Jace, Extat

It's a wacky and wild world, to be sure. I fear we are only at the top of the slide into the abyss, however.

You like entertaining communism, I like entertaining myself. It's an art, being a Jace.

Sorry, dawg but it is what it is. Communism as a political ideology has basically always led to horrors on a grand scale. Myopic or not, that's just the truth. I don't know jack shit about Vietnam, I'mma take your word on that. The Korean war... that started when the communists invaded south to force their ideology on the people there? Stop, I'm gonna get choked up.

I like one-a-week too. It gives you time to talk about the individual episodes with friends and the internet.

You can entertain whatever you like. But I'll rebut any talk of idealized communism by referring to the historic examples of what happens when those ideas meet the real world and real people are acting on them.

When people organize a society around pursuing communism you get shit like the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, and North Korea. Whether or not a state successfully adhered to communism as a theory is less important than the fact that the ones which even professed to try ended up as authoritarian nightmare states.

"has led to" then.

And I disagree with that inclination. Or at the very least I think it doesn't matter whether Stalin's union was really communist, what matters is that it's the premier example of what communism can lead to.

'Aight. That looks good.

They'll have Hank in it to catch the furry demographic.

I know. I'm agreeing with you. But in the original post I was specificially referring Stalin's Soviet Union.

I meant what the Soviet Union became after Stalin took over. That's why I called it Stalin's, to differentiate between Lenin's vision and what it became after Stalin's death.

I don't understand the drive to divorce Stalin and his Soviet Union from communism. It was a national identity, over a hundred-million people convinced they were communists and champions of that ideology in everything they did. I get that Stalin and his government didn't implement the theory as written by the likes of Marx, but the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China is just what communism looks like in the real world.

I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. I don't think interception technology will ever get the risk of nuclear penetration to 0%. But I do think we could get it down to say 3% or 5%, with appropriate dedication of resources. What that means for the countries that can afford such defensive systems is enormous, and isolated to probably just U.S.A. and China. Nobody else is going to be able to maintain a hemispherical Iron Dome. I expect much more overt competition for Africa this century, with boots on the ground to turn the continent into an enormous perimeter defense outpost between the two superpowers. (And plunder its resources to pay for these systems.) If an actual war starts between U.S.A and China it will be a tech battle, one side striking first to try and disable the other's defense systems with some kind of AI virus at the same time as striking the civil infrastructure (phones, mostly) so that there's internal discombobulation to go along with the military chaos. Russia might actually benefit from this situation and become a coveted ally as just a massive nuclear missile platform able to put one side into a dominant position. Hard enough to stop China or America's nukes, but Russia's as well? That could be good for them, keep them viable as a world power for a long time as long as those nukes are useable. So, to sum up: I think a few major cities get nuked within my lifetime, despite interception technologies making previous levels of worldwide destruction unlikely. For obvious reasons I hope those cities are in China. (Regarding using a nuke as a sort of EMP battering ram to knock out drones, I'm sure that AI will be able to figure out how to deploy the drones in such a way as to make that an ineffective strategy while maintaining a cloud of interceptors with minimal coverage gaps.) Ah, but what a villain was Errinwright. "I fought to save Earth, you fought to save yourself." At this point America would be lucky to have Sadovir in our government, and that's a damn sad thing to say.

I agree completely. Mutual Assured Destruction is a 20th century concept that's ready for the scrap heap of history. The future is constantly airborne missile interception technologies. Drones the size of jumbo jets that fly for days at a time with anti-missile capabilities, lasers eventually but for now just dozens and dozens of ICBM interceptors. These giant weapons platforms will need to be supported by thousands, tens of thousands, of AI-driven support drones too. Great opportunity for manufacturing jobs, although there will be inclination to completely automate their construction to keep costs down.

Talking to women is gaaaaaaaay. Everyone knows that the more hetero a man is the less he interacts with women.

Nothing wrong with being bald or balding, happens to a lot of people. But Stephen Miller doesn't have a huge forehead. He has a perfectly normal fivehead.

I've recommended it before but I gotta do it again: If you have Amazon Prime you gotta watch Hazbin Hotel. Got to. It's the most charming thing I've ever seen, I'm just smiling constantly as I watch. It's about the princess of hell, Lucifer's daughter, trying to rehabilitate sinners and get them into heaven to reduce hell's overpopulation problem which necessitates annual cleansing by militant angels. It's animated, it's about friendship and redemption, and it's utterly depraved. To say nothing of the best character in the show, Angel Dust, and his heartbreaking relationship with an abusive asshole who exploits him constantly. And the songs are all bangers, all of 'em. I've said it before and I'll say it again, again, if you have Amazon Prime you have to give this show a try.

I have little and less to contribute. Russia is weak, easy to dunk on to display American power to support its (Russia's) enemies. Not doing so is tantamount to treason as far as I'm concerned. Europe shouldn't be asked to shoulder the burden of buttressing Ukraine, it should be America's privilege to do so. Setting aside entirely the stupidity (from an American perspective) of a re-armed Europe. Weak allies are what you want as a superpower. A strong ally is a potential rival.

Been playing Marvel Rivals with my cos and friends over the last couple of weeks and I just tonight switched from a Psylock player to a Squirrel Girl player. The difference is night and day. I was the team MVP twice and had a 20 kill streak at one point, and the fellas I play with are tough competition for top marks.

Who you callin' a daginurit? I'm classy, ho.

Watching Jurassic Park, my favorite movie.

Excellent title

I'm not a fan of celery either, I think it's a useless vegetable.