Hegar

In parliamentry systems you can dissolve parliament, requiring an election. It’s usually a way to bypass deadlock. Imagine if, when republicans are fucking around with the debt ceiling and pissing off the country, you could threaten to call a snap election and let them answer to voters then and there.

So if this passes it would basically force a national referendum on netanyahu’s leadership.

If gantz is pushing this, probably he thinks he can win. That could mean netanyahu’s many financial and political crimes being looked into again. Maybe.

It could mean more of a focus on getting hostages back, but it might not lead to much change in gaza:

Gantz’ centrism is not equivalent to Western centrism: Natenyahu’s Likud party and other Israeli nationalists have “gone so right-wing that the center in Israel has changed,” a Middle East Institute think tank fellow told Al Jazeera. Previously serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Israeli Defense Forces, Gantz has overseen two military offensives in Gaza and labeled several Palestinian NGOs terrorist organizations, indicating it is “unlikely” he would improve the conditions for Palestinians living in Gaza

“oppressed profitability” is a fucking brutal turn of phrase.

Yikes, just looked at your profile. A supporter of both capitalism and authoritarianism?

I’ve never seen anyone so eager to tell the world that they are Neutral Evil.

Russia has said multiple times that they are a threat to NATO. Pretending otherwise is as childish as pretending this isn’t a proxy war between NATO and Russia.

If you’re going to defend Russia, at least try not to contradict Russia.

Neither Iraq war nor Afghanistan benefited the US, they were both colossal wastes of national resources for little gain, beginning a period of imperial decline. Korea I’m not as familiar with but Vietnam is now a bi-word for a pointless quagmire.

You mean people are discussing a contentious news item that you posted?

This is the UN, not Hamas.

The article suggests that the change is due to using figures from the Gaza Health Ministry - which is still part of the Hamas-run government - rather than Hamas’ Media Office, which is also Hamas.

It’s a bit rich to suggest that the IDF killing 5000 women and 8000 children is the result of Hamas, rather than the IDF.

No way. You want someone who’s so obviously an idiot that his face alone selects out anyone with critical reasoning faculties.

Being a deepfake used to find rubes willing to give over money to an obvious scam is the platonic ideal of elon musk. Bravo, grifters. Bravo.

Biden… lately

I would say that all empires have always prioritized their interests over human life. I don’t think Biden or Lately come into it.

As long as india is part of the quad and helping to contain china, modi can kill as many muslims and sikhs as he wants without US interference. And he knows it.

That reading of the character makes sense and jives with how I connect with games I play. I’ll keep it in mind when I go back for a male playthrough - gonna have to romance panam eventually. Agreed choom!

Oh yeah, that’s a great point. I admit I stalled out of my male playthrough like 1/4 through, but for sure the voice acting felt lacking compared to female V, who really does a fantastic and job and sells every situation flawlessly. Now that you’ve mentioned it, it seems so obvious that that’s a huge part of the why female V is better.

But Hamas won, they completely control the ‘unity’ government and Fatah have vastly less power. If divide and conquer was the goal Netanyahu would have been funneling resources to Fatah and not Hamas. But he has consistently empowered Hamas because the international community can’t accept a Hamas-led state.

I have 50+ hours and only minor graphic glitches. A couple dead bodies standing up, the odd piece of floating loot. Nothing that seriously detracts from the experience.

I’m ~3/4s through my second playthrough and appreciating it more and more. Haven’t picked up the expansion yet either.

I found it hits much harder with a female character. The Johnny Silverhand situation especially felt much more… metaphorically resonant? And Jackie feels more rogue-with-a-heart-of-gold when his best buddy is a woman.

Quickhacks are OP but felt correctly haxx0r, mantis blades are super fun. I enjoyed the combat well enough. Cars are meh, but it’s cyberpunk so if you’re not riding a futuristic bike ala Akira you’re doing it wrong. And wiping out on a bike is great.

The characterisation and world building are what really shine. I was reluctant to play the corpo background but it really makes the story sing.

That ended over 15 years ago.

I am guessing their calculation is that losing support of Israel lobby is 100% loss?

Yeah, I’ve been presuming that’s a significant part of it. That and the importance of a dependent and dependable ally to help anchor US security architecture in a vital region. Israel needs US imperial presence in the region. Saudi just benefits from it.

US support for Israel continuing the current conflict or US support for Israel in general? If really forced into it, maybe the Democrats can withdraw their blessing for the current conflict, but I don’t see how they could end support for Israel. If Putin wins the US election who knows what could happen but short of that Israel is just too important to the US empire and they know it. I mostly believe the official line from Washington that they don’t have that much leverage against Israel - in the sense that Bibi&co have enough counter levers to make acting against them more costly than it’s worth for the Democrats.

Hence the bullshit antisemitism law, the brutalizing of campus protests, etc. Democrats are even willing to drive down turn out among their base in one of the most important elections in US history over this - I just don’t see them doing that if they had a better card to play.

I doubt it will change even if the US withdraws support, but I’m a cynical depressive type.

Our fundamentally inhuman treatment of the Palestinian people led to October 7.

There are only two ways to prevent it happening again. We could stop the unconscionable deprivations we inflict on the Palestinian people or we could speed up the genocide we’ve been engaged in.

No surprises that the government compromised of war criminals and people the Israeli courts have deemed to be terrorists are going for the later. The far right are in charge and they’re pretty open that this is the goal.