It's pretty clear he's not willing to actually punish them for anything. Sending ordinary American troops into a ground war for them is another thing entirely, though. Nobody's forgotten how the last ones went, and American democracy is already teetering on the brink.

Hamas’ known deal breaker that IDF troops would remain afterwards

And, y'know, that's not a ceasefire. Just thought I'd point that out.

I don't expect a popular revolution, more like a series of coups. Right now it doesn't happen, because Putin is still preferable to instability for the Russian elites. Once that's no longer true, I'd think any kleptocrat would be in danger.

In a way, that's actually more negative than what you said. I suppose he could just give up on the war, too, but Kamil Galeev says that's politically impossible and he's actually Russian, while I'm just a vaguely international Westerner.

My god, would he? Even if that meant tanking the election? (If it's in the lame duck period after Nov. 5 that seems less crazy, I guess)

Pharmacy liquor is a new one to me, lol.

Because a slight orange hue is a mark of good cheese, so fluorescent orange must be even better, right?

At this point it's just tradition, and people in anglo North America don't realise it's not naturally that colour.

Yes, I don't think Americans realise how good they have it with Mexican food. Ditto with barbecue.

The sheer number of people who support and vote for a party who will do absolutely nothing for them, and will enact policies that will drive them even further into poverty and destitution just so their Parasite-Class campaign donors can get even more obscenely wealthy. Conservative voters are just weird, man.

I mean, we have deep blue (Conservative) ridings too.

Another Canadian.

All-green money is weird, about as weird for us as ours is for you. Once I knocked over some products in a store and then picked them up. The staff acted like that was saintly, so I guess other people just make a mess and move on? Drive through liquor stores are weird, and seem like an invitation to drink and drive. Paying at a hospital is weird just in concept, although thank god I've never had to deal with it down there.

Uhh, other than that it's been pretty similar in the places I've been. Etiquette around "sorry" is famously different, but aside from giving me away as Canadian it has little impact.

Edit, to add a couple positive things: Amazing Mexican food and barbecue not only exists but are ubiquitous. Coding jobs pay good money.

Everyone has an air conditioner, although Canada might be the weird one there.

I can't see the Democrats considering another unpopular war right now. Trump might, but I can only imagine what craziness that would look like. There's a non-zero chance he would ignore Israel and move assets to the Gulf states because they gargled his balls just right, or something. Or maybe he decides to do nukes.

Corrupt wealth extraction from Africa is real, and significant on their end (but not ours, we do it for cents off each dollar).

A lot of African economies are managing to grow explosively anyway, though, as anyone who pays attention to the continent can tell you.

Yes, but political support is also in the equation. Stalin might have been able to keep this up forever, since his power was based on ideology and fear. Putin's power is based on greed and fear, and he's actively encouraged political apathy, so once people start personally hurting I have trouble imagining him sticking around for long.

(Meanwhile, the West is so ideological it doesn't even know it's ideological, so it's all down to a stupid election on our end)

Also Russia can just print Rubel. It hurts the economy long term, but Putin does not care.

A good point. It's a subtle difference, but so far he's resisted making any cuts. He's spent on the war on one side and handouts on the other, and just taken the resulting inflationary pressure. If he keeps that pattern up it will be hyperinflation that marks the end of his capabilities.

Sadly, accurate. If Trump is going to win, Zelinsky has already passed the optimal end date for Ukraine.

If Kamala wins, he's got a solid 4 years to chip away at them.

They might not even be in the top 5 Middle Eastern states for bad treatment of women. American ally Saudi has got to be 1, and most of the Gulf is next.

I mean, they're theocratic authoritarian shitbirds, don't get me wrong, but the main reason they're singled out has nothing to do with that.

I mean, it hasn't worked yet, it just hasn't fully failed.

Pretty much. And then once you unfuck the language what he's actually saying is pretty underwhelming. Hours I'll never get back...

I mean, definitely, that describes their military situation thus far. This guy is qualified enough to know something I don't, too.

It would seem that at some point they'll just straight up have less stuff in Russia than the Russian government is ordering. They've been solving it by squeezing borrowers so far, but they're at credit card levels of interest right now, and you'd assume that lever gets diminishing returns at some point, once people stop bothering with central bank loans entirely.

I have trouble picturing the Putin regime as the kind that can power through hyperinflation and empty shelves on ideological fervour alone. It's pretty greed-based. (They could also do austerity and try to buy less, but so far they've gone for inflationary pressure between the two; it's easier to blame someone else for)

My god, last time the fact I've actually read Das Kapital came up, they pretty much just went for "no you didn't". Yes I did, and I didn't even get a T-shirt for the densely-written pain.

As per the gay thing, it was part of the blanket repeal of Tsarist laws, and didn't get put back in until Stalin was on the scene. In the meanwhile advocacy groups sprang up and were tolerated, so that tells you it wasn't just on paper. I have no idea if anyone has gone deeper into the historical sources for our benefit. (Preferably in English, because my Russian is кое-как)

Yes, but he doesn't know them personally. (/s but not because it's untrue)

Fun fact, as of last I checked the Russian interest rate was 19% and rising. This will not help.

The really early USSR was socially progressive, including legal tolerance of homosexuality. Stalin absolutely shut that down.

Even before AIs, essays seemed meaningless to me. I wasn't sure if they were, or I just didn't get it, but the former is looking more likely now.