every way, except it has longer hair and better style, and it can't cast spells.

67: your rations turn into ham sandwiches. They taste okay.

68: the target of your spell becomes trapped in a glass dome. It is constantly ringing inside, incapacitating them unless they overcome a constitution save vs your spell save DC.

69: your character swaps gender and their charisma, if not already maxed out, is set to 20. Effect ends after a long rest.

70: everything is eighties! The atmosphere and scenery becomes dystopian and neon, crossbows become future-guns and shortbows and longbows are composite. Melee weapons get a retro-future style. If this has already been rolled - or is already the case - the whole thing reverts to high fantasy.

71: somebody betrays you.

72: You're made of fire! Melee attacks deal 1d6 damage to the attacker, and you deal 1d6 extra damage.

73: worms tumble from your clothing. They're silkworms. They follow you around and attempt to cocoon you. They must swarm over you for an hour to cocoon you. If they succeed, you are cocooned for 24 hours, provided no one intervenes, at which point you emerge with beautiful butterfly wings.

74: Roll your level d6. Add the total to your total HP.

75: Lose your temper with your party.

76: Your body parts separate. Treat each part as a separate entity with your stats. You can perform six separate attacks, but you must use both arms and your head to cast a spell. A restoration or healing spell reverts you back to your form, minus any parts that were "killed".

77: whenever you hit an enemy with a melee attack, they make a glockenspiel sound.

78: You turn into a robot. You do not need to eat, drink or sleep, and are immune to poison and disease, and resistant to fire, ice, and physical attacks. However you are vulnerable to water and electricity damage, and healing has no effect on you - instead you must be fixed with intelligence checks of a DC equal to your level + the value of your last hit dice.

79: your arms turn into bear arms. They are very fluffy and soft.

80: one of your weapons melts. It isn't hot, it's just liquid.

81: You grow three feet taller and turn blue.

82: You shrink three feet and turn blue.

83: for the next minute your hands are constantly shooting out fireworks.

84: All of your gold pieces turn into healing potions.

85: All of your healing potions turn into poison. They're very clearly labelled as poison, however.

86: as you cast the spell that causes this effect, you summon a cheeseburger. It drops into your hand. It's still warm.

87: You're made of paper. Halve your total HP, gain vulnerability to fire AND water, but conversations you hear are automatically written onto your skin. Gain advantage on persuade checks. Effect ends when you gain a level.

88: the DM asks you to think of your characters favourite place. Instead of the spell that caused this effect, you cast teleport. The target of your spell is teleported to your character's favourite place.

89: You can shoot ink from your hands as a defensive mechanism.

90: A bell tolls somewhere. Your hair turns white, you age one hundred years but do not die, and you are covered in cobwebs.

91: a maze grows up around you, leaving you in a dead end. It is made of whatever material the ground is made from, and can be affected as such.

92: two crows land on your shoulders. You can see through their eyes via a psychic link.

93: instead of the spell you cast, birdseed shoots from your hands at the target. Next turn, birds land on the target. You do not lose the spell slot.

94: stalks of corn grow in a 30 ft radius around the caster.

95: Everyone is now wearing a mask.

96: Everyone is now wearing fancy party clothing.

97: Everyone is wearing party hats.

98: your soul separates from your body. You can move around as a ghost but it takes a DC 12 WIS save to return to your body.

99: nothing happens. You are safe... for now.

#d&d #magic #wild magic #dungeons and dragons #sorcerer #fifth edition #5th edition #5e

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sonixxtorytelling · 4 years

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FILM SCORE & DANCE

Many choreographers and dance studios use film music for their performances or during their training sessions. I will use Clint Mansell’s score for Requiem for a Dream once again, in order to create a bigger picture and expose a different perspective towards the specific music. The following video is a recording of the performance "Hamlet or three boys and one girl", presented on SETKANI/ENCOUNTER (2011, Brno) by a Bulgarian dance theatre. The performance itself is an interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Start: 01:01:45

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The performance is just about to end. The final words of Fortinbras echo: “ Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this Becomes the field but here shows much amiss. “ In this case, just like in the case of the original film, the music is used to close the curtains, to show the loss and the damage from the final battle. It’s the last dance of the corpses before they join the dead.

...

Other examples of film scores used in the context of dance:

Max Richter: On the nature of daylight Film: Disconnect (2012)

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Hans Zimmer: Cornfield Chase Film: Interstellar (2014)

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Thom Hanreich: Rooftop Film: Pina (2011)

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auburnfamilynews · 5 years

Link

November. It’s a month that sends shivers up the spine of any College Football fan. It’s a month that defines years in ones life. 1996? A miserable year. 1997? The way God intended a year to be. 2014? None of that sir. 2017? All that and twice on Sundays please. November is all of 10 days old and there are some teams that want to have a do-over already. “Who are they?”, you ask dear reader. Well pull up a cha…oh you’re already sitting. Well, sit back and enjoy this week’s BOOM! Roasted!

WILLIE CHAD MORRIS WATCH 2019

Arkansas has had a rough go of it for the past…well for a good while now. Member when BERT had them humming? Don’t worry, their fans don’t either. But Chad Morris came in two years ago with the promise of a HUNH offense that worked (sorta) at SMU and definitely did at Clemson. Well, the rebuild had the look of the movie The Money Pit. Everyone always saying, “It’ll take two more weeks.” More like two more years. We all got to see what I’m talking about a couple of weeks ago when the Auburn offense exploded on the Hogs for 51 points while the defense didn’t give up a point until its was second and third teamers against the Hogs’ ones in the second half. Well this week Arkansas hosted Western Kentucky for Senior Day. And the fan base came out in their finest

And boy did they sure show up for the contest too!

Wow, here's a photo of Razorback Stadium in the first quarter of the Arkansas- Western Kentucky game. Photo compliments of David Bazzel. pic.twitter.com/4kqlyHxkjy

— Randy Stowe (@rstowe1225) November 9, 2019

Well that doesn’t bode well for this watch to last long. As for the game?

This is the kind of day Arkansas is having. Western Kentucky's kicker did this! pic.twitter.com/x1IR60Up5h

— Max Olson (@max_olson) November 9, 2019

Oh good Lord…

The rest of the game didn’t turn out any better as the final gun would sound

Arkansas falls to Western Kentucky 45-19 on Senior Day. pic.twitter.com/0vxUvPhpiq

— THV11 (@THV11) November 9, 2019

Is it just me, or when you see it like that does it make it look even worse? I mean it’s bad, but that way make it even worse right? Well it wouldn’t take long, as one would expect, making this the shortest watch in the history of the Roasted.

Wins under Chad Morris: Eastern Illinois, Tulsa, Portland St. and Colorado St. Losses: Colorado St., North Texas, San Jose St., Western Kentucky AND every SEC game. What a strange year and a half for Arkansas football. https://t.co/MQKJROaaKl

— Jim Joyner (@jimthejam) November 10, 2019

So now we have FSU and Arkansas open for jobs and now the fun really begins as the rumor mill starts in full tilt!

“We’ve already crossed off Urban Meyer; we’ve already crossed off Bob Stoops. Today’s story — which is utterly ridiculous — is they are trying to reach out to Nick Saban to be the next coach at Florida State. The FSU coaching search is already off the rails.”—@ClayTravis pic.twitter.com/BloE3M0XgE

— Outkick the Coverage (@Outkick) November 7, 2019

Yup, coaching moves this year are gonna be stupid.

HAVE A GLASS OF WATER BIG FOURTEEN TEN, YOU’RE DRUNK

So, I sorta shorted you guys last week when I only did two games last week cause I couldn’t find another Boys II Men song that worked for me so I will make up for it here. First off, Michigan State is always known for a stingy defense and a coupe of guys they put out on offense and they sometimes score points, but not often. Well this week they hosted Illinois in East Lansing and it looked to be an easy day for the home team.

Michigan State has scored more points in 17+ minutes vs. Illinois (21) than it did the entire month of October (17). Spartans lead Illinois 21-3 early in the 2Q. pic.twitter.com/lYr16EmPrI

— Chris “Mack” Mackinder (@Chris_Mackinder) November 9, 2019

See what I mean about that scoring thing? Well they would hold a 28-3 lead over the Illini until the last play of the 2nd quarter.

HOW DID BRANDON PETERS PULL THIS OFF? He nearly fumbles before delivering a 47-yard TD strike to @JoshBhebhe to close the @IlliniFootball half: pic.twitter.com/2KZnAVHl0o

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 9, 2019

Ok, so that’s unfortunate but Sparty would add a field goal to make it 31-10 as we entered the 4th quarter of play. Layup win right?

Well…

Michigan State was up 21 on Illinois in the fourth quarter. What a wild day in East Lansing. pic.twitter.com/Tbxxb7iuZo

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) November 10, 2019

Not good.

UNBELIEVABLE! @IlliniFootball comes back from 25 down to seal the largest comeback in school history. Oh, and they're going bowling. pic.twitter.com/Fp2VhUAPtQ

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 10, 2019

Oofa…

pic.twitter.com/4sHI4YIL4k

— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) November 10, 2019

Yeah, that’s…wow…

Also, it makes Illinois bowl eligible. It leaves Michigan State unable to make plans yet for after November.

And the worst part, this was at home. I am a Falcons fan (I know I enjoy pain but at least we beat the Aints) so I can commiserate with Sparty here but….damn dude, at least we did that to a good team, you did that to Illinois.

In the other half of the fun in the B1G, Minnesota played their first significant game since Roosevelt was in office against Penn State this weekend and the Gophers brought out the big guns to rattle the Nits.

Minnesota put a Gopher on the scoreboard during Penn State's FG attempt pic.twitter.com/EPo9MZQTgH

— SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) November 9, 2019

Well played Minnesota, well played.

As for the game, man was it fun. Back and forth battle where defense was optional but still had some great defensive plays sprinkled in. In the end, this would happen.

And with that, No. 17 Minnesota takes down No. 4 Penn State (via @GopherFootball) pic.twitter.com/lrLHi693MN

— SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) November 9, 2019

Which directly led to this

Absolute SCENES in Minnesota as the No.17 Gophers upset No.4 Penn State. ( : @theothermegryan) pic.twitter.com/9UUHo0EPDs

— theScore (@theScore) November 9, 2019

Good for Goldy, they were starved for a big victory since the last one they really had was Glenn Mason telling Georgia nevermind back after they fired Ray Goff. (YEAH TAKE THAT GEORGIA! A MINNESOTA COACH TOLD YOU NO!! HATE WEEK STRONG BABY!)

LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD

Pac-12 suspends referee 1 game for mistakenly accessing a hands to face penalty on Washington State player instead of Cal player, who committed penalty in WSU-Cal game Saturday. Remainder of officiating crew “downgraded” according to league office

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 11, 2019

SEC fans like to think we have the worst officials on the planet but apparently the PAC-12 asks for volunteers at that booth beside the Credit Card signup station before you enter the stadium. This is the 3rd...THIRD!...instance of the PAC-12 suspending one or a group of refs for making an egregious error during a game.

This is play incorrectly called against @WSUCougarFB’s @hd42___. It was 20-11 Cal at this point. Call resulted in a 59 yard swing against WSU. No one is suggesting the result changes on this call, but it’s another example of the ineptness of @pac12 officials. #GoCougs https://t.co/QzkluqKeQu pic.twitter.com/JO48mUjCpg

— Derek Deis (@DerekKXLY) November 10, 2019

I know its kind of hard to tell from the video but I can tell that only one helmet shot back. Man, I know the gonja is legal out there and all but there ain’t no dang sense in the refs gettin’ in to it in the pregame WEST COAST PAWL!

NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED THIS WEEKEND AND YOU SHOULDN’T SCROLL DOWN ANY FARTHER

I'm happy to bring you the content you didn't know you needed, but love to have. #LSUrep #sadfansaresad pic.twitter.com/IZyFH05CCh

— Michael Cauble (@Cauble) November 10, 2019

Aw, I told you not to! You….you guys….

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/11/11/20958556/boom-roasted-week-11

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

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tacticsroom · 5 years

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Alm: Imperial Ascent (Unit Review)

Available at 5★

Lvl 40 Stats (Flaw/Neutral/Asset)

HP: 39/42/45 Atk: 35/38/42 Spd: 32/35/38 Def: 34/37/40 Res: 17/20/23

Neutral BST: 172

Max Dragonflowers: 5

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Skills

Weapon: Dracofalchion (400 SP)

Mt: 16. Rng: 1. Effective against dragon foes. Grants Atk+3. If the number of foes within 2 spaces (excluding target) ≥ the number of allies within 2 spaces (excluding unit), grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 during combat.

Sword. Cannot be inherited. Cannot be refined.

Assist: None

Special: Draconic Aura (200 SP)

CD: 3. Boosts damage by 30% of unit's Atk.

Can be inherited. Cannot use: Staff.

