Lurker > M1Astray

This might sound small-scale, but serious question. How much longer will it even be safe to use US websites given this development?

I'm sure some things such as Windows will remain relatively safe (which is to say compromised only to the US itself rather than all the worlds bad actors via hacking), but if Cyber Command is going to just open the floodgates to Russia's hackers how (badly) is this going to impact various US websites?

Because this could seriously compromise and fuck over a lot of the world if it affects those.

Might sound small scale compared to all the other damage Russian hackers can now do (all that critical infrastructure such as energy and water), but can't help but wonder.

AsucaHayashi posted...

this means i'll never get to watch it since i found the first one boring overall with some pretty interesting highs.

can't imagine how much more drawn out the 2nd is if some people liked the first one better.

Part 2 actually suffered the opposite problem of being too compressed lol.

The first 150 or so pages of the book was very slow character and world building. Then the next 400 pages were densely written and well paced story and journey.

Part 1 covered that slow buildup leaving part 2 unable to even fit in more than 65% of the rest of the book.

The CIA has an entire guide declassified on the subject. Well worth a read even just for curiosity's sake. Fighting back can be done in different ways, including just being overly compliant at work (think: prolonging meetings, insisting everything go through as many pointless channels as possible, ect ect ect).

Don't worry the drones simply haven't all installed their latest Patch Update yet, they'll be back in line this time Monday.

tripleh213 posted...

When does WW3 start?

History, assuming we don't die in the coming years nor die out to climate change over the next decade and a half, will point to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the start of World War III.

We've been in the opening acts of it for three years. We just didn't know it because history was still in flux and several different outcomes were still possible. With Trump however we're now locked into one specific timeline.

Cartoon_Quoter posted...

I really hope this includes Joe Biden.

Considering Joe Biden's policies were literally to use Ukraine as a tool to bleed Russia out rather than ever provide the necessary aid to push Russia back entirely, which is in no uncertain terms what caused all of the current shitshow. . . He deserves no thanks.

Ukraine for signing a defence agreement with America was used up and spat out. As a citizen of another nation that relies on defence agreements with America I for one am never trusting America ever again. I suspect everyone I know is largely on the same page as well.

Geiki_Ganger posted...

But there were never any doubt that the USA represented the free world when it mattered the most.

As an English-Australian that's most assuredly not what I've been taught in history.

The signs America could turn into a fascist imperial power have been there for over a century, always a bad dice-roll or two away. Many people in Middle Eastern and South American nations would have a strong argument that the US has always been one as well. This is simply the first time America has decided to openly turn against its allies (prior to this is simply used its leverage as the bigger player to make its allies acquiesce to its demands rather than threatened to/actually sell them out to rival fascist powers).

I've always added "and treat others how they have treated you" to that saying. The former is advocating to be a doormat, and frankly I've been done with that for years. If someone starts shit unprovoked I'll give it right back nowadays.

Hot take: Video games honestly didn't get much better than OoT.

Yes devs have streamlined UIs since those days and graphics have gotten better, but if you made a 1:1 remake of OoT with those modern trappings it'd blow basically all modern games (including Zelda's own modern releases) out of the water. Same goes for Majoras Mask.

Reason is simple. It (and MM) pretty much got the essence of video gaming down perfectly on the first attempt. Most games of its type have been trying to recapture the same highs as OoT since that day and none have.

It's like how, as far as I'm concerned, there will never be a better sci-fi action film than Terminator 2 Judgement Day. Sometimes a piece of media is made that is just genuinely timeless and aces things so thoroughly there's no possible way to truly one-up it.

Jeez this guy sounds like the UK's Anthony Albanese (Aussie Prime Minister, soon to be ex-PM because there's fuck all chance he wins reelection). General milksop who's incapable (or perhaps unwilling) to take measure of what direction the winds are blowing.

Still not as bad as Albo though. Couldn't believe my ears when he had the audacity to answer a question the other day on a show called Q&A where the public (screened obviously) can ask questions and he flat out said he was certain the US would honor its defence agreements. Like come the fuck on, even before Trump got into power the US "honored" its defence agreement with Ukraine by using their men and land to bleed Russia dry, not actually help them. Trump wouldn't just ignore our pact he'd outright go to Xi and ask what his bid is for China to just buy Australia, and then tell his psycho MAGA cult why it's actually a fantastic thing they sold us as slaves.

Starmer sounds like he's only a notch or two away from getting there though. What the fuck is with modern centrists? Actually delusional they are. The writing is on the wall about so many things and they just carry on like the house isn't burning down.

masterpug53 posted...

