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Stanley Tucheetos posted:Well I know how I'm going to die. My civic's roof is a couple inches lower than my shoulder and I'm only 5'8. This thing should be illegal to drive without a cdl at the very least. the upcoming Hummer EV would require a commercial license in Europe and a lot of other places around the world due to its weight, I think it just skates in under the limit for Australia. the problem isn't just weight, but what incentives there are for these size of trucks to exist. for fuel to be as cheap as it is so that those things are economically viable. for the tax breaks and regulations breaks that allow the large pickups and SUVs to be counted as "commercial vehicles" and not passenger cars, even those King Ranch luxury pickups that will never have a scratch in the pickup bed. I'm pretty resigned to the idea that Americans just want a leather bark-o-lounger with a big lazy V8, and now that the big sedans and luxury coupes have been ruled out by the American manufacturers, they've moved that approach to pickups and SUVs instead. but that's also part of a country where so much of the development post-WWII was with cars in mind, combining with the transport funding decisions and responsibility falling where they do and essentially making dense commuter rail basically impossible. because I live in probably the densest cluster of rail development in the world, I can get around and go drinking and stumble back on a late train and never need a car. If we want to go to Costco/IKEA or drive to the countryside or take a weekend trip, we borrow cars, and for that kind of 'weekend drive' I'm keeping my eye on some stuff as well since we now live a place where monthly parking is reasonable. Owning and using a car is definitely a necessity in other cities and outside of the dense cities, so think New York City as opposed to most other American cities, but I even made it a year in a tiny-rear end backwater town with just a bicycle, so it's entirely possible. that's a long way to say I do not like the Bro-dozers, and really wish Americans realized they don't need enormous pickups to go get groceries and drop kids off at school.
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Feb 22, 2022 10:16
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Too much Twitter is bad.
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Feb 22, 2022 12:45
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Russia has moved into eastern Ukraine. US and Europe imposing sanctions. I guess we wait and see if Russia keeps pressing or not. I don't really think sanctions will do anything against Russia, I think Putin wants all of Ukraine, but maybe he's just bluffing.
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Feb 22, 2022 14:05
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https://twitter.com/hbomax/status/1493993584932048900?s=20&t=W265jMt5DBHrEhJn-dwFxw Oh I am excited for this. Love Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby - the rest of the cast looks great as well
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Feb 22, 2022 14:15
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Bird in a Blender posted:Russia has moved into eastern Ukraine. US and Europe imposing sanctions. I guess we wait and see if Russia keeps pressing or not. I don't really think sanctions will do anything against Russia, I think Putin wants all of Ukraine, but maybe he's just bluffing. It's a historically American foreign policy, recognize a non legitimate internal group as a sovereign country, then do everything in your power to Promote The Sovereignty. The DPR/Donbas region being invaded - the people who Putin is supporting were for a while claiming a four story office building they took over one day nobody was working AS the true Donetsk. I don't know why the US is so heavily involved in the diplomatic angle of this. If the government is actually this scared of Russia it should be tripling its investment in Alaska first, that territory is a loving mess right now.
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Feb 22, 2022 14:44
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Bird in a Blender posted:Russia has moved into eastern Ukraine. US and Europe imposing sanctions. I guess we wait and see if Russia keeps pressing or not. I don't really think sanctions will do anything against Russia, I think Putin wants all of Ukraine, but maybe he's just bluffing. He doesn't consider Ukraine a country.
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Feb 22, 2022 15:20
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Yea, that's really the crux of it. Putin wants Ukraine back in with Russia because he doesn't see them as legit.Forrest on Fire posted:It's a historically American foreign policy, recognize a non legitimate internal group as a sovereign country, then do everything in your power to Promote The Sovereignty. Why wouldn't the US be involved, this is a direct attack on Europe and even though Ukraine isn't a NATO member, letting them get absorbed by Russia would make NATO look extremely weak. We also signed the Budapest Memorandum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances) where we promised security assurances if Ukraine would give up their nuclear weapons. If we let Ukraine get rolled, we are showing the entire world that are promises are worth nothing. I guess that kind of already happened with Iran, but we shouldn't even bother trying to negotiate nuclear disarmament with anyone else if we're just going to abandon Ukraine.
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Feb 22, 2022 15:50
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Forrest on Fire posted:I don't know why the US is so heavily involved in the diplomatic angle of this. If the government is actually this scared of Russia it should be tripling its investment in Alaska first, that territory is a loving mess right now. Putin's belligerent but not suicidal. But you want to triple military investment for some reason, the Polish border might well be the new inner German border so that's always an idea.
