I'm not surprised, since modern games are so complex and they try to jam the mechanics from 500 different games into a single game these days. I just got Horizon Forbidden West, only played the first few hours (no spoilers please), and there's a chess mini game, all kinds of different fighting mechanics, including melee combos, a weapons crafting minigame, and the side quests are what you'd expect from main quests five years ago.

Games have gotten too complicated. The modern gamer/consumer probably has some wild unrealistic expectations for GTA 6, and it's going to be near impossible to match those expectations. This is not me making some excuse for rockstar games or any of the scummy companies, but just observing where the market is going. Games are no longer what they once were. It's like if every movie was a 10 hour long trilogy, or every song a 10 minute epic. It's too much. And the industry shows no signs of changing course.

I usually do a daily breakdown of what's happening in Yemen on this account if you want more information, if you go through my comment history you can see what I mean.

US officials have confirmed 19 of the 22 claimed MQ-9 Reaper losses.

A U.S. defense official told TWZ yesterday that Yemeni militants have or are suspected to have brought down six MQ-9s since March 15. Fox News reported today that U.S. officials have acknowledged the loss of another Reaper, the seventh one since the beginning of last month. Back in March, an unnamed U.S. defense official told Stars and Stripes that the Houthis had downed 12 Reapers since October 2023

12+7=19

Ansarallah/the Houthis in Yemen have a rudimentary but solid air defence system, with a mix of radar and ground based infrared search and track systems for detection and guidance, mostly locally manufactured versions of Iranian air defence systems, but some old Soviet era gear as well. They also have an anti air loitering munition called Missile-358. They haven't been able to shoot down any US fighter aircraft directly, but this system has taken out many MQ-9 Reaper drones, and forced non stealth fighter aircraft to carry out lots of stand-off strikes to minimise risk to the pilots.

This article is a good overview of Yemeni air defence systems and capabilities

I did a comment on the latest attempts by the US Navy to suppress this air defence system here

Here's a comment on how stealth is becoming increasingly important in the modern battlefield

A comment on ground based infrared search and track systems likely in Yemen

It's actually 22 now.

I saw the original Loomer post and it was incredibly stupid. She thought that a bunch of F-35Cs on aircraft carriers having visible signs of rust/deposits of dirt (which is perfectly normal for aircraft on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean, where there's salt and spray everywhere, along with jet exhausts blasting constantly) meant that the F-35C was bad and woke or something.

I'd say Trump II is more similar to FDR than Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. I'm going to list some things here, it may sound familiar to what Trump's doing now:

Putting the "foreign enemy" in camps to secure the country - FDR. Looking to revitalize American manufacturing and awaken the "sleeping giant" at home - FDR. Consolidation of power to the executive and "ignoring the courts", including the supreme court - FDR. Believing one can do no wrong if the ultimate goal is to "save the country" - FDR. Using outside advisors (Trump uses Witkoff) for key negotiations with Russia because you believe that the insiders are comprimised - FDR. Looking to fight a Naval war in the Pacific - FDR. Running for a third term - FDR.

Social conservatism or reactionary ideology does not necessarily equal fascist. Trump is more an amalgamation of ideas from various US presidents that were generally popular or considered influential if they weren't popular, from McKinley to FDR to a "reverse Nixon" to Reagan. A "greatest hits collection" of US presidents and ideas. In essence, he is the most American president that has ever existed, a distillation of Americana. If you define fascism like that, then yes you can argue that Trump is fascist. But I still think it's useful to differentiate from pre and post WW2 Pax Americana and Hitlerite fascism. The closest Trump got to the latter was when he ordered the police to clear out the protestors so he could do a photo op with the Bible in front of a church during the BLM protests in 2020.

He's 93 years old, what's he controlling at that age?

US generals are not idiots, they're not going to sail their Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) straight into a hailstorm of Anti Ship Ballistic Missiles (ASBMs) equipped with either Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicles (MaRVs) or Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs) as warheads. The Chinese DF-17 HGV equipped ASBM, and the DF-21D MaRV equipped ASBM, have a range of around 1600km/1000mi. The DF-21 is said to be a Chinese equivalent to the now retired Pershing-II from the United States. So these weapons will act as area denial weapons, with the CSGs remaining outside of their effective range during the majority of their operations. Aircraft will rely on mid air refueling and/or external drop tanks to have the required range to conduct missions from this far out. This of course restricts their operations, but they can still carry out missions. This is also why there's a huge focus on increasing the internal fuel capacity and range for the US Navy's 6th generation strike fighter (F/A-XX), and why the F-35C has such a large internal fuel capacity.

