Me as a Romanian: heh. Yup, no post WW2 puppet government extracted our resources, no sirree bob. Totally benevolent soviet occupational forces who bestowed flowers, kisses and rainbows upon the populace.

It also tends to be people farthest away from what’s going on. The most anti-Russian countries tend to be those geographically closest to Russia. Those on the border with them know what’s at stake and why having military backing against Russian aggression is so important.

How does his decision to move the embassy make sense in that context?

Here’s a quote from that article, to illustrate how people saw the Trump government on Israel at that moment:

Every previous US administration has been pro-Israel but made some effort to understand and respond to the Palestinian narrative, says Mr Miller.

This one is so “deeply ensconced” in the Israeli narrative it has crossed a red line, he says.

If so, it will be difficult for it to keep propping up the framework, with unpredictable results.

It is true that key Arab countries seem more willing to sanction a settlement less favourable to the Palestinians than before because they want Israel as an ally against Iran.

But Mr Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, and Israel’s heavy-handed approach in Gaza, reduces their room for manoeuvre.

He’s very pro Israel, and if he was given the current situation in Israel as president he’d probably be waving a pair of pompoms in the Knesset.

Good thing I double-checked to see if someone else made this point yet.

Yeah. Not only that, but the splash screen when you launch the game makes it incredibly clear that it’s one guy called Greg (very humanizing) and he’s working on it, but he’s not some superhero.

people in the UK want lower food prices, but don’t want to be part of the EU common market

Yup, it’s pretty dumb. But the way the majority feels is that they’ve had these arguments about Brexit for some many years they’re basically done at this point.

And they want more doctors and dentists, but less immigration.

Interestingly, even Reform, the most pro-brexit anti-immigration send everyone to Rwanda party still wants exceptions for doctors, dentists and nurses to allow them to come into the country at will. They are very much considered the exception for immigration.

He’s right. There just isn’t the political will in the population to reopen the topic of Brexit now. Whether anyone likes it or not, the things British people really care about right now, in no particular order, are:

• Inflation

• House & utility & food prices

• Immigration

• NHS waiting lists & more dentists

• Train infrastructure.

People can make very legitimate arguments linking Brexit to those issues, but it’s not politically viable to open that can of worms again. They just really want their lives to improve for the first time in over a decade.

There’s also the fact that a hypothetical end to US aid wouldn’t end EU aid. It’s definitely not on the same scale as the US due to our much smaller military sector, but that’d likely change in the event of a US shut-down of aid.

In my mind, the most likely results would be:

Short-term: Very dangerous period for Ukraine, they lose some ground, lots of men (similar to the last time they had a crippling artillery shell shortage).

Medium-term: EU military sector slowly ramps up to meet demand, as about 3/4 of central & eastern EU considers this an existential war that cannot be lost at any cost.

Long-term: After the war is over (however many more years that takes), Russia finally negotiates some kind of ceasefire where they can save some face internally and brag about how they “Denazified” Ukraine while going home and accomplishing nothing, EU is much more self-sufficient and therefore buys less from the US, and they aren’t seen as a trust-worthy ally militarily anymore. Even if on paper most EU members are still in NATO, they consider the security guarantees of the EU as much more important and serious.

It’s not a civil war and I don’t think it’ll become one. The modern US isn’t geographically separated enough to have any sort of cohesive movement locally. There’s no north vs south playing out, for example.

Instead, what you have is a slow-rolling coup and social instability.

As far as I understand the decision (IANAL!), the definition of what constitutes an “Official Act” is left intentionally undefined, so in effect you can only claim this ultimate power if the courts like you in order to declare what you’re doing official.

This means, if I understand it correctly, king powers for Trump and nothing for Biden. They’d just rule everything Biden is doing as not an official act.

Btw, After staring at it for a while I can kinda switch between red and white at will. Anyone else?

No, that doesn’t seem to work for me, but after messing with zooming in, I can absolutely see it’s white if I’m all the way zoomed in on the black and white pixels in the can, and then as I slowly zoom out, there’s a specific moment when there’s enough of the surrounding blue that the can suddenly turns red.

The can remains black and white in my perception as long as I’m sufficiently zoomed in on it without the background. It’s a pretty neat effect.

hay, grass or silage

All of the above, as well as other feeds such as corn. That percentage includes pastures and growing crops for feed. Here’s a pretty good breakdown.

Interestingly enough, if someone doesn’t care at all about veganism but wants to reduce agricultural land use, removing beef, lamb and dairy from their diet would be enough to get there (while continuing to eat chicken, fish, etc).

sweeping, emotional appeals

I don’t think my comment was very emotionally charged.

Surely, there are stronger arguments against eating meat than that

The power of an argument is determined by the reader. There’s compelling reasons in terms of zoonotic diseases and rampant antibiotic use, there’s other reasons from a moral point of view, there’s others in terms of environment (like this argument), there’s others in terms of human health, etc. Which one is convincing to which person depends entirely on what that person cares about.

Over 70% of farmland worldwide is used to make animal feed for the ranching industry, so if you’re not eating meat you’re already doing your bit to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture.

Belarus revealed the plans at the beginning of the war to go into Moldova right after Ukraine, so yes. That was exactly the plan

While most people are understandably pumped about the accession talks withs Ukraine, I think I can speak for the majority of Romanians when I say that this is an amazing step towards safety and security for Moldova. Our little brother deserves more than just being used as a political battleground by Russia.

Imo, it moreso proves that poverty causes desperation, desperation causes people to be way more susceptible to political extremism.

I don’t think this has anything to do with the GDR except for the fact that it left east Germany in poverty.

That’s currently being scheduled.

The complication is that he’ll never spend a day in Romanian prison, the UK has requested extradition. As soon as the trial is over, he’s headed to the UK. From that point, it’s Britain’s decision as to what happens next.

On the plus side as a Romanian, him becoming a convicted criminal here means that no matter what the UK decides, he can’t come back.

Sofas are just rebranded comfy benches

Last year I was forced to take 2 weeks PTO just before Christmas so my company wouldn’t get slapped with fines. Unexpected, but welcome. I just hadn’t checked how many days were left unused.

I like our European rules as well.

At least the article says that EV sales overall are flat, not increasing or decreasing.