A: Scendscale (300 SP)

Deals damage = 25% of unit's Atk, but after combat, if unit attacked, deals 7 damage to unit.

Cannot be inherited.

B: Chill Def (240 SP)

At start of turn, inflicts Def-7 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Def through its next action.

Can be inherited.

C: Threat. Atk/Spd 3 (300 SP)

At start of turn, if unit is within 2 spaces of a foe, grants Atk/Spd+5 to unit for 1 turn and inflicts Atk/Spd-5 on foes within 2 spaces through their next actions.

Can be inherited.

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Analysis

With the Dracofalchion in hand, Alm is able to cleave through his enemies in single hits with immense raw damage and has staying power with his solid base stats. Like his Legendary iteration, Brave!Alm is capable of tearing straight through enemy defenses with exclusive skills, in Brave!Alm’s case being Scendscale.

B!Alm’s immense Atk combined with Scendscale’s extra damage per hit provides him with incredibly high-damage hits in both phases. For instance, with neutral Atk and Dracofalchion equipped, B!Alm possesses 57 Atk for 11 bonus true damage per hit with Scendscale. With an Atk superboon and Dracofalchion’s passive on top, B!Alm reaches 66 Atk and gains 14 bonus damage instead for an effective 80 Atk - in other words, B!Alm’s opponents will require physical bulk of at least 81 to survive even one hit from B!Alm, and dragon units will have next to no chance of surviving Dracofalchion’s effective damage. Even with such an emphasis on his damage output, B!Alm still boasts workable Spd and surprisingly high Def and is certainly no slouch even when not focused on kills. Soleil, for instance, is an infantry sword unit that can utilize a wide array of different builds playstyles - with such a similar and almost outright superior statline, any such build can also suit B!Alm just as well, although replacing Scendscale is arguably an unworthy tradeoff in value.

B!Alm prefers boons/assets in Atk (superboon), Spd, and Def. His preferred banes/flaws are Res and HP.

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Similar Units

Soleil: Adorable Adorer (37/38/35/28/24)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (+5/+0/+0/+9/-4)

Laevatein: Searing Steel (39/37/31/34/22)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (+3/+1/+4/+3/-2)

Ike: Young Mercenary (42/35/31/32/18)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (+0/+3/+4/+5/+2)

Ike: Vanguard Legend (41/36/30/35/21)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (+1/+2/+5/+2/-1)

Gray: Wry Comrade (43/35/32/30/22)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (-1/+3/+3/+7/-2)

Chrom: Knight Exalt (41/37/28/34/17)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (+1/+1/+7/+3/+3)

Ares: Black Knight (40/36/30/33/18)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (+2/+2/+5/+4/+2)

Zelgius: Jet-Black General (46/36/33/38/21)

Alm: Imperial Ascent (-4/+2/+2/-1/-1)

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Builds

Note: At the time of writing, fehstuff.com’s unit builder does not have Scendscale registered as a skill for Alm: Imperial Ascent. Please treat all of the following builds as though they have Scendscale equipped rather than an empty A Slot.

Budget/Low Investment:

As described in the Analysis section, Scendscale is an incredibly powerful skill and grants Alm his niche as a OHKO/ORKO powerhouse.

Chill Def and Threat. Atk/Spd from Alm’s base kit serve him perfectly well, with the former helping him cut through bulkier enemies and the latter allowing him to effectively create a stat gap of +5/+10/+5/+5 against melee opponents as they enter into range. Sturdy Blow is mostly used for the extra Atk in the player phase, although the extra Def certainly doesn’t hurt.

The second build uses Vantage to allow Alm to safely utilize his OHKO potential in the enemy phase as well, especially with Scendscale’s recoil damage. Once in Vantage’s HP threshold, Alm can strike down melee aggressors before they can even attack. Fierce Stance provides a considerable Atk boost in the enemy phase to complement this. Notably, because Alm needs his A Slot for Scendscale to reliably OHKO in the first place and the B Slot for Vantage, this build cannot be used with Distant Counter and/or Null C-Disrupt without losing its main strength.

Misc (1):

All of the following described builds are compiled in one section, as they all revolve around Scendscale as the main source of their effectiveness. Dracofalchion is also used in all builds as his default weapon but can be replaced with inheritable sword options like Slaying Edge+ or Armorsmasher+ for general use, Firesweep Sword+ or Cake Cutter+ for player phase builds, and others as specified per build. Glimmer is generally the go-to Special for its low cooldown and the fact that it scales with Scendscale’s bonus damage.

The first build capitalizes on Alm’s Spd paired with Desperation as he can become unexpectedly fast with enough effects. In this case, with Dracofalchion and Darting Blow, he can reach 49 Spd unsupported in the player phase. By attacking twice in a row with Scendscale, Alm is thus able to unleash incredible amounts of damage in quick succession with this build. Alternatively, Alm can instead focus on stacking up his attack and using the Brash Assault Sacred Seal to score follow-up attacks, although doing so can be more risky due to Brash Assault’s narrower HP threshold. This can be notably powerful with Brave Sword+, as once Alm falls into Brash Assault’s HP threshold, his player phase targets must withstand four consecutive attacks and thus four applications of Scendscale’s true damage, which can be nearly impossible especially if Alm has support (for context, an Alm with an Atk boon and equipped with Brave Sword+ has 50 Atk unsupported, gaining 12 true damage per attack from Scendscale and thus 48 total true damage on a quad).

The second build is a continuation of the second budget build described above, optimized with an Atk boon, Glimmer, and Def Smoke. Def Smoke allows Alm to more easily take on multiple enemies at once in tandem with Dracofalchion’s effect. Again, it should be noted that without Distant Counter, this build does not allow Alm to simply be thrown in front of any combination of enemies.

Misc (2):

Drag Back/Hit and Run is a solid option for Alm as it allows for him to stray further from his team and gain Dracofalchion’s stat boost with much less risk attached by retreating 1 space afterwards.

As a OHKO-based unit, Alm also excels with an AoE special spam build and is also another method of dealing two consecutive instances of Scendscale’s true damage (if desired, this can be combined with Brave Sword+ and Brash Assault for five consecutive applications). Using Special Spiral and Heavy Blade, Alm can fully recharge his AoE special immediately after each activation, which will often be a guaranteed kill between the AoE special and his actual attack. Using a Blazing AoE rather than Growing can be overkill with Scendscale but can be taken to guarantee kills against more enemies. Wo Dao+ can most certainly be used instead of Dracofalchion to further boost the AoE special’s damage.

Misc (3):

Alm is also a good candidate for Galeforce as Scendscale already provides him with plenty of extra damage output in place of a damaging special. Aside from Heavy Blade, the rest of the build is fairly flexible. Lull Atk/Def secures his ability to ORKO and pass Heavy Blade’s Atk check and ignore enemy Def buffs. Alternatively, with Escape Route, Alm can use his extra action from Galeforce to retreat. Using Slaying Edge+ and Desperation while stacking up Alm’s Spd instead of his Atk can allow him to avoid relying on enemy counterattacks to fully charge and activate Galeforce every fight.

The sixth and final example centers on sustain with Noontime, scaling with Scendscale, Wrath, and potentially Wo Dao+’s bonus damage to offset Scendscale’s recoil damage. Combining Wrath and Time’s Pulse ensures that Noontime will always be at a cooldown of at most 1 at the start of every player phase, otherwise fully charging it while within Wrath’s HP threshold so that Alm can activate it right away and heal back up. As a somewhat mixed phase build, the Sacred Seal is flexible, however Sturdy Blow helps with initiating.

#mod lucius #feh #fe heroes #fire emblem heroes #unit review #Alm: Imperial Ascent #Brave!Alm #B!Alm #sword/infantry #Brave Echoes

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maximustherad · 7 years

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Skype Liveblog of Guardians of the Galaxy S01E12 “Crystal Blue Persuasion”

@thecorteztwins

[1:06:12 AM] Cool Dadneato: I found me an episode of the Guardians of the Galaxy show with Inhumans in it and if it's good I'm gonna liveblog

[1:06:21 AM] Cool Dadneato: or even if not

[1:06:25 AM] Hexiva: -chinhands-

[1:06:26 AM] Cool Dadneato: LIVEBLOG

[1:08:11 AM] Cool Dadneato: so Peter Quill is trying to teach his friends baseball, which sounds like an inherently awful idea

[1:08:58 AM] Cool Dadneato: they are trying but I don't think they even get the concept, much less the rules

[1:10:38 AM] Hexiva: I'm not sure I get the concept or rules

[1:11:48 AM] Cool Dadneato: ... I was going to side with the rest of the team here, BUT NOW I SIDE WITH PETER, BASEBALL IS VITAL KNOWLEDGE TO SHARE

[1:11:59 AM] Cool Dadneato: Lockjaw just appeared on board

[1:12:23 AM] Cool Dadneato: Rocket greets dogs by insulting them, I guess

[1:12:30 AM] Cool Dadneato: get off this ship

[1:13:01 AM] Cool Dadneato: why does Lockjaw have crystals stabbed in him

[1:13:52 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter, Gamora, and Lockjaw just teleported

[1:14:17 AM] Cool Dadneato: Rocket is not even perturbed

[1:15:04 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter is chasing Lockjaw through Attilan

[1:15:28 AM] Cool Dadneato: Lockjaw stole his baseball and Gamora is yelling to forget it

[1:16:09 AM] Cool Dadneato: forget you, Gamora, I've rped a lost in space Earth dude, this shit is important

[1:17:56 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter is yelling now about how he doesn't even care about the ball, now this is about how he feels like nobody ever listens to him

jeez, Peter, this is only a few minutes in

[1:20:21 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter: "So who's in distress?! There's nobody here but a giant, slobbering BASEBALL THIEF!!" -dramatic point-

[1:20:29 AM] Cool Dadneato: I want a gif of this

[1:21:16 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter is being so fucking sarcastic to this dog now omfg

[1:21:29 AM] Cool Dadneato: who teaches these people dog manners

[1:22:48 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter: "You see, on Earth it's totally hilarious."

Gamora: "I see why you don't go back."

[1:25:35 AM] Cool Dadneato: omfg, Lockjaw led Peter to some cryogen chambers and he opened one and it's Medusa and Peter said "aw it's like a princess" and made like he was going to kiss her and Medusa woke up to kick his ass

[1:26:13 AM] Cool Dadneato: kill him, Medusa

[1:26:30 AM] Cool Dadneato: feed his baseball to Lockjaw

[1:26:51 AM] Hexiva: MURDER HIM

[1:27:19 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa: "My husband would have words with you!"

[1:27:37 AM] Cool Dadneato: multiple ones? it's on then

[1:28:18 AM] Cool Dadneato: does she wait to say things like that

[1:31:43 AM] Cool Dadneato: meanwhile, I guess Groot, Drax, and Rocket finally decided to go look for Peter and Gamora

they seem very unrushed for people possibly doing rescuing

[1:32:02 AM] Hexiva: they're like "whatever he got himself into, he probably deserved it"

[1:32:29 AM] Cool Dadneato: yeah, they are all clearly thinking that

[1:33:54 AM] Cool Dadneato: they just tried to muss with crystal statues in the city, the crystals attacked

[1:35:33 AM | Edited 1:35:44 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa asked Peter if he's Kree and that's a surprisingly valid question

[1:35:57 AM] Hexiva: Kree rather than half-Celestial?

[1:37:31 AM] Cool Dadneato: Kree given the Inhuman context and that some Kree are white

in the 616 Peter is half Spartoi

[1:37:45 AM] Hexiva: What's a Spartoi

[1:37:56 AM] Cool Dadneato: and his dad once flirted with Medusa

[1:39:22 AM] Cool Dadneato: Spartoi look pretty much human but they are related to the Shi'ar somehow

[1:40:01 AM] Cool Dadneato: they come from Shi'ar space and share some common ancestor

[1:40:16 AM] Hexiva: what's their deal

[1:41:33 AM] Cool Dadneato: they have an Empire that's allied with the Shi'ar

[1:41:47 AM] Cool Dadneato: that's basically their thing

[1:41:49 AM] Hexiva: oh good, more douchebag empires

[1:42:11 AM] Hexiva: Aren't the Kree . . . like . . . blue . . .?

[1:42:12 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter's dad is J'Son, their emperor

[1:42:50 AM] Cool Dadneato: Kree are usually blue but they have a large white population

[1:43:08 AM] Cool Dadneato: like Mar-Vell and Noh-Varr

[1:43:14 AM] Hexiva: oh

[1:43:16 AM] Hexiva: that's weird

[1:43:20 AM] Cool Dadneato: yeah

[1:43:25 AM] Cool Dadneato: weird af

[1:43:29 AM] Cool Dadneato: why

[1:47:58 AM] Cool Dadneato: Maximus: "Cease this senseless attack, Alpha Primitives! Oh! This has all been a TERRIBLE misunderstanding! Oh, I'm SO very sorry about all this... I was expecting someone else."

omfg on a scale of 1 to A Steaming Pile of Filthy Dramatic Improv he's scoring a perfect Irving Braxiatel

[1:49:03 AM] Hexiva: DOES ANYONE BELIEVE YOU, MAXIMUS

[1:49:30 AM] Cool Dadneato: "I am Maximus... the Magnificent, Supreme Leader of the Inhumans."