Pershing-II (left), hypothesised DF-21D MaRV on top of DF-15 booster stage (centre), DF-21 with nosecone shield (right):

DF-17 with DF-ZF HGV:

We can see this in Yemen in the Red Sea (where ASBMs were used as weapons for the first time in history), where the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier spends the majority of time around Jeddah, around 700-800km away from the Houthi/Ansarallah controlled parts of Yemen, and resupplies at Yanbu. This keeps them out of range of the Zulfiqar Basir MaRV equipped ASBM (700km range) during normal operations, and keeps them out of range of Anti Ship Cruise Missiles like the Abu Mhadi (1000km range) when resupplying.

Zulfiqar Basir, with a close up on the electro optical sensor on the MaRV for terminal guidance:

Area denial is still a great capability to have, but ASBMs aren't magic wands that can just eliminate CSGs. They have their own limitations, hitting a moving target such as a ship with a ballistic missile, even one equipped with a HGV or MaRV, is quite complex, especially at longer ranges where you'd have to provide midcourse guidance updates and resulting trajectory changes to a ballistic missile in space. This is why longer range ASBMs aren't there yet. To try extend the effective range of existing ASBM platforms, they could be launched from aircraft, which give a small range boost from the launch point, and allowing the aircraft to fly out over sea before launching, for a combined range extension (aircrafts range + ASBM range). China does have the KF-21, an air launched DF-21. The challenge then becomes avoiding the launch aircraft being intercepted by hostile combat air patrols before launching, such patrols will limit how far out the launch aircraft can fly.

Air launched DF-21 variant mounted on a Xian H-6, the two solid fueled booster rocket stages and MaRV are clearly visible.

The article mentions equipping a longer range ballistic missile like the DF-27 with a DF-ZF HGV, but I don't think that's practical over the ranges mentioned (8000km/5000mi). The DF-ZF is not designed to glide at hypersonic speeds for such a long distance, so your glide phase would take up a small part of the overall flight profile, meaning that such a platform would act like a conventional ballistic missile for the majority of it's flight time. The DF-ZF is also not designed to handle atmospheric re-entry at the higher speeds and loads that such an extended range would require. A new HGV would be needed.

Why do you think the US wants Greenland, and has already signed deals with mining conglomerates there for rare earths for the US Department of Defence, preventing a Chinese buyout of these mines in the process?

Highly unlikely, there's nothing in the Yemeni arsenal (or most countries arsenals) with the range to target a US Navy AEW/AWACS asset (in the E-2 Hawkeye) in the rear lines like that. These aircraft operate hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines. This would have to be a world record breaking Surface to Air Missile kill, or thereabouts, to even be possible. For context, the current world record in combat is 217km with an S-300V4 system. Maybe Ansarallah could have tried to rig up a surface to surface anti radiation missile with the required range (like the Hormuz missile with 300km range) to try hit an aerial target and try home in on the emissions of the big radome on the E-2, but I doubt it would result in a hit. Given that US airstrikes were ongoing hours after this reported attack, I can't see this being realistic.

Also federation is back? Cool.

Unfortunately that's just not true, this car (ITAOUA Sahel) is a rebadged Dongfeng Nanobox EV, it's not a fully indigenous EV, it's made in Hubei, China; and based on a Renault platform, it's basically an electric Renault Kwid made in China.

Dongfeng Nanobox 2024 review

For starters, this small EV from Dongfeng goes by different aliases, depending on where it’s being sold. The Nanobox is basically a badge-engineered product of the Dongfeng and Renault-Nissan alliance joint venture. In its home market, the Nanobox is known as the Dongfeng Aeolus EX1 / Fengxing T1 / Fengguang E1 or Dongfeng-Nissan Venucia e30. But in the UK and European markets, the Nanobox goes by the name Renault City K-ZE, Renault Kwid E-Tech Electric, or the Dacia Spring Electric. Regardless of the name, they come from the same assembly line in Hubei, China.

Built on the Renault CMFA-EV platform, the Nanobox’s Alliance underpinnings were adapted for battery electric vehicle applications. The original Renault Kwid where the Nanobox was based, started as a crossover city car with a small 3-cylinder gasoline engine – very much like the Suzuki S-Presso.

