Truly, the most libertarian.

This map, but for coal, tells a far worse story.

When you let them know about their grammar mistake and they tell you it’s a spelling mistake.

thank you, that makes sense now.

The morales government built the pilot plant for lithium extraction, I don’t get this meme at all.

what the fuck are you gonna do the first time something makes it up the stairs? I hope you have a flamethrower ready.

It’s one of those cruel ironic twists. Wages actually have increased, but inflation has far outpaced them.

It’s only barely begun to level back out. The real question is if the wages will stay high once inflation (and greedflation) calms the fuck down.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/

haha no source, just a dumb joke.

Japan: Checkmate

:: Reveals 10X more laws regulating game consoles ::

Doesn’t the far right coalition in Spain still control a terrifying amount power?

I know, I know, it’s pronounced “Nyïmp”

Full name is GNUIMP anyway

“granodiorite” sounds exactly the kind of name someone who doesn’t want to admit it’s just granite would make up.

Texas has elected judges, and we’ll, I’ll let you decide how that’s gone.

GMLRS: And I took that personally

DeJoy. Founder of a FedEx competitor called XPO. He’s STILL there due to the way appointments to the office are done, and continues his fuckery. But even he hasn’t managed to fucking privatize the US mail system.

Even the U.S. under Trump didn’t do this. Wow.

I want to hate it, but it’s a bullpup on a robopup, so I’m torn.

Exactly, yes! They were self-limited, and the valar trusted them to be so, which is why Saruman turning evil caught Gandalf super off guard!

LotR magic is interesting. Sauron bred all kinds of monsters essentially “hacking the system” to produce something in a world where no one but Illuvatar can create life, and Melkor got around the whole life/sentience thing by convincing lesser spirits to inhabit this creations. Balrogs, werewolves, etc.

Other creations Melkor imbued with his own vast power, essentially spreading his “divine fire” out amongst his thralls, and thereby diminishing himself. Sauron eventually does the same, in creating the One Ring.

So, when Gandalf became Gandalf, his power to affect things was explicitly limited. , The basic difference between The Istari and Sauron: they did not seek to usurp their position in ‘the song of Illuvatar’. In fact the five Istari (Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and the other unnamed two) were maiar spirits that had until that point stayed out of Arda (Earth) and all its shenanigans on purpose!

So, the staff served as a badge of office mostly. And thought it never stated, it’s kind of implied that some of their power is imbued within it. This is why Gandalf looks totally different when he comes back as the White, he took Saruman’s job as the head of the order, and had some more of his power unlocked as a result. The main strength of the Istari was their wisdom, knowing how the world worked and to a point, how “the song” was supposed to go. They were trusted to do the job (of taking down Sauron) because they wouldn’t use their knowledge and power to ‘hack the system’.

IMHO, Gandalf needed his staff not as a conduit of power here, but as an emblem of his station: He had to show Grima that his boss had just been fired.