Saudi Arabia: “I am assuming direct control.”

EA: “Wait, I know this line…”

SA: “I am the vanguard of your destruction. This corporation is over.”

EA: “Fffffuuuuuuuck…”

Oh, are you talking about House Centipedes? Great for controlling other insects in your house!

And also, at my current phase in my life, the closest thing I’ll have to some creature cuddling me at night.

In addition to what gonzo mentioned, here is something else to consider:

There are only two significant political parties in the US. FPTP isn’t much of a big deal when it comes to a two-party system (since one party is guaranteed to win a 50+1 vote [50% plus one vote, for plural majority]), but you add a third or more, and suddenly you start realizing the flaws of such a system.

If three parties are split 33-33-34, the 34 wins 100% of the riding. This would be in spite of not having earned 66% of the vote. Imagine how much worse this becomes when you add a fourth party, or a fifth, etc. You might imagine, then, that people might start being angry at a democracy when ~80% of the electorate are angry at not voting for the winning candidate, which is entirely possible and has happened - if not in Canada, then at least famously in Britain in one of its ridings during the 2010s sometime there.

Thankfully, in one sense, you guys don’t have to deal with the majority of the electorate not electing the winning candidate. However, I don’t think that is outweighing all of the problems that the two-party system is leading to, to be quite fair…

2 Hot takes:

1. This is, what? The fourth election the Conservatives have lost in a row? The third since the Liberals first ran for retaining their position as the governing party, at the least. If they aren’t winning with moderate candidates, and they aren’t winning with reformist far-right candidates, how can the Conservatives justify to their own party that they can competently prove themselves to be a governing party when seemingly no leadership style is shaking the Liberals?

This is likely going to lead to the Conservatives splitting between the reformers and the moderates once more, as either is going to believe the other side is inhibiting their ability to lead a new government. Reformers will likely solidify everywhere between the East of the Rockies and West of Ontario (Eastern BC and all the Prairie Provinces, I’m thinking), while the Conservatives will have to once again fight for representation largely in Ontario and (maybe) the Atlantic Provinces.

It would be nice to see the Right-wing splitting their votes the same way the Left does for NDP and Liberals, if for no other reason than to help make Minority governments more prominent in Canada as a whole; however,

2. Doug Ford might genuinely abandon the Provincial government and use this as a chance to catapult his brand to the Federal level. He could also (maybe?) be the first politician to serve on a Municipal, Provincial and Federal level within a single career. As much of a shit-show as he is, he also undeniably can win seats in Ontario, most crucially in the Toronto area, and the Federal Conservatives really need someone who can do that.

Simple why it’s so effective:

Institutions are facing increasingly insurmountable problems, and people are not dealing with the consequences and stress that comes from these problems. They want answers and solutions.

Institutions ask for you to have patience and give them time to fix the issues. Problem: people already don’t believe that the institutions are fixing things, so you can’t rely on them to fix it. The solution, they feel, has to come from elsewhere.

Left-wing propaganda says that the institution is broken, they will fix it. They want to take the money away from the ultra rich and give it back to the public as a form of equalization. If you are part of the ultra rich, you don’t like this.

Right-wing propaganda says the institution is broken, they will fix it. Right-wingers generally believe in the accumulation of capital for themselves via “merit”, which means the upper class and billionaires are likely to be supporting / using them.

People believe that things need to be fixed (which is likely true). Only left-wing and right-wing propaganda say that the institution needs to be fixed, it definitely isn’t coming from the institution itself.

The ultra rich fund whichever propaganda will allow them to retain their own benefits and works to suppress the propaganda of the ones who work against their interests.

Hence, right-wing propaganda is massively inflated to support fixing a system that allows retaining wealth, while they suppress left-wing propaganda which says wealth needs to be redistributed to the masses.

To clarify: “The Crown” is often a short-handed statement for the executive government, which is basically the Cabinet for the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) - all the Ministers of different government departments. Symbolically, they work in the interest of the de jure (written in law) authority of Canada, which would be the Monarchy in Britain (who is also symbolically head of state for every other Commonwealth nation). Now, as to touch on the British Commonwealth (since “The Crown” in Canada would basically be decimated in a conventional confrontation with the US):

It would turn into an existential crisis for everyone, I assume. A lot of “every man for himself” sort of mentality, but I assume there would be those who would want to fund a Canadian resistance (even if paltry) simply on the notion that an Imperial America is a FAR worse threat than anything Europe had faced before (expansionist policies, current global economic power, utterly disconnected from mainland Europe and the largest navy and airforce combined… kind of a worse situation than Fascist Germany, since it would be far more difficult to deal any direct damage to US infrastructure from the other side of the pond).

I’ll be honest, I would have no idea if the Commonwealth would actually step up in a way that is remotely similar to what we have done for Ukraine. I would honestly expect more help from Mexico and Latin Americans than I would the Commonwealth, as they would see that the US would be a very tangible threat at this point and also share the all-too-important land boarder.

The following statement is entirely relevant to this game:

Fuck Jimmy.

They once said that Ukraine would get absolutely rolled by Russia within 3 days, 2 weeks tops.

Never underestimate a pissed off underdog, especially when fealty to the US President is nowhere near as “strong” / co-opted as in the Russian Federation.

Good, challenge Ford. Don’t let him get away with dumb shit like this.