This EV rebadging exercise likely has to do with a deal between Li Yubao, president of Yunhong International/Group, and Burkina Faso. Yunhong International is a Chinese special purpose acquisitions company part of the Belt and Road initiative in China. They already had deals going back to the previous government, and recently gave some EVs to Burkina Faso for their civil servants. If this rebadging deal includes a local assembly plant where the parts are built in China first before being put together locally, like it does in Botswana with the Skywell BE11, is not clear at this stage. The news articles say it does, but they also say this a fully indigenous EV, which is not true.

The porn ban has been inevitable for years, but Reddit did nothing about it. There's no proper age verification for posting nude content, mod abuse, spam everywhere, extreme fetish subs allowed to run rampant 4chan style with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and Reddit has just swept it all under the rug. They definitely had this ban ready to go. I think it'll be reversed, because without porn Reddit site traffic will crash. They'll just try hide it better, pornographic content is already shadowbanned from all and popular and default search for years now, so more measures like that.

Christ no, I don't want the predditors, gooners, and orbiters to infest the lemmyverse.

See this is the exact liberal nonsense I'm talking about. How is Trump "subservient to Russia and China"? Because he views continuing the war in Ukraine as no longer in the United States' interest? And China? I thought Trump was all about tariffs on Chinese goods and starting a trade war in his last term. I don't see that as subservient, that's confrontation. A negative confrontation that just hurt everyone globally, but maybe necessary from a third world perspective, waking up the third world to the reality of the United States and it's economic warfare. If you're talking about dialing down the temperature against China in his upcoming term, that would be because the US benefits from Chinese imports and can't wean itself off of them due to a lack of domestic manufacturing and industry, and because China needs a market to sell their goods to as domestic consumption + exports to the rest of the world can't make up for US consumption, so they'll give in to US demands. I fail to see how such a position is "pro China" it's just self interest.

You have to stop viewing politics through the personalities of world leaders as if it's some kind of Hollywood movie, and view the material reality. If the USA is no longer interested in pursuing a certain action or decides to escalate on another front in the next four years, ask yourself why is that the case, instead of defaulting to "Trump crazy stupid strongman dictator selling out the USA". That kind of liberal analysis is not helpful and will leave you lost. Never underestimate your adversary.

For example in Greenland, many people were going on about how Trump is some big idiot that wants a country that looks big on a Mercator projection. Meanwhile, the United States secured a large rare earth metals deposit in Greenland, stoping Chinese mining companies from getting the rights to it. The US company that bought the rights to the rare earth metals deposit signed a contract with the United States Department of Defence to process the metals. While everyone was distracted by Trump talking nonsense, the US pulled of a heist and exerted more political pressure on its allies. When one hand is doing something (in this case Trump's loud mouth), always look at moves the other hand is making (in this case, the US DoD getting more control in Greenland over their mining deposits). If you fail to do so, the jester will rob you blind. In this case, a large deposit of Rare Earth Ores in Greenland, China excluded and Denmark further vassalised.

Given recent events, I really don't see how bending the knee to Trump is any different than bending the knee to the Democrats, especially Biden who committed genocide for 15 months. It's just another capitalist bending the knee to the world hegemon in the United States. Trump is just more straightforward and bombastic about the USA's position in the world as it's hegemon and it's demands, forcing ordinary people, especially liberals in the United States, to confront that reality directly, whilst under Biden that was obfuscated by flowery language and decorum. I guess that decorum and flowery language was enough for US liberals to "turn off" so to speak, and go back to brunch while the world burns.

I'd imagine that would cause the exact opposite reaction. When has this kind of thing ever broken morale? In pretty much every post WW2 conflict, all this kind of bombing does is strengthen hatred for the enemy. The value of these bombings is usually in the destruction of any kind of infrastructure, military or civilian, and creating an atmosphere of tension.

Pictures are real, It's a ex Syrian Arab Army ammunition depot being hit and exploding, a large number of secondary explosions of all the weapons stored there caused such a huge blast. Rockets stored there cooking off and flying in all directions probably caused the civilian casualties, there were multiple videos of rockets flying and impacting far from the initial blast. Ammunition stored at a large depot like that can cook off for hours or even days afterwards.

I did a write up on it here, finding the potential facility struck on Google maps

Same link on lemmygrad

. Also, from what I've seen/read, the SAA didn't abandon equipment like the Afghan Army did when Taliban advanced.

That's incorrect, the SAA did abandon a ton of equipment, I think over 200 SAA tanks, including over 60 T-72s and 6 T-90s, were captured by various rebel factions undamaged. Over 900 pieces of equipment abandoned in total.

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Me with my grandfather everytime I bought us him quality street chocolates for Christmas as a child lol.