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Feb 22, 2022 16:20
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dirty shrimp money posted:Putin's belligerent but not suicidal. I actually don't know if Putin is the remotely rational actor being painted. I don't want to come off tanky here, I don't like red fascism and this increases the likelihood of that. Germany will suffer more than Russia over this sadly. They need more natural gas outlets.
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Feb 22, 2022 16:37
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Ahmaud Arbery's killers also were convicted of federal hate crimes. I don't think that matters from a sentencing standpoint, since they're serving life already, but still nice to get.
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Feb 22, 2022 16:41
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I think he’s just going to take a few more border provinces al la Crimea in 2008 and call it good. I don’t think he actually wants to seize Kiev or whatever; I think he just wants everyone to know he could if he wanted to. It achieves similar aims as a full invasion and occupation of Ukraine at a much lower cost. This is all still quite bad, though maybe it will at least remind everyone of why we still need NATO.
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Feb 22, 2022 16:42
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Putin is doomed it’s a rookie mistake to try and take all of Asia the key is South America and then work from there. Risk.
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Feb 22, 2022 16:43
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Just lol at Germany intentionally decoupling themselves from nuclear power and lashing themselves to Russian natural gas.
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Feb 22, 2022 16:45
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LeeMajors posted:Just lol at Germany intentionally decoupling themselves from nuclear power and lashing themselves to Russian natural gas. I never understood that move, from a bunch of viewpoints. Just so shortsighted.
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Feb 22, 2022 16:46
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Vlad Gas travels fast
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Feb 22, 2022 16:47
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LeeMajors posted:Just lol at Germany intentionally decoupling themselves from nuclear power and lashing themselves to Russian natural gas. It freaking owns absolutely non downsides
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Feb 22, 2022 16:50
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Pretty sure he wants full invasion https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1496150984464252947?t=N1DHxS5SJdY79oCQg5dhGw&s=19
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Feb 22, 2022 16:56
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Guze posted:Pretty sure he wants full invasion lol at Putin putting on the theatre of asking for something from the Russian government
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Feb 22, 2022 17:05
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Guze posted:Pretty sure he wants full invasion I don't think it means much. He's probably going to cross the border, but I don't think he's going all the way in.
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Feb 22, 2022 17:08
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General Dog posted:I don't think it means much. He's probably going to cross the border, but I don't think he's going all the way in. Just the tip?
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Feb 22, 2022 17:12
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Bird in a Blender posted:Just the tip? That's exactly how I described it recently, yeah.
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Feb 22, 2022 17:12
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Bird in a Blender posted:Just the tip? Famous game of sexual restraint.
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Feb 22, 2022 17:13
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LeeMajors posted:Famous game of sexual restraint. Which country is going to assist Russia by jumping on the bed?
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Feb 22, 2022 17:33
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Dango Bango posted:Which country is going to assist Russia by jumping on the bed? They’ve been soaking crimea for years. NATO is already doing the jump humping.
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Feb 22, 2022 17:45
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Not sure how widely this has been seen but Kenya gave an incredibly thoughtful presentation to the UN on Ukraine recently. https://twitter.com/KenyaMissionUN/status/1495963864004976645?t=5F_e9uT-oLB2QG8yqbR10A&s=19 Best take I've seen from any side of the issue.
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Feb 22, 2022 18:02
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When Russia’s stance is “Ukraine for all intents and purposes belongs to us and only continues to exist at our discretion,” I don’t know where diplomacy is going to get you.
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Feb 22, 2022 18:13
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Samadhi posted:lol at Putin putting on the theatre of asking for something from the Russian government It's this lol The US's AUMF is terribly broad, but is downright measured compared to any Russian governing body. The Duma is functionally a puppet legislature it is in no way a legitimate governing body. My football analogy: This is like when the NFL owners hire a private investigator to Get to the Bottom of a toxic work culture. It's known. They're checking a box.
