Biden isn’t quite as bad as the soundbites make him seem, but he is slowing down (physically and mentally) in his old age and was just generally an extremely uninspiring candidate. Trump, if anything is worse than you portray. He’s way more senile than Biden, in addition to the blatant corruption, rulebreaking, childishness, and being horrifically and openly racist and sexist. He has literally quoted Hitler! No decent and reasonable person who is paying the slightest attention to what he says and does would think he is remotely qualified for any position of authority. The fact that he is polling roughly evenly with an extremely qualified and intelligent person like Kamala Harris is indeed an absolute clownshow.

That does seem to be the story of this war, doesn’t it? I bet all the major militaries are looking at stuff like this and investing in more drones for themselves, too.

Unfortunately for the residents of Moscow, all Russian AA weapons are currently in Ukraine.

It seems that we have progressed to the “find out” stage. I wonder if this will have any measurable effect on Putin’s support, though. Russians seem like heavy sleepers.

Both have the same ultimate cause, as well: politicians safe at home demanding immediate results no matter what it costs.

This is an important part of it. The other part is the fact that success in politics is very hard without money, and most rich people aren’t progressives.

Lol, no one’s putting a gun to people’s heads to make them act bigoted. If your response to being accused of racism is “Oh, yeah? I’ll show you racism!” then you’re just showing your true colors.

Well, of course he is. He’s evil, not crazy. He knows he would lose that war very badly.

The safe bet is Russia becoming more and more subordinate to China.

It’s still censorship. The distinction is that most private entities can’t enforce their censorship with violence.

Okay, you got me there. Maybe Putin actually does think that, in the same way he expected tanks to drive to Kyiv without fuel.

I wonder what the actual condition of the Russian navy is at this point. I heard their ships were generally in poor condition even before the war (those reports of the Moskva’s air defense being crippled before it left port, for example), and now they’re losing so many trained crew. Last I heard their shipyards were roughly keeping pace with losses in terms of tonnage but you can’t just herd conscripts on a ship and expect it to function at all.

The Russians don’t want to get immediately destroyed, so they let it slide, that’s how.

Fyi, any invasion of North Korea would also involve a war with China, just like last time. The Chinese government likes having a buffer between them and all the US troops in the south.

Yes, the ones here (California) can be set to keep pumping automatically until the tank is full and then stop.

Everyone knows pro wrestling is all staged performances but I’ve never heard that said of boxing. As far as I know those are real.

Find a way to work a small amount of exercise into your daily routine. Walk places instead of driving, do some jumping jacks in the morning or before bed, something simple that you can get yourself to do without much stress or planning. If you do it consistently, even 10-20 minutes of exercise a day can make a big difference in the long run.

If you google “electric lighter” you can see a wide variety of lighters that work by either making an arc of electricity or just getting really hot.

We have it the same as you. I never really gave it any thought.

Yup, Spiritfarer is my answer too. I played up through the first person to pass on and then couldn’t keep going.