I asked myself, for a moment or two, what a “foil bomb” is. And why would the police do that to Gaga, or to a farm plot at her concert?

Such a FLOTUS. It’s all lies and empty promises, coated in idle boasting. What a fucking loser.

I believe we (as in, people) all have a responsibility to hold each other accountable. But we can also only do so much, and inserting yourself into a toxic community …

Me too, both. That we have responsibility for others and that we are not obliged to put ourselves at harms risk.

But this is a particularly shitty, maybe wicked problem. There are three groups: A bullies B, and C could stop A, but isn’t bothered by anyone. Now, is C obliged to pick a fight with A, or is B just in bad luck to be born as a B?

I think here, it is very easy to have strong opinions, while very hard to formulate a concise moral argument. Things get muddier/harder the more we factor reality in.

There always is. Everything in life is only temporary …

burning teslas owned by random people when it seems it would be easier to burn this fucking nazi asshole?

Because simply in practical terms, it’s the other way around. There’s a Tesla right next door, but only one Musk somewhere, probably not where you are. And mostly, one has personal bodyguards, while the others just sit on the road.

Same here. My max is about 5.5’’ and 160g. Otherwise I feel it’s too hard to carry and handle, or even just hold. I also want to be able to reach the opposing screen corner with my thumb.

Wouldn’t it be reasonable if another administration get in power and then need to purge all these positions of pro trump people?

Oh no! You have a great point for horror fans there.

I’d even say, it probably is somewhat necessary in order to resume administration. What a beautiful, postfactual dilemma:

The Reps fear an ideological, systemic witch hunt, which they use as an excuse to replace government workers. The new workers are ideologically aligned with the Reps, encouraged to assist the dismantling of non-Rep institutions and carry out the King’s will above and beyond the law.

Now when votes swing the other way, the new administration kind of has to revert some of this damage to assume functioning.

Which is where the circle closes; the prophecy fulfills itself. Now the Reps have evidence for their previously baseless claims. The whole system is locked in a back-and-forth mud wrestling of replacing workers based on ideology.

That really is a stark contrast. What do the apologetics say about this?

Oops, thanks. Meant Transnistria (to which the answer would be Putin, although I guess you would not have asked if I had not made that mistake). Sometimes, the letters in the middle of a word do seem to matter.

Very nice, exactly the signal The Free World needs now. Now, that the previous leader vanished in a puff of Kreml propaganda.

It’s now more than ever at stake wether Ukraine can fend off the invasion (the outcome of which is another signal to autocrats eyeing future invasions, for example Taiwan, Transnistria*). It’s a question.

One answer, one possible scenario is that each individual EU country feels overwhelmed to shoulder the additional burden. Or that the Union cannot muster enough support to replace the U.S. This scenario can be self-reinforcing. If it seems likely that the combined response would still be insufficient, a plausible outcome is everybody holding back, which already would favor the Russian aggression.

So this is why I want to highlight how much good news this is, because it’s exactly the opposite kind of example. Literally stepping up.

*) Transnistria: Edited thanks to a comment, original wrongly said ‘Tasmania’.

Germany could always turn on them when the time is right.

That’s too close to history to be an accident. I take the whole 2nd paragraph as satire, which I like.

That is, wow. I guess it’s true, but ATM it feels too high to be real. Like I also heard about two states having closer to 20% voter turnout. Which surely are outliers (and WTF is wrong with people to not vote with so much at stake), but still 84% is very high.

Sooo I just make a comment on social media stating my opinion asking for other opinions … Alright I found something more useful: https://www.wahlen.info/bundestagswahl/wahlbeteiligung/

It seems conservative Bavaria was pulling the turnout train.

And further proof he’s the much better diplomat/politician than those who exclude him.

Wtf. How I hate muzzle velocity politics. Put those guys in camps, they are a threat to public safety.

Not sure how 0.00006 helmets per capita is the better figure, but there you go.

Yes, I mean, for Germany, being the 3rd largest economy in the world (only surpassed by the USA and China), it would be a real shame if they were not among the topmost supporters in total. Here, it makes much more sense to use per capita numbers, relate to GDP or whatever. Compared to it’s economic potential, Germany is merely #15 in supporting Ukraine with Denmark, Finland, and the Baltics doing at least twice as much.

If you deem the bit about the 0…6 helmets per capita to be false, what’s the correct take?

Remember how it took like two days to overturn 70 years of precedence of “no weapons delivery into crisis regions”?

Oh, thanks. Yeah, now I remember making that jump, too, although it took me more than two days. Wild times.

Hofreiter (Greens) put it quite well … something like … not our ideals have changed, but the world has changed, brutally so.

I think you did well in dialing back my comment and adding more context, although I still think there was truth in it.

Truly a shame, but does not lead to your conclusion. If you cannot get the irony about you publicly complaining that you cannot publicly complain much like in Russia, then I’m afraid I cannot help you further.

We either stop them and oppose their military spending

You notice that’s a luxury exclusive to one side in that conflict? This freedom of speech, even forming a vocal political opposition. There have been people trying to do exactly that in Russia, but they all have died, vanished or gone silent.

If the dictatorship takes over (for example, due to a lack of resistance), you lose these privileges and are then sent to the grinder anyways.

Hah, strong reply. 👍

Them not being involved in the peace talks underlines again how indispensable nuclear weapons are, sadly.

The DSA playing hopscotch with whose ally they are underlines how worthless a shared nuclear umbrella can be.

So a grim lesson for Ukraine, Europe, Taiwan and pretty much any country with any border tensions, or anything another aspiring imperialist might find desireable: Get nukes, own them yourselfes, or risk being thrown aside or being steamrolled. Trump undoing decades of existential anti-proliferation work in mere days.