[1:49:52 AM] Cool Dadneato: who let him out of the house

[1:51:56 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa and Maximus are giving their respective back stories for the Inhumans to their respective audiences and it's hilarious

[1:53:08 AM] Cool Dadneato: and yet I think the best part of all is that they are both delivering the same biased story

[1:53:30 AM] Hexiva: with the same biases?

[1:53:37 AM] Cool Dadneato: yes

[1:54:02 AM] Cool Dadneato: Inhumans are superior, peaceful, and did no wrong

[1:56:21 AM] Cool Dadneato: oh jfc, Medusa just informed Peter that they were escaping a plague on Earth, and she pulled back a sleeve to show crystals growing out of her skin, apparently Inhumans are suffering from some slow Terrigen death thing

[1:57:11 AM] Cool Dadneato: that explains all the crystals sticking out of Lockjaw

[1:59:13 AM] Cool Dadneato: Maximus is describing the plague to the others very dramatically, apparently it completely changed the slave caste, -dramatic fists- THEIR STRENGTH INCREASED A HUNDREDFOLD

[2:00:59 AM] Cool Dadneato: "Unfortunately, for the rest of us-- " -DRAMATIC PAUSE IN FRONT OF FROZEN BLACK BOLT- "It will prove quite fatal!"

[2:02:13 AM] Cool Dadneato: question, Mad Max, why is your esteemed dramafullness totally fine, you look the least sick of anybody and I call bullshit

[2:03:28 AM] Cool Dadneato: "Fortunately, I have found a cure! Soon, I'll have enough to save the rest of my family!"

sounds fake but okay

[2:04:25 AM] Cool Dadneato: "Even Black Bolt, my poor, mute brother."

aw, even him, in this fake story

[2:06:01 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa: "Since it was the Kree who created the Inhumans, we hoped they'd find a cure."

really? and how's that working out for you?

[2:07:26 AM] Cool Dadneato: for the record, the Inhumans are a race of slave WMDs to the Kree

[2:07:56 AM] Cool Dadneato: that doesn't sound like a place to start negotiations on

[2:10:12 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa: -GASPS- "My husband, the king, is missing!"

-checks the chamber next to his- "And so is his rat of a brother, Maximus!"

[2:10:25 AM] Cool Dadneato: :.) this fam

[2:20:39 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa: "What have you done with my husband, the king?!"

Rocket: "I thought you was the king."

Maximus: -ULTRA DRAMATIC SPIN- "By right, I should be! I isolated the Terrigen plague! I found the cure! While this one said nothing! DID NOTHING! UNTIL HE HIMSELF SUCCUMBED TO THE THREAT! Black Bolt is unworthy of the crown! Maximus is the true savior of the Inhumans!"

Rocket: "Okaaaaay... Well good luck with that."

[2:21:09 AM] Hexiva: that third person

[2:21:55 AM] Cool Dadneato: no time for theatre

[2:22:36 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa and Maximus are going to continue this without Rocket

[2:22:52 AM] Cool Dadneato: the show must go on

[2:25:12 AM] Cool Dadneato: "BEHOLD!"

Maximus, what am I beholding, will you please stop this bullshit if we put you on the Genetics Council with a cute title

[2:26:06 AM] Hexiva: why would you let that guy on the eugenics panel

[2:27:32 AM] Cool Dadneato: what damage can he possibly do there besides suggest terrible marriages

[2:27:43 AM] Cool Dadneato: "COMPLETE AND TOTAL MIND CONTROL!!!" -WILD LAUGHTER-

[2:28:09 AM] Cool Dadneato: okay fine, lock this fool up again

[2:31:08 AM] Cool Dadneato: "OBEY ME, BROTHER! DESTROY THEM! DESTROY THEM ALL!"

ho, they were such a decent audience

smack him in the mouth, Drax

[2:31:31 AM] Hexiva: maximus why

[2:32:16 AM] Cool Dadneato: Drax got his ass beat by mind-controlled Blackagar

[2:32:51 AM] Cool Dadneato: Maximus is looking through the hole in the wall

[2:33:05 AM] Cool Dadneato: AND LAUGHING AGAIN

[2:35:01 AM] Cool Dadneato: Maximus: "Finally! One of you will listen to what I say!"

I honestly wouldn't be shocked if that's what this is about

bitch needs attention

[2:36:13 AM] Cool Dadneato: Groot just got asskicked

[2:37:46 AM] Cool Dadneato: Gamora just got asskicked

[2:39:02 AM] Cool Dadneato: Rocket just got shrugged off because he's using an energy weapon and that's non-effective against Black Bolt

[2:39:54 AM] Cool Dadneato: my god Maximus is doing a little dance in the background

[2:40:06 AM] Cool Dadneato: while laughing

[2:42:02 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter decided to use Lockjaw to teleport behind Maximus and MAXIMUS BITCHSLAPPED HIM

[2:42:09 AM] Cool Dadneato: EMBARRASSING

[2:42:27 AM] Cool Dadneato: DEFEATED BY MAXIMUS

[2:42:35 AM] Hexiva: GOOD

[2:45:43 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter: "Don't... Make me open this box! Inside it is a weapon that can destroy the whole city!"

Maximus: "Oh?! This I must see. Open it!"

called

[2:48:07 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter: "No, you don't understand! We'll all be vaporised! Instantly!"

Maximus: "How exciting! Open it! Now!"

called again

[2:48:37 AM] Cool Dadneato: this isn't working Peter

[2:52:21 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter gave up and opened his box and there was a cosmic cube inside and the flash of light still managed to blind Maximus and make him lose control of Blackagar

[2:52:45 AM] Cool Dadneato: embarrassing, Maximus

[2:53:46 AM] Cool Dadneato: Blackagar immediately ran to Medusa and Maximus ran the fuck out

[2:56:24 AM] Cool Dadneato: they also found out the cube accelerated the crystal plague the Inhumans are infected with

[2:58:17 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter: "That's AWESOME!!"

Drax: "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

[3:00:40 AM] Cool Dadneato: RONAN THE ACCUSER JUST SHOWED UP

[3:01:22 AM] Cool Dadneato: Maximus: "Ah, see, I told you I was expecting someone else."

[3:02:22 AM] Cool Dadneato: yeah how does selling out your species feel you evil fuck

[3:06:52 AM] Cool Dadneato: Medusa: "Maximus! What. Have. You. DONE?!"

Maximus: -mimicking her tone- "Just. What. You. Wanted! I have formed an alliance with the Kreeee!"

[3:13:01 AM] Cool Dadneato: "I give them an invincible crystal army, and in return Attilan becomes part of the Kree Empire, with myself as Supreme Leader, of course."

you negotiated Attilan's unconditional surrender? you truly are our hero

[3:19:39 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter: "He can't do that. Ronan's an outlaw even among his own people."

Rocket: "You cut a deal with the one guy in the galaxy who's crazier than you!"

-Maximus' facial expression is beautiful-

[3:23:31 AM] Cool Dadneato: Ronan: "Get out of my sight, you filth."

Maximus: -pathetically- "But... I don't understand... !"

[3:24:40 AM] Cool Dadneato: jfc, Ronan just curbstomped Maximus

[3:26:11 AM] Cool Dadneato: who was already sitting on the ground looking pathetic

[3:29:18 AM] Cool Dadneato: Ronan plans to destroy the city, he is absolutely not impressed with the tribute army

[3:31:34 AM] Cool Dadneato: Maximus says this is fine, he rather die than bow to his brother ever again

[3:32:52 AM] Cool Dadneato: he threw a tantrum, destroyed the cure, and ran off

[3:34:31 AM] Cool Dadneato: does Maximus ever get bored of hearing himself

[3:34:47 AM] Hexiva: NO

[3:35:39 AM] Cool Dadneato: that is rhetorical

[3:38:00 AM] Cool Dadneato: he loves hearing himself

[3:39:02 AM] Cool Dadneato: Maximus: "Bravo! A front row seat for the apocalypse!" -LAUGHS MANIACALLY-

[3:45:58 AM] Cool Dadneato: omfg, this episode rapidly escalated to its dramatic ending

[3:54:52 AM] Cool Dadneato: Peter Quill uses the cosmic cube to cure the plague, Black Bolt destroys the Kree warship (leaving Ronan to shout that he will have his REVENGE!!! from within the shielded pieces of the Kree bridge)

cut to Maximus chuckling and talking to himself from where he's chained in a dark, windowless dungeon

Maximus: "Hahaha, oh the irony. Defeated by the great Star-Lord, who can't find what sees with a map, which he holds with both hands; the further he goes, the farther away he gets... !"

-starts laughing until the Inhumans click a mental dampening device in place and his expression goes blank in surprise and he's cut off abruptly-

[3:55:59 AM] Cool Dadneato: and then everyone happily goes home, except Peter wishes he knew what that weirdness was all about

#thecorteztwins #out of character

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years

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Scherzer Breaks Nostril, Standing Unsure

