I mean, there’s an infrastructure problem that’s worth considering. With low enough population density, it could become no longer feasible or worth it to maintain large-scale, country/globe spanning infrastructure projects such as power grids or undersea fiber optic networks. This infrastructure didn’t matter much a few thousand years ago, but it’s pretty critical now, so the same rules don’t necessarily apply.

I don’t know how likely I consider this outcome to actually be, as you’d need a very steep decline, but it’s at least worth keeping in mind.

When it gets lots of none and fades away 😔

Obviously. The point the person was making was to say that even if we buy into the bullshit narrative that this was consensual, it still doesn’t make sense. They didn’t use incorrect terms to skirt around it, they were making a specific point about their claims.

Ukraine’s constitution forbids an election during a state of emergency. This isn’t him overriding precedent, this is codified into law.

Yeah that’s a perverse incentive if I’ve ever heard one

Pardon?

Bang on. You don’t make someone your bodyguard without trusting them, so this guy is a good pick from the perspective of maintaining power as an autocrat.

Based. Plus, if you pick the right woods, the wildlife will even take care of cleanup!

Hilarious for them to act like the Su-57 (Russia’s fifth gen option) is truly comparable to ether F-35 or China’s J-20. To my understanding, the Su-57 is highly optimized for dexterity and maneuverability in dogfighting, but that doesn’t mean shit when you’re dealing with the stealth, sensor, and range capabilities of an F-35 or J-20. It’s for this reason that some have referred to the Su-57 as a ‘4.5th gen’ fighter, as it lacks several of the stealth and sensor integration capabilities of its fifth gen peers.

Anyways, I doubt that the US is really worried about Russia’s offering here, but I’d bet they are very worried about China’s.

Incredible. They’re essentially asking Ukraine to help them give money to the guys they’re fighting a war against and then getting mad and pouty when Ukraine says no.

This isn’t blackmail, it’s just common fucking sense while you’re at war. I feel for the people affected by this, but the leadership in Budapest and Bratislava can go pound sand.

Eh. Brilliant is maybe a stretch. Acknowledging the abject horror of the situation and putting it aside for the moment, this isn’t the first war where civilians have been targeted intentionally by bombing, and it certainly won’t be the last. Historically, the response to terror bombing such as this has been mixed, as such things are highly dependent on the population in question. Generally, however, the balance leans toward it being mostly a waste of resources. I’m sure the Russians think they’re doing some 4D chess maneuver, but from my perspective they’re just wasting valuable weapons systems (the missile that hit the hospital costs well in excess of one million dollars per and was part of a barrage) on targets which provide little or no military utility.

If I had to guess, this is more about domestic propaganda than anything else, but that’s just conjecture.

Also worth noting that Russia has not made any real significant territorial advances since the start of the war despite hundreds of thousands of casualties while massively burning down their inheritance of old soviet systems. It’s not just Ukraine who hasn’t been able to change that.

Conflicts like this aren’t just determined by military strength, as there is defender advantage, political will to fight, western aid, etc. to consider that could change the balance. I would agree that Russia has the edge right now, but that’s definitely something that can change.

Valid. I assumed they were talking about the political terms rather than parties due to the lack of capitalization in the original comment, though my own comment has them capitalized so I certainly muddied the waters further. Definitely my bad, I’ll edit it to be more clear.

I must say, though, you are quite an aggressive fellow. I wasn’t making any judgements or even really commenting on foreign politics in any meaningful way - simply making an observation.

Separate from the Canadian parties, it’s also worth noting that ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ are not mutually exclusive ideologies.

Edit: clarified that this is not in reference to political parties in particular.

We’ve all been there

Well said! My go-to example is ‘If someone calls and I’m not here, tell them they can leave a message’ because it covers both they and them in a singular usage.

Sidenote: I also hate the way that some people act like languages are static things, despite the known history of languages to shift and change over time. English is arguably a German creole; we don’t get to act all sanctimonious now.

Yes! My favorite example is the ASL sign for pasteurized milk, which is just the sign for milk, but moved ‘past your eyes’.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KGprfOaUxsA

Edit: another comment reminded me that I should specify that this is American Sign Language.

The weakness of our system is that it often assumes everyone is acting in good faith

Yeah. Losses are to be expected from materiel that is in use, and people shouldn’t be surprised when western equipment shows up in loss statistics. It wouldn’t be a problem or even that noteworthy if the US could pull its head out.

Yet another thing that woke moralists took from us smh