Gee whiz, wonder what this one name was that pops up all over the place but keeps getting redacted...looks like a six-letter first name and a five-letter last name...oh well, some things man was just not meant to know!

Duh, it's world-reknowned US president Billll Clintn!

/s just in case.

Foppe posted...

You know it is bad when even Desatan is against you.

Truly an "even evil has standards" moment.

One has to wonder what vile position Trump is planning to appoint Tate to. It cannot be a coincidence that this has happened with the same day period as the US regime starting to voice the possibility of removing women's right to vote.

Money.

Because I think making those two vanish for a week would make things much worse. Now they have an honest-to-God miracle to invoke and add to their Antichrist image. The last thing we want and need is Trump and Musk going around with the ability to say they caused an actual miracle. Just imagine how bad things get when they get to add religious zealotry to the current state of affairs.

Whereas that 100k while it isn't going to set me for life would allow me to achieve some of my life goals such as traveling around the world while it's still nice to see it, get educated and into a good place in life, and sort out any and all my health issues as well as get fit.

Euripides posted...

If Luke is supreme Jedi dude with a massively successful Jedi academy and the New Republic is holding it down, THERE IS NO FUCKING STORY TO TELL

If you've created a strong robust fictional world there are always stories to tell. Both at the macro level and the micro level. There will always be threats to that peace, and there are also always going to be individuals with more personal stories happening.

A fictional universe like Star Wars (including the old EU) is a vast canvas with a lot of freedom for creativity.

Necronmon posted...

The Vong in the EU proved otherwise.

There were plenty of great novels set between the founding of the New Jedi Order and the Vong invasion too! Half the X-Wing series took place in that window IIRC, and the Hand of Thrawn duology.

Well, if women are "like children" then what about the elderly? It's well known that some older folks lose their razor sharpness in old age and some even sink down to infantlism as the brain deteriorates.

I suggest that first all members of congress, the senate, and the White House above the age of, ooh, lets say 55, have to take frequent faculty tests and one failure bars them from being in office.

After all if women need to be protected from politics and self-harm from bad choices it's only morally just to extend this to all who might require such assistance.

Not to downplay it but this probably isn't going to escape Congo. Like Ebola and other super-nasty viruses it kills the host far too quickly to be effective at spreading.

The viruses to watch out for are, still, the current Bird Flu pandemic (currently forming the necessary proteins for mammalian transmission!) and that new covid found in bats in China.

I loved XCX back in the day, spent god knows how many hundreds of hours playing it. My only complaint was the ending which was a gigantic cliffhanger that basically undercut the entire main plot post-credits but that's getting addressed with this so I'm super hyped to complete the series on Switch and dive back into XCX after all these years.

No, that saying only exists because a person used to have more to conserve as they aged.

That era is long over and millennials and younger generations will have nothing to conserve in old age. If they even reach it which is looking less and less likely by the day. If you weren't born into money or you didn't make it in the early 00s you're basically fucked and SOL at this point.

This has larger implications than merely Luigi's trial. Competency crisis is now in full swing, the people running things are now so corrupt and incompetent they jeopardize their own agendas.

This is the sort of gross incompetence that inspires world powers to sit down and say "no, we will not do business with you. You are far too much of a liability to do so." This case is a slum dunk and they're so utterly incompetent they might actually fuck it up.

I probably should TBH, current state of the world is absolutely destroying my mental health (and is very possibly translating to body health problems as a result).

Bye-Bye US soft-power globally I guess. TBH I didn't expect this to start until after a formal withdrawal from NATO, although I guess closing the bases across Europe would make a logical path to that endgoal (as I'm certain that is the Trump Regime's endgame).

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


"Wait what am I doing again? Who is this man again?"

It's not just Elon Musk, it's all the powers backing Trump. If anything Trump is a puppet this time around only there for the powertrip and getting into the history books (assuming there even are history books past this point in history which, frankly, I doubt).

The ruling classes are well aware the world is heading to destruction via climate in the very near future. Some gave up entirely (looking at the Democrats when I say that) and others are making power plays to rule with an iron fist when things go south.

The threat is larger than simply Elon Musk and frankly while everyone hyper-fixates on Trump and Musk those powers win.

Eve from Stellar Blade.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say no, she can't.

loafy013 posted...

trump thinks about Musk's feet.

But does he think about Musk's feets musk?

Gonna need some memory bleach to wipe my memory of posting this now.

TheLiarParadox posted...

Gonna suck when the havoc wreaked on the body by COVID-19 infection(s) is in effect the same as having chronic disease and millions and millions of should-be healthy people become disabled (if they don't die) with no safety nets to help them or the strain this will put on all our struggling systems.