http://tinyurl.com/y3dhe8ku The Nationals and Phillies had been rained out for the second consecutive night time on Tuesday, however that weird incidence was relegated to a minor footnote, as a result of Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer suffered a damaged nostril when he fouled a ball into his face whereas making an attempt to put down a bunt in batting observe earlier that afternoon. The excellent news for fantasy homeowners is {that a} CT scan got here again destructive and he isn’t anticipated to overlook any vital time. Nonetheless, the Nationals haven’t stated something official about his standing. At this level, it appears unlikely that Scherzer will take the mound for his recurrently scheduled begin within the second sport of Wednesday’s twin billing. Nonetheless, if there was one pitcher on the planet who can be undeterred by a damaged nostril (and prepared to pitch by means of ache) it’s Scherzer. The 34-year-old righty has been arguably probably the most sturdy workhorse within the sport during the last decade, making not less than 30 begins in each season throughout that span, courting again to the 2009 marketing campaign. He merely doesn’t miss begins. Nationals supervisor Davey Martinez instructed reporters that he nonetheless anticipated Scherzer to begin one half of Wednesday’s doubleheader towards the Phillies, however that assertion got here previous to the rainout and official analysis of a damaged nostril. Veteran southpaw Patrick Corbin, who was initially slated to pitch on Monday, will take the mound for the front-end of the doubleheader, but it surely stays to be seen what the Nationals’ elect to do within the nightcap. They’ve a number of choices. In the event that they resolve that Scherzer may use an additional day of relaxation, which looks as if the plain plan of action right here, it’s probably that the task will go to both Erick Fedde or spot starter Austin Voth, who is predicted to be referred to as up from Triple-A Fresno to function the 26th man. Fantasy homeowners ought to keep tuned for additional updates on Scherzer, however there’s a powerful risk that he’s able to go within the collection finale on Thursday. Editor’s Notice: Keep forward of the competitors from wire to wire with rankings, customizable projections, commerce evaluator, unique columns and extra in our Season Pass. And begin utilizing optimized lineups on Yahoo!, DraftKings and FanDuel with our DFS Toolkit!. Pete Pummels Braves On an evening wherein reigning Nationwide League Cy Younger Award winner Jacob deGrom was completely sensational, placing out 10 batters over eight 1/Three innings of two-run ball, it was rookie sensation Pete Alonso who stole the highlight. The 24-year-old slugger went 4-for-Four with a two-run homer, a pair of doubles, three RBI and three runs scored within the Mets’ – blowout win over the division-rival Braves on Tuesday. He additionally walked twice, reaching base safely in all six of his plate appearances within the contest. He received the Mets on the board within the third inning with an RBI double, considered one of his two doubles on the night time, and clobbered a mammoth 426-foot two-run homer off Braves starter Julio Teheran within the fourth inning. Alonso has actually lived as much as the lofty preseason prospect hype, delivering top-of-the-scale 80-grade light-tower energy in his first publicity to major-league pitching. He’s as much as 24 round-trippers on the season and owns a elegant .274/.359/.624 triple-slash line to associate with 46 runs scored and 57 RBI. He’s already cemented his standing as a reputable four-category fantasy famous person and has a practical shot at eclipsing the 50-homer plateau this season. To place that in context, solely 4 hitters have achieved that feat since 2010. He’ll be the unquestioned centerpiece of the Mets’ offense for years to return and a possible late-first, early-second spherical choice in fantasy drafts subsequent spring. Minnesota Marathon Max Kepler delivered a walk-off single within the backside of the 17th inning to propel the Twins to a 4-Three victory over the Red Sox. The 17-inning affair lasted a grand complete of 5 hours and 45 minutes. The 2 groups mixed for 32 hits, stranded 30 baserunners, used a grand complete of 18 pitchers and threw 487 pitches on this marathon contest. The 2 groups went into extra-innings tied at two runs apiece. Mookie Betts launched a solo homer — his 12th of the season — to place the Purple Sox forward within the 13th inning, however Max Kepler, who entered the sport as a pinch-hitter within the sixth inning and completed 3-for-5 with three RBI, responded with a game-tying solo shot within the backside of the body to maintain the Twins alive. Contemplating how a lot these bullpens had been taxed, there’s plenty of strain on Wednesday’s starters Eduardo Rodriguez and Kyle Gibson to absorb some innings. Regardless of the way you have a look at it, this was simply the craziest sport of the 2019 marketing campaign thus far. Story continues Cincinnati Quashes Controversy Reds supervisor David Bell expressed confidence in nearer Raisel Iglesias after pulling him in favor of Michael Lorenzen to shut Monday’s sport towards the Astros. The 29-year-old right-hander was summoned within the eighth inning to aim to protect a one-run lead and safe a five-out save. Iglesias managed to work round a stroll and a wild pitch to flee the eighth inning, however received wild once more within the ninth. He issued a leadoff stroll to pinch-hitter Myles Straw earlier than bouncing again to retire Alex Bregman. With the tying run on-base, and Iglesias already at 21 pitches (10 strikes) Bell elected to show the ball over to Lorenzen, who received Michael Brantley to line out to middle area and whiffed rookie sensation Yordan Alvarez to finish the competition. “We’re simply making an attempt to do no matter we are able to to provide us our greatest probability to win. Raisel’s completed it earlier than, he’s going to do it once more. He’s a fantastic pitcher. He’s going to be prepared subsequent time,” stated Bell after Monday’s sport. When a virtually equivalent state of affairs introduced itself towards the Astros on Tuesday, Iglesias was as soon as once more summoned to guard a one-run lead within the eighth inning. He whiffed Yuli Gurriel and Robinson Chirinos to flee the jam created by lefty Amir Garrett. As a substitute of coming again out for the ninth inning to aim to finish the five-out save, Bell as soon as once more turned to Lorenzen, this time to face the underside of the Astros’ lineup. He managed to retire the aspect with a view to safe his fourth save of the season. Regardless of the odd occasions on this collection, fantasy homeowners shouldn’t draw any vital conclusions. Iglesias stays firmly entrenched because the Reds’ major nearer. Nonetheless, they aren’t afraid of utilizing him (and Lorenzen to a larger extent) in a non-traditional method. He made some noise about his irregular utilization patterns, complaining to reporters that the workforce was utilizing him “horribly improper” in early Might. The Reds have clearly made an effort to reduce his portfolio, utilizing him in a extra conventional one-inning nearer function ever since, however they nonetheless wish to use him in high-leverage, multi-inning conditions outdoors of the ninth inning. It is a state of affairs price monitoring transferring ahead, but it surely doesn’t seem like there will likely be a major change anytime quickly in Cincinnati. AL Fast Hits: Adalberto Mondesi left Tuesday night time’s sport towards the Mariners with proper groin tightness. … The Indians are optimistic that Mike Clevinger (ankle) will be capable to make his subsequent scheduled begin Saturday towards the Tigers. … Joey Gallo (indirect) may return to the Rangers’ energetic roster subsequent Tuesday for the beginning of a collection towards the Tigers. … Jose Altuve (hamstring, knee) will likely be activated from the 10-day injured checklist on Wednesday. … George Springer (hamstring) is ready to start a minor league rehab task Thursday with Double-A Corpus Christi. … Aaron Judge (indirect) homered Tuesday in his fourth rehab sport with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. … Tyler Glasnow (forearm) threw one other profitable bullpen on Tuesday. … Blue Jays supervisor Charlie Montoyo stated Monday that Ken Giles (elbow) is predicted to return from the 10-day injured checklist when he is first eligible. … Domingo German (hip) started throwing off flat floor on Monday. … Luis Severino (shoulder) hopes to begin throwing from a mound on both June 25 or 26th. … Twins positioned Byron Buxton on the 10-day injured checklist with a proper wrist contusion. … Blue Jays positioned Justin Smoak (quad) on the 10-day injured checklist. … White Sox positioned Welington Castillo on the 10-day injured checklist with a strained left indirect. … Yoan Moncada (again) remained out of the White Sox beginning lineup Tuesday. He’s anticipated to return on Wednesday. … Yandy Diaz was held out of the Rays’ lineup Tuesday due to a hamstring difficulty. … Giancarlo Stanton went 0-for-Four in his return from the injured checklist on Tuesday. … Whit Merrifield went 3-for-Four with a pair of house runs, a career-high six RBI to guide the Royals to a blowout victory over the Mariners. … Eloy Jimenez socked a go-ahead two-run homer to propel the White Sox to a win over the crosstown-rival Cubs. … Jose Ramirez walloped a three-run homer to energy the Indians to a rout of the Rangers. … Oscar Mercado swiped a pair of bases within the victory. … Luke Voit went 3-for-Three with an RBI within the Yankees’ win over the Rays … Edwin Encarnacion launched his 22nd homer of the 12 months, his first in a Yankees’ uniform, in that one .. Tyler Skaggs struck out six batters over 7 1/Three innings of one-run ball in a win over the Blue Jays. … Hansel Robles transformed his 11th save in that one. … Shane Greene netted his 21st save within the Tigers’ win over the Pirates. … Alex Bregman slugged his 20th homer within the Astros’ loss to the Reds. … Ramon Laureano went 4-for-5 with a three-run homer within the A’s blowout win over the Orioles.. … Hunter Dozier (chest) went 2-for-5 with a double, two RBI, and a run scored Tuesday in his second rehab sport with Double-A Northwest Arkansas. … Hunter Pence (groin) may return from the 10-day injured checklist when first eligible. … Joe Palumbo will begin for the Rangers towards the Indians on Wednesday. … Jordan Zimmermann (elbow, glute) is predicted to begin for the Tigers towards the Pirates on Wednesday. … Andrelton Simmons (ankle) will start a minor league rehab task Tuesday with the Angels’ rookie league affiliate. … Jordan Montgomery shut down a bullpen session Tuesday in Tampa after experiencing discomfort in his surgically-repaired left elbow. … The Angels have requested launch waivers on Cody Allen. NL Fast Hits: Craig Kimbrel labored a scoreless inning for Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday. … Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts famous Tuesday that Joc Pederson will play first base in some unspecified time in the future this season. … A.J. Pollock (elbow) may start a minor league rehab task over the All-Star break. … Kyle Hendricks has been recognized with a proper shoulder impingement. … Jay Bruce (hamstring) remained sidelined Tuesday towards the Nationals. … Caleb Smith (hip) will make a rehab begin earlier than returning to the Marlins rotation. … Scooter Gennett (groin) was scratched from a scheduled rehab sport on Tuesday on account of moist area situations at Excessive-A Dayton … Brandon Nimmo (neck) will likely be shut down fully from baseball actions for the subsequent month. … Mike Moustakas was faraway from Tuesday night time’s sport towards the Padres on account of a left hand contusion. He’s anticipated to stay out of the Brewers’ lineup on Wednesday. … Logan Allen tossed seven scoreless innings to earn a victory over the Brewers in his major-league debut. … Kirby Yates recorded his main league-leading 26th save within the Padres’ win over the Brewers. … Clayton Kershaw struck out six batters over seven shutout innings in a win over the Giants. … Nolan Arenado went 3-for-Four with a homer and three RBI within the Rockies’ lopsided win over the Diamondbacks. … Charlie Blackmon notched his fifth consecutive three-hit sport in that one. … Jordan Yamamoto whiffed seven batters over seven scoreless frames in a win over the Cardinals. … Jack Flaherty fanned eight batters over seven innings of three-run ball in a loss to the Marlins. … Josh Bell launched his 20th homer within the Pirates’ loss to the Tigers. … Jeff McNeil went 3-for-5 with a solo homer, stolen base and three runs scored within the Mets’ lopsided win over the Braves. … Freddie Freeman swatted his 20th lengthy ball within the shedding effort. … Mets positioned Jeurys Familia on the 10-day injured checklist with a Bennett lesion in his proper shoulder. … Adam Wainwright (hamstring) will return to the Cardinals’ beginning rotation on Thursday towards the Marlins. … Tyler Chatwood will begin for the Cubs on Thursday towards the Mets. … Brandon Morrow (elbow) has begun throwing from a distance of 135 ft. … Rockies designated Mike Dunn for task. 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365footballorg-blog · 6 years

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After a season of the gods for LA Galaxy, Zlatan Ibrahimovic proven human

USA Today Sports Images

October 28, 201810:21PM EDT

The MLS edition of the Zlatan Ibrahimovic thrill ride screeched to a halt on Sunday with a 3-2 come-from-ahead loss to the Houston Dynamo on Decision Day presented by AT&T. A win, and the Galaxy would’ve stolen a playoff appearance; the defeat means they watch for a second consecutive offseason.

It’s a disappointing end to a year in which Zlatan staked a late-breaking claim toward being MVP. He finished with 22 goals and 10 assists in 26 games (23 starts), able to bring the Galaxy along from worst in the league last year to the verge of the 2018 postseason. This ending, bitter as it is for Zlatan and his teammates, illustrates not only his greatness as a player but also the limits of individual brilliance in a team sport, how one spectacular player can’t fix systematic problems of the team.

Ibra announced himself to MLS with a spectacular volley in the 76th minute to tie the inaugural edition of El Tráfico. He has always billed himself as someone less human, and more of a lion, or when he’s feeling really arrogant, as a god. His first strike in the league, coming off an ACL injury and at the age of 37, was so ridiculous that there was little reason to disagree that he seemed more than an ordinary human. Almost to set the bar even higher for himself, he followed up the volley with a 91st-minute game-winner.

Zlatan can sometimes sound like a comic book character. He talks in third person and always claims the absurd, but then when he does do the supposedly absurd, it makes one feel ashamed of doubting him. When I see him putting on his performance of the godly soccer player, I think of Black Adam in Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam when Adam said, “If I have the powers of the gods, then I am not a god myself? Should I not be treated as such?”

As arrogant as Adam’s statement was, it was also a declaration that was based off insecurity. He had powers like a god, but he wasn’t one. He was a human playing the part, and he was well aware that as a human he was limited and could lose all of that ability at any time.

Zlatan is wonderful – he’s one of the best players to ever grace the field – but as much as he claims to be a god, he’s a human being that can only change the fortunes of a team so much. He conquered Europe, but he conquered Europe while leading some of the best teams in the world. He won trophies at Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. His quality isn’t a product of the teams that he’s played for, as can be seen from his time in the Galaxy, but he’s always had a team that was at least capable of challenging for trophies, which allowed him to take them the rest of the way.

Before the game against the Dynamo, the Galaxy had four games in which they couldn’t slip: They beat Seattle and Vancouver, each by 3-0; they drew Sporting KC, 1-1; and then beat Minnesota United 3-1. Zlatan scored five goals in those four games. He was a god.

Against the Dynamo, Ibrahimovic was at his most human. He failed to score or to assist either Galaxy goal. In a game rare in the context of this season, Zlatan needed his teammates to get over the line without him leading the way. For the first half, it seemed like it a possibility on the strength of Ola Kamara’s brace. All they needed was to not collapse. For 45 minutes.

In those next 45 minutes, all the systematic issues Zlatan had papered over during the season came back to haunt LA. The defensive fragility revealed itself under pressure. Three goals conceded made all the gains of the last five games for naught.

The first goal came from Romell Quioto making two defenders dance in the box before beating the goalkeeper near post. The second came from a penalty: Romain Alessandrini, for some reason, decided to kick A.J. DeLaGarza on the side of his torso while the ball was in the air. And the third was Mauro Manotas somehow making a run in the center of the box and touching a low cross in, while he was surrounded by three defenders. All three blamed each other after for Manotos’ unimpeded run and goal. David Bingham, the LA goalkeeper, didn’t even attempt to dive for the ball.

Zlatan has proven a great addition for the Galaxy, as he would have been for any other team. He is an incredible player, but the Galaxy’s failure to reach the playoffs was collective. If the Galaxy want to be successful again, if they want to get the full Zlatan experience – which means, to be clear, the winning of trophies – they need to build a platform for him that will make it possible. Because right now, all they have is Zlatan, and as much as he claims otherwise, he is but human.

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After a season of the gods for LA Galaxy, Zlatan Ibrahimovic proven human was originally published on 365 Football

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

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Is It True Exclusively Half Your Friends Actually Like You?

It is clear that your friends is in agreement they are your friends. But recent findings published in the gazette PLOS ONE announcement this into question.

