Tuukka R

Dude, how do you suppose Ukraine would kill everyone in an area 7000 km wide?

Here’s an article that includes a picture like you asked: https://www.orla.fm/a-disturbing-message-on-the-lithuanian-border-do-not-travel-to-belarus-you-may-not-come-back/

Portugal was lucky to get quite late aboard the F35 ship, as they decided about it as late as April 2024. Finland, where I’m from, was one of the earliest ones, deciding about the procurement in late 2022. Some other ones, as told by Wikipedia:

Canada: Jan 2023 Czechia: Jan 2024 Germany: 2023 Greece: Delivery 2027, so ordered probably in late 2023 or so? Poland: 2020, apparently some already delivered? Romania: November 2024 Singapore: Early 2024 Switzerland: delivery from 2027, so probably ordered in late 2023?

The further the procurement process, the more money might get wasted if the order has to be cancelled. Would still make sense to cancel, though, because a weapon you are free to use as long as there is no war is just a heap of scrap metal. It does not matter how much money we’ve already spent on the scrap metal, we should not put a cent more.

That’s what wise people say. And with that attitude, you’re likely to get both the good relationship and the respect.

But yeah… I’ve never been to USA, or anywhere in America for that matter. But I’ve visited the Russia several times, and even spent a month living there. And the MAGAts are looking pretty similar to the vatniks, and the vatniks (MAGA-analogues of the Russia) have not budged to sense, and have instead consolidated their position to the point that currently 70 to 90 percent of people in the Russia fall in that category, and most of the rest are still supporting their Ruler’s way. (I wonder if “Ruler” is the best way to translate “Vladelets”, the phrase Putin asked to be used of him)

There is still much hope, because in under two years there are the congressional elections, and they seem to have been designed in such a way that Trump will have a hard time trying to either prevent or fake them. But until that… I don’t know… It tells a lot that none of the US products you can buy in Europe have any no-slavery-certificates such as UTZ or Rainforest Alliance. It gives me an impression that people absolutely don’t care about right and wrong there at all. If they don’t, why would they protest in a way that matters to Trump?

Ukraine, back then under Putin’s rule, was shooting protesters in 2014. The people stood firm. A hundred people got shot, the other 42 million avoided slavery.

This assumes that USA can be repaired. It’s entirely possible that their people have crossed the line of no return, and are no longer able to start behaving in a civilized manner on average before crashing spectarularly.

If you don’t trust in the US citizens’ ability to repair their country, there’s not much sense in trying to build a nice relationship with them. And I’m not saying USA cannot repair itself. Maybe it can. What I’m saying is that it is plausible that many people do not believe USA has what it takes.

And do what Lithuania did at the Belarusian border: There are signs telling pretty much the analogue to what you’re suggesting. On the roadside while approaching the border. As physical signs.

I don’t think it matters whether after those hours of travelling and queuing you need to press buttons on a touch screen or scribble two or three numbers on a piece of paper.

Neither case makes the drive any shorter.

Paper ballots make cheating much more difficult than electronic ones do. I’m not sure why Trump demands paper ballots, but in my opinion they are the only sensible option.

Where I live, all elections are always strictly 100 % paper ballots, and it is isn’t really a problem. Yeah, you need people to count them, but those people are reasonably easy to find. And the ballot counting scales easily from a few hundred votes to several hundred millions of votes.

It’s so meek because of the political stance of “I am not political” that permeats the whole society.

Its main idea is that “I make actively sure to not see or hear what is happening around me, and in return I can live my life reasonably carefree.” That’s an unspoken contract between the junta leading the country and its populace. If one side breaks the contract, it’s null and void.

The funny thing is, the people have not noticed that the contract has been broken, because they are actively avoiding noticing anything that has to do with society!

And the word “actively” is of great significance. Because it’s not passivity, it’s a stance held up actively by each individual. The situation of the Russia is all the time deeper and deeper “in your face”, and eventually it’ll be so deep that there’s nothing the individual can do to avoid noticing it.

And then they become active in… Well, some other manner.

To be clear: The Russia’s losses are increasing month after month, but their recruitment capacity is not. They are recruiting about 1000 soldiers every day, maybe a bit less. And the number seems to be going down, not growing. They are losing 1300 to 1800 each day now meaning a net loss of something like 400 to 900 soldiers per day!

They won’t run out of population anytime soon, but they will run out of soldiers.