Gonna really suck when all of that overlaps with subsequent pandemics.

Yes, and that's a feature not a bug.

It's not a coincidence that the far right mega-wealthy are making territorial moves on the locations they are and are setting things up so the general human population is mass-culled.

divot1338 posted...

2024: the year America touched a hot stove

No, it's the year they touched it a second time.

As is the norm for every single nation that continues to vote in Conservatives despite every single reign ending with massive misery.

No.

The Democrats are the "good men standing aside to allow evil."

It's ironic I just saw this topic after discovering an article that reveals the ultra wealthy of the world all fully believe the planet is headed for catastrophe and are all enjoying the party while it's here for a few more years. Made for some of the grimmest reading I've seen the last twelve months (and I say that as someone who's reading science reports that we're all probably going to be dead or worse from climate catastrophe within fifteen years if we're lucky and eight realistically).

The Democrats gave up a long time ago.

"I thought someone with his business acumen..."

The guy who went bankrupt and was bailed out by Russia. This guy thought that that was good business acumen? Sounds to me like firing people like this guy is, if only accidentally, the competent move.

That and the usual "I thought other people I didn't know would suffer, not me and mine!" As someone who grew up in a disadvantaged home with a parent who was constantly having to deal with the horrid policies these shitstains kept voting for for their paltry tax breaks I'm getting real close to just saying the world burning to the ground is a small price to pay for the karma these fuckers are about to get.

Speaking as one of those raised by someone who suffered invisibly. I feel genuine hatred towards these people. It was bad enough before but they've consigned the world to oblivion now.

True, for big budget titles at any rate.

Every big budget Western(American) game I've played in the last eight years was mediocre at best and outright poor quality at worst (I'll never buy another big budget American video game after Spider-Man 2, jesus christ that was a trainwreck).

They tend to focus more on the elements of a game that, as far as I'm concerned, are the things that matter. Gameplay mechanics, good game loops, and being an actual finished product. Whereas the West (and America specifically) almost always follow the 'overpromise underdeliver' model.

littlebro07 posted...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/21/politics/trump-fires-top-us-general-cq-brown/index.html

god fucking damn it

For fucks sake I was just on the phone with someone going over that specific move as being next after the whole "every government agency must do as I say" executive order.

With this the consolidation of power is practically complete.

Next up is clamping down on all forms of communication amongst the citizens.

I genuinely believe the US will invade Canada within the next ten months.

The problem with this blackout is obvious.

If everyone does do it they'll just shift their shopping needs to either the 27th or the 1st of March. So the corpos get their money anyway and they'll get it either ahead of straight after the blackout.

These corporations will not care. In fact a lot of corporations laugh at boycotts because of this sort of thing.

If you want to make a difference stop buying at big corporations whenever humanly possible. Need meat? Go to your local butchers. Bread? The Bakery. Fruit? The market. Stop buying from big corporations.

I've already shifted over 80% of my grocery shopping to non-major corporations over the last few months (because fuck big corporations as a whole). These changes are much better and are also achievable.

It feels surreal to be talking about Nazis as a present day thing. And I don't just mean the fringe Neo-Nazi stuff, I mean the actual rebirth of the movement.

And ruling America no less. Genuinely surreal.

DrizztLink posted...

I'm aware the whole "selectively quote one part of a long post" thing is disingenuous at best, but it doesn't usually work out this hilariously/summarized so I'll call it a mulligan.

"Wow a slight mixup of phrasing means I'm totally in the right and will learn nothing!"

All this angry ad hom because I called out the fact you called those who feel too disempowered to get themselves killed by regimes that care little for (or outright enjoy killing which I strongly suspect is closer to this regime's mindset) disobedient citizens.

So not just slagging off your own countrymen but also shitting on every disempowered person in every totalitarian state in history.

As the grandson of British world war 2 descent I'd dub you a name but I suspect it'd be a ToU violation, so I'll let you make your own interpretation of what I might say.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1625918b.jpg

Not really. I'm in it for the "create and build an account while taking on new content added from time to time" aspect.

TBH I've been shafted so many times I don't even get dopamine hits when rolling nowadays. Only so many times you can see those animations play out and pull dogshit before you just start ignoring it. Like the other week in Dokkan. 5% odds of a featured. 150 rolls later and zero featureds (and only 3 featureds after 350 rolls, which I'm pretty sure is less statistically likely than just pulling the headliner). At a certain point you feel nothing when hitting that summon button (or if you feel anything it's a simmering anger watching the statistical odds getting more ridiculous against you).

