Just to get it out of the way at the start - Hamas is terrible. They are violent fundamentalists and do not deserve support. Neither Israel nor Hamas are “good” and the only side that deserves support and recognition are the civilians, Israeli or Palestinian, suffering because of/under their evil regimes. Now on to the rebuttal.

Israel needs no “baiting” to kill or otherwise abuse Palestinians - it’s their policy and has been for a long time. From the Nakba until today, the history of Israeli human rights violations, violence, lies, etc. is well-established. “Look at what you made me do” is such a typical excuse used by abusers that it’s almost a trope. Moreover, Netanyahu’s government deliberately kept Hamas in power as a useful bogeyman and an way to divide/foil Palestinian statehood. There is ample evidence that Israel has directly supported Hamas and other extremists for decades.

“Hamas, for its part, is alleged to have emerged out of the Israeli-financed Islamist movement in Gaza, Israel’s then-military governor in that territory, Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, disclosing in 1981 that he had been given a budget for funding Palestinian Islamists to counter the rising power of Palestinian secularists.”

"In a 1994 book, “The Other Side of Deception,” Mossad whistleblower Victor Ostrovsky contended that aiding Hamas meshed with “Mossad’s general plan” for an Arab world “run by fundamentalists” that would reject “any negotiations with the West,” thereby leaving Israel as “the only democratic, rational country in the region.” Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official involved in Gaza for over two decades, told a newspaper interviewer in 2009 that, “Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation.”

As far as the nature of the demands: “one-sided deals” is a matter of opinion, but “we need guarantees you’ll actually stop killing/injuring many tens of thousands of civilians, destroying hospitals/schools/aid, etc.” seems like a pretty standard request at peace negotiations.

If he can follow up even a portion of what he promises, a 2nd Trump presidency will bring the USA to a halt like a car hitting a reinforced wall at multiple levels. The best version of a Trump presidency is him raging daily as he’s blocked at every level by legal challenges and bureaucratic measures and getting nothing done. The worst version is that he succeeds in his goals and reforms the USA into a right-wing autocracy and destroys things like checks/balances and separation of church and state.

There’s nothing damning after the “but” though. What part specifically of “but unfortunately they are the folks bargaining for Gazans” do you take issue with? That’s the provable reality of the negotiations. I even call it unfortunate.

Israel has repeatedly stated their intent to continue the war in Gaza regardless of international approval. Netanyahu, among others, has stated intent to establish a long-term/permanent security presence in Gaza.

Since Oct. 7th the Israeli military has either directly killed or provided protection to lethal settler attacks in the West Bank, resulting in over 500 deaths in a section of Occupied Palestinian Territory that theoretically isn’t at war. So there’s Israeli military presence, violence, and oppression of Palestinians even where Hamas isn’t in control.

Hamas are not good guys by any stretch, but unfortunately they are the folks bargaining for Gazans. In the face of continued Israeli aggression, disregard for international approval/law, and stated plans it’s no wonder they’re demanding that any deals have rock-solid guarantees.

I almost never buy multiplayer-focused games anymore. Of course not all gamers are shitty, but enough are to matter. Having left those games behind I can see how they were taking more joy from my life than they added. If friends want to do private co-op that’s cool, but it’s also rarer now that we’re all older.

As far as sales go, I love playing a year or two behind new releases. Patched games at a discount ftw and timing doesn’t matter in single-player games.

Generalizations like “All X are Y” should be used VERY sparingly if ever, and are almost never correct or helpful when talking about large groups of people - i.e. an entire ethnicity. Jews are people like any other ethnicity, and as such span the whole range of ethics and personalities. I personally know a very ethical and kind Jew who does not deserve to be labelled as an asshole or anything similar, and I know of many more who also prove that claim wrong.

Moreover, being abused is not a valid excuse to be an abuser. A lawyer tells a story about his client who tried to justify his domestic violence by saying he was abused as a child. The judge responded to the effect of, “then you should know even more than most people how very destructive and wrong it is”.

Every time I get close it says “Press X to Interact” but I don’t think my stats are high enough yet. I’m grinding on unattended toddlers until I level a few times.

For a lot of wild animals, smiling can be a sign of aggression or unease. This is just an initiative to help humanity rediscover it’s natural roots by changing the meaning of smiles back.

TY - it could be, and that would help explain why tracking it down didn’t work. I looked through his Instagram and Deviantart and didn’t see it, but the signature is there, it’s his genre, and it could be his style IMO.

Link to the article the image is from since I don’t know how to internet well enough to make the image expandable. TL:DR genetics/biology show it’s complex and there are many intersex possibilities on and the gender spectrum.

Starfield was in development for 7 years, which seems like a fair bit of time to figure out main storylines etc. Baldur’s Gate 3 is said to have taken 6 years to make. Did Bethesda only hire the quest design team in the last year or something?

Ehh…there are good reasons to not want Russia or China to expand their influence. It doesn’t help that many Western leaders (like Sunak) are such bastards, but we can demand change among domestic bastards without running into the embrace of foreign bastards.

Even worse, it’s a radioactive dinosaur with finishing moves: