Bironic

Yes!

Ghanas Parliament has made a new law against LGBTQI, with 3 years prison for being indentifiable as LGBTQI and 5 years for spreading LGBTQI ideology. Previously only male homosexuality was illegal in Ghana, while female wasn’t. The law has still to be signed by the president to take effect. The legendary Uganda interview comes to my mind when I read this… I wonder if in the case of Ghana or other African countries the hatred against LGBTQI was something that existed prior to the contact with abrahmitic religion or if it was mostly imported by Christian and Muslim missionaries… In Switzerland the people have overwhelmingly voted for a 13th pension per year against all major Centre-right-extreme-right parties…

On a more distant note last week tonight has a segment about Boeing, but you could probably insert any company you want instead of it.

He would have more chances if he would run in the US elections, and he would at least survive those.

There’s a cheat code that enables zoom modes if you want to go that way: zoom zoom… and you always can zoom in and out in replays…

The mass recall mod is fun, so is the original campaign! If you would "fix" some of those things, for example the 12 unit selection limit, at the Pro Level Zerg would literally not lose a single game anymore once they hit around 150 plus supply, the one thing that stops a Zerg at more than that supply is the fact that he can no longer micro/control all his units properly. If he could do that(by selecting them all at once), Terran and Protoss wouldn't be able to stop them anymore. Same goes with the Reaver scarabs bugging out, there's a whole science behind it, you can make it bug out as the opponent or you can minimise the possibility of it bugging as the player who controls it... A player like Snow (the best reaver user ever) would probably not lose a single game against terran anymore once he has reavers out, hell Terran pros had to come up with new solutions to fight his reavers because they were so good, imagine them hitting all the time! At this point in the game these bugs are no longer bugs, they are features... Yes once you get to mass carriers, or mass carriers plus arbiters (the hand of god), for Terran it becomes extremely hard to counter, almost impossible, usually better to kill the protoss before he amasses 12 carriers or more. Zerg have lots of counters to carriers and arbiters though, they don't really care...

There is no movement whatsoever. The Korean Pros have steadfastly refused to have one when remastered came out, and given the things that happened at blizzard afterwards I can’t blame them. Me I would actually like a patch though, it could make the game more interesting if done correctly. Don’t think that blizzard has any interest or competence in doing that though atm… No foreigners in the top 28 (ASL has 28 players), and I would be surprised if top foreigners like Mihu, dewalt, etc. could even break into the top 40…probably top 60 though… Protoss tends to be strong/popular on the ladder but at the very top they are slightly underrepresented throughout the history of StarCraft brood war, but they do win regularly, just not as much as the other two races. A few years ago we had a season with top 4 all being Protoss, that wasn’t normal though usually it’s like 1-2-1 or something like that.

Flash was in the military and afterwards he and Bisu were involved in some Crypto currency scandal that I don't know much about, but Bisu is active as always while Flash is largely inactive (he played a few games a couple of months ago but that was it). Yes his random run was hugely impressive and entertaining at the same time! Would be cool if someone would try that again. Given the fact that there has been no balance patch since 2001, I would say the balance is ok. Everybody can win with every race (maybe even with Random!), there are some racial imbalances obviously but they often get "fixed" via mapmaking & evolving the meta. There are a number of SC2 pros that play SCremastered: Rain, Soulkey, TY/Baby... I was drawn to Sc2 early on when WoL came out, I remember especially fondly Huskys original Bronze league heroes, but lost interest when Hots came out... and haven't followed it since, maybe I should give it a try... Yes in Sc:remastered it's even more one sided: all the best players are korean and there is no Serral in sight. There is an interesting "foreign" scene as well as a pretty strong chinese scene but none of those have ever come close to make it into ASL (AfreecaStarleague), the most prestegious tournament in Starcraft...

Since the new season of ASL started, I wondered if there’s anyone here that is interested in StarCraft remastered/brood war professional competition? I am hoping that Best, Snow or Bisu go all the way this season… even though I usually like Terran best…

This is one of the most impressive self reflexions I have read so far in my life. The ability to see past mistakes and is central. Don't agree with the fullblown NATO intervention part, but otherwise: chapeau!

Macron seems to be all bark no bite, which, pardon my French, seems to align rather well with the French presidents/politicians I remember (from Chiracs first term onwards, the exception being Hollande who was no bark no bite). There’s no unified western strategy. If the strategy was to slowly bleed out the Russians over the years, Ukraine would not face a critical shortage of artillery ammunition (for the second time!) and shortages of other systems in the last 2 years. The fact that it looks somewhat like that at first glance is because we lack unified leadership and strategy not because we have it. Together with the fact that Russia has proven to be a far less effective military power than expected, Ukraine has proven the opposite and modern drone & satellite technology making a huge difference on both sides. Belgium will contribute 200 millions and the Netherlands 100 millions to the Czech effort to buy around 800000 155 mm shells in South Korea and South Africa, Macron supports that effort verbally (here we go again, I mean if les petits belges can spare 200 millions sure la grande nation has some Sous lying around)… Finland has confirmed that Ukraine is allowed to use their equipment for attacks on Russia proper, which is unheard of so far (but completely legal), wonder if/how Russia reacts to that. Ukraine has lost its first M1 Abrams tank.

