ComradeYellow

The shortage of Russian gas mostly affects Europe which accounted for 40-50% of their supply, the U.S. only imported 5-8% Russian gas prior to invasion and has now cut off completely. Gas prices are volatile though so if you cut off the 3rd largest supplier it can cause some short term headaches and unknown long term consequences. https://www.investopedia.com/investing/worlds-top-oil-producers/ (I honestly had no idea that U.S. took top position on oil supplier in the world, I was always under the assumption that they were Saudi Arabs beeyatch).

Putins government isn't even communist. He spent half his pre invasion speech demonizing Lenin. Not sure why liberals have it drilled into their brains that United Russia = Communist Party of Russian Federation or USSR. It's mind boggling and kinda reeks of racist Euro-centrism to suggest it. Mearsheimer is just an ultra realist who happened to prophesize exactly what happened (As opposed to most academics who utterly suck at predicting the future), and is ultimately aligned with liberal democracy, he actually has appeared recently.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/03/ukraine-socialist-interview-russian-invasion-war-putin-nato-imperialism Interesting insight on the Russian mindset. "Doom and Gloom and what do we do about it and how do we prepare for it?" Seems to be the gist.

He's right though but for different reasons, it's more probable that the U.S. would fight some kind of fancy new "retooled" land war on U.S. soil due to political polarization rather than against the evil Bear here or there. Not to mention a direct engagement with Russia means, uh, you know, nuclear annihilation. Again short attention spans in the West, nothing has changed since 1945 in regards to WWIII, it means aArmageddon.

And so it begins. I can see it already: Putin steps down in 2024, the war is a distant memory at that point (Westerners have the attention span of a half stunned gnat), Zyuganov is elected and the USSR 2.0 is established. KPRF admires China's growth and wants to emulate it but with Russian characteristics.

...And you honest to goodness, deep down inside, believe these "reports"?

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1501197313859104768 Yanks gonna Yank. The people struggling to get by be damned of course.

I mean in 1944-45 when the Soviets were steamrolling the Germans there were lots of communists in those countries that welcomed Soviet liberation, which is why they absorbed them in the first place. It wasn't until decades later when the narrative completely flipped and Soviet Russia bad West good became almost a religion. As for Russia's current condition....yes their economy is the size of Texas and Putin is no Stalin when it comes to rapid economic growth, not by a long shot. He did a lot to curb the West's pillaging of Soviet state owned enterprises and renationalized them in the 00's, and did a lot to restore national pride, but it's honestly not nearly enough. Putin at this point seems like bread that is well past its expiration date and needs new leadership imo. And yes, Russia is a very socially conservative country, that's not gonna change and could be the biggest factor in more squeamish people not wanting to live there, aside from its largely stagnant economy at the moment.

Just a heads up, the US government will go to great lengths to stop an independent Europe because they would see it as contrary to US interests and could potentially bolster Americas brown and yellow adversaries. I agree and all but America doesn't like partners, it likes its bitches unfortunately and would take some kind of massive internal strife to cede its position. EU are still heftily in "appeasement* mode towards US.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article259151443.html First we sanction, bankrupt, and condemn you to oblivion, now we want to talk you into turning on Putin cos we need oil. Pwetty pwease?

What's funny with this is that FromSoftware isn't nearly as guilty as over marketing and hype as say, Bethesda and CD Projekt yet it appears people can be prone to buy stuff they don't care about based off of internet word of mouth justt as easily as overpaid marketeers. And anyone who doesn't like Miyazaki is on the wrong side of history, this man is truly among the greats.

Ruh Ro.

Glad to see I triggered the CD Projekt Euro jankers that inhabit this domain. Oh yes, you will be agonized!

...The same exact thing as Biden but perhaps with significantly different rhetoric? Dems, Repubs, all the same, different tone.

From what I have seen it does seem like an improvement over the original, which had boatloads of issues. The fact that they fixed the broken attribute system is a huge sigh of relief. May pick it up on a sale later down the line.

Americans.

Yup you won't find strong character archetypes in a From game. Everything is deep and subconscious and on a different plane of existence. Labels suck anyway.

"Doing ok"

I did not at first but am having stuttering problems now for some reason. I found a killer farming location and am now leveled pretty high and already beat two of the main bosses in the game. I think there's like 5 or 6. Love this game quite a lot and the fact that it has been released at this particular time period is a great incentive to play it to keep your mind off of other matters. I started off as a Samurai and found a killer katana that adds magic damage and ran into the first four types of sombering smith stones so I got lucky that my particular discoveries have netted me quite the buffing. Many will probably disagree but I think this is better than anything CD Projekt Red has to offer, Witcher 3 for instance is too fast paced and the plot is too soap opera for my liking, whilst everything in ER is more nuanced, relaxed, tougher, and more leisurely.

I don't see much "leftist" ideas in the West, everyone is acting very conservative and status quo and I do not see any kind of new egalitarian ideas floating around just "Putin/Russia bad, Western Democracy good kill!" in the same vein since like 1945 or something.

Roger Waters chimes in https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/the-war-profiteering-gangsters-will-kill-us-all/ Calls Russia a "gangster neoliberal capitalist paradise" and encourages leftists to stop looking at Russia as some kind of socialist bloc in any way. Interesting. I always admired Roger, Pink Floyd was my teenage band.

Sorry if posted earlier but RT America has been toppled by the Biden administration. Lots of employees laid off, many of them weren't even pro war but RT America was the only major news platform that allowed left wing voices (admittedly also some idiotic far right ones as well) verboten on the other major outlets paid for by the MIC, banks, and other U.S. oligarchs. Their Twitter comments are saddening to read. .... You also know what would be REALLY funny? The re-armament of Germany ultimately leading to the dissolution of NATO! Perhaps Putin really is a master chess player. Time will tell! I personally can't think of a better outcome myself. Nato going *poof* Europe rearming and the U.S. less meddling in the world but still retaining a strong global position.

Turns out this was all a fraud after all. Local officials trying to instigate panic for more Western support and has in fact been condemned by Western nuclear experts as a political ploy. Too bad in a morbid way, the gamer in me did want a pretense for a killer f*ng game in the future.

China has not "abandoned" Russia, if anything this is bringing Russia + China + India together as this psychotic Russophobia is alienating non-aligned regions, even South America is put off by this display. Bubbles aren't your friend.

The International Community inc.