Years ago rolling might've felt good but yeah. The brain learns and adapts over time. Eventually those dopamine receptors need fresher stimuli to fire.

DrizztLink posted...

I'll print your weird manifesto and put it right next to a copy of Neville Chamberlain's biography, to simulate the environment that it's used to. To quote Mitch Hedberg.

I deleted my first post because frankly I'm uninterested in fighting, but since you decided to talk about history I'd suggest you read up on the state Britain was in after the first World War. There is a very good chance they'd have lost to Germany outright had they engaged at that time.

Besides that I think it's the height of arrogance for anybody born into the modern world to criticise any leader that lived through World War 1 for wanting to attempt to find an answer that didn't involve a second one.

I've not said don't resist. I'm saying don't do it stupidly (like protesting against a regime that either outright ignore the protesters at best or take genuine pleasure in massacring them at worst). The lesson "pick your battles" exists for a reason.

It's depressing but there are certain realities to the world we're becoming.

action52 posted...

I'm sorry, but this administration has been chopping away at democracy nonstop since Trump entered office so it's hard to keep track. What is the exact thing that happened two days ago that you think is the tipping point?

I'm not mocking you or anything, these are scary times. I honestly don't know what the point of no return is, or whether we've crossed it yet. I just want to know what you mean specifically.

This one, I found out because a topic was posted when it happened.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-reins-in-independent-agencies-to-restore-a-government- that-answers-to-the-american-people/

This one to me feels like the biggest push of the lot to centralize all power to the President. I've spent the last day stocking up on cheap non-perishables because of this one, of all the orders so far this one feels the largest step towards potentially crashing the global economy (plus the rhetoric being thrown at Europe and Ukraine is also deeply concerning and feels like another major escalation).

DrizztLink posted...

You've got a weird little writing quirk where every time you were going to type "cowardly" you instead typed "smart."

Is it like a problem with your autocorrect, or what?

It's super peculiar, never seen the like.

Says the guy complaining on a backwater message board instead of protesting.

By all means explain to the class how to stop the American government if it chooses to go full totalitarian. What is your answer if/when the military (or the national guard as is more likely) is told to crush all protests with lethal force. When the ICE squads are sent to round up identified protestors and their families to send them to Gitmo and other places like it.

That's if the government gives a shit. Protests only matter if the regime cares. They can easily just ignore them and send in armed forces to protect strategic points of interest. Especially this regime as collapsing the US is literally a stated aim. So all grinding the nation to a halt does is speed up their plans.

The reality is two days ago the US ceased to be a democracy and became an authoritarian state. Now things will only get better if the higher powers get involved.

You can call others cowards all you want, doesn't change reality.

NintendoFan81 posted...

Stop dooming and do something.

I swear many people here would rather complain, but not do a thing. Its like that one quote... "We've tried nothing and we are all out of ideas".

Do what, exactly?

Trump's America is Nazi America. As of two days ago America officially became an authoritarian dictatorship (don't be surprised if in the next few months places like CE are taken offline to appease the state as the places people who oppose it and discuss the situation are silenced to remove their ability to organise).

Do you have any idea how bad things are about to get? You don't even need a history book for that. Just today I saw a news article of what Russia is doing to the women it takes prisoner.

Paraded around naked in the fridged cold. Systemic and organised rapings of those youthful enough (i.e. every woman besides the elderly). Beatings with metal poles so vicious that they cause wounds (that go untreated). And much much more.

This is how authoritarian states deal with dissidents. They will do that to not just those who speak up, they will do it to their families as well to ensure nobody dares try anything. The protester who might be willing to die for their cause will always think twice if they know that when their identity is discovered their mother and sister (and daughter/s if they're fathers) will be sent to a rape camp.

The smart people are the ones keeping quiet right now because nobody has any idea how far this is actually going to get. If it goes to the end of its road however we know exactly how bad it will get. It won't be the protesters alone punished. It will be their families and loved ones. Because that is how authoritarian dictatorships (specifically the variety Trump is aiming for) run.

Brainwash the masses through the mainstream media and be so terrible and vicious that anybody who has broken out of that brainwashing dares not disobey the state.

Civilians can never topple an authoritarian regime that is willing to retain its power through any means necessary. There is always a point the civilian will bend the knee if the regime is willing to get violent enough.

The change comes when the military defects. That is the only way this nightmare ends. The time to protest is over. Protests only work if the regime gives a damn about the functioning of the civilization and not killing off its assets (people). If they cease to care (which they have) the only other route is the military defecting, and we're still probably a fair way away from that trigger.

So don't shit on people who are being smart by keeping their heads down.