The appeals court denied trumps request to delay the payment of the 450 million penalty…

Yes in a war you can not base a strategy on something like that. Yes maybe a miracle of house brandenburg happens, but more likely it will not. Clearly that's not the case: Russia still occupies around 20% of Ukraines territory and there hasn't been much change in the frontlines since November 2022. Since October 2023 Russia is regaining momentum and seems to be able to push the Ukrainians back from some of their positions: Avdiivka(held since 2014!), Kryynki, Robotyne, Bakhmut etc. The fact that Ukraine is running out of ammo (and not the first time! remember the shortages of ammo before cluster ammo came round last year, or the shortage of anti air systems once russia started to mass bombard the ukrainian cities etc?) means that the West has not prepared for a long drawn out war which is exactly what happens since april-november 2022. The fact that Ukraine support relies on the US not electing republicans in any position of power (House of reps, White House, Senate, which means that ca. every 2 years Ukraine is fucked), the fact that Ukraine still waits for western fighter jets right now, while it was clear from the start they wouldn't be able to get any more soviet-russian ones(you could insert here almost every soviet-russian weapon system they had at the start and have not been able to completely replace with western ones) etc., the fact that we never really say what the end game is and how we are supposed to get there, the fact that Macron now talks about using Nato troops and is backed by lithuania and no one else, the endless and if they weren't so deadly serious, comically long debates about every single weapons systems(the most recent one with Scholz saying that TAURUS can not be sent because german personnel can't become involved in targeting and programming those things in Ukraine like the UK does with Storm shadow, only to have this story debunked by the UK government the next day), the insane long accession of Sweden into Nato, the completely unlcear path of Ukraine into either NATO and EU. The fact that there is no long term plan to finance the war effort, no long term plan to finance the the ukrainian government, no plan what happens after the war etc.. All this means that there is no long term planning, no realisation of what putin wants and how he wants to achieve it, that there is no common ground among the various supporters of Ukraine. It's always russia acts and then the west with some delay reacts somehow, but only after the Ukrainians have paid an unnecessery high price, that could have been prevented if we had planned ahead instead of waiting until the ukrainian position is untenable and the act in some sort of emergency fire fighter rescue to put out the fire... I am not saying that no politicians in the west have some or even all of the above in their sights, it's just that most of the big hitters (USA, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Greece, Romania) don't have it or that there is not enough popular support for it... and then there's the obvious fuckups like Orban (EU & NATO) and Erdogan (NATO) as well as some minor ones like Fico(Slovachia), Vucic (Serbia-balkans), who seem to play more into Putins hands then anyone elses. On the other hand you have a leadership (Putin), a government who has a goal, a strategy and a long term plan, the determination to follow through on that and the means to achieve it, as well as some useful and steadfast supporters (North Korea, Belarus, Iran, Syria, and some minor countries) to actually win. The bolcheviks didn't win the Russian civil war because they had more men, better weapons etc. but they had a unified leadership that was willing to go all the way...

And how exactly are they stopping this help to kill their friends & family by electing Trump? The contest isn't between Biden and Bernie Sanders/Ilhan omar or whomever they prefer, the contest is between Biden and Trump. And if they don't vote for Biden, they vote for Trump. So the question is, is Trump or Biden more likely to help kill their friends and family? Seems like a nobrainer to me... (and if you think I agree with Biden on this issue or on several other issues I don't). I don't know much about the American Palestinians but from the other side of the pond they don't really fit into this white christian nationalist dictatorship that is the program for Trumps next and probably infinite term. I wouldn't be too surprised if one day they end up on some one way trip to Khan Younis... maybe in one of these new boeings with open doors... IMHO they should protest, strike, demonstrate, rally, build caucuses, PACs, lobby groups, gather money, door to door campaigns, media campaigns etc. to push for more propalestinian politics and politicians within the democratic party. If they don't vote, the party will just ignore them even more than before. And they will probably lose the ability to vote "next time", since Trump doesn't really believe in voting anyway (unless he wins of course, and he wins always no matter the results). Maybe there will be american palestinians in the House, Senate and one day an american palestinian President?

I severely doubt that Trump will allow a regular election in 2028 if he’s elected this year.

