This year's presidential election is well on its way to becoming one of the most notable and controversial in American history.

All conventions have been thrown out the window— a "fringe" candidate and political outsider almost beat a Clinton. A Reality TV star, outspoken chauvinist and xenophobe captured the nomination from a Bush. A billionaire got billions of dollars in free advertising from networks and websites. A Clinton may inhabit the oval office yet again.

You can't go out and vote for our next president until November 8, but you can get a leg-up on the fun with Cards Against Humanity's newest hijink card pack and vote with your dollar for your favorite candidate.

Each of the limited-edition expansion packs features 15 cards unique to each presidential candidate. 

At the end of the promotion, Cards Against Humanity will tally up the sales from each of the card packs and "depending on which pack gets more support, we will donate all the money in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign." 

What if you're a Gary Johnson or Jill Stein supporter?

According to Cards Against Humanity:

"Just skip the middleman and vote for Trump."

Will you be buying one of these packs? Which one? Let us know in the comments! And check out the links below if you'd like to purchase either of these sets through Amazon. 

Last year, Cards Against Humanity offered a neat promotion called the 12 days of Bullshit that had actual cards for the game. This year, they offered another promotion where they claimed they would send you a box of bullshit as a protest against Black Friday. It was the only product available on their online store this past Black Friday. Since the company has been known to hide cards in their previous products such as the Bigger Blacker Box, plenty of fans felt the box would be another ruse hiding something better.

CAH founder Max Temkin actually warned fans through Twitter:

If you buy the poop expecting it to be something else that’s not poop, you’re actually buying a valuable life lesson for $6

The company still sold out of the 30,000 boxes by the end of Black Friday that adds up to around $180,000 worth of poop. Cards Against Humanity boycotted Black Friday and still managed to make a significant amount of money from it.

Kevins Channel on YouTube features an unboxing of the product, hoping that there was something other than poop in the box. Perhaps their fans will listen next time they are told they will be getting a box of poop for Christmas. If you did happen to get one of these boxes and are starting to regret your decision, you can join those who have started listing their boxes on Ebay.

The Internet is a place populated by the ghosts of past failures and misdeeds, a graveyard of our own failings. In this realm of digital communication, we can rarely escape our own past. 

This story popped up on my Twitter earlier today -- an accusation against popular card game Cards Against Humanity, or more precisely one of it's eight founders Max Temkin that back when he attended Goucher College he sexually assaulted one of his neighbors. 

There are a variety of complications to this story. For starters, the woman/accuser has taken eight years to speak up about her assault. This isn't inherently a sign of dishonesty; The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN) states that:

RAINN asserts that from 2000 to 2005, 59% of rapes were not reported to law enforcement. For college students, that figure was 95% in 2000.

Rape and sexual assault are not reported for a variety of different reasons, as varied as victim blaming & shame. Non-reporting is simply a symptom of a larger problem and the fact that Magz, the woman in question, didn't step forward before now doesn't speak to her falsehood. 

It is very clear, from her blog post on the Tumblr she's started (Humanity Against Sexual Assault) that she feels that she was violated many years ago by a person that she felt she could trust. She writes: 

I am not interested in pressing charges. I don’t think my attacker is a serial predator. I see my assault as an almost textbook example of a “crime of opportunity”. I have no interest in personal compensation, monetary or otherwise. I have no interest in his company or in stifling his intellectual or personal life

Temkin himself has also taken the time to write his own response to the accusation, available at his blog. In it, he espouses confusion and states that he does not feel that a sexual assault occurred. There are few specifics from Magz's side of the story, but Temkin states that they had a short college fling that resulted in awkward make-outs, no sex, and a poorly timed break up on his part. 

He makes the point though, that there is the potential for crossed signals, boundaries that a college kid didn't realize he crossed until much later on: 

It is entirely possible she read something completely different than I did into an awkward college hookup. If any part of that was traumatic for her, I am sincerely sorry, and I wish we would have had a chance to address it privately.

He credits "rape culture" for silencing an uncomfortable college girl, for letting a boy think that what he was doing was alright when it was evidently not. 

This issue is further complicated by issues surrounding Temkin and CAH, specifically issues related to their own use of rape jokes in the past. Cards Against Humanity has long been billed as a game for horrible people, but it has also profited from selling cards that make jokes about rape and sexual assault. Offenders include: Date Rape, Roofies, Surprise Sex!, and Beating Your Wives. Temkin has spoken about those cards in the past, as well as this most recent blog post: 

We removed all of the “rape” jokes from Cards Against Humanity years ago. We’ll continue to use the game as best we can to “punch up” and not “punch down.”

