Any major power could easily assasinate the leadership of any other major power, but doing so is taboo for obvious reasons.The nuclear taboo is higher on the list of “things that are not done.”

Opening the door to actually using nuclear weapons represents a threat to everyone – including the rich and powerful. Whoever is dumb enough to use even a tactical nuke is going to not only find themselves a pariah, they’re going to face coordinated efforts to eliminate the threat they represent by everyone.

Imagine being in his inner circle: you’d be getting credible offers of “whatever you need and want” to remove Putin from power from every major power on the planet.

There’s plenty of really nice nursing homes in the USA … they’re just charge thousands of dollars a month and kick you out if you can’t pay.

That’s what I’m running, though I had issues with it randomly requiring a reset. Installing OpenWrt fixed that problem.

“Guys, don’t even try to fight back. Please just give up.”

Edit: Check out this user’s post and comment history.

narcissists into his cabinet

The great thing about narcissists is they’re narcissists: they only care about themselves, they’re thin skinned, and they’re vindictive.

There is no chance in hell this admin is going to be efficient. One of the things that stands to save the USA is the inevitable infighting of Trump’s cabinet and party.

I think they’re saying Ukraine should have been given everything they needed to win the war quickly from the start. A lot of people believe the “slow trickle” of aid was designed to drag the war on.

The argument is that a long war is far more damaging to russia, whereas a losing a short war leaves them in a better position to recover and try again in the near future – beating russia to a bloody pulp vs giving it a black eye.

The states have limited power to defy the feds.

Case in point: legalized marijuana. That said, my fear in regards to states defying laws is:

• Targeted attacks by MAGA terrorists, particularly regarding anything LGBTQ+ or reproductive healthcare related.
• The fed withholding federal funds to punish states that don’t fall in line.

The former is particularly concerning as police and the national guard are predominately right-wing. My state passed the SAFE-T Act to address abuses in the police/justice system. Naturally, various police departments weren’t happy about this, and through obtuse interpretation of the act they’ll claim they can’t legally do vital parts of their job – something I’ve seen multiple times first hand. Refusing to do their job competently in response to MAGA terrorism isn’t hard to imagine.

The later gets tricky. Most of the states that would push back against unjust federal laws are also states that pay more in federal taxes than they receive in aid. The “obvious” solution withhold tax dollars going to the fed to make up the difference … which would be next to impossible in practice. Even if states mange to do it they’d be playing into Republican hands by defunding essential federal services.

Well, when the Nazis initially started “getting rid” of Jews they started with deportation and other countries refused to take them.

Given how that turned out I’m sure it will be fine.

The CHIPS act? You mean one of the things the Biden admin bragged about?

Good thing the incoming administration isn’t petty enough to nuke anything associated with the previous administration…

There’s “knowing” on a theoretical level, and knowing having experienced it. As the generational knowledge of people that have experienced fascism dies off the younger generations have to learn the hard way. Seems to happen every 100 or so years.

The idea of “European exceptionalism” is no different than the idea of “American exceptionalism”. People are fundamentally the same regardless of where they live – we all have the same base instincts, the same hard-coded tribalistic tendencies, and the same fears. Every population on the planet is susceptible to fascism because it preys on the aforementioned.

internalized pressure and overthinking

Yes, exactly that. What I’m saying it’s it’s a lot more common than it has any right to be – at least in the USA. I’m legitimately happy if you’re insulated from it and/or have the self confidence to see it for what it is and brush it off. I’m of the same mind on that in that I have the confidence to laugh at it and ignore it.

I’m talking about the men that don’t, and how unfortunately it’s a huge problem. My experience has been the opposite: I’m in a “skilled” male dominated blue-collar job: the amount of dysfunctional, toxic masculinity I see on a daily basis is wild. Even when I was “white collar” it was there, if to a lesser degree.

A lot of guys of all ages are deeply insecure and are falling into the “traditional manhood” grift to the detriment of themselves and those around them. The extreme examples like incels, Andrew Tate, right-wing ideas on “manhood”, “trad” idiots gaining momentum are a symptom of a far more widespread problem.

So there’s nothing you think twice about doing because society (specifically other men) will probably give you shit about it?

Sure, a healthy and confident person learns to ignore it – but it’s dishonest to say it isn’t a pervasive thing. Maybe you’re fortune enough to live in a place where isn’t it’s not as bad as elsewhere, but not everyone does.

We’re too busy doing the same thing to ourselves.

Especially bad when you consider the elevator shouldn’t have fallen in the first place.

Elisha Otis invented his automatic elevator brakes in 1853 – designed to instantly stop cars from falling if the cables snap … and the Empire State Building used Otis safety elevators.

Given how dead simple and reliable the safety mechanism is something must have gone horrible wrong.

deleted by creator

Hands you a random laptop.

“The thing doesn’t work.”

Refuses to elaborate and leaves.

I bought an LG microwave a few months ago to replace a dead 10 year old Sharp. My favorite “features”:

• The sticker on the door stating that by using the microwave I agree to LG’s TOS, including binding arbitration.
• The single 4 minutes and 30 seconds of use I got out of it before the magnetron broke.

When I returned it they customer service person asked if I wanted it serviced under warranty – hilarious. Bought a Panasonic instead.

I passed a 911 in an Opel Corsa at around 190kph (admittedly going downhill).

It was the highlight of my trip.

That’s the joke.

This is a parody of twitter posts made by actual “anti DEI/woke” dipshits. The format is identical to their posts “fixing” modern female video game characters that don’t look like sex dolls.

“Huh, interesting. Why aren’t you supposed to look at the moon?”

Most people aren’t psychopaths and actually enjoy sharing their beliefs if you ask in a respectful manner.