Joe

Suddenly reunification with the mainland was on the table after years of tactfully avoiding the topic.

Whose asset is this trump character, anyway?

I still blame Nuland … she’s a fucking cookie monster /s

This was similar to a trick that a few smaller (less serious) hobby-ISPs did back in the days of 14.4k/28.8k modems to take advantage of the “reasonably priced” business plans for ISDN. They’d register multiple businesses at a single address to qualify for the plans, then balance new egress connections across the pool using squid and other magic. Fun times…

How is it being enforced in Australia?

A webcam photo by the website or a specific third party service, ID verification through a “trusted third party” process, or a checkbox to confirm age?

How much information does the website get over and above “user is over 16 years old”, and how much does the government get, if any?

Explain your reasoning, please.

Within companies, I see it as a way to make complex things more accessible to those unfamiliar with them… with a huge risk of breaking the learning process, resulting in a lack of expertise down the road.

That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if it were really capable of accuracy and improving itself, but right now it’s like we are driving increasingly fast toward a half-built bridge, hoping it will be built before we get there. I have my doubts.

For some things like first line support - there is huge potential, although it’s usually fucked up. First line support is a job where the brain turns off, scripts are followed, and there is little to no compassion with the customer/user, and language/accents are a significant challenge. Let’s replace first line support with a few good experienced support people who actively work to improve the system. Give them the tools to make 100x or 1000x the impact, with customer satisfaction as the goal.

Correct. putin sold this line to many, who kept/keep repeating it eagerly - no doubt because they are incentivised to. Also: putin represents the worldview that might makes right, and many rich and “powerful” aspire to this. It is an insult to their worldview and therefore their personal egos that putin has failed to conquer Ukraine.

It is interesting to see trump realigning…

It’s important to state this clearly … because you don’t want to be put in the situation where you are forced to open pandora’s box.

Looking at it another way … if NATO planes were to start patrolling Ukrainian skies, the risk of being engaged by russia would be MUCH higher if NATO had previously engaged a russian jet.

Right now, it’s all posturing, and it should remain that way…

This will end when putin eventually falls out of a window or is sent on a special retirement operation.

Hear hear. Broken clocks and all that.

AAedit: Although I don’t think he’ll do a damn thing against russia even if the EU manages it. He flutters his eyes at putin at every opportunity … I think it’s the image he wants to see in the mirror, and he really hopes it will stop laughing at him soon.

With DPRK it seems pretty simple: Are citizens permitted to leave the country of their own accord? The answer of course is no, and that is extremely telling. Combined with choreographed & escort-only tourism, one really has to question it.

My opinion: Odds are likely that it really is a shithole in many ways and in many places (and for many reasons, sanctions included). That said, people will still live their lives within those constraints, because that’s what people tend to do. We won’t get accurate and verifiable information from their government about citizen health and longevity, causes of death, etc. so OP’s propaganda must be taken as just that.

At some point NK’s system will fall, and some historians and archeologists will get to do their thing, and we’ll gain some more insights.

It might be time to give them a taste of what NATO weapons can do, were they to actually fight. The illegal bridge to Crimea needs to go in a spectacular way. Send in Flamingo & Taurus, and a school of drones, with enough NATO jets flying nearby to keep their radar guys busy… It seems like the right level of response to deliberate (albeit minor) incursions, and might make them think twice next time.

That’d be a start… but over Belarus and other territories too, if they get too close to NATO territory. russia has already shown intent to violate the airspace of NATO members - we can now assume they will do it again and again.

Last couple of NATO nations willing to stop buying from russia only when US stops supporting their efforts to buy oil from russia.

ie. trump makes an empty promise, as he can and will stall by supporting fico and orban’s purchases of russian oil while blaming NATO as a whole … and if by some miracle the EU could apply sufficient pressure on the weasils, trump would not keep his promise anyway, because tACO.

https://archive.ph/cujzS

I find it pretty useful to help get me over mental hurdle of starting something. So it’s faster than me procrastinating for another day. ;-)

https://archive.ph/2rFK4

The EU certainly has, and is using the limited opportunity to purchase as much as possible from US’s spare production capacity while the winds are only blowing softly against them and Ukraine.

This is currently needed by Ukraine, and as a condition they know that to speak up against Trump would be the demise of this deal.

The risk is that the EU’s own manufacturing capacity is not being expanded rapidly enough, and if the US supply were to be cut off in the near future, they would continue to be caught with their pants down.

I fear it would take a direct attack before EU countries make the big commitments to defence manufacturing that are needed.

A measured response is to now start shooting them down across the borders of Ukraine, belarus, and russia - if they have the potential to pass into EU and NATO countries.

russia has now well and truly established intent, and a strong but measured response is needed.

I think its popularity as a viable alternative to the google dominated browser ecosystem contradicts this.

So long as it’s an optional feature that doesn’t impact core functionality, who cares?

Adblocker, engage!

My main concerns with the US weapons purchase programmes are (a) this is likely leading to underinvestment in the european defence industry, and (b) the US then decides to pause it at a critical moment. I understand the short term needs, but europe needs to be prepared for war without US backing or involvement. It needs to be a military power in its own right in order to protect its interests and to avoid hot wars through deterrence.

DJTaco seems to be a russian asset, trying to navigate a difficult political landscape to give his russian dictator pal and other benefactors advantages whenever possible. His erratic behaviour is used as cover for the underlying goals, which aren’t even his own (edit: I seriously doubt he understands them). Such an easy to manipulate narcissistic loser was propelled to power by others to fulfill their sometimes conflicting agendas. McTaco can’t keep up and his mental state will continue to decline.