At least thats the content you are able to take if you departed with popular media coverage of the findings and conclusions. Headlines such as Only half your best friend actually like you, analyse exposes may see you wonder about the holes in your social network.

Friendships contribute to our mental and physical health; our well-being accepts without them. So is it true only half your best friend looks just like you?

The research in question does not, in fact, speak to that. But it does shed light on the subtleties of how friendship is recognized. Liking someone is not the same as electing them as a sidekick: we are to be able think of a friend we dont like very much, cant we?

Nor did the research aim to find out whether friends liked one another. Rather, the authors set out to explore how friendship reciprocity mattered when implementing broader social involvements, such as facilitating someone to quit smoking.

The research addressed two questions. First, what ratio of friendships are reciprocal? That is, how many of a persons friends likewise charge such person or persons as their pal? Second, to what degree does reciprocity in affections matter when it comes to how peers influence one another?

CC BY-ND

The first question

To answer the first issue, 84 students in a Middle-Eastern, undergraduate business-management class were asked to proportion the other 83 students on a proportion from zero to five. In this reciprocity examine, zero represented I do not know this person and five was one of our friend. The midpoint anchored at acquaintance. Students were also asked to indicate how the other 83 would charge them.

The benefits of this approach was that researchers had access to full cross-overs of data in a closed system. This enabled sophisticated statistical network analysis, which couldnt be afforded by looking at an open parish in which all members cannot be identified or accessed.

Researchers coded the data such that a score of threeor higher was considered a love. From the 6,972 ratings provided by the 84 students in the business class, 1,353 weighed as friendships.

In 94% of these seen relationships, students expected them to be reciprocal. So if John rated Jack as his friend, he expected Jack to rate him as a pal also. But this was so in only 53% of cases; less than half of the students had their friendship creeds about others reciprocated.

What does this mean ?

From this data it seems that, in social networks, there is low agreed to by saw love. The studys generators float one ground for this: we carry an rosy belief of friendships with higher-status mortals. That is, we project friendship with people who have more social clout than us in the perhaps naive hope they will reciprocate.

But because the reciprocity survey cant speak directly to this possibility, it remains for future experiment to measure this logic.

Can we really extrapolate to humanity based on 84 students in colleges and universities classroom? Felipe Bastos/ Flickr, CC BY

Its also important to ask whether we were able to extrapolate to humanity based on 84 students in a university classroom. Between the relatively small sample size, the constrained situation of an undergraduate classroom and cultural constraints in the test, you are able to reason no extrapolation should take place.

Another thing to keep in mind is the scoring approach: carve the line for love at threeor above on a five-point magnitude is a subjective announce. One can question whether friendships should be treated categorically or whether there is a more valid approach to quantifying relationships in all their complexity.

The second question

For the second question, investigates deployed a fitness intervention on a separate test of participants who lived in the same residential community and had all completed friendship ratings as in the reciprocity survey.

Participants had software installed on their mobile invention that tracked their physical work and allocated fiscal reinforces for their fitness advance. In two versions of the application, tenants were taken together with two cronies who could see one anothers progress and potentially be reinforced for the others progress.

The critical exam for the research wonder, with regards to peer affect, stemmed from analysing participants’ fitness changes as a function of the type of friendships they held with their buddies.

Once again, the approach of sampling from a residential community passed health researchers access to full data regarding a closed network, enabling nuanced analysis of the social dynamics at romp. But, once again, the sample size was tiny and different contexts has similar limitations when it is necessary to broader extrapolation.

What were the results ?

It would be logical to reckon acquaintances who concur they are friends( reciprocal sidekicks) affect one another, in a preferably positive mode. The acquires demonstrated this: when nearby residents fitness friends were reciprocal pals, those buddies helped promote positive outcomes in the form of more activity.

When nearby residents fitness sidekicks were reciprocal acquaintances, those cronies facilitated facilitate positive outcomes in the form of more activity. from shutterstock.com

But when it comes to non-reciprocal buddy-to-resident love, it is crucial to be addressed by the direction of each affection. An incoming friendship represents a sidekick rated the resident as a sidekick, but the resident did not frequency the friend as a pal. An outgoing relationship signifies a resident rated the chum as a friend, but the sidekick did not do the same.

The study found outgoing affections from occupants to buddies had no influence on residents’ physical act. If Max contemplated Jack was his friend but Jack didnt agree, and the pair were chums, Jack had no influence( either positive or negative) on Maxs fitness outcomes.

But the affect when it came to residents’ incoming relationships from their chums was positive. Max would have positively influenced Jacks upshots, even though Jack didnt agree that Max was his friend. And the force was even more positive when it came to reciprocal friendships.

What does it signify ?

A popular approaching in public health interventions is electing a sidekick to assistance person in their efforts for behavioural change.

The reciprocity survey testifies parties are inaccurate in predicting who considers them a acquaintance and that many friendships are in fact outgoing rather than reciprocal.

A favourite approaching in public health interventions is nominating a sidekick to subscribe person in their efforts for behavioural change. California National Guard/ Flickr, CC BY

These conclusions have practical significance in that they demo the popular buddy-nomination approach is likely less effective than we would want. Instead, we need to identify reciprocal relationships, since these are most effective. Next beneficial would be incoming affections, rather than the outgoing ones.

What else should we take into account ?

It important to highlight that the researchers showed the reciprocity questionnaire detects in five more samples.

First, the reciprocal relationship charge among the fitness residents was 45% even lower than the 53% in the business class.

Second, investigates carried out the analysis on various other data sets they had worked on in the past. Reciprocal relationship calculates derived from these were similar, wandering from 34% to 53%. Replication heightens the extent to which we can generalize broader social procedures based on the dynamics established in this particular study.

But again, all this talk of whether our friends like us misses the item. When it comes to social affect in particular, the kind of positive peer influence we try to seek when fully participate in behaviour change reciprocal friendships are of key import.

When we cant access reciprocal pals, we need to seek reinforce from people who elect us as friends , not the other way around. Lisa A. Williams

Peer Review

This article has identified key fatigues in this papers analyze layouts as well as the challenges of the the scale used to evaluate friends’ affections towards each other.

My biggest problem with this paper, though, is the sensationalised interpreting of the results. The consider abstract claims beings are generally good at recognizing the direction of their friendship ties, and media reports state that only half of your best friend like you.

But the data subscribe a humbler, and perhaps happier, legend. In detail, when participants claimed person as a sidekick, the other person reciprocated 70% of the time. So while its true-life around half of the friendships in such studies were reciprocal, it still seen close to three-quarters of your friends like you.

For instance, Bill says Sally is his friend and she concurs. Jim says Bob is his friend, but Bob doesnt identify Jim as a friend in return. We now have two friendships and exclusively one( 50%) is mutual. But of the three people who claimed a sidekick, two( Bill and Sally) were right( 66% ). It takes twice as many parties to make a reciprocal friendship, which is why those two numerals differ.

Its worth noting we do have a tendency to slightly overestimate our friends closeness, but my take-home letter from this paper is that were actually better at adjudicating how close our friends experience to us than just about anything else about them. Sean Murphy

Lisa A Williams, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, UNSW Australia

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Speak the original essay.

The post Is It True Exclusively Half Your Friends Actually Like You? appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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oldguardaudio · 7 years

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Here ya go, a little shot of FAKE NEWS, Read between the lines, please! Trump keeps blaming Obama. Fresh polls show voters don’t buy it.

Barack Hussein Obama and the drive by news media @ HoaxAndChange.com

FAKE NEWS uncovered at HoakAndChange.com

Mullet Wrapper @ Hoax And Change

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Trump keeps blaming Obama. Fresh polls show voters don’t buy it.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump arrive for the inauguration ceremony in January. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP/Pool)

BY JAMES HOHMANN with Breanne Deppisch

THE BIG IDEA: For Donald Trump, the buck stops … with Barack Obama.

As the western world processed stomach-churning images of dead children, apparently murdered by chemical weapons, the president couldn’t help but take a potshot at his predecessor. “These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution,” Trump said in a statement yesterday afternoon. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing. The United States stands with our allies across the globe to condemn this intolerable attack.”

As he ripped Obama, Trump mentioned neither Russia nor Iran. Both counties are actively propping up Assad’s regime.

The president also offered no path forward, except to say that the savagery, which observers on the ground say killed at least 58, “cannot be ignored.” Asked how the U.S. will respond, Sean Spicer replied: “We’ll talk about that soon.”

This White House is stuck in permanent campaign mode. Several officials involved in internal administration discussions told the AP that the National Security Council had been preparing a different statement, until the president’s closest advisers took over the process.

This has been a pattern during Trump’s first 75 days in office. When it suits him, the president takes credit for his predecessor’s successes. More often, he points the finger. Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that Obama “wiretapped” his office is the most memorable illustration, but there are many others. After the botched raid in Yemen that killed a Navy SEAL, for instance, the White House claimed the operation had been authorized by the Obama team.

Suspected chemical attack kills scores of men, women and children in Syria

— Obama has repeatedly acknowledged that Syria was the biggest failure of his presidency, and he knows it will haunt his legacy. He notoriously said in August 2012 that Assad using chemical weapons would cross a “red line” that would change his “calculus” about whether to intervene. When the Butcher of Damascus did it anyway, using sarin to kill hundreds of innocents, Obama lacked the will to act unilaterally. So he punted to an even less courageous Congress. American credibility suffered. Assad’s barbaric war crimes continued.

— The timing of Trump’s dig was curious, however. Just last week, Rex Tillerson and Nikki Haley said publicly that removing Assad is no longer a U.S. priority – breaking with western allies.

— Even more incongruously, Trump vociferously opposed the very action he now attacks Obama for not taking. The billionaire posted an endless stream of tweets like these over several weeks in 2013, which make yesterday’s statement look quite hypocritical:

— Trump has claimed repeatedly since taking office that he “inherited a mess.” As he put it during his 77-minute press conference in February, “I inherited a mess. It’s a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. … The Middle East is a disaster. (Also) North Korea. We’re going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know I inherited a mess.”

— After the GOP’s Obamacare replacement package fell apart in the House, Trump announced that he will let the health care system fall apart. He thinks this will force Democrats to come to the negotiating table. The president reasons that Obama will surely get blamed for any problems with something called Obamacare.

— A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows why Trump’s strategy is flawed. The nonpartisan group conducts a respected monthly poll of public attitudes about health care. When asked which of two statements came closer to their view, 6 in 10 Americans endorsed the statement: “Trump and Republicans in Congress are now in control of the government and they are responsible for any problems with it moving forward.” Just over 3 in 10 chose the alternative statement: “President Obama and Democrats in Congress passed the law and they are responsible for any problems with it moving forward.”

For context, the poll found that over 6 in 10 Americans say it’s a “good thing” the House GOP bill went down. But that group is split evenly between those who do not want to repeal the law and those who want to repeal and replace the law but had concerns about the specific legislation.

The country is also split close to down the middle about next steps: 45 percent want to keep working on a plan to repeal and replace the 2010 law, and 49 percent think Trump and congressional Republicans should stop working on health care and move on to other priorities.

Trump waves to his supporters last month as his motorcade passes through Bingham Island on the way to Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (Michael Ares/Palm Beach Post via AP)

— On the economy, the American people have a more nuanced view than the president. A Quinnipiac University poll published yesterday is full of bad news for Trump. His approval rating is 35 percent. He’s even underwater right now with whites and men. More than six in 10 registered voters nationally don’t think he’s honest, level-headed or shares their values. On the issues, the poll finds that 58 percent disapprove of how he’s handling foreign policy and a 48 percent plurality doesn’t think he’s handling the economy well. The survey found that 52 percent think the economy is in excellent or good shape, while 45 percent say it’s not so good or poor. Overall, 66 percent say Obama is more responsible than Trump for the current state of the economy.

When Obama left office in January, our Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 61 percent of Americans approved of his economic stewardship. That number was higher than at any point in his eight-year presidency, up from 50 percent in Jan. 2016 and 43 percent in Jan. 2014. So there is ample evidence that Americans were crediting him for the nation’s improving economy before Trump took office.

Quinnipiac asked a series of questions in another poll last month on whether Obama or Trump should be credited with certain economic statistics. By more than 2 to 1 voters said Obama deserves more credit than Trump for the fact the unemployment rate has stayed under 5 percent. But a smaller 48 percent plurality credited Obama for the 200,000 jobs added in February, while 41 percent said Trump deserves credit. And 55 percent said Trump, not Obama, deserves more credit for the stock market’s positive performance recently.

— To be sure, Republicans often accused Obama of unfairly blaming George W. Bush late into his presidency. Because of the nature of the 2008 financial crisis, though, more voters always blamed Bush than Obama for the country’s economic ills – including during the 2016 election, according to Gallup surveys conducted from 2009 through 2016. In its poll last summer, Gallup found that 64 percent of Americans thought Bush deserved a “great deal” or a “moderate amount” of blame for “current economic problems.” Half, 50 percent, said Obama did.

