s.metcalf

plalonde said:

... and it's just the beginning. I would probably also be hidding on my golf course 

Trump spent about 21% of his first term playing golf, with each of his golfing trips costing the taxpayer millions of dollars.  He did so, and continues to do so in his second term at a similar rate, all while having lambasted Obama and Biden for ever going anywhere (even though they did so far less), and sacking thousands of government workers in the name of government efficiency or for not pledging blind loyalty to him.  His hypocrisy is unfathomable, yet millions of Americans refuse to see it, believe it, or care.

He won’t fix the drug epidemic either, because that would involve fixing poverty, disadvantage, declining living standards and increasing inequality, none of which he has any interest in doing.  His only concern is his own wealth, power and ego, and that of his nearest enabling henchmen (and women).

davidlewis54 said:

Shame about the GOP and the Dems who seem completely incapable of mounting any sort of response, let alone an attack.  Why is everyone frightened of the guy?  Very odd.

As a non-American living in a Westminster-style democracy, it baffles me why there is no nominated or effective opposition leader on the Democrats side.  In Westminster parliamentary democracies it’s convention for there to be not only an opposition leader but also shadow ministers for all the leading roles in government.  But there is so much about American democracy that is not only strange it should be (and is) flat-out illegal in other democracies, such as gerrymandering and unlimited undisclosed financing because of loopholes to name just a few.  America has no centralised electoral commission to provide and enforce consistent and fair elections across the country, so it’s left up to courts which, for some reason are highly politicised with out even a pretence of impartiality.  America would benefit from ranked-choice/preferential (instant runoff) voting as well, which I think happens in some states but not many.

At this point calling the US a flawed democracy (see democracy index) seems generous.  It’s really more of a hybrid regime in my opinion.

elijahg said:

The only way people will think Apple is taking gaming seriously is if they buy a game studio and start pushing out top-tier games that will run on Mac, AppleTV, iOS and iPadOS. Maybe even on Windows, like Apple did resulting in the mass popularity of iPod and iTunes.

Apple Arcade has a couple of good games, but the majority are old, rehashed freemium games with the freemium bit removed - there's nothing that's a cinematic experience that can show off what Apple Silicon can do. 

Apple silicon, for the most part, is not that great at graphics.  Apple has prioritised CPU performance with its chips.  Bundling an iGPU on the same package has advantages but also disadvantages being so close to the heat-producing CPU.  Apple has never really cared about graphics.  With TB5 I see no reason why they can't enable eGPUs.  They just choose not to because they want to push people towards the higher spec'd laptops and desktops.  It takes a lot of work to port and optimise games and developers aren't willing to do it for the tiny fraction of the overall PC market Apple has that can play AAA games well. 

And Ireland is crapping on the rest of the EU and quite frankly the whole world by allowing it for personal gain.  I hope the EU stands up to it.

100% it's because of legal (tax avoidance) reasons that Apple won't open it's own store in Ireland.  They don't love Ireland, they just love the profits.