Ia! Ia! Torvalds fhtagn!

Increasing trade between the EU and Canada just makes perfect sense, with or without full membership. They bring the raw resources, we bring the equipment to extract those raw resources. It’s a pretty sweet deal for both parties.

L4D2’s port was great when I played it, and Valve even made a big triumphant blog post with all the benchmarks proving it worked better than the Windows binary. Maybe your confusing it with Dying Light? That native port was so incredibly trash that everyone forced Proton on to avoid it.

I agree with the outcome, but not the reasoning.

The US has no planned victory condition, no strategic plan, they’re just kinda bombing things semi-randomly with no long-term goal.

Iran, meanwhile, has a specific actionable plan: cause enough damage to turn public opinion against the war hard enough so even Trump can’t ignore it.

In short, the US can’t win because they haven’t even defined what winning means.

Don’t get too excited. Yes, it’s a split from Orban and Magyar is more pro-EU, but Tisza (the new party) is a splinter group from Fidesz (Orban’s party) and share many of the same views domestically.

Basically, same far right people but willing to stfu to get access to EU funds again.

There’s a concerning number of Romanians who think the Tate brothers did nothing wrong. Best get them somewhere with a functioning legal system.

Average duration of a fascist government is 10 years. Eventually they burn themselves out because the ideology is unsustainable, and there are cases of fascist governments being taken down by mass noncompliance, but be ready for the long haul.

Yup, this is pretty much it. I played a campaign of it. Essentially, you’re so far down the hierarchy you’re basically almost human, with older vampires being a far far greater threat than humans, struggling to understand and survive vampire society before it destroys you. As you said, there’s also a fair chunk of trying to hold on to what humanity you still have left.

Now you’re thinking with tarrifs!

For fairness here, tarrifs can be beneficial and useful when specifically targeted at industries which you can compete globally in with commensurate subsidies. In other words, universal tarrifs is the same as shooting your own nuts off, but targeted tarrifs can be helpful in growing specific industries you can grow.

All tarrifs are paid by the population of the country doing the tarrifing, but when it’s well thought out and specifically targeted it can be a good thing.

Lastly, for clarity, fuck trump, what he’s doing is incredibly stupid and will only hurt US citizens.

Different people have different thresholds. I can say that in my personal experience, the majority of people in Romania have been able to rationalize everything until this point as Trump just running his mouth, but the “real powers” (Romanians in general are very conspiracy-minded) would never let him actually upset the apple cart.

Some people had the spell broken months ago, during the first round of universal tariffs. Some people saw the stories of Europeans being abducted for weeks at the border for no reason and that woke them up. Some explained all that away as a few unfortunate mistakes, not a real pattern. Then the next round of negotiations with the EU, widely considered a capitulation to the US around here put some people back to sleep (we gave him what he wanted, maybe he’ll leave us alone now).

The higher tensions get around an actual military engagement, the more worried people are getting, the more people are snapping out of it.

LBC radio host James O’Brien has been shouting from the rooftops about the worst case scenario for months, and unfortunately he’s being proven right.

It’s normalcy bias. Career analysts, people that have made their living predicting the next major geopolitical shift, are more vulnerable to it than your average Joe. The world has operated one way for their entire lives, and it’s very difficult for most people to see that the rules of play have completely and irrevocably shifted.

They assume that the US won’t do something this patently self-destructive because the US has (mostly) operated on a logical set of self-interested principles dressed up in the language of “Democracy” and “Freedom”. The idea that it would blow its own kneecaps off while overtly and clearly talking the language of imperialism and might makes right is so outside their experience that it’s unthinkable until the spell of normalcy bias is broken.

The Californian Republic would definitely have the most interesting flag in the EU. Too many tricolors, not enough bears.

I 100% agree that progressive liberalism doesn’t work, but that doesn’t stop them trying. Center-left capitalists love them as well, because they get to look like the nice guys while keeping the focus away from any serious regulation or reform.

This picture perfectly encapsulates what I mean when I say progressive liberal:

There is a real difference between the two. Others have made the point that CNN doesn’t care, it’s all just scary “THE LEFT” wording to them, but the difference in political theory is the following:

Progressive liberals care about social issues, but not economic ones. They will actually care and move the needle on LGBTQ+ rights, the gender gap, minority rights, etc, but as a liberal they’ll also care about the free market and the wellbeing of corporations.

A social democrat wants to regulate and control the economy for the benefit of people. They aren’t going to go full communist and sieze the means of production, but they will actively oppose economic interests in order to improve the standard of living.

The constant flipflopping between calling him a “progressive liberal” and a “democratic socialist” is annoying. Pick a lane, CNN. He’s one or the other, and from what I’ve heard from him he’s very clearly a democratic socialist.

Can’t blame him for walking right up to the line of acceptability. If he’d have actually laid the blame where it’s fully deserved, he wouldn’t have a fine, he’d be defenestrated.

Foundry VTT is amazing. Been running Kingmaker for almost 2 years on it with the official module (very slow pace, 1-2 sessions a month). I’d argue it’s basically mandatory if you’re serious about online TTRPGs.

Adam Something, is that you?

The GMan has broken containment and is now wandering through our timeline, inserting people into the right points to change the future. I guess this explains the whacky wild ride we’re currently on.