This is not a story that will go away. The Internet is a pervasive thing, a repository of all the forgotten secrets and failures of the past bundled comfortably so that anyone with Google access can easily uncover your dirty laundry. 

Perhaps Temkin and Magz can agree on this: sexual assault is wrong, and the culture that pushes people to not report needs to be pushed aside and forgotten. At her conclusion, Magz writes: 

I am speaking out because it helps survivors of rape and sexual assault. It helps them know that they are not alone. It helps them find their own voice. It helps us own our stories.

Cards Against Humanity certainly isn't a new thing anymore. Nor is it just a passing fad. It is a legitimate game that has moved millions of units, produced four expansions and has given their developers a powerful voice in the industry. Yet, I am not here to review the game, nor am I going to explain how it is played. All of the information is easily available online. Hell, you can go to www.cardsagainsthumanity.com and download the game for free.

I'm here to tell you how this game brought the most unlikely group of people closer together than I ever thought was possible.

Working in retail is a potentially awful experience. Working in retail during the holidays is even worse. However, working in retail with people you don't even like is by far the worst.

Working in retail is a potentially awful experience. Working in retail during the holidays is even worse. However, working in retail with people you don't even like is by far the worst. I have had the privilege of working at the Lego store at my local mall for over a year now. I have never had a serious problem with any of my coworkers, but that doesn't mean that there isn't constantly drama in our store. People are mad at each other for the most stupid things. Sabotaging does occur, and gossip is almost a daily phenomenon.

About once a month, we all go out to dinner to spend some time together outside the stressful environment of our store. And although everyone is kind enough to one another, it is clear who gets along the most and who does not. Silly things like wanting to sit next to certain people cause minor disturbances akin to those of a junior high cafeteria. And since we usually go to one sports bar or another, the inevitable alcohol consumption only makes matters worse once an argument crops up.

So during our latest trip together as a group, one of my coworkers decided to bring her set of Cards Against Humanity.

I had heard of it before but had never played the game. When it was described to me as Apples to Apples for adults, I thought it would be fun. And it didn't take long to find out just how much fun it would be.

When a running joke within the community, and even the developers of the game, refers to 'different sized, dark, phallic objects', you know you are going to have a good night.

And right after our first round of the game was over, I saw the strangest thing happen. People started moving around the table and talking to people they normally never would. This game, full of the most awful and disturbing combinations of cards was bringing together people that had only hours prior been complaining about lack of hours and poor management. 

"What's that smell? Auschwitz." is CAH in a nutshell.

My coworkers are fathers, mothers, single, engaged, in school, live at home, black, white, gay and everything in between. Not to say that we are discriminatory towards each other, but whilst playing a game that makes fun of such labels, we all became closer, and dare I say, friends.

Cards Against Humanity opened an avenue through which we felt more comfortable talking to each other about important issues and problems each of us were facing on a daily basis.

The fact that we had all agreed to take part in the humorous and raucous fun that is created by the game, we realized that no one is who you think they are just from reading the surface.

When the only mother on our staff plays "Here is the church, here is the steeple. Open the doors and there is" + "A Big Black Dick," you instantly know that every one has a wild and secretive side. And by the end of the night many of the waiters and waitresses would take turns stopping by our table and playing a round too.

Since that night the atmosphere in the store is so much lighter than it was before; you can sense that everyone enjoys coming into work to see each other.

We have now even started going to each others houses to play the game as well as almost all of us now own a copy. So, in a twisted sort of way, a game that takes pride in being described as inappropriate and raunchy brought a group of people together in ways I never thought imaginable. And for that I am very happy.

Several of the people behind Cards Against Humanity sat down and answered questions about their hilariously addictive, incredibly inappropriate game. CAH is billed as a party game for horrible people, and a game "you shouldn't play with your parents." 

They discussed these questions in the form of a Reddit AMA, which you can read the total transcript of here. This is just a brief look at some of the answers from the people behind CAH, Maxistentialist, bhantoot, ehalpern and trinCAH. 

RBGolbat asked: 

Recently you guys wrote a blog post about how you were unhappy with the Penny Arcade folks over their Dickwolvse comic and the aftermath of how they handled the criticism of the comic. Given the nature of the game you created and some fo the dark humour you have on some of the cards (Date Rape, Beating Your Wives, Ethnic Cleansing), what explanation could you give to this situation that doesn't come off as hypocritical? 

