Oh yeah, it seems like the best possible option and I think it could be cool.
The unfortunate thing is Ubi might not be into that, since they got salty about so many people picking the male character in Odyssey.
In theory, the wives of samurai were expected to know how to fight to serve as a “last line of defense” force for while their husbands were out waging war. And there were a handful who fought. But like always, it’s an interesting historical footnote rather than a common thing.
There were many geisha’s hired as assassins though.
Many of those voters are legal immigrants and want those immigration laws enforced.
Not only do they want them enforced. They want them enforced more hardcore than most Whites do. Your typical Right-Wing White person would probably just say "Have a wall, deport those in, and we are good."
There are a not insignificant amount of Hispanics who say "Have a wall, with automated kill turrets, minefields, and a moat that has sharks with frickin' laser beams! And if they are already in the country, yeet them back over the border with a catapult."
Merrick Garland is still there, and he is still persecuting critics of the regime.
As much as he can, yes. But his power is effectively limited to shaking his fist at the sky in rage because he actually doesnt have all that much power to do anything major. He can get away with the J6 stuff because of the optics propped up by the media, and even that they are losing ground on. Other than that, there is very little they can actually do, because the US is so decentralized in terms of power that states can just give the Feds the finger and keep doing their own thing. And there have already been a few cases of states arresting or driving out Federal agents attempting to enforce laws that are not popular locally (like the ATF agent that got arrested by an Ohio sheriff).
Of course the US is 'more free' than North Korea, but that it can be classified as 'free', in my view, is quite an absurdity.
Then it seems like your stand of 'free' is unattainable in reality. In practical terms, the US is still the closest that exist to a free country, even with the current shenanigans by the Feds. Because when people start trying to fuck with the system to make us more like Europe with a centralized government, the states can just say "naw" and as long as they actually fight it (spoiler: they are) then it will ruin all of their plans. And then as political power shifts due to that, like how power is currently shifting away from California and New York and toward Texas and Florida, that trend will continue. And while the old Powers like Biden may not acknowledge it, they will have no power so they will be left to just Ree in the corner. Much like how Boston and Philadelphia went from being the centers of American political power to places people barely even remember exist.
That literally happened. Security beat up a guy who was protesting the rape of his daughter, he was then arrested and prosecuted, he was smeared as a 'terrorist', and this was cited as 'terrorism' in that infamous letter.
Yes, that was Loudoun County, Virginia. The direct result of such a harsh reprisal was to have the entire county school board be taken over by people like the father, the father becoming a vocal advocate in local politics, and served as a significant issue that ultimately swung the election to a Republican state government that, while squishy on some issues, has been steady on this one.
Your defense is that you're a free country because they only tried very hard to destroy people for protesting the RAPE OF THEIR DAUGHTERS?
No, its that their attempt to do that not only failed, it resulted in a direct backlash that took away their power and gave it to the people pushing against them.
Again, the fact that something led to a backlash is not really proof that it's a free country.
The fact it lead to change is what makes it a free country. And we were able to do it with a vote, instead of having to shoot someone or overthrow a government. I guess if you want to get technical, we did overthrow it, just by largely peaceful means.
In the US, not only does this happen, but they will try to destroy you for protesting.
But that literally didnt happen. The direct result of the DOJ labeling parents protesting at school boards as "domestic terrorist" was states like Florida passing laws slapping down school districts for their woke bullshit (if they weren't directly taken over like Texas has done with the Houston schools), and a significant chunk of those parents taking over the school boards and instituting their will, getting rid of the handful of teachers that were causing problems.
The only places you still see that sort of "not a free country" "grooming children in schools" thing happening is in cities that are under absolute Left-Wing control, where they do it because they are wanting to virtue signal about how they are such great Leftist.
need proof on the "solitary" part, I have followed this story and never heard of anyone being in "solitary".
In the interest of fairness, while perhaps not the "solitary", there were several being kept in such bad conditions that they were transferred with several hundred other prisoners out of DC after the US Marshalls did an unannounced inspection of the jail and found the conditions "unacceptable."
You keep complaining about Democrats but pretending that it's all of the US acting that way. lol. Know who the enemy is.
It's not even a good one to use. Because getting parents angry as school boards branded terrorist resulted in...those very parents getting elected to the school boards and starting work to undo the Woke indoctrination of the schools they oversee. Because that tends to be the result of Democrats trying that in places they dont have under absolute control like Chicago or LA.
Blacks committed by far the largest portion of anti-trans hate crimes
Welp, it was nice knowing this man. He seemed like such a good guy before he was canceled for speaking verboten facts.
Honestly, the thing that made me the maddest about the Sequels was how they treated Kylo and Poe.
