We tried that in Europe. We bought oil and gas en masse from Russia. Companies opened factories there. We thought that by showing them that cooperation is better than the cold war, we can all move forward.

Then they attacked Ukraine.

Honestly mate: your quest not to pick side is sort of understandable. The world feels like a crap place these days with wars, rising prices and political unrest. While I generally dislike painting the world in black and white, it is sometimes necessary to accept that some issues are. This is one of those times.

Russia viciously and brutally invaded and terrorise Ukraine and her people, and that is not right. Appeasing to their moronic demands is not an option anyone should even be considering after all the pain and suffering they have caused.

We don’t reward this kind of behaviour, ever. It only brings more pain down the road.

Thanks for the chat and have a great summer, mate.

Honestly, if another cold war is the outcome of us stepping up for what is right in this world, then I think it’s a better alternative than giving into any dicators demands.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want it, but the alternative is everlasting certainty for Putin and future cronies that attacking sovereign countries is totally fine as long as he has nukes.

So to answer your question: the general idea to avoid this is to make sure everybody knows the west wants no war, but we will not sit idly by and watch it unfold right on our doorstep. And we are strong enough to beat you if it comes to that.

You don’t need allways to fight the bully to make him stop. You just need to make sure he knows you will fight and he most likely will lose.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt then, mostly because I agree with you that the best solution is the one where the fewest amount of people die.

I think where we diverge is how to achieve this. From what we’ve seen so far, Ukraine surrendering would probably not end the war. At least long term. Russia would use the time to re-arm and retry. Even if they don’t, the people in these new russian territories would be poorly treated and potentially murdered, especially those disagreeing with the peace agreement. That is my honest opinion. Therefore, the only other ways are Russia going home or Ukraine beating them.

The first one isn’t happening, so we end up alternative three.

Do you agree or disagree with my assessment?

NATO has been on their doorstep since its inception, so this argument is unreasonable.

Norway is a founding member and share a border with them.

Now why would they fear Ukraine joining a non-confontational alliance?

And how do you rationalize the fear of your neighbour making new friends by physically attacking them?

I don’t know if you are a russian bot or actually conflicted so I’m giving you a chance to explain what you think Ukraine should really do. In my mind, bowing down to a bully is never ever the answer and support any aid they get in their purely defensive war.

Is there any chance this will ever pass?

I don’t really know what it would take to get this done

I fucking love you!

Poor wording on my part.

It still functions, but I don’t get push notification when it detects motion or someone rings the bell while I’m out. I will see the recording once I’m on my local network again.

Not exactly what you asked for, but I went with Eufy with local storage. There is a home base so everything is stored here and not in the cloud. Costs a bit more but gives me peace of mind.

Downside is that it won’t work if my internet or power is out, but that happens once a year, max.

For door I’d go with Yale with the hub to lock and unlock remotely.
Don’t know of a combined solution, sadly.

1: Norway

Source: Am Norwegian

Dead last: Sweden

I’d like to kick them out of Scandinavia and welcome the Finns instead. They can stay Nordic though. Pretty sure Denmark would support it.

Seriously though, I think we’re all great. We’re just the best…

It’s a fair response. Some uf us aren’t flush with time.

I’d survive SSH for installing Portainer and then you can run most of it from its GUI. If you use Docker Compose it will be super easy to make changes to your setup as well. Just change the file and redeploy your badboys.

I’m a recent dad absolutely strapped for time, but I still managed to set up a headless Debian server with close to zero Linux knowledge. There are so many amazing guides out there, especially on GitHub.

Good luck whatever you go for.

Then tell us what Ukraine and the west should do.

If it is giving up and letting Russia seize control of the entire nation, then you I have fundamentally different world views.
If it is negotiating with Putin, we are again in disagreement. We don’t bow down to bullies. When we do, they end up taking our lunch money again and again.

So really: please tell us what the best alternative is.

Please read snoogums response and reflect on the idiocy of your comment.
You are better than this mate.

Have a good weekend.

If they imperialistically invade Canada/Mexico and rape and torture both civilians and military alike, then of course I would.

And before you ask: I’d wish the same if my country ever did the same to one of our neighbors. My principles are the same regardless.

Did you expect a different answer?

While I agree with your point in general, I too «celebrate» russian soldiers being eliminated.
The pure, evil brutality their countrymen have shown the world in the last two years is beyond comprehension.

So I guess it’s more celebrating every Ukranian who gets to live because these men died, if that makes sense.

I’d much prefer they get to go home of course. I think most of us do.

You, I like you

This meme made me properly laugh. That picture is epic!
Thanks for posting.

Brothers: A tale of two sons.

Only game that ever made me cry alone.

Our currency has taken a bit of a hit since covid, so I guess it’s more like $20 today.
210 NOK when I checked my local price for Dune 2 just now.

Add in some snacks and we’re way over $30, so hopefully my point still stands.

I don’t really think so.

If you adjust for inflation, historically, it’s very cheap.
If you compare it to movie tickets, which in essence is 2-3 hours of entertainment for $25, it’s the same story.
Some games can give you hundreds of hours for close to the same price.

This excludes games with monthly fees or predatory in-game systems.