Then I guess the question becomes: What do? Because I am pretty sure most people would rather not have the US fall, but we are running into the same problem that Reagan defined where the Elite claiming to speak for America are telling the Soviets "Better Red than Dead" even though the average American is screaming "Better Dead than Red", except this time we have no Reagan to say "Stop the bullshit, or else America will grind you to a fine paste."
Bro, its Kansas. "There is no wind today" actually means "There is just a light breeze today."
Additionally, we dont rely totally on the Wind, and could overpower the grid with our current powerplant loadout. If we have to take some of the wind turbines down? Ok then, crank up the power at Jeffrey (Coal-fired) or Wolf Creek (Nuclear), NBD. We had some of our turbines (about 20% if I remember) freeze up just like in Texas when that winter storm hit, but we didnt lose our power because there was enough backup from the traditional plants.
Which, you know, is also something California struggles with since they keep wanting to get rid of everything else.
I can't tell the difference you're all rectangles.
How dare you! I have never seen such a disgusting display of regionism in my life, you regionist!
Meanwhile, my home state of Kansas gets nearly 50% of its grid power from wind, and we never have had any problems with connections (excluding extreme weather, 'natch) and energy prices are low. This despite most of us in these parts having hostility toward the Global Warming "The earth is dying in 5 minutes!!!" rhetoric.
Almost like actions are more useful than words.
On the other hand, it takes skill to fail so hard that you injure 3 people with a single negligent discharge.
Also, of course it was the LARP brigade with their jammed up guns, Wish-tier body armor, and people given guns way outside their actual ability to use them (like the photo of that woman carrying the hunting shotgun nearly as big as she was).
"those of you who talk about the blood of the patriots and all that..."
I love how he leaves off the "...And Tyrants" off of the end of that quote. Probably because he and his handlers sweat nervously about that part.
It also assumes they would be the only ones with that equipment, and that there wouldnt be at least a few defectors (or even a ton of defectors, since a lot of the Combat Arms have been aggressively rejecting the Woke push, and its not like POGs and REMF are fighters). Hell, you can probably even throw in State National Guard units, unless you really expect me to believe the Texas or Florida National Guard would fight their states they swear allegiance to.
But even ignoring that, the quote still holds true: "Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics."- Gen. Omar Bradley (maybe)
On this note, I was utterly gobsmacked (...well, not really) when Biden said that the 2nd Amendment never meant you could own cannons. Nevermind the well documented case where a merchantman captain sent a letter to John Adams (?) asking if he could mount cannons on his ship to defend against pirates and Adams responded "What part of 'Shall Not Be Infringed' was not clear to you?" Historically, both the American Revolution AND The Texas Revolution started because the powers that be tried to take citizens cannons and the citizens responded "Hippity Hoppity, get off my property!"
Funny you should mention that. A few months ago, about 100 French generals (most retired, but a few active duty) wrote a letter to Macron that effectively boiled down to “We are on the verge of civil war. Fix it, or we will fix it.”
I do think a lot of people are starting to realize that and dig their heels in though, and that is a good thing in the long run.
They screeched about Scott Cawthon and FNAF. And while Scott decided to retire, he still maintains creative control, the IP itself, and royalties, so it wont really change much (maybe?) and the average reaction of the FNAF community can be summarized like this, with an increasing amount growing increasingly agitated over the people who did this.
Hollywood and other Entertainment companies in America, most of which are losing money hand over fist as they embraced ideology over actual products, have started trying to get into Anime and Manga since they are making absolute boatloads of cash, but still trying to use it for their ideology. This has lead to a very unusual pushback where the Japanese are essentially telling these companies "We know you are dying, we will not save you. And if you keep messing with our IP by changing stuff in the name of 'localizaiton', then we will start doing the subtitles and dubbing ourselves." And at least from what I can tell, many of the American companies dont know how to respond to that, because they seem to think that they MUST be diverse or else they are leaving money on the table, even though the Japanese are proving them wrong to their own eyes, and they refuse to believe it.