Yes, in the first movie, Kylo was an emotional brat who got beat by Rey the first time they fought. But because I was naïve still at the time and thought they knew what they were doing, I thought it was being set up that that was the point. And come Episode 8 they would have him getting dressed down by Snoke for his failure, have him bring up how he claims to be the heir of Vader and yet lost to a novice, and then have him start undergoing Dark Side training to be made into a threat the next time he faced Rey. Not only did that not happen, they kept nerfing him to appeal to the Shippers.
And Poe made what was objectively the correct call as a military commander, was abused by his commanding officer, and the movie treats it like he is the bad guy here. I spent the entire god damn movie utterly convinced "Hyperspace Tracking" was a myth and that Holdo was a traitor because she was doing everything you would expect a traitor to do. And I was gobsmacked when it turn out she was wrong and the movie was making it out like Poe was a brainlet for thinking what any reasonable human and soldier would think with an officer liker her.
Have I mentioned that Ep. 8 holds the unique "honor" of being the only movie that has ever retroactively ruined my enjoyment of another movie? Because at the time I actually really liked Ep. 7 and wrote off all of its issues as "They are just getting back in the game. Ep. 8 will fix some of this funk." Meanwhile....
There is a part of me that wonders if part of the reason that the Puss In Boots did so well is because it did have an actual villain, who openly admits he is a villain, and famously has a scene where when someone finally admits "You're evil!" He just says "Oh, you are only just now figuring that out?!" Which is so unheard of for a lot of movies, and now it gets done in a kids movie of all things.
"You just wanted to see a heroic Luke"
No fucking shit?
Why dont you want to see a heroic Luke?
The people who say stuff like this are probably the types who say that you can never have heroes and that everything must be anti-heroes and grey morality, because its more "realistic" and "true to life" since "heroes dont exist". Also usually stuff about how wanting heroes is "childish" and that you just need to grow up.
Personally, while I used to like anti-heroes (and still do for ones like Punisher and Judge Dredd), I have been getting burned out on this whole "edgy anti-hero" shit and just want heroes and villains again. Because, to quote an old song I like, "The genre's called 'Fantasy'! Its meant to be unrealistic you myopic manatee!"
To further illustrate this point: I work in an iron-based machine shop. The lathes and fabricators are entirely controlled by a computer, and do all of the cutting of the metal entirely on the basis of their listed job. According to official stats, that job has been automated.
But it still takes an operator to actually punch in the instructions for the job. It takes an operator to replace drill bits as they wear out. It takes an operator to actually load and unload the metal. And it takes an operator to do fine detailing of the metal once it has come out (removing burrs, polishing, checking for defects, etc).
And at least on the gearbox line, they have to come to me and I have to assemble them by hand. Since there is no machine that can fit seals and ball bearing rings. There is no machine that can fit gears and axles. There is no machine that can slot and wrench the bolts. And we air test the gearboxes for leaks, which requires a human touch. And if we got something that could automate the air test? Cool, now I am spending about 30 seconds to find the defect instead of running through a check list for 5 minutes, which lets me do more work.
The only jobs getting automated are ones that dont matter in the grand scheme of things. Which is why you have so many white-collar workers suddenly freaking out about AI.
Even then, I would argue the problem is localized to some specific cities rather than a general one (Atlanta, Chicago, NYC, and LA being the prime examples). At least locally for me, you still have some ghetto trash types. But they are largely outnumbered by the ones who are reasonable people who are still Pro-US and live like everyone else. But most around here are Exodusters who came up with the end of slavery to be farmers.
And when they tried to have BLM riots in Kansas City and Omaha, the local police responded by beating them to the ground. And the overwhelming response from the locals was "You bastards got what you deserved."
I like how you think 1 stupid political appointment by an old hair sniffer to a junior position in an agency represents the whole world outside of Russia. lol.
It's also at the General level, which has always been an American weakness. Its why our army relies so much on NCO's and delegation of command, while Generals have historically made plans little more complicated than "Advance in this direction and kill anything that looks at you funny." Which is why US Generals tend to stand out when they do something other than that (see: Grant, Bradley, Patton, Schwarzkopf, Mattis, etc).
As for the actual soldiers and NCO's, I can say this: I live near a military base. I see soldiers around town all the time. And you want to know what they are? They are still the same corn-fed, beef-eating, "Sounds like something a soy-cuck would say", gun-nut loving Americans they have always been.
Let the Generals become fools. They havent really mattered to our military ability.
Double? You sure?
I stand corrected. I was going off of my older knowledge and didnt realize they had downsized the amount of warheads they had significantly to be more on par with the US (RU: 5,977, US: 5, 428). Either way, there is no reason to be so much less on the nuclear upkeep.
