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Gorn

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Everything posted by Gorn

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Of course they do, approved funds end up unspent all the time. Lend-Lease for Ukraine was approved, but it wasn't used. The actual reason why Trump was impeached because he used withholding of aid as a weapon against domestic political opponents. It was about the motives for withholding funds, not about the act of withholding itself.
  9. This is bigger than Trump as a candidate or this election, and these things should be defined narrowly rather than broadly. Depriving someone of their civil rights is a big fucking deal, and it should be done through due legal process in court. The alternative would at some point lead to some Republican appointee banning a Democratic candidate from ballot based on their personal nebulous interpretation of the word "insurrection".
  10. Trump wasn't convicted under 18 U.S. Code § 2383, at least so far.
  11. One interesting take: there is already a law on books, passed by the Congress, which bars people convicted in court of rebellion or insurrection from holding federal office, 18 U.S. Code § 2383: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2383 The Trump v. Anderson decision even specifically refers to this law as an example in two places. Meaning there is no need for additional laws to be passed.
  12. Which is how it should be. Much better than any random state deciding that they would prefer not to have multi-party elections.
  13. Of course, that's what primaries are for. However, 81% of Democrats in Michigan have signaled that they either support Biden's actions on Gaza, or don't care. And he cannot please the 13% without turning the 81% (or at least a significant part of them) against him. It's literally a zero-sum situation.
  14. The will of which voters? Even with the organized campaign to vote "uncommitted" in the state which is probably the most receptive of this message, it amounted to just 13% of Democratic primary voters. 81% of Democratic primary voters declared that they approve of Biden.
  15. An important caveat is that Zelensky's figure doesn't include missing soldiers or POWs, only those who are officially KIA. In this war, MIA is a major percentage of total casualties.
  16. I think the obvious answer is that Tory voters are also homeowners which means that 1) They don't care, and 2) They will actively fight and oppose anything that reduces their real estate value, such as building new housing near them (the hidden incentive behind NIMBYsm).
  17. Zelensky seems to be heavily focused on maintaining Ukraine's economy functional, to the detriment of the actual war effort. Another example has been the focus on naval drones and fighting the Russian Black Sea fleet - while it has been successful in breaking Russia's economic blockade, I'm sure the ground forces would have preferred if those resources were sent their way instead.
  18. For any actress, that's sort of an chicken-and-egg situation. Putting on significant amount of muscle would lock them out of other future roles, which causes a lack of athletic-looking actresses, which causes casting directors not to seek out athletic-looking actresses due to lack of options.
  19. Yesterday, I was behind a car with "Biden owes me gas money" bumper sticker. Not too long ago, a seemingly-intelligent person at a party was explaining to me how the real estate market will improve under Trump presidency because "mortgage rates go down under Republicans, and up under Democrats". Another seemingly-intelligent person was telling me how they expect their trucking business to become more profitable after Trump's victory since that will cause the gas prices to drop. GOP isn't going anywhere.
  20. That's an optimistic view. A pessimistic one is that Ukraine has created its own Gallipoli, and it is feeding troops into a tiny, badly supplied bridgehead from which they have no chance of breaking out. I kept assuming that Krynky was an Ukrainian feint/misdirection, and I was stunned when I realized that it wasn't. When it comes to amphibious landings, either you go big and break out quickly, or they turn into a slow suicide for whatever unfortunate troops you sent there.
  21. Public polling is currently at 62% support for "yes", which includes a slight majority of Republicans. Support for recreational marijuana is at 67%. https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/poll-over-60-of-florida-voters-support-proposed-abortion-marijuana-amendments/ Florida is a fairly libertarian-ish state, in the sense of "keep my taxes low and let me do what I want".
  22. Russia is incredibly vulnerable to intrusions by Ukrainian saboteurs. They know the culture, can visually blend in, speak perfect Russian, and even a bit of an accent or a Ukrainian last name isn't too out of place, since ethnic Ukrainians are a sizeable minority within Russia. And the number of potential targets in a country the size of Russia is mind-boggling and impossible to effectively guard.
  23. Belgorod is actually a major logistical hub for Russia, which makes it an important strategical target.
  24. Also, we pretty much already know the names of entire Epstein's circle. We have the flight logs, we have scans of both of his black books with names, we have the photos and videos of people hanging out with him. What happened to them? Nothing. A few of them suffered some mild embarrassment, Prince Andrew had his royal title withdrawn or whatever. The whole thing has faded from public memory to the point where, if you talk about Epstein and his "black books" too much in public, you'll be labelled a conspiracy nut. Despite the fact they are real documents that actually exist and that anyone can read on his Wikipedia page.
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