And we also have the sudden backpedaling on CRT, because it seems like they were blindsided by the sudden push back from parents, especially minority parents who are just upset over "Why are you making making my child feel like they are inferior?!" as white parents are over "Why are you treating my child like a bad person?!"
I know you have talked about it before. But the more time passes and the more pushback we see, the more it seems like the current establishment is on borrowed time and they are doubling and tripling down because its the only thing they CAN do, but it just isnt enough anymore as an increasing amount of people decide to say "We will not comply."
How fragile are journos that they need to be constantly given praise and adoration or else they descend into a screeching, emotionally unstable wreck for YEARS on end.
The consequences of slavery were stunting to the individual Southerners (and to the southern economy generally), who just like today, were priced out from being competitive labor markets by people who thought themselves noble for 'civilizing savages'.
I think a lot of people forget about this about the Slavery debate during its own time. I know I brought up with you before my states history of Bleeding Kansas where we started shooting people trying to force us to become a Slave State against our will when we wanted to be a Free State. Well, what doesnt get talked about a lot is that the people who were actually abolitionist were a fairly tiny amount of the population here, and were generally regarded as the fringe crazies who were unstable and itching for a fight (and to be fair, the Abolitionist movement spawned the nations first domestic terrorist in the form of John Brown).
But the overwhelming majority of the state was Free-Soilers, not out of any sort of desire to see blacks liberated from Slavery. Most didnt care. It was 100% a case of "You expect me and my farmstead to compete with some mega-plantation running on free labor?! Fat chance!"
Additionally, for all the talk the Black Supremist types have about how "Our ancestors built this country in chains!", America during the time of Southern slavery was a global backwater, and the South itself was woefully behind the times (Insert Sherman's Pre-Civil War speech in Louisiana here). It wasnt until after the end of the Civil War and Slavery, as well as a few decades to shake off the rust, that the US became the powerhouse it would eventually become. So quite the opposite, their ancestors were merely here, and had little to do with the nations rise, other than they were part of the rise because they could work like most others.
"game journalists", and "progressive" devs in the industry on the other have all the power to end his career.
No one listens to game journos and Scott is self-published so there is no dev who can cancel him. Scott is basically in Notch-level "Untouchable", except Scott is still making games. And that most of his fans are sticking by him means there is very little they can actually do to stop him.
EDIT: That said, I absolutely agree with you that this forum is getting extremely toxic lately and its mostly down to the StormFag types showing up for God knows what reason.
“War does not determine who is right. Only who is left.”- Bertrand Russell
The game implemented my hypothesis, neat.
Not directly, but it is something you can do with a combination. One of your decisions you can make as king is to take out a loan with the Jews, where they will give you 300 gold, but you are expected to pay back 350 gold, and you suffer severe penalties with the Catholic church, your vassals, and can cause economic issues for you.
Another decision you can do (at any given time) is to expel the Jews, which will give you a certain amount of gold right off the bat, triple the income to your kingdoms coffers (the implication being that money no longer going to the Jews is now going to your realm), and gets rid of any debt you have with them. But it causes your king to take a hit to their prestige, gives them the Arbitrary trait (causes problems with your vassals due to being viewed as unjust and unreasonable), causes diplomatic issues with nearby nations, causes a drop in economic growth in your region (about 10% less), and causes occasional events that your region can lose technology until you reverse the decision. (minimum of 20 years before you can reverse).
But hey, if you are absolutely drowning in debt and the Church is on your back, you may have to take....drastic measures. And while Paradox AI is not perfect, its a least smart enough to consider that deal. Personally, when I am playing, I try to make sure I have enough gold reserves that being 300 gold down is no big deal.
[Tropico hijinks]
I too am a massive fan of Tropico, and I share your distain for the god damn hippies of my island. Usually, end up building the same sort of thing as you, though I do usually include a social security system so that the unemployed, retired, and students arent totally destitute.
...of course, I make up for it by saying that you have to pay for your damn lunch and your damn healthcare, but hey. At least the island is so built up that I have more jobs than people. So whats your excuse Hippie?