Besides there are documented smarter ways to attack a regime (noted by the CIA I might add). Small quiet acts of rebellion. Those are the only plays left.

Trumble posted...

This topic is about WW2.

I would say that was my bad but y'know the funny/depressing thing is my answer doesn't change much. It's still whoever Putin tells Trump it was, and it's still ultimately going to be some variation of "Europe states and the UK for not just submitting to Germany/Russia".

When you eject the disc and put the game away/go into storage and uninstall the game.

The only Tales games I DNF'd. Bland boring cast, a plot that makes the prior games stories seem amazing in comparison, and a meh combat system. It's not a coincidence the franchise has been all but dead since Arise released.

TBH I believe we witnessed the death of the Democrats as a power last election.

People can say "oh they have no power now" but do you ever see the conservatives stop championing all their causes whenever they lose an election? No. They continue to fight viciously and very vocally outside of office.

The Democrats have dug their own grave two-fold. They have become too corrupted by big business interests to the point they are incapable of going beyond the Status Quo, even when the everyman can see the Status Quo is destroying the world (subconsciously if not consciously, which feeds into the drifting to far-right strongman figures as they seek someone, anyone, capable of sorting things out).

Coupled with the fact they have lost any capacity for proper communication with the 'masses'. They pick moronic candidates that nobody outside their specific circles like constantly, they don't communicate how they're fighting in opposition (which leads to the impression they're just coasting off the taxpayer, which TBF many of them are).

Now the pendulum has swung so far and hard to the right I frankly don't believe it's possible for them to win elections any longer even assuming free and fair elections are a thing going forward (which they absolutely will not be, any change of government was locked in as requiring law-breaking two days ago). They're simply too weak and out of touch to win elections now.

Whoever Russia/Putin tells him to blame.

If that's Zelensky then that's who. If it's one of the Baltic NATO states then it'll be them. If it's one of the major NATO powers because they enforce article 5 then it'll be them.

Regardless the root answer is the same. Whoever Putin declares started the war (by not rolling over and just surrendering like good little slaves).

The "war" needs to be quantified because the answer changes depending on the factors involved.

Is this an unrealistic scenario where the US takes a united full-strength military and attacks Canada and Mexico? In that scenario they "win" but also face constant terrorist attacks from Canadian and American insurgents.

Or the more realistic scenario? Because the way things are looking the US is either going to declare war on Canada soonish with its full military and will very likely see a massive defection from within, causing a civil war (that would likely see the US reduced to rubble without setting foot inside Canada, Trump would almost-certainly greenlight the use of tactical nukes on "traitor" states) or causing the military to very quickly assasinate Trump and his major backers and take control.

Or it will occur after Trump has purged basically every competent part of the military. In which case you'd still likely see a version of the previous paragraph play out but it would become very much a quick one-sided stomping against Trump as the defecting faction is both competent and flooded with aid from NATO nations/allies like Mexico.

If we're being realistic the US will never win a war against Canada because right now it's much more likely to rip itself apart long before it sets foot there. But on paper, yes, it could win. It would be a phyrric victory but win nonetheless.

I'm glad I finished my breakfast before I saw this topic. Ew.

Dunno why Trump's bothering to put "pressure" on them though, bribes will get the job done far easier.

TBH I think we should take heart from this rather than get nervous. The worry was that the European nations would basically go quietly into the night and let Trump and Russia do as it pleases.

It seems that Europe has absolutely no intention of that. It's taken four years longer than it should have (can't blame Europe for not wanting to escalate though, they did suffer the brunt of the two World Wars after all and those scars run deep even today) but at long last Europes leaders have finally, seemingly, woken up to reality and are beginning to take decisive actions.

This won't help the US citizens though. But unfortunately Trump's making it very clear that the world either needs to sever ties with the US both militarily and economically or face a once-ally state spearheading Nazi far-right government takeovers.

TBH as an Australian though I dread what's happening. Because we're poised to sleep-walk into electing a far right crazy in a few months (sanewashed by the MSM ofc, just like Trump was) who will ally Australia with the US and ultimately force us into joining it in isolation for three years until we can boot the c*** out (after he's spent those three years making life miserable for every Aussie ofc).

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

And yet he's still too stupid to realize that Trump doesn't care that he's fucking him over

Oh I'm sure Trump's aware of these people at least as a collective and he very likely brags about screwing them over privately. He's undoubtedly very proud of it.

It's like something out of a nightmare. Can't put my finger on exactly why but the ad is genuinely surreal in a "I don't like where our planet has gone" way.

One of the richest companies on the planet and this AI slop that isn't even developed properly is what they're pushing as a reason to use their service? Yikes, as the zoomers would say.