Gorn

America? Two key raw materials for the industrial revolution were iron and coal, and Britain (as well as other Western European countries) didn't need colonies for that, since they had plenty on their own soil. It wasn't until 20th century that demand for rubber and oil caused colonies to become a crucial part of the industrial ecosystem.

Its authors were Cole, Calvert, and Diaz-Balart, all Republicans. Biden endorsed it however.

The House Ukraine bill in particular seems to be actually better than the one that Senate passed. Increases the amount of forgivable loans to 8 billion, orders Biden to sends ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, cuts out a lot of unrelated pork... The biggest change is that money is now granted to the US military to buy replacements after they send their equipment to Ukraine, which is just an accounting difference. Interesting and unexpected, but not unwelcome.

I suggest a simpler theory: they bought their own propaganda and overestimated their own capabilities while underestimating Israel's. After all, no-one ever actually intercepted anywhere close to that many missiles at once until last night. Even Russia's largest drone/missile waves it launched on Ukraine were only 50-60% of this size. They actually thought enough would get through to do major damage.

How many people would have Iran's missiles and drones killed in a thickly populated area such as Israel, had they managed to penetrate the defences? Let's say 50 people per missile and 10 people per drone, times 160 missiles and 130 drones. Care to do the math? There were fortunately no deaths last night, but not for lack of trying on Iran's part.

Having thousands of missiles in warehouses is not the same thing as being able to launch thousands of missiles at once. This is limited by the number of bases, launch platforms, trained personnel, and in case of guided missiles and drones, data links used for real-time control. What we saw last night was probably Iran's maximum capacity for a one-time launch. And let's not be mistaken, that was a massive attack and escalation. 160 (or 210, depending on the source) missiles is a fuckton of missiles. Even Russia struggles to launch that many in a single wave. Iran did everything in its power to turn Israel into a pile of rubble and to cause major casualties. The value of missiles they spent is a major part of their military budget. They failed not because of their "restraint", but because of quality of Israel's air defences.

I'll give it a try from the years when I first got into gaming. Had to use Wikipedia, skipped the years where nothing stands out. Used the PC release years. Looking at this, I really need to start playing some newer games. 1996: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 1997: GoldenEye 007 1998: Half-Life (tough choice, a lot of great games) 1999: Age of Empires II 2000: Baldur's Gate II 2001: Europa Universalis II 2002: Morrowind 2003: Star Wars KotOR 2004: Rome Total War 2005: GTA: San Andreas 2006: Oblivion 2008: Assassin's Creed 2009: Dragon Age Origins 2010: Fallout New Vegas (tough choice, great year) 2011: Skyrim 2012: Crusader Kings II 2013: Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag 2015: Witcher 3 2016: Hearts of Iron IV 2017: Divinity: Original Sin II 2018: Pillars of Eternity II 2020: Crusader Kings III 2021: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Florida Supreme Court announced that both the abortion rights and recreational marijuana amendments will be on the ballot in November. At the same time, its 6-week ban will come into effect in 30 days, meaning that the issue will be at the forefront of voters' minds. Good news for Democrats, considering that the polling support for abortion rights in the state is at 67%. ETA: Actually, the 67% number is the support for recreational marijuana, the support for abortion rights is at 62%.

He did, in 2022. Saudis told him to fuck off and reduced production even more just to prove a point. They're rich enough that no Western country has an effective way of pressuring them. If US, for instance, were to stop selling them arms, they'll just buy them from Russia or China, who will welcome the new business with open arms.

I was going to suggest that you use Elon Musk as a successful person who is also a gamer, but then I realized he is not exactly the best example of a normal, serious, well-adjusted adult.

Because of valid and very real security concerns? China is a global rival to the US, and an app that gives its government information about 150 million Americans (such as contact lists, biometric identifiers, geolocation data, access to messages, access to their phone's camera and speaker...) is not a great thing, to put it mildly. Neither is its ability to influence content algorithms and control the access to news and information. And no, this isn't just scaremongering. I suggest that you research how Kaspersky anti-virus software was used by the Russian intelligence services, and also to consider that there is a high risk that China will invade Taiwan sometime in the next decade.

Strange, I find Starcraft: Brood War unplayable specifically because of it horrible pathfinding AI which they refused to fix even in the remaster. And there is no reason to play the original Age of Empires II when the infinitely superior Definitive Edition exists.

I wouldn't put too much hope into this. It's a presidential election year; those other races don't matter. Anyone who shows up to vote for Trump will also vote for the down-ticket Republicans. If Trump wins, Republicans will also win Congress, Senate, and competitive state races. If Biden wins, Democrats will win Congress, state races... and still lose the Senate, although not as badly. Putting everything they can spare in the presidential race is the smartest play for both parties.

Most people don't actively think about it, but they will find pitchforks and torches pretty quickly if an elected official does anything that actively reduces their wealth. Reminder that the Democratic majority was erased in 2010 in a single two-year election cycle over a minor increase in employer-based insurance plan costs that Republicans successfully tied in people's minds to the passage of ACA. Also, retirement plans for a lot of people consist of downsizing to a cheaper home and living off the price difference.

There are plenty of great ideas about reducing the housing costs, that no politician will touch with a 10-foot pole. Why? Because two-thirds of the electorate are homeowners. They want housing to be more and more expensive, because it directly makes them richer. And they mostly don't give a damn about the remaining third of their fellow citizens.