Do you have figures that include 2024? That data seems to stop at 2021. Not saying you're wrong but the picture being painted is just Biden's first year as president during the height of the pandemic.

Comparing things like rates of inflation and the consumer price index, we see the numbers drop dramatically within the past two years, which seems to have been improving cost of living somewhat (or, ruining less quickly, at least) for the average American, though there is still a lot more to be done.

We're gonna see how far they can stretch the label of immigrants, too. Born in the US to foreign parents? Back on the boat with you.

I mean, sure, they have the right, insomuch as someone can buy a game on disc and use it as a coaster I guess. But it ruins the point of it, in my opinion.

I'm not saying people are wrong to enjoy media and spend money however they want, but it's like a concert venue installing fancy couches to put in the lobby for people who buy tickets to a show but don't want to actually watch it. It just doesn't seem worth it.

Who's gonna say no? The supreme court? The legislature? It's GOP all the way down now.

The Supreme Court has actually set the precedent that the president is allowed to do whatever they want with complete immunity. From a legal standpoint, Trump can absolutely just get rid of him, one way or another, with no repercussions.

The GOP has the White House. And the Senate. And the House of Representatives. And the Supreme Court. The constitution says whatever they want it to say.

Doesn't seem like a good sell if they do it that way, though. Let's invest money and time into this feature that we will disincentivise people from doing by reducing their rewards if they use it.

Works for people doing these things as a hobby project and accounting for functionality that currently exists, but not great for a corporation that would need to convince devs to implement the feature into their games and design around it.

Part of me blames the collective memory loss of the COVID years and a complete lack of understanding of cause and effect.

It's like everyone forgot there was this massive global pandemic which absolutely killed entire industries. And even though the important parts were propped up during the lean times by government support, that support ended eventually, with the economy still a mess that couldn't just be put back together like nothing happened.

I mean, people at that time didn't even have a concept of what was going on. They have no idea how much money was spent keeping the lights on. People lost their shit over the billions it would cost to forgive student loans, but had no idea how many more billions were already spent on—and abused by—businesses whose pandemic loans were forgiven by the government.

Everyone forgot the pandemic was only as bad as it was in the US because it was so completely mishandled by the Trump administration. We could have had everything back to normal a lot sooner if there was even a little bit of national preparedness, not to mention if we didn't have all the misinformation spread by his own administration.

So when the economy went to shit in 2021-2022 during the Biden administration, people shrugged their shoulders and put the blame on the old man in the white house, despite the fact that it's been on a recovery trend during this last year. And so Trump's first year is going to start with stronger markets, he'll get the credit, and then things will get worse just in time for someone else to take the blame for it.

Imagine just rewinding in Elden Ring? No more consequence for death, just un-lose your souls and dodge better without actually learning the tells.

What would be the point?

I look forward to paying $1000/Mo for my HBO-Tube-Warner-Discovercast-NetPrime Plus Premium membership because the shorter mandatory ads are a great deal over the $950/mo Sony-patent ad-supported version.

And that's why red states are slashing school budgets en masse and continue to have consistently terrible academic performance.