paultimate14

Were there other uses? Yes.

Were they common? Well, just look at the GameBoy pocket. At the time it was designed (it released 7 years after the original GameBoy) there were a lot of people at Nintendo who wanted to get rid of the port entirely because it was barely ever used. They ended up compromising by using a different, smaller, cheaper port that needed an adapter to work with the regular ones.

Which was kind of a pain for some people because the GB Pocket and Pokemon both came out in Japan in 1996 lol.

Weird to use a picture of a child predator in an unrelated meme

Is that the Smilodon?

I meant in terms of establishing good diplomatic relations between the US and Russia. From the fall of the Berlin wall up until the Obama administration it looked like relations were steadily improving as Russia was becoming more capitalist. Also at least from the US perspective it's probably the most famous case of exposing a hostile foreign diplomat to American values.

I remember reading articles about how Russia was giving away land and paying people to come populate their rural eastern provinces. I'm not sure exactly when the sentiment changed- Putin clearly didn't like Obama, but at this moment I can't remember any specific incidents pior to the Crimea invasion. Before that, I remember them being seen as an economically inferior, but developing, potential ally. Similar to Japan before it's "miracle", lumped into BRIC with Brazil, India, and China as a potential new place to do business.

As for Yeltsin being bad for Russians? Eh, probably. I'm content leaving discussion to those whose special interest is recent Russian history.

As a black person she'll alienate the racists in the DNC. There aren't as many as the DNC, but it would be naive to think there aren't any. As much as I don't want to cater to racists, beating Trump is more important right now.

As a woman she will alienate misogynists. Same thing.

As a cop she's going to alienate a ton of voters. She's recently changed her positions on a lot of crime-related issues like marijuana, but idk how much that's going to help her win the BLM crowd.

I'll vote for her if she's the pick, no question. Heck, there are very few people the DNC could nominate at this point that I wouldn't vote for. I suppose as Biden's VP she was kind of nominated in the primary if you squint. But yeah... DNC elites appointing a cop at the last minute doesn't strike me as the best way to fight fascism.

Identity politics aside, I like a lot of what she claims to support, but that's assuming that she's truly no longer the prosecutor she used to be. She has good records on reproductive rights, economics, LGBTQ+ support. My biggest gripe with her would be she's still just as pro-Israel as Biden and most of the DNC seems to be.

In other cases? Perhaps. There is the famous story of Boris Yeltsin visiting the US in 1989, visiting a grocery store, and realizing that capitalism was superior (honestly the whole thing never smelled right to me and I've never seen a direct quote from Yeltsin about it, but whatever). I'm sure there are other cases where normalizing relations and sharing culture has helped to ease tensions.

Kim Jong Un doesn't need any of that. He grew up and went to school in Switzerland. He's a huge fan of basketball and American movies. He is familiar with American culture already. North Korea's hostilities aren't about competing ideology, but about Kim Jong Un maintaining power by carefully maintaining a balance between his own military leaders, China and (to a lesser extent) Russia versus the US, South Korea, and their allies. It's in China's interest right now to have a belligerent puppet state who is annoying to the west without actually escalating to war. Until those geopolitics change, taking Kim Jong Un to see America's least favorite past time is only promoting and encouraging authoritarianism.

Both of these guys are going to remain single or, at best, in toxic relationships until they change their approach to both women and relationships.

According to this from 2021, the state gas tax was $0.57/gallon and the average PA driver drives 11,572 miles per year. So the question is- what fuel economy is the average PA driver getting?

I'm struggling to find that data, but to look at it another way if my math is correct you would need to be averaging 33 MPG for gas to break even with electric.

Toxoplasmosis

Victor Gruen is widely considered the inventory of the modern shopping mall. He was an Austrian Jew who immigrated to the US when the Nazi's annexed Austria.

I can't find much specific on his political views, but I've seen him described by historians as "far-left" and "socialist".

Shopping was originally a small part of his vision. He wanted to make an indoor, air-conditioned version of European pedestrian areas. Residences, schools, libraries, hospitals, parks, etc. He hated how the mall he envisioned became the shopping mall. He was influenced by Disney Land - trying to make a planned neighborhood that optimized the human experience. In turn, Disney took a lot of influence from him to make EPCOT.

So I don't know that he was a Marxist, but he denounced the capitalist hellscape that his malls eventually became.

It's the same reason why factory workers don't join unions or go on strike.

The system is designed to enforce compliance and keep individuals focused on submitting in order to meet their short-term, basic needs. Desperation is the design. When everyone is forced to choose between standing up for themselves or feeding themselves and their families, most people throughout history choose food.

Ah it's the Hard Times, not the actual Onion.