The Administration’s idea is that the 2026 election will be rigged in their favor.

Which might not work. Congressional Republicans may not be in on the plan, at least not all of them. Even if they are, they might be getting cold feet. Same with Republicans at the state level, and they’re the ones who have direct control over elections.

Don’t rely on them falling apart on their own, though.

Political lean can be a funny thing. States move together. It could very well be that it doesn’t shift enough to pick up those extra 3 states, but if it does, there will probably be several more.

Truth. The end stage of Half Life 2 is my example of this. It’s not especially difficult, but grabbing a jackbooted thug with the enhanced gravity gun and throwing them at another jackbooted thug is damn good entertainment.

Right, and it’s sort of a historical quirk, as well. You always need to compare your speed to what came before. That logic stretches back to computers that did not use 8 bits per byte, but still communicated over various channels to other computers.

And then there’s just plain marketing. Not just that it makes the number 8 times higher, but that any one ISP that chose to advertise in MBps rather than Mbps would suddenly look like they’re slower. It needs to be mandated for everyone as a regulatory rule or it just won’t work at all.

Salt participates in chemical reactions of cooking beyond just being salty. You do notice in other ways.

I know someone who had to go on a salt-free diet for a while. She said that she once broke down crying because of how bland everything tastes.

My wife also has an aunt who’s doctor told her to cut back on salt. She interpreted that as no salt, ever. You can always tell what dish she brought to dinner.

There are definitely things we can do with more power. Real time ray tracing for the entire scene, no upscaling tricks, at 1440p and 120fps would be amazing.

Outside of games, hardware that can solve protein folding would have massive implications for healthcare. Think of all the new drugs pharmaceutical companies can create and then upcharge 10000%.

It’s most useful because it’s popular. I can travel to the other side of the country, find a local game shop, and sit down at a group and have a shared understanding of the rules.

I’ve directly heard the argument from creationists of “they were wrong about Pluto being a planet, why would they be right about evolution?” Yeah, misunderstanding how all this works does matter.

Xbox is failing at this point. I suspect Rockstar might have to bump the timeline of the PC version.

But I’ll still do what I did with GTA V and wait for it to hit bargain bins.

Jokes on them, the nearest Boston Market to me is in another state.

I bet it comes with a condescending “you really need to think things through” attached, too. I’ve ran into the type before.

If I’m following what you mean by packaged RAM, Apple does that. It’s fast, but you can’t upgrade it.

The next fad will be Thunderdome. Are you ready to go beyond that?

No, it won’t. The DRAM market is dominated by three companies, and they’ve colluded before. They get their wrist slapped by some government body, they promise not to do it again, and then they wait a few years and do it again.

What Starbucks did was exist. Yes, it is crap coffee. You know who agrees? Baristas who used to work at Starbucks. They left and formed their own little shops. And they started tinkering with espresso machines. As a result of that, espresso has improved dramatically over the last 20 years. It’s more consistent and avoids extracting undesirable flavors.

And I assure you, there’s more to it than just building a coffee chain.

I’m not even talking about Starbucks beyond them starting the second wave. Travel yourself. American coffee does not end with Starbucks.

If you’re going to continue that strawman, then there’s nothing left to discuss.

You’re stuck on the original origin. That’s not where things have ended up. Espresso around the world is nothing like what it was in 19th century Italy. It’s not even what it was like in the late 20th century.

When did I defend Starbucks in this thread beyond “they started some things that are important”?

Just stop. You’re not getting the nuance at all.