I firmly believe that anyone who unironically believes in monarchy should be required to play several rounds of Crusader Kings. While I wasnt exactly a monarchist before I played that game, it ruined any belief that monarchy is a good idea.
Because I cant tell you how many times I got the fabled Philosopher-King, the man who has all of the required intelligence, charisma, and expertise to be a good monarch. I have all of these plans to give my realm a new Golden Age of a better life for my peasants, a superior army to defend the realm, new great works to show off the engineering might of my scholars, and perhaps if I have the time go conquer one of my old rivals.
.......Then my conniving brother goes and tries to fight a war with someone I planned to be an ally with because he is trying to steal some power from anyone, so now I have to go help him or else lose part of my realm, and while I am at it cross that nation off from the "potential ally" list. Then I come back to find out that one of my vassals was in debt to the Jews so he committed a pogrom and forced them out, and God Damn it! I needed them for my economic plans, you idiot! So I do what I can to invite them back in, but now I have the Pope breathing down my neck for helping them, but he says he will look the other way if I go on Crusade. So I go to do it and get some heat off of me, and I am doing reasonably well due to my skilled commanders (at least I chose them well), then I get word that my god damn bastard of a brother is trying to steal my throne! So I have to go back and kill him for good this time because I am tired of his shit. Then now I have a peasant revolt from them demanding a tax lien, and no! I cant give it to you even though I want to, because if I did it right now my vassals would think I am a weak ass bitch.
But somehow, I finally manage to put out all of the fires. It took most of my life though. I can finally start on putting in to place all of the things I wanted. Even give the peasants that tax lien under a situation more favorable to me. And as I am reaching the end of my life, I can die content that even though I didnt get everything I wanted, I at least set it down the right path, and all my son has to do is not screw it up.
........then it turns out my son is a god damn midwit who screws it all up by not being enough of a gigabrain to understand the things I was doing or wanted to do because he was too busy playing court politics while I was actually doing things, and now it all dies on the vine or gets done much later, and now we are back to square one. FML.
There's nothing paradoxical about it. Unions have destroyed the industries they were part of, because of the protection rackets they build.
Absolutely, especially in this day and age where workers have plenty of rights but now Unions want to have them be treated like kings because it justifies their existence (not really caring it ruins their industry, and thus their job, in the process).
I was more getting at that in the past, there was at least an argument to be made for Unions in the face of brutal, uncaring corporations. Or at least, that is what the average normie would argue and believe. Having done discussions with you before, I am sure you would say something to the effect of "You empower workers by making it so the corporation is not all powerful, and they only got all powerful because of government largesse." (probably not wrong, just saying there was at least an argument in 1850).
[Wales killing the supposed to be unkillable]
Jeez, and this is what people blame Thatcher for? As I would always say with my friends back in the day, "It takes skill to fail that hard."
What any area fully run by Democratic Socialism needs is not a half-way compromised approach of introducing Reganomics or Thatcherism. They need radical Economic Liberalization.
The problem I see here is that they are going to kick, scream, bite, and do anything they can to try and get you voted back out the first chance they get, especially if you try to touch their precious gibs.
Although, I can see some very long term hope in that as areas around them continue to grow and see their quality of life improve, you may hit a critical mass of people saying "Well, why cant it work here?" and start demanding the same policies. Going back to what I know, Omaha, NE has been doing VERY well by big city standards because their mayor (the first Republican elected in about 15 years, and the first to get elected multiple times to the job) has been cutting property taxes while also balancing the budget by making sure new businesses come in and making it a good, clean city that people want to live in.
Of course, like I have told you before, she also did this by letting the police off the leash and letting them utterly crush BLM the first time they tried to stage a riot, so she also saved the city from major damage, which just feeds a feedback loop that will draw in more people and business.
Also, slightly off topic, I just looked at her election this year. I knew she was reelected, but I hadnt known that she utterly smote her Dem challenger to the ground, winning 64%-34%. Considering Omaha usually votes Blue for federal level stuff, I wonder if this is just more evidence of a coming shift in 2022 and 2024.