SC primary is open to all voters ah I see @kissdbyfire has already posted it

Trump got only 60.8% of the vote in SC and Nikki Haley got ca. 39%. She will stay in the race. A significant amount of her voters (some probably being independents and democrats) said they won’t vote for Trump in the general election. Since SC is one of the most conservative states out there that doesn’t look good for him IMHO. He will eventually win the nomination, but it shows that not all republicans are part of his cult. in regards to the above: there’s also the fact that a lot of eggs do get fertilized but the female body rejects them and they get „aborted“ naturally, sometimes without the woman even noticing( stillbirth?!) So you would have to prosecute lots of women for murder and the men for assessory to murder…

I wonder if Russia is on the trajectory of becoming a larger version of North Korea. Everything just being poured into the military etc., even if no war is actually happening (i am talking in an eventual post war Russia). Or if the russians finally step up once it becomes clear to even the last guy that they will no longer have their creature comforts...

I have heard from one expert that to reduce foreign aid to Ukraine even further Putin could launch an attack on Nato territory as a diversion. In such a scenario all aid would be diverted to the attacked country, leaving Ukraine with even less, so that they can be steamrolled by Russia. I don't think that this is a reasonable strategy because it would give Nato the pretext to unleash its full military machine against russia, which is a fight that russia can only lose (unless it uses nukes, then both lose). The Ukraine war & the western sanctions together have reshuffled the russian economy, while they have been overall bad for Russia (not too bad though!) the effects are very different depending on the region. While Moscow and St Petersburg are on the losing side, rural Russia is actually profiting from the war (at least short term). The Military-industrial complex is often located outside of the two big centers and is now working 24/7 to produce for the war effort, giving rural russians job opportunities they didn't have before. The salaries paid to the Soldiers and in case of death to the relatives gives them a much needed boost in purchase power (most soldiers coming from rural regions). The Construction business has also got new lucrative contracts to (re)build housing, transport infrastructure and military structures in Ukraine itself as well as its surrounding regions.

Today it is two years that Putin started his invasion of Ukraine. According to Nepalese opposition parties and western media, between 14000 and 15000 Nepalese citizens have been hired as mercenaries for Russia. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/10/asia/nepal-fighters-russia-ukraine-families-intl-cmd/index.html Wikipedia lists 14 confirmed killed Nepalese soldiers, which is less than South Ossetia (16), Kyrgyztan (26), Moldova (28), Tajikistan (60), Uzbekistan (61), with Abkhazia (11) and Syria (9) not that much lower. This makes me wonder if the amount of mercenaries from these countries is somewhat similar to Nepals. I don't think that Russia is running out of "meat" anytime soon, specialists, pilots and high ranking officers will become a problem though (if they are not already). On a more "light" note: cats play a decisive role in the trenches apparently: both to reduce the amount of rats(which destroy food as well as electronics) and other rodents but also as comfort animals for the soldiers. There is even a tomcat called Syrsky, like the new commander of the Ukrainian military. Czech republic tries to get funding to buy 800000 artillery shells for immediate delivery to Ukraine .https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-23/czechs-seek-international-funding-for-ukraine-ammunition-deal

I don’t agree that they „suddenly“ showed up. The republican infatuation with the evangelicals and other extreme christian groups dates back to the 1970s, to the ascent of guys like Ronald Reagan and the decade long struggle to overturn roe vs wade…

The decision to send Taurus lies with the chancellor. The security cabinet consisting of defense minister(spd), foreign minister(greens), finance minister(fdp) and chancellor will not overrule him. Media generally agree that both FDP and Greens and their respective ministers are in favor of semding Taurus and it’s widely assumed that defense minister Pistorius (spd) largely shares their view.

Donald Trump is a northern republican… as is Rudy Giuliani https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68353303.amp Alexander Smirnov FBI source accused of Biden lies linked to Russian intelligence… A U.S. citizen was just arrested in Russia for treason… https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/20/europe/russia-arrest-us-dual-citizen-intl/index.html

I wouldn't say all without exception, there were and still are plenty of politicians that have shown exactly that (both when it comes to Ukraine as well as in regards to climate change). In regards to Ukraine specifically I would say most of the political leaders in power in Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland, Northern Europe, Czech republic, the Netherlands, the UK have shown these qualities. The problem is more that some of the big hitters such as the USA, Germany, France, Italy (with the exception of a very short period lasting from around January 21 to may 22) haven't shown it...

I don't agree with this "in the past we were led by lions and now by donkeys", almost all of the people usually mentioned have massive failures, faults and flaws under their belt. IMHo there are no statistics to back up that belief either... And I don't think that there are no good/great/competent leaders/politicians etc today. That doesn't mean that I am optimistic about our future or that everything will be fine, but this weird nostalgia makes me always uneasy, it somewhat resembles the MAGA slogans (when was america great the last time? under Ike? Kennedy?) BS if you ask me...