Cuba does pretty well despite the sanctions in all honesty.

It actually infuriates me everytime I think of all the good in the world that would be done by a Cuba unencumbered by the ongoing sanctions. Cuba developed a vaccine for lung cancer while under brutal sanctions. Think of what they could have done by now if the US wasn’t so hostile. I could absolutely believe they would have the beginnings of treatments for some of the more deadly forms of cancer. It is burning of the Library of Alexander level shit to prevent that.

One could make a reasonable argument that the life-saving care the US has prevented puts the death of millions [more] on their hands.

Okay, what specific law is Tiktok in violation of that no other social media app is in violation of? Even if it were a direct mouthpiece of the CPC [it isn’t] that wouldn’t mean it is violating any laws.

“We don’t like Chinese people” isn’t a valid legal argument.

Source of what specific US laws Tiktok is in violation of. It is very easy to look at Chinese law and see that it is enforced equally across all services in the country, and that those that work within the law are welcome to operate. It isn’t protectionism, Apple is a competitor for many Chinese products but are allowed to operate because they follow the law.

Not playground legal logic.

Said social media apps could probably launch tomorrow if they followed local laws. They don’t want to, so they aren’t allowed to operate. I can’t think of a single world government that would allow a company to operate within their borders without being subject to that government’s rules.

However if they did comply and try to do it now they’d probably struggle since China made their own [arguably better in many cases] alternatives since the US companies didn’t want to play ball.

I work for an international company. Due to the nature of my industry we had a LOT of new laws and regulations to follow in China, probably more than most social media companies. We did the work to comply and we are more than welcome to operate in China. It is our biggest market by far, and growing faster than any other.

Same, I enjoy the genre a lot still despite the fact that most MMO players seem to spend more time hating them than playing them.

I am a bit tired of the genre being totally dominated by fantasy though. I miss Wildstar and Secret World.

Leeches are cool little critters and actually help with a lot of blood conditions. They’re great for dealing with swelling and even things like varicose veins.

Their saliva/secretions are indeed used as the basis for some medications to treat blood-clots, though we don’t necessarily use the leech itself much in those solutions.

Way cooler than land lords. Also a leech will detach when it’s full. Land lords will just keep going.

I have had that factorio itch a couple times recently, but holding off for the DLC.

Been occupying myself with Dyson Sphere Program instead.

That is Breathedge.

Oxygen Not Included is the Klei joint, the folks who did Don’t Starve. It’s very much about engineering solutions to problems. Honestly heat is the bigger issue than Oxygen.

I have been summoned I see.

Playing Currently:

Stellaris (I just bought the Astral Planes DLC on sale)

FFVII Rebirth

EDIT: Desynced - I forgot I was playing this one, hah. Scifi factory builder with modular buildings and programmable unit behaviours.

Favourite Genres:

Factory Games

City/Colony Builders

RPGs (MMOs or JRPGs mostly)

Completed Recently:

I just finished my latest Rimworld run, where I did a Neolithic/Tribal to Spacer tech run. Rimworld is my favourite game ever made, I do runs through it very regularly, but wanted to finish up my current game before the latest DLC hits in a month or so.

I have at least a thousand hours in Rimworld and I can’t imagine that pace slowing down a whole lot. The funny thing is I actually hated it the first couple times I tried to get into it, before something just clicked.

The end result is basically the same as you said, but for their future strategy it probably makes more sense to have Trump win. It gives them a super easy “Look, everything is bad because Trump was in office, therefore you must vote for us” campaign next time. Lets them run literally any candidate under the sun and probably have even odds at winning. Which means they can safely shift further to the right than they usually do.

Arguably it still doesn’t matter, because any candidate that isn’t pre-annointed would stand no chance of winning anyway, but it definitely makes for a super easy campaign message. Their response to any challenge can just be “Trump spooky. WOOOOOOO”.

I have my issues with Galloway here and there, some are larger than others, but there is no doubt in my mind that he is on the right on the Palestine issue. Man has a track record there that is consistent for basically his entire career.

Most of the time I agree with him on geopolitics and not remotely on social issues, but critical support where it is due.

Aa, to be fair not my regular commute. I don’t go into the city normally from where I live, I work in my town. But for weekend trips or the like.

From the prestigious…Museum of Ukrainian Poster.

I assume they have like 3 artists represented there.

Aa yes, refusing to acknowledge Russia as a proper noun is really going to show them who is boss.
“The Canada” is a weird affectation that almost seems like a passive-aggressive reprisal to people who said ‘the Ukraine’.

" In 2022, the museum of Ukrainian Poster recognized him as the best poster artist in the country." That…is a sentence.

Every minute I look at this, I just find new more terrible things.

But but…how can we help the people of the DPRK if they are getting meals!? Our entire strategy involved starving them to freedom!

That’s absolutely how it will go if the US decides it needs the draft.

Some straw man will be created as the new “threat to democracy”. Could be Trump, could be whoever else.

If people are already willing to vote for actual genocide just to keep out trump, the draft wouldn’t be such a stretch. Just implement a system where you can make a “freedom donation” to exempt your family and rich white liberal families would have no objections.

I very very rarely ever remember my dreams, with the sole exception of panicking over thinking I forgot to drop a university class in time or forgot some assignment. I haven’t been a student for about 20 years, but it still comes up regularly.

This is impressive but we absolutey need to consider at what cost. Nowhere in the headline do they even raise the question!

I pay around USD30 for a 90 minute bus ride into the city from where I live. I would happily pay rates like this for a 20 minute air taxi.

Cool, I left like twenty years ago already. Guess you need to instead punish me by forcefully taking away my passport [without me having to pay the thousands of dollars that normally costs]. Oh no, please, anything but that.