Step One of imperialistic expansionism is to pretend that nothing in your national history is problematic.

I know, that’s why the word “free” was wrong

“Giving”?

“Free”?

If he’s higher up than me and my job is at risk and I need the job, wouldn’t mouthing off be a bad idea?

What’s my motivation? Is there a reason why I’m listening to Alec Baldwin brag about his watch? What’s stopping me from simply walking away?

China seems to think it can be friends with everybody.

We all choose makey-uppy things to believe in, through which we interpret the purpose of our own existence. There’s no objective reason to be kind to strangers beyond what we can get out of it - there are plenty of billionaires in the world to prove that selfishness and greed is a valid life strategy - but we CHOOSE to BELIEVE in made-up concepts like fairness and love, because it makes most of us happier to live that way. I see no reason to look down my nose at people who choose a few more made-up concepts to believe in than I do. I’m only bothered by the people who are pig-headed about it, incapable of accepting that people believe in different things than they do… and that category includes people who say “faith is idiocy”.

Doubling the already over the top european military budget isn’t going to fix any of the things in your first list.

Can I ask you to expand on that thought?

Judging by the video, the Russians seem to have placed barriers around the supports as buffers against this exact sort of thing. The explosion’s centre seems to be at one of these barriers rather than at the support itself. It’ll take another drone to go through that hole and hit the support, I think. Of course, I’m no expert - I’m just trying to interpret what I’m seeing.

Can I ask your security assessment of:

• The Transatlantic cables?

• The recent network outages in Spain?

• Transnistria?

• Gagauzia?

• The EU-Belarus border?

• The North African migrant crisis?

• The ongoing cyberattacks that have been hitting Europe for years?

• The price of wheat?

Then I would ask your assessment of how much the EU should plan on relying on the USA for its security over the long term.

• Threats to annex Greenland?

• Threats to annex Canada?

• Threats to seize control of the Panama Canal?

• Kill switches in the F-35?

• Sentiments expressed during the Signalgate Incident about the US doing all the work in securing the Red Sea?

• Attempts to influence European elections?

• Growing American control of the Western Internet?

Not to mention if they were able to pull off a mission like this, allegedly using cell towers to fly their drones, what’s stopping them from doing similar limited missions to tank factories, recruit depots, and other places that are further away from the front? Literally all of these targets now become viable because they will be much less heavily guarded than the nuclear triad bombers.

I assume the cell tower thing was exploiting an oversight or other vulnerability that can only be exploited once before Russia plugs the hole. Maybe they can do it again but it would be relying on enemy incompetence, which is in plentiful supply these days but still not a good idea to rely upon.

Tell me more!

There’s a war everywhere in the world and will be untill we die probably

This is defeatist thinking. Mankind had, in all its thousands of years, never gone to the Moon, but then came 1969 and we did it. Everything’s impossible until you actually do it. The past is useful data to extrapolate from, yes, but that doesn’t mean that everything that went before is an immutable fact of existence for all time.

We don’t lack the ability to end war, we only lack a plan.

I don’t want Hamas to conquer Israel but I would like the Palestinian people to stop getting genocided and/or ethnically cleansed. In other words, I would like for Israel and Palestine to reach a peace deal that allows BOTH of them to live in peace, along borders as close to the 1949 Green Line borders as possible (obviously a lot has changed since 1949 and some changes are unlikely to be ever willingly undone, but it should be possible to get close - certainly closer than they are now).

I also think that this is almost certainly going to be impossible as long as Netanyahu and Hamas are in charge. Palestinians need to get rid of Hamas and Israelis need to get rid of Netanyahu.

PiS isn’t pro-Russia so much as it’s anti-EU. They see Brussels the same way they see Moscow: as a sinister foreign power that wants to control Poland, and they see Poland as surrounded by the EU and Russia, with only the USA as a trustworthy ally keeping both in check.

No, but the purpose of a shower is to get dirt off of your body. Dirt that got there before the shower, not during.

Yeah, this is something we can cheer for without even a hint of equivocation because it’s the destruction of weapons instead of the killing of people. Though I’m sure there were probably SOME human casualties, I’m comfortable with Ukraine targeting weapons and ordnance as much as they want.

No, I don’t have a bidet. They’re expensive and not very common. But if I had one, I would probably dry my ass with a small amount of toilet paper. Or maybe I’d use a towel, and just have a different one every day. I already change and wash my underpants every day. I assume you’re not soaping your ass every time you shit, so then by your logic your underpants are exposed to a gross ass and are therefore gross themselves every time you shit. So if you find it acceptable to simply change your underpants every day, then changing a little towel every day isn’t much extra burden.

Obviously it’s possible for me to get by perfectly fine without a bidet right now. But there have been times in my life when I’ve been injured (eg a dislocated shoulder) and reaching back to wipe was kind of difficult. It opened my eyes to the fact that someday I’m going to be elderly and when the day comes, I would much rather have a device for easily cleaning my ass than to be forced to rely on someone else to do it for me. In my opinion every home should have one, just because everybody eventually gets old. I’m certainly not suggesting they be added to public bathrooms.

So wait, do you not dry your ass after a shower? Or are you saying that you use something other than a towel to do so? Am I speaking to someone who’s never touched their ass with a towel? Do you just stand around in the nude while waiting for your ass to air dry?