Maxistentialist responded: 

"I hope that my blog post speaks for itself, I don't have a lot more to say on the subject. We really like PAX and want to keep going. Our sense of humor may be dark, but as people who have been bullied ourselves, we try very hard not to bully people with our jokes. We wrote the "date rape" card when we were less mature writers, and we removed it a long time ago."

We're planning to start doing wholesale distribution to FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) next year. It's a huge project for us and we want to do it right, without relying on a big distributor or anything like that. --bhantoot

Salacious- asked. 

Do you think there is anything "too soon" for a joke? Like, would you be willing to put in a "Typhoon Haiyan" card now? If there is a "too soon," then how long do you have to wait until a tragedy becomes funny? 

ehalpern responded: 

"Eli here from Cards Against Humanity. We write our cards to be as funny as possible. If people are ready to joke about something, then a joke about it will be funny. If people are not ready to joke about it, then there is no way to write a funny joke about it. It will just make people sad or uncomfortable. Different people have different thresholds and sensitivities, but we try to figure out where the lines are so that we can toe them. We also read and respond to all emails that express offense at certain cards in the game. One of the nice things about being an independent game is that, as well as writing whatever jokes we want, we can also change or remove jokes at a moments notice." 

boomerangutang asked:

How do you sleep at night? 

trinCAH responded: 

"Trin here. 

Very, very carefully

With one eye open" 

lunchtabler asked: 

Instead of asking about the fourth expansion, could you tell us when the FIFTH expansion will be made available? 

ehalpern responded: 

Eli here from Cards Against Humanity. The Fifth Expansion will be available when the stars fall from the sky and rivers flow backwards, when mountains crumble and God descends from his throne in Heaven to walk among men. Sign up for email updates at our website. 

zap283 asked: 

There were some articles recently about the safe space you had set up at PAX, detailing your rejection of rape jokes. The game includes the ability to crack jokes about the Trail of Tears, the Three-Fifths Compromise, Coat Hanger Abortions, Auschwitz, Dead Babies and Being Marginalized. Why draw the line at rape? What makes a rape joke different than any of these?

Maxistentialist responded: 

"Obviously the core of Cards Against Humanity is finding shocking or offensive things (historical or contemporary) and trying to identify a funny or absurd angle to make fun of. The goal of our game is to make people laugh, so we have be sensitive to the line between delighting people and upsetting them. If a joke is too upsetting to too many people, it gets cut.

Personally I think the best card in the deck is "Emotions." -- bhantoot

Rape jokes almost always tip the scale to "upsetting people" instead of "delighting them." If I had to guess why, I would say that it's because about a quarter of all women have been sexually assaulted. Additionally, while nearly everyone recognizes that The Trail of Tears and Auschwitz were wrong, not everyone agrees that rape is wrong.

We're not here to tell you what kind of jokes you can or can't make. But Cards Against Humanity is our game, and rape is something we don't want to joke about."

We play it all the time! The more you play, the more the subtle cards shine and the big dumb cards can become hopelessly dumb. --bhantoot

drakeblood4 asked: 

Do you guys ever thin the deck, so to speak? I find myself wanting certain cards to never show up in my hand again after a few times through. 

bhantoot responded: 

Ben from CAH here. We pull out the worst cards every few months.

Damadar asked: 

Is /u/wil [Wil Wheaton] making an expansion for you guys? 

Maxistentialist responded: 

Wil wrote this card for our PAX pack: 

It's one of my favorite cards we've ever made. He's also a genius at improvising cards for people, I highly recommend following him (https://twitter.com/wil) and Anne (https://twitter.com/AnneWheaton) for the custom cards they post. 

HoofFan23 asked: 

Hi Max...I remember you from ICDA debate in high school! I was floored when I realized you were behind CAH, congratulations on all your success! Your cards are alternately clever, horrible, and grotesque. Can you give us some examples of card ideas that never made it into the game? And what's your favorite ICDA memory?

Maxistentialist answered: 

Ha! I have the best memories of ICDA, though I never did very well because I always tried to be funny in my speeches. We have a huge list of cards that we've debated for hours and ultimately don't decide to put in the game, usually because they're too weird. My favorites recent rejects are:

• An irrational fear of creams.
• Becoming the mayor of a nursing home on Foursquare.
• Profiting from the suffering of untold millions.
• Dopamine.

totaldominasian asked: 

How did you choose the design of your cards? 

bhantoot responded: 

"Ben from CAH here. The idea was to keep the content front-and-center, not some dumb design, and we thought the look of the way-too-serious black/white Helvetica Neue saying things like "Dick fingers" was just hilarious."

 To read more of the Reddit exchange, check here. To find out about the Cards Against Humanity 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit, click here.