A man carries the body of a dead child following a suspected gas attack in Syria. (Reuters/Ammar Abdullah)

THE BIGGER PICTURE:

— Foreign policy has dominated the opening chapters of the Trump administration to a degree the president clearly did not anticipate. If he’s got 99 problems, Syria is now certainly one.

— Trump is learning that the panaceas he promised so often as a candidate do not actually exist. “No one — not even President Obama, as far as I could tell — was satisfied with the Obama administration’s approach to the conflict in Syria,” Andrew Exum, who was an Obama appointee at the Pentagon, writes for The Atlantic. “But if you assembled all of the Obama administration’s critics in one room, they would not agree on an obvious alternative. The problem is wicked enough to confound easy solutions, and each policy alternative had strategic and moral deficiencies.”

— Russia is now trying to blame rebels for the attack, instead of Assad. From Louisa Loveluck: “A Russian military spokesman on Wednesday said that Syrian warplanes had been targeting rebel workshops used to produce crude chemical weapons on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun when the deaths began. ‘The territory of this storage facility housed workshops to produce projectiles filled with toxic agents,’ Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman for Russia’s Ministry of Defence, said in a recorded statement. His comments marked a rare admission that air strikes had taken place in the area. Moscow typically denies involvement in such mass casualty attacks, and has previously falsified video footage in an attempt to exonerate its war planes. … Russia also blamed the 2013 sarin attack on rebels attempting to provoke international intervention.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) responded:

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today to discuss the attack, and international donors are gathered in Brussels to drum up billions in aid for Syria’s eventual reconstruction. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the chemical attack a “moment of truth” and expressed hope it will galvanize action. “The horrific events of yesterday demonstrate that, unfortunately, war crimes are going on in Syria and that international humanitarian law (continues to be) violated frequently,” he said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Assad believes he can commit war crimes with impunity,” and he challenged Trump to do something. The question now confronting Washington, he said, “is whether we will take any action to disabuse him of this murderous notion.”

— How it’s playing:

— Three smart stories about Trump’s broader foreign policy popped overnight:

1. “Trump embraces the Sunni autocrats,” by The New Yorker’s Robin Wright: “The first tangible steps in Trump’s Middle East policy are taking shape … [with goals] to foster a bloc among often fractious Sunni leaders to counter the influence of Shiite Iran, take a larger role politically and physically in fighting extremism, and help navigate peace between Israel and the Palestinians. … Trump’s strategy could, however, rejuvenate the old authoritarian order of sclerotic autocrats and impervious monarchies in the Middle East. These days, a common lament among Sunnis themselves is that they lack a vision, an ideology, or a leader to guide them. … Bitter rivalries for regional influence run deep … A broader danger is that the Trump strategy—designed at the National Security Council, with almost no input from the State Department—could backfire.”

Tom Malinowski, who was Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights until January, expressed concern: “We have traditionally acted in the Middle East in defense of interests and principles. We’ve never explicitly aligned ourselves with a bloc defined in religious terms. It’s another thing to create the impression that we are aligning with Sunnis against Shiites—that we are effectively taking sides in a civilizational battle.”

2. “For Trump, a Focus on U.S. Interests and a Disdain for Moralizing,” by the New York Times’s Peter Baker: “Mr. Trump has dispensed with what he considers pointless moralizing and preachy naïveté. … ‘We would look like, to some degree, rather silly not acknowledging the political realities that exist in Syria,’ said spokesman Sean Spicer. … He has taken foreign policy to its most realpolitik moment in generations, playing down issues of human rights or democracy that animated his predecessors, including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Obama. … His foreign policy seems defined more by a transactional nationalism, rooted in the sense that the United States is getting ripped off. Rather than spreading American values, Trump’s policy aims to guard American interests.”

“It struck me that it was very Chinese in orientation,” said Ian Bremmer, the founder and president of the Eurasia Group, a consultancy in Washington. “You take out all of the issues of American exceptionalism and values, you take out all the restraints and responsibilities of American alliances and architecture that are based on those values, and it creates a very different sense of foreign policy.”

3. Trump’s retrenchment on free trade, climate change and security alliances has created a leadership vacuum that is already working to Beijing’s advantage. David Nakamura previews tomorrow’s summit: “Since Trump’s unexpected victory in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping has moved to position his fast-developing nation as a defender of globalization, and he has accelerated Beijing’s challenge to U.S. primacy in Asia. This budding shift of power dynamics has alarmed U.S. allies and partners in the region and raised the stakes as Trump prepares to welcome Xi for a two-day summit starting Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. The two are expected to discuss a wide range of issues, including North Korea’s mounting nuclear threat and a lopsided trade imbalance in China’s favor, in what aides called a meeting aimed at establishing a working relationship. … More broadly, however, the Trump administration has not developed or publicly enunciated a coherent policy to deal with China’s growing economic and military clout. And Trump, who called China a currency manipulator during his campaign, has delivered mixed messages on how far he is willing to go to confront Beijing.”

CONTENT FROM MORGAN STANLEY

Capital creates better connections Morgan Stanley helped All Aboard Florida raise capital to finance the development of Brightline, an express rail in the Sunshine State—which is projected to potentially add up to hundreds of millions in federal, state and local government tax revenue over the next several years. 1 By Morgan Stanley

Welcome to the Daily 202, PowerPost’s morning newsletter.Pollster Scott Clement contributed. Sign up to receive the newsletter.

— The Daily 202 is one of five finalists to win The Webby Award for Best Email Newsletter. We’re the only political or Washington-based contender to make the final round. You can vote here.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

Activists protest for transgender rights outside Greenwich Village’s famous Stonewall Inn. (Kena Betan Cur/AFP/Getty Images)

— The 7th Circuit ruled last night that workers may not be fired for their sexual orientation, becoming the highest court in the country to find that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gays from workplace discrimination. The Chicago-based appellate court found that instructor Kimberly Hively was improperly passed over for a full-time job at Ivy Tech Community College in South Bend, Ind., because she was a lesbian. “While the Civil Rights Act does not explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it bars sex discrimination; the court concluded that the college engaged in sex discrimination by stereotyping Hively based on her gender,” Sandhya Somashekhar explains.

This sets up a landmark Supreme Court case because the 11th Circuit ruled the opposite just last month. The three Atlanta-based judges interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act much more narrowly and found that sexual orientation is not a protected class under that law. That means that the high court will probably be forced to decide which appellate court is correct. Based on his rulings, there is no doubt that Neil Gorsuch would agree more with the Atlanta judges than the Chicago ones.

Why this is a big dang deal: In 28 states, there are no statewide laws that explicitly protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. And Trump is certainly not going to provide it. So it’s up to the courts.

School board candidate Ed Yung unloads yard signs from the trunk of his car on Monday. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune via AP)

— In a closely watched school board race at the center of the transgender rights debate, in the Chicago suburbs, a slate of conservative candidates who pledged to require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with their biological sex appear headed for defeat. From Moriah Balingit and Sandhya Somashekhar: “Elections are typically low-key for the Township High School District 211 Board of Education, but this year, the district drew national attention, highlighting the explosive debate over how schools should balance the needs of transgender students with the privacy of their peers. Under pressure from the U.S. Education Department, the board in December 2015 voted to allow a transgender girl to use the girls’ locker room, spurring protests and a lawsuit. Three challengers … hoped to win enough seats to reverse the practice of allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with their gender identity. Two board members who voted to allow the transgender girl into the locker room … were comfortably ahead of the challengers with votes in one precinct not yet counted.” The district includes five high schools and nearly 11,900 students in the Palatine-Schaumburg area.

California State Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez canvasses in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles this weekend. He is the frontrunner to replace Xavier Becerra in the House. (Dania Maxwell for the Washington Post)

— All the Berniecrats lost last night in California. In the special election jungle primary to replace Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), who resigned to become the state’s attorney general, the assemblyman who was most closely tied to the Democratic establishment and a Korean American who used to be on the L.A. planning commission beat out the Bernie Sanders-aligned contenders. Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, who has Becerra’s endorsement, and Robert Lee Ahn, both Democrats, will now square off in a June 6 runoff.

A scattered field: “In one of the few districts in California that favored Sanders over Hillary Clinton in last year’s primary, three candidates ran as self-styled ‘Berniecrats,’ hoping to continue the Vermont senator’s ‘revolution’ … But all three were trailing … by thousands of votes,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Sanders and Our Revolution, the political group he helped start, declined to endorse a candidate, leaving the trio to fight for votes on the left. An eleventh-hour controversy over allegations of sexism leveled at (Arturo Carmona) by former Sanders campaign staffers further split the field.”

Mobilizing the ethnic vote: “The 41-year-old Ahn, who would be the only Korean American in Congress if elected, spent major resources registering new voters in the Korean American community and turning them out at the polls,” the LA Times notes. “Korean Americans cast more than 4,000 early ballots by mail, according to an analysis by the data firm Political Data.”

North Korea launches missile ahead of U.S.-China talks

— THE WORLD IS ON FIRE: North Korea fired another ballistic missile Wednesday morning, in what appeared to be a test of a land-based version of a rocket that can be fired from a submarine. Anna Fifield reports: “The launch comes days after Pyongyang said it planned to mark two key anniversaries this month as ‘big’ political events and days before [Trump] meets with China’s Xi Jinping — with North Korea at the top of the agenda.” The missile appeared to fly a relatively short distance of 40 miles, prompting an emergency meeting from the South’s national security council. U.S. Pacific Command said the missile ‘did not pose a threat to North America.’ Satellite images taken over the past 10 days have shown a prolonged and heightened level of activity at Pyongyang’s underground testing site, sparking speculation about whether a sixth nuclear test was planned.”

New sheriff shutting down Arpaio’s tent city

GET SMART FAST:

The lawman who toppled “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio last November has stopped making inmates wear pink underwear and now he’s shuttering the notorious tent city in Phoenix. “This facility is not a crime deterrent, it is not cost efficient, and it is not tough on criminals,” Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said in Phoenix. “Starting today, that circus ends and these tents come down.” Arpaio cultivated a reputation as “America’s toughest sheriff,” starting in 1993, by making inmates stay outside in the scorching summer sun, sleeping in surplus Korean War military tents. (Kate Mettler)

At least 18 big-name advertisers have now pulled their commercials from “The O’Reilly Factor,” a boycott that follows a New York Times story that five women received $13 million in settlements after accusing the show’s host of harassment or inappropriate conduct. Among the companies that confirmed they were suspending or removing ads: the automakers Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi Motors; financial firms T. Rowe Price and Allstate Insurance; drugmakers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline; the online marketing company Constant Contact and men’s apparel seller Untuckit. (Paul Farhi)

Baltimore’s police commissioner pledged to move forward on reform efforts that the city agreed to in a consent decree with the Obama Justice Department after Jeff Sessions signaled he won’t enforce it. (Lynh Bui and Peter Hermann)

The president of the Richmond branch of the Federal Reserve, Jeffrey Lacker, abruptly resigned after acknowledging that he leaked confidential information to a financial analyst in 2012. (Ana Swanson)

U.S. companies are poised to report their strongest quarterly earnings in years, with analysts predicting the highest period of growth since 2011. (Wall Street Journal)

The philanthropy established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is giving $100 million to support investigate journalism, fight misinformation and counteract hate speech. Early recipients will include the D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the anti-Defamation League, and the Latin American Alliance for Civic Technology. (Margaret Sullivan)

A newly-hired high school principal in Pittsburgh resigned after a group of student journalists noticed discrepancies in her education credentials, prompting a weeks-long investigation that resulted in an article questioning the legitimacy of her degrees and work as an education consultant. (Samantha Schmidt)

The NCAA said it has “reluctantly” ended its boycott of North Carolina after lawmakers repealed the state’s “bathroom bill.” But the replacement law has drawn criticism for stopping short of a full repeal, and NCAA officials warned that, “if we find that our expectations of a discrimination-free environment are not met, we will not hesitate to take necessary action at any time.” (Cindy Boren)

A former Oklahoma football player has been accused of prostituting an ex-Sooners cheerleader. Both were nabbed in a sting at an OKC hotel. (Des Bieler)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is leaving the NFL and will replace Phil Simms as the main color analyst on CBS. (Cindy Boren and Marissa Payne)

Rory McIlroy would think twice about golfing again with Trump if he gets invited. At a pre-Masters press conference, the legend said he does not agree with the president on most policies, that they didn’t talk politics during their round together and that he mainly agreed to hang out with POTUS because he wanted to see the Secret Service in action. “Would I do it again? After the sort of backlash I received, I’d think twice about it,” he said. (Golf Magazine)

Divers are scouring Italy’s Lake Nemi for the 2,000 year-old remains of one of Emperor Caligula’s “pleasure ships” – the third in a line of massive and ornate barges rumored to be the site of wild orgies and excessive indulgence. Caligula spent untold sums of money on similar projects during his time as emperor and had a number of bizarre personal habits – ranging from rolling around in literal piles of money to drinking precious pearls dissolved in vinegar. (Amy B Wang)

Grassley: Gorsuch ‘will be on the Supreme Court sometime Friday night’

GOING NUCLEAR:

— The Senate continued to careen toward a nuclear explosion, as Mitch McConnell filed for cloture. Sean Sullivan and Ed O’Keefe report: “There was no sign of compromise as the chamber formally opened debate on Judge Neil Gorsuch, who [the majority leader] predicted will be confirmed on Friday before senators leave town for the two-week Easter recess. In a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell faulted Democrats for ‘hurtling toward the abyss’ and ‘trying to take the Senate with them.’” Still, only four Democrats have defected.