Your point also applies to workers already in the US and legal as well. We have seen a trend in the last few years of some companies starting to move manufacturing back to the United States. You have seen many automotive factories opening in places like Tennessee and Kentucky, you have seen large electronics and microchip factories being built in Arizona, there is a small but growing shipbuilding industry starting up in Alabama and Florida, and Texas was asked what industry it wished to expand and they said "Yes." But you may notice, none of that is California, or the Upper Midwest ("Rust Belt"), or New York.
And why go South? Well, because instead of having to give their workers lavish benefits packages and significant hourly wages, they can go to the South/Southwest, give significant but not obscene benefits, pay wages that while lower than other areas are plenty enough for local standards (a $15/hour wage in Texas will get you MUCH further than a $25/hour wage in Michigan or California), and there is also more room to expand when the time comes. Then there is the bonus that workers in the South are not only not interested in unionizing, they are actively hostile to unions, which paradoxically can be better for the workers in this modern age.
But of course, the people being left behind because their own ideologue became so toxic to business that they decided they would never come back, only become even more hostile to business. Which just causes the problem to keep spiraling out of control, and eventually something to is going to have to break. I am just not sure what will break.
If I remember right, Kubrick originally wanted the whole scene scripted (because again, we are talking about the physical embodiment of "Demands perfection") with a different actor, and Ermey was brought on to ensure authenticity in the script. He pointed out that it is literally impossible to script a Drill Instructor because they are supposed to find weakness in a recruit and attack it so they can eventually be molded into a better soldier, and that requires improv. Kubrick balked at this ('natch), but changed his mind after Ermey submitted a video of himself chewing out a bunch of Marines, as they threw rotten fruit at him, and he didnt repeat himself in a 10 minute rant. Kubrick made Ermey the Drill Instructor, gave him free reign, and the rest is history.
Again, if I am remembering the story right.
RIP R. Lee Ermey. One of my favorite actors.
You know you are a badass when you get carte blanche to improv from "Mr. Perfectionist" himself, Stanley Kubrick.
You can do all of that without the secession, and it will still work fine. And we already have states telling the Feds "You have no power here!" and starting to put things right.
Either way, I can agree with the general attitude of this thread. To quote a man far more wise than myself, "This too shall pass." When you look at history, the US has this unnatural ability to come back from hits that have destroyed other nations, and then come out the other side stronger than ever. We are in the suck right now. But all the signs show that people are not accepting this direction and are demanding a change back to the way things were, and doing it in ways that cant be stopped, only delayed.
We are living in a rhyme of the 1970's right now, with a weak and vacillating president, domestic extremism, major domestic unrest, and a shaky economy. It sucks, but we have get through Carter before we can get Reagan. And when it happens, I guarantee this nation will take off like a rocket back to its true heights. And I will love to see it.
It would have been relatively easy to stab or shoot Hitler, but it would not have prevented Goebbels or Goering from taking power immediately afterward without a proper coup.
Hell, this very problem is part of why the Valkyrie bomb plot failed. They had numerous instances to kill Hitler, but all of them would have left Himmler in power and still alive, so they kept calling it off. So they were left with their only shot at all 3 of the people they needed dead being a case where their carefully chosen bomb was not powerful enough to kill everyone, so people survived. Even if it left Hitler paranoid and even more of a junkie than he had been BEFORE the bombing (since now he was addicted to pain meds on top of everything else).
So it sounds like they are just stuck in it for the long haul as they find their way back to liberalism and I should just thank my luckily stars that I both live in America and in an American state that values freedom and liberty.
So it sounds like the only real way out for them is to go full Bismarck and undercut the Communist by giving a sanctioned, reasonable alternative, or just dissolve the UK and return to being Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England.
So it sounds like the State-Level Republicans putting their foot down and breaking the Lefts toys by doing things like banning CRT, as well as just generally not giving a damn what the Feds say, is the right way to go? And then the fact that Trump more or less owns the Republican Party now and people with his "Populist, Nationalist, Fight Like Hell" attitude being the new blood taking over will also help out. I guess as someone already in a state of defiance in Kansas, all I can really do is keep helping at the local level, hunker down, and listen to the Tornado blow on by.