Doesn't sound impossible or even that illogical. Russian salaries are lower, the technology is way different.
Ah yes, because if there is one thing I want to skimp on, its the nuclear engineers. Chernobyl was a fluke after all, its not like Russia has a history of nuclear incidents and destroying their own nuclear submarines through incompetence.
Either way, I can believe a lower maintenance cost due to the reasons you mentioned. But the wild difference? No, that cant be explained by simple differences in salary. My theory that they are skimping on warhead maintenance is also not without merit, considering the carrier that is falling apart at anchor (it cant move well due to bad engines), the cargo plane just spotted flying with significant amounts of fouling, their various vehicles in Ukraine with shoddy maintenance work showing, etc. And when you consider their newest ICBM suffered a catastrophic failure on not one, but two separate test launches? Something tells me some of those nukes are long past their half-life and will probably be several megatons short on their blasting power if detonated.
and clings to its nuclear arsenal as a sort of "prestige" expense that supposedly proves it is a "great power".
Also, fun note on the expense front. The expensive part of nuclear weapons isnt the warheads themselves. It is the maintenance on them to make sure they still retain the ability to actually go critical and create the nuclear boom. It is the single most expensive part of the US Nuclear Program. Now consider that Russia claims to have double our warheads...but half of our budget toward their nuclear program. I will let you work out what that riddle means for yourself.
Not really. This is like when they tried W. Bush for “war crimes”, and the US response was “Lol. Lmao even.” About the only thing they have ever actually done is prosecute Serbian Genocide criminals.
I mean, I only saw it through the typical "Reviewer giving breakdowns of episodes" treatment (Disparu in this case). Who watches the CW anyway?
Did you see the Gotham Knights one where one of the main characters is Trans, the police go out of their way to avoid offending them (even though they think he murdered Bruce Wayne)? And the only cop who engages in "dead-naming" and "misgendering" turns out to be the villain of the episode and the leader of a corrupt band of Gotham cops working for the overall villains of the series?
And of course, he gets beheaded by the end of the episode.
I say let them keep it up. This man has probably turned more people against the Trans movement than anyone except the people attacking VTubers over Hogwarts Legacy.
For what its worth, its not something I feel strongly about. But if Florida thinks its a good policy for their state, then they can do as they wish. Call it whatever you want, I can see arguments in any direction.
I am merely contesting the notion that Disney got off with just a slap on the wrist when the guy who is an expert in those laws says they effectively got as bent over the table and their ass slapped as is possible.
But then you are responsible for paying for the upkeep of the public infrastructure in your district. So you are basically giving up paying taxes in exchange for paying for roads, storm drains, and other public works.
Just from what I have learned from Andrew:
It can create public utilities, like a water treatment plant and sewage system
So can all Special Districts. The entire point is that a Special District is supposed to handle the public side of private areas like that. That Reedy Creek and Disney were effectively the same group where one hand washed the other was actually illegal, its just that no one really cared. At least until Disney stuck their cock in the beehive and pissed of the Florida Government by trying to imply it would make them do Disney's will.
or build an airport without state intervention or the usual bureaucracy.
They used to be able to. That was one of the abilities they lost when the District was reorganized after being seized by Florida. In fact, now Disney World is going to be getting a special tax charging it directly for the infrastructure used to support it (like the actual Orlando airport.
nor can they impose on neighbouring land through eminent domain.
Another one they lost with the reorganization. Now it has to be approved by the oversight board, and that board is picked by the State of Florida (since the district covers multiple counties).
I'm not sure about tax exemption, but certainly the magnitude is unique.
Because the scale of Disney World is unique. But they are going to get dinged for it other other places, like the aforementioned infrastructure tax, and the Disney Brand Name being used as a value when assessing the district for taxing purposes (which Disney had wiggled out of before).
Furthermore, several direct competitors are not part of special districts at all.
That would be their problem in this case. Anything in Florida could become a special district, all it takes is paying the fees and paperwork. Plus their biggest rivals (like Universal Orlando and Busch Gardens) are special districts. So now Disney is having to play ball with them instead of just doing its own thing.
I am not saying you are a bad person for believing wrong information. Just like how he pointed out several people who he likes and agrees with a lot not knowing what they are talking about in the video (like Robert Barnes). But as Andrew pointed out, some of those special district contracts are ones he wrote, so he actually knows what he is talking about one the subject.
If you are talking about things like exceptions to sales and property taxes, that is stuff the all Special Districts get, not just Disney. They are just hoping you don’t know that. Andrew lined it all out here.
Like was said in the other post, a female Samurai could at least be somewhat believable, especially if they went for the angle of "wife of the samurai getting revenge on his killers". But I highly doubt that is what Ubi is planning on doing here.