Sen. Merkley starts Gorsuch filibuster

— Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) held the Senate floor all night. He started speaking just before 7 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday evening. Over the next 12 hours, he portrayed Gorsuch as an extreme nominee, took aim at Trump and slammed Republicans for not moving ahead with Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland. “To proceed to fill this stolen seat will damage the court for decades to come,” he said this morning.

— Of course, it must be said that these speeches make no practical difference at changing the outcome. From Amber Phillips: “Procedurally there’s nothing he nor his colleagues can do to stop Gorsuch from getting a vote on Thursday to advance his nomination — and, ultimately, not much they can do stop him from getting on the court. To understand why, we first have to understand the most accepted definition of a traditional filibuster. The Senate has no limits on how long a senator can talk. And once a senator gets talking, they usually cannot be interrupted or cede the floor without their consent. So, if this were a traditional filibuster, it means as long as Merkley (and other senators who join him) talk, they can hold up the Senate procedure. Except there is one thing that can force a talking senator to yield the floor. And it’s the one thing [McConnell] set in place Tuesday: A vote to end debate on Gorsuch.”

Neil Gorsuch is sworn in at his confirmation hearing last month. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

CHARGES OF PLAGIARISM:

— Neil Gorsuch copied structure and language from several authors without citing source material in his 2006 book and other academic articles, Politico’s John Bresnahan and Burgess Everett report. Someone provided them evidence that several passages from the 10th chapter of the judge’s book are lifted nearly verbatim from a 1984 article in the Indiana Law Journal.

Some independent experts on academic integrity told Politico there was impropriety: “‘Each of the individual incidents constitutes a violation of academic ethics. I’ve never seen a college plagiarism code that this would not be in violation of,’ said Rebecca Moore Howard, a Syracuse University professor who has written extensively on the issue. Elizabeth Berenguer, an associate professor of law at Campbell Law School, said that under legal or academic standards Gorsuch’s similarities to the Indiana Law Journal would be investigated ‘as a potential violation of our plagiarism policy. It’s similar enough to the original work.’”

The White House sent the reporters statements from more than a half-dozen scholars who have worked with the judge to say that this is not a big deal. Spokesman Steven Cheung called the revelations a “baseless, last-second smear” by those “desperate to justify the unprecedented filibuster of a well-qualified” nominee. It referred the authors to scholars who say the “standards for citing work in dissertations on legal philosophy is different than for other types of academia or journalism: While Gorsuch may have borrowed language or facts from others without attribution, they said, he did not misappropriate ideas or arguments.”

The author of the lifted material isn’t bothered: “Gorsuch, in his book, appears to duplicate sentences from an Indiana Law Journal article written by Abigail Lawlis Kuzma without attributing her,” Bres and Burgess write. “Instead, he uses the same sources that Kuzma used: A 1982 Indiana court ruling that was later sealed, a well-known pediatrics textbook, ‘Rudolph’s Pediatrics,’ and a 1983 article in the Bloomington Sunday Herald. … At one point, Gorsuch’s prose mimics Kuzma’s almost word for word in describing a child born with Down syndrome. … Kuzma, a one-time aide to former Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), did not respond to an inquiry from Politico, but released a statement through Gorsuch’s team. Kuzma said she does ‘not see an issue here, even though the language is similar.’ ‘These passages are factual, not analytical in nature,’ Kuzma, now a deputy attorney general in Indiana, said. ‘It would have been awkward and difficult for Judge Gorsuch to have used different language.’”

— A fun thought exercise: How would Ted Cruz react if this same information emerged about Merrick Garland ahead of his confirmation vote?

— Reality check: This will move no votes.

Carter Page, then an adviser to the Trump campaign, speaks in Moscow last summer. (Pavel Golovkin/AP)

THERE’S A BEAR IN THE WOODS:

— Former Trump adviser Carter Page made an appearance in a federal espionage case because he communicated several years ago with a Russian spy under surveillance by the FBI. Tom Hamburger and Alice Crites report: “In a statement released Tuesday, Page confirmed his role in the 2015 Justice Department spy case, adding another twist to the still-unfolding story of Trump’s peculiar and expanding ties to people connected to Russia. Page said he assisted U.S. prosecutors in their case against Evgeny Buryakov, an undercover Kremlin agent then posing as a bank executive in New York. Buryakov was convicted of espionage and released from federal prison last week … [and] agreed to be immediately deported to Russia…

“According to the 2015 complaint … Page met with a Russian agent, Victor Podobnyy, in January 2013 at an energy conference in New York. It says that from January to June of that year, Page as Male 1 ‘provided documents to [Podobnyy] about the energy business.’ At the time, the Russians were seeking information on U.S. sanctions and on energy development. Although Page communicated with the Russian agents in 2013, he said the information he provided was innocuous. In his statement, Page compared the revelation of his role to ;the politically-motivated unmasking standards seen in the Obama Administration which have recently been exposed.’ He said the information was released as ‘retribution for my public positions of dissent’ against Obama administration policy toward Russia.”

Michael Flynn sits in the Oval Office as Trump talks on the phone with Vladimir Putin. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

— Trump’s own transition team did not think Michael Flynn should be national security adviser, Dan Balz scoops in a deep dive on Trump’s messy transition: Two days after the election, leaders of Trump’s transition team presented his inner circle with more than 100 names of candidates for key Cabinet and other senior positions in the new administration. Missing from the list for the post of national security adviser was Flynn. “Flynn was a loyalist who had a close relationship with Trump,” Balz writes. “It was obvious to the transition team that Trump would give him a prominent appointment. But among some of those tasked with bringing forward prospective candidates, there was a belief that Flynn was ill-suited for the critically important job of coordinating national security policy in the new White House. (He was penciled in as a possible director of national intelligence, for which transition officials believed he was better suited.) Trump, however, had his own list of candidates, and Flynn was at the top.”

“It went off the rails almost immediately after the election,” said one knowledgeable person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment of the transition process.

Indeed, the Trump team has still not scaled up: The Partnership for Public Service, in collaboration with The Post, has been tracking 553 key administration positions that require Senate confirmation. To date, just 21 nominees have been confirmed, with 20 more formally nominated and an additional 25 awaiting nomination.

Dana Rohrabacher visits Moscow in 2013. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

— Putin’s biggest GOP ally inside the House met with Trump at the White House last night. Politico’s Josh Dawsey, Isaac Arnsdorf and Tara Palmeri report: “Rep. Dana Rohrabacher woke up before dawn Saturday for a Fox News hit in which he gave a spirited defense of [Trump]. Minutes after the California Republican walked off the set, Trump was on the line, inviting him to come by the White House. The congressman’s spokesman said Rohrabacher at first believed the call was a prank because it came from the White House switchboard, early on April 1. But it was the president, an avid TV watcher who often posts tweets or sets up meetings based on what he sees on-screen. Neither Rohrabacher’s office nor the White House would comment … But the president’s decision to host a lawmaker known for defending [Putin] raised eyebrows in Washington at a time when Trump is fending off questions about his administration’s ties to Moscow.”

What to know about the back-and-forth over ‘unmasking’

UNMASKING:

— Susan Rice flatly denied that the Obama administration ever used the “unmasking” process for any improper or political purpose, saying in an MSNBC interview that it’s “not unusual” to request the identities of people caught on intelligence surveillance. “There were occasions when I would receive a report in which a U.S. person was referred to … and sometimes in that context in order to understand the importance of that report, and assess its significance, it was necessary to find out or request the information as to who that U.S. official was,” the former national security adviser told Andrea Mitchell. Rice also denied revealing the identity of Michael Flynn, who resigned after his communications with Russian officials were reported. “I leaked nothing to nobody and never have and never will,” Rice said, stressing the point that unmasking does not mean making the information public. The reports are still highly classified and viewable by a very select group of people with top secret clearance. “The notion that, which some people are trying to suggest, that asking for the identity of an American person is the same as leaking it, is completely false. There’s no equivalence between so-called unmasking and leaking.”

— Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) did not rule out interviewing Rice about the unmasking. “If the reports are right, she will be of interest to us,” he told Karoun Demirjian. Other Republican lawmakers also urged more investigation: “When it comes to Susan Rice, you need to verify, not trust,” Lindsey Graham in a Fox News interview. John McCain also said that the Rice situation “obviously … needs to be investigated,” though he warned against drawing premature conclusions. The Arizona senator also said the names of other officials would pop up before the end of the investigation: “I promise you there will be many more,” he said. Tom Cotton called Rice “the Typhoid Mary of the Obama administration.”

— Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called the attention focused on Rice a diversionary tactic. From Karen DeYoung’s story with Karoun: He has also called on the Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R), a Trump transition official and fellow Californian, to recuse himself from the investigation. The White House, Schiff said, has a “strong desire . . . that we lose our focus, that we not pursue the investigation of Russia, particularly as it might impact the Trump campaign.” At the same time, Schiff told CNN, Rice has long been a target of what he called the “Breitbart crowd . . . the hard right” since the September 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi.

Mike Pence departs the Capitol after a meeting of House Republicans yesterday. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

THE OBAMACARE REPEAL EFFORT IS BACK ON LIFE SUPPORT:

— Republican lawmakers led by Mike Pence are pushing to revive the health care replacement effort, meeting late into the night with party members eager to build new GOP consensus on a proposal. Mike DeBonis and Paul Kane report: “Pence spent much of Tuesday on Capitol Hill meeting with key groups of lawmakers, as well as with [Paul Ryan], a day after visiting separately with conservative hard-liners and moderates to gauge the potential for a revamped version of legislation that collapsed last month. The crux of the new proposal would be to allow states to seek exemptions from certain mandates established under the Affordable Care Act — including a requirement that insurers cover 10 ‘essential health benefits’ as well as a prohibition on charging those with preexisting medical conditions more than the healthy.”

While the largely behind-the-scenes effort generated optimistic talk, no clear path has emerged toward House passage of the Republican bill: Last night, key players said they were still waiting to see new proposals in writing, and some lawmakers said they were wary of rushing the process: “There is a value sometimes to the vetting process,” said House Freedom Caucus leader Mark Sanford. “That having been said, we’ll see what comes our way.”

— “Trump administration officials and arch conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus have gotten off to a rocky start, driven at least in part by their mutual tendency to hear what they want to hear from the other side,” Paul Kane explains in a smart analysis. “The latest negotiation is centered on allowing individual states to apply for waivers from mandates such as ‘essential health benefits’ … This is a modified version of a key issue from the standoff two weeks ago, when the conservatives pushed for and won inclusion of a provision to eliminate the essential benefit coverage. This effort is trying to thread the needle between conservatives who want to see lower premiums in the insurance markets, which they think would result once coverage mandates are lifted, and mainstream Republicans who balk at the idea of denying coverage for critical areas such as pregnancies. Everyone says they’re open to finding common ground between the conservative and moderate [House GOP flanks]. … The question is whether all sides are hearing one another’s concerns or, as they did in previous talks, are interpreting the discussions as evidence of a shift in their direction.”

A veteran’s wife learns whether she’ll be deported

IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN:

— A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said yesterday that immigration agents may arrest crime victims and witnesses at courthouses, heightening growing tensions between the Trump administration and some state court officials, who say the threat could silence immigrants from reporting or providing evidence of crime. Devlin Barrett reports: “Just because they’re a victim in a certain case does not mean there’s not something in their background that could cause them to be a removable alien,’’ DHS flack David Lapan told reporters, making clear the courthouse arrests are not limited to people who would otherwise be apprehended in a jail or prison. “Just because they’re a witness doesn’t mean they might not pose a security threat for other reasons.’’ His remarks come after California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye sent a letter to Trump officials decrying the practice, saying courthouses “serve as a vital forum for ensuring access to justice and protecting public safety.” Courthouses “should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration laws,” she added.

— Temporary reprieve: “‘A wonderful day’: A veteran’s undocumented wife won’t be deported by ICE,” by Theresa Vargas: “For months, Veronica Castro had dreaded Tuesday, when she was scheduled to check in with immigration officials. The undocumented immigrant didn’t know whether she would be detained and deported to Mexico or allowed to return home with her husband, a disabled veteran, and their four children, all U.S. citizens who live in Lothian, Md. [But on Thursday], their fears were allayed in less than 30 minutes. Immigration officials gave Castro another year before she would have to check in again. ’Im happy,’ she said in Spanish, [greeting a cheering crowd gathered outside]. In the months leading up to Tuesday’s appointment, she and Pineda appealed to politicians and clergy members for help. They feared that despite Pineda’s service and their children’s medical needs, Castro would be swept up in Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. In Arizona, a mother of two U.S.-born children, checked in on Feb. 8, as she had done for eight years. The next day she was deported to Mexico. ‘My husband wouldn’t be able to take care of my children without my help,’ Castro said. ‘If I’m deported, my family will be destroyed.'”

— The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors declared itself a “welcoming and accepting place” for immigrants last night, carefully steering clear of the word “sanctuary,” which Trump and Sessions have warned could lead to the withholding of federal funds. Despite pleas from activists, the board also declined to declare itself opposed to a Muslim registry. It’s the latest example of a jurisdiction trying to strike a delicate balance between “reassuring immigrants fearful of stepped-up deportation efforts and avoiding sanctions from a White House that has said an immigration crackdown is critical to maintaining public safety,” Antonio Olivo explains.

— A new bipartisan bill would prevent Americans’ electronic devices from being searched at the border without a warrant. The bill was introduced yesterday by Ron Wyden (D) and Rand Paul (R) in the Senate, while Reps. Jared Polis (D) and Blake Farenthold (R) sponsored it in the House. (CNN)

— Jared Kushner met confidentially with Muslim leaders before the inauguration for a “candid” discussion about what kind of relationship the new president might forge in office with American Muslims, striking a friendly tone as he solicited ideas for how to improve the administration’s relationship with Muslims and asked them to recommend people to serve in the Trump administration. (Buzzfeed)

Trump unveils enormous chart to highlight federal regulations

TRUMP’S WISHLIST:

— Trump signed another bill rolling back Obama-era worker safety rules that aimed at tracking and reducing workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths. The vote comes less than a month after Obama repealed The Fair and Safe Workplace Act, requiring businesses competing for large federal contracts to disclose and correct serious safety and other labor law violations. (Kimberly Kindy)

— Just hours after two Trump administration officials said the president’s team was exploring a carbon tax and a value-added tax (VAT) to raise revenue, the White House disavowed both options and said they are no longer under consideration. Damian Paletta and Max Ehrenfreund report: “The rapid reversal illustrates a Trump administration still in the initial stages of a plan to rework the tax code, particularly as it looks to build support while also sticking close to conservative ideas.” White House officials also signaled they will be much more involved in proposing and negotiating elements of the plan then they were during plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

— Trump reiterated his pledge to spur $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending — or perhaps more — as he hosted a friendly audience of New York-area CEOs at the White House. “We have to build roads. We have to build highways,” the president said. “We’re talking about a very major infrastructure bill of a trillion dollars, perhaps even more.” The president’s still-evolving infrastructure initiative has been overshadowed in recent weeks, but his advisers insist he remains committed to getting it done, John Wagner reports:

Chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said officials are working with “the broadest interpretation of infrastructure” and made clear that he expects many projects to be financed through public-private partnerships — or just private investments, in some cases.

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said one challenge is that most federal infrastructure spending funnels to states and localities – thus complicating plans for a major spending infusion.

Ivanka Trump said workforce development and vocational education will be part of the effort.

— Trump received a cool reception at the annual legislative conference of the building trade unions yesterday after he launched into an oft-repeated tirade his election victory. Abby Phillip reports: “The electoral college is very, very tough,” Trump told them, noting that he had won Wisconsin and Michigan, two states he “didn’t even need.” “They say almost impossible for a Republican to win.” The crowd began shifting in discomfort. “I had the support, of I would say, of almost everybody in this room,” Trump said. “I had tremendous support of the workers.” “Nope,” a few voices called out. Others followed with “boos” and chuckles. Meanwhile, a group of conference attendees stood bearing signs with the “#RESIST” printed on them, earning a quick escort from the room.

— “Trump Team Takes Steps to Keep Chinese Away From Westinghouse,” from Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs, Saleha Mohsin, and Jennifer A. Dlouhy: “The Trump administration is so alarmed that Chinese investors may try to purchase Westinghouse Electric Co.’s nuclear business that U.S. officials are trying to find an American or allied buyer for the company instead … Cabinet members including Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have discussed preventing Westinghouse’s purchase by a Chinese-linked company … The administration is preparing for Westinghouse to come up during [Trump’s] first meeting with [Xi]. … For years, Chinese entities have been interested in the nuclear reactor builder, and the company has been a repeated target of Chinese espionage. Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 29 and its parent company Toshiba Corp. is seeking a buyer for its money-losing reactor business. Trump administration officials and members of Congress are concerned the bankruptcy filing could allow a bid from an investment group with hidden Chinese backing.”

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

Jeff Merkley pulled an all-nighter:

House members are using the debate over Gorsuch as a campaign issue:

Strange bedfellows — Republicans found themselves retweeting Cher:

GOP consultant Ana Navarro weighs in on the Bill O’Reilly scandal:

O’Reilly and Don Lemon got into the act:

Is this part of Trump’s pledge not to tip his hand to the enemy?

From a former Obama national security aide:

White House adviser Sebastian Gorka posted this:

@WMATA:

This picture of Devin Nunes from his 1991 yearbook went viral:

GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:

— Ivanka Trump’s chic neighbor Dianne Bruce became an overnight internet sensation after a picture of her watching protesters while sipping wine and donning a fur coat went viral. In an interview with Cosmo, she says she’s “a little confused” why the internet loves her. Rebecca Nelson: “This wonderful car came in and there were two dancers on top,” Bruce said of the event. “The most athletic, wonderful dancers I’ve ever seen. We were enjoying that thoroughly. And another neighbor came out with a bottle of wine, some glasses, so we all sat there and enjoyed watching the party.”

How did you find out that you went viral? “The next day, a friend of mine called and said, ‘Oh, you’re not gonna believe it, but you’re in the Daily Mail!’ It’s so weird, because I don’t even quite understand what the word ‘go viral’ means. Because I don’t do tweet. I don’t do Facebook. I don’t do any of that. I don’t really understand it all. It’s just one very simple picture.”

Has too much been made of it? “Yeah … I really would like somebody to explain it to me, in a way. When someone says ‘go viral’ — does everybody now hate me and they’re gonna blow up my house?”

No! ‘Go viral,” as in, like, it’s made its way across the internet. Like, a lot of people have seen it. I think you’re safe!: “[Laughs.] I’m not particularly crazy about the Trump administration. But they are people, and I in my own way can protest things. I mean, I went to the first march in my life when I went to the Women’s March in Washington. And [I] was most impressed with all that. So I thought, well, protest is good, as long as it doesn’t get ugly. And this definitely was not ugly. It was basically a party.”

— The New Yorker, “Death of a Dystopian,” by Alec Wilkinson: “Alt-right conspiracy theorists think that the government killed the aspiring Libertarian filmmaker David Crowley. The truth is far stranger.”

HOT ON THE LEFT:

“Legislator Calls Out Her ‘White Male’ Colleagues For Skipping Speeches By Women Of Color,” from HuffPost: “On Monday, Minnesota state Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) spoke out against a public safety bill, arguing that its increase in penalties for protesters who block major roads would weaken civil rights and could have blocked historic demonstrations throughout history. Melissa Hortman (D), the minority leader in the state House, was disappointed that more of her colleagues weren’t in the chamber to hear this speech and others that had been delivered by women opposed to the bill. So she moved to make them come back. ‘I hate to break up the 100 percent white male card game in the retiring room, but I think this is an important debate,’ she said. That comment deeply offended some of the white men in the chamber. [Still], Hortman refused to apologize[:] “I have no intention of apologizing,” she said, adding that she is so tired of watching her colleagues give amazing speeches, and then “looking around, to see, where are my colleagues?” “And I went in the retiring room, and I saw where a bunch of my colleagues were,” she added. “And I’m really tired of watching women of color, in particular, being ignored. So, I’m not sorry.”

HOT ON THE RIGHT:

“Swedish soccer hooligans wear Muslim niqabs to get around newly imposed mask ban,” from Marissa Payne: “Swedish government officials thought they had the perfect solution to curtail violent behavior by masked soccer fans — ban their face coverings. The new law, passed in January and enacted in March, was supposed to prevent extremist fans from ‘disguising all or part of their face so as to make it more difficult to be identified,’ according to the bill’s language … To make sure the bill didn’t infringe on anyone’s religious rights, however, the law offers an exemption for ‘people who cover their face for religious reasons.’: Well, it appears soccer is now a religion in Sweden. On Sunday, during the Stockholm club AIK’s season opener against BK Häcken, several dozen of AIK’s most boisterous fans — known as ‘ultras’ — traded their masks for niqabs, the traditionally Muslim face covering that obscures the entire face except the eyes. To really rub it in, AIK’s extremists also unfurled two gigantic banners with a message for Interior Secretary Anders Ygeman, who spearheaded the legislation.” “Freedom for ultras is the ultimate goal,” the banner read. “Thanks, Ygeman, for the loophole.”

DAYBOOK:

At the White House: Donald and Melania will welcome King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan to the White House. In the afternoon, Trump will meet with Abdullah before being joined by Pence for an expanded bilateral meeting. Later, the two will hold a press conference and working luncheon.

Pence will participate in a media interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum before joining Trump to participate in his meetings with Jordan’s king. Later, Pence will host a reception for Gold Star wives.

Ivanka Trump: ‘Where I disagree with my father, he knows it’

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Ivanka Trump criticized an “SNL” skit that portrayed her selling a perfume called “Complicit.” A narrator called it “the fragrance for the woman who could stop all this, but won’t.” On CBS News, the first daughter said: “If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then I’m complicit. … I don’t know what it means to be complicit.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:

— Another beautiful day of spring weather ahead, the Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “Mostly sunny skies through the morning and midday turn increasingly cloudy by midafternoon. But the rain holds off, and highs reach the delightful upper 60s to low 70s. Winds are light and variable in direction.”

— The Capitals beat the Maple Leaves 4-1.

— The Wizards beat the Hornets 118-111.

— Bernie Sanders endorsed Tom Perriello in the Democratic primary for Virginia governor, throwing his weight behind the former congressman competing against Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who is backed by the Richmond establishment and Gov. Terry McAuliffe. (Fenit Nirappil)

— Ed Gillespie announced that he wants to see abortion “banned,” suggesting a shift from his previously-stated stance of opposition except in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother’s life is at risk. Spokesmen for the Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate insisted after the forum that his position had not changed and that he still backs those three exceptions. (Laura Vozzella)

— A Maryland lawmaker who was raped repeatedly in childhood by his adoptive father made it his mission to ensure child victims have more time to sue abusers – giving painful testimony before his colleagues as he vowed to sponsor the bill until it passed. On its third try Tuesday, it did. “I never wanted to share my personal business … but I did it because I thought it would help people,” Del. C.T. Wilson said. “I wanted the victims of sexual abuse to know they are not alone and that we care about them.” (Ovetta Wiggins and Josh Hicks)

— A sign of the times: The Montgomery County Council voted unanimously to place security checkpoints at two entrances to its Rockville office building. “With no discussion, the council voted 9 to 0 to spend $300,000 for contract security guards, walk-through metal scanners and other equipment. The annual cost is estimated to be $664,000,” Bill Turque reports.

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

Jimmy Kimmel talks about how the rides at Universal Studios have gotten political:

Universal Studios’ Rides Get Political, Florida News Roulette – Monologue

Seth Meyers talks about The Americans:

The Americans

Stephen Colbert says Sean Spicer is shrinking:

Sean Spicer Is Shrinking In Size

And he points to Scooby Doo’s explanation of the Susan Rice “unmasking” charges:

Susan Rice’s ‘Unmasking’ Allegations Explained By Scooby Doo

Watch drone footage capture Mt. Edna’s lava flow:

Watch: Drone footage shows view of Mt. Etna lava flow

See Sean Spicer take the next question at his press briefing pretty quickly:

Sean Spicer’s habit of moving on to the next question quickly

See what all the fuss is about in Kendall Jenner’s new Pepsi ad:

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad caused controversy

Wow: an Ethiopian maid is falling from a 7th story window, and her boss filmed it.

Maid filmed dangling from window highlights widespread abuse in the Gulf

Ahead of Passover, there’s a Matzoh Mobile making the rounds:

Introducing the Matzoh Mobile

Here ya go, a little shot of FAKE NEWS, Read between the lines please! Trump keeps blaming Obama. Fresh polls show voters don’t buy it. Here ya go, a little shot of FAKE NEWS, Read between the lines, please! Trump keeps blaming Obama.

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