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Feb 22, 2022 18:22
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Putin's ability to retain power in Russia is predicated on maintaining his domestic perception as Our Strong Leader. The causus belli here is far more than just "ukraine is historically Russian" - it's "the west is genuinely a threat to us, so you need me, Vlad Putin, to show them we're still a global superpower, they may not encroach on our Sphere of Influence, and we can and will do whatever is in our national interest." Given that context, of course diplomacy has failed, because America and NATO and Europe all have nothing they can offer Putin as an alternative to consuming parts of Ukraine that would appeal to his domestic base and keep him in power. He knows very well that his position can be precarious. When Russia has nothing outward to unite and focus on, protests gear up, opposition leaders start becoming more bold, and the totalitarian state apparatus teeters. His generals and the oligarchs in his country would kill him and replace him if he lost the support of the people and he knows it. Given that context, the best the West can do is make it maximally painful to the wealthy robber-barons behind his throne for him to continue to pursue expansionism in Ukraine. Actually having a direct hot war with Russia would be insanity. Just letting Putin have his way is also basically giving up and ceding eastern Europe, dissolving NATO, just accepting Russia is now a superpower again and one we won't bother to try to counterbalance. Sanctions absolutely suck because they tend to hurt the civilians the most, the rich fucks in Russia have ways of avoiding them anyway, etc. but they're really all we have until/unless we're ready to literally risk a nuclear exchange with Russia by shooting down Russian jets and bombing Russian ground positions from American planes. And we are not willing to risk that. Putin maybe is.
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Feb 22, 2022 18:53
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Putin's main advantage over Western adversaries is the perceived threat as a strongman. He's proven through operations in Georgia and Ukraine to be unafraid of norms or sanctions, and activity in Syria and even the UK proves the foreign policy tactics still have reach. This is a litmus for the American right's strongman obsession. While republicans remain opposed to Putin within government, Tucker "Family Ties to Victor Orban" Carlson is trying to sell to the fash/aging viewership that he is the true rightful leader to own Donetsk. It's gross as poo poo is what it really is. You can forecast a lot of different scenarios from this encroachment even considering past events. The real concern is how comically unprepared countries like Germany are for Russian influence (goon above talking about nuclear power gets it).
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Feb 22, 2022 19:03
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I know you played too much Crusader Kings when you bring up casus belli. Anyway, we're going to solve global warming with nuclear winter, so that's something to look forward to.
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Feb 22, 2022 19:03
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Forrest on Fire posted:Putin's main advantage over Western adversaries is the perceived threat as a strongman. He's proven through operations in Georgia and Ukraine to be unafraid of norms or sanctions, and activity in Syria and even the UK proves the foreign policy tactics still have reach. Far right already has been doing this! Alex Jones is all in on the west being in the wrong on Ukraine and this is just Russia taking back what is a Russian region.
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Feb 22, 2022 19:06
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American right wingers have basically always idolized the autocrat. Look at how they gush over Mussolini, Pinochet, Fujimori in Peru, all before Putin was the new (white) ideal.
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Feb 22, 2022 19:08
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I feel like they used to be anti-Putin/Russia in particular because of the legacy of the cold war and America's military focus for decades, but Donald Trump's complete opposite view combined with the right's cult of worship of him flipped the script and, with very little cognitive dissonance, suddenly a ton of right-wingers were all-in on Putin instead. The funny part is that Russians rabidly hate nazis (legacy of WWII) and so you get these nazi-adjacent american right-wing nutjobs who also think Putin and Russia is super cool because Strong, without understanding that the Russian public would gleefully beat them all to death at the first hint of dogwhistle nazi ideological rhetoric.
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Feb 22, 2022 19:20
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Leperflesh posted:The funny part is that Russians rabidly hate nazis (legacy of WWII) and so you get these nazi-adjacent american right-wing nutjobs who also think Putin and Russia is super cool because Strong, without understanding that the Russian public would gleefully beat them all to death at the first hint of dogwhistle nazi ideological rhetoric. Leper making a strong case for Russia invading America, IMO
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Feb 22, 2022 19:24
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Forrest on Fire posted:American right wingers have basically always idolized the autocrat. Look at how they gush over Mussolini, Pinochet, Fujimori in Peru, all before Putin was the new (white) ideal. Much in the way they point to Lincoln As Republican when convenient, then preach the Lost Cause, they are very proficient at both idolizing Mussolini's strongman brutality then painting socialists as Nazi-adjacent because of his early pre-nationalist leanings.
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Feb 22, 2022 19:39
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In less lovely global war news they are starting up the live deep sea robot cams up again. They're just getting started and are still in port https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poKhjCJn_ek
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Feb 22, 2022 20:06
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2:22 on 2/2/22
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Feb 22, 2022 20:23
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Who's getting tacos today?
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Feb 22, 2022 20:32
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:Who's getting tacos today? Do you get 2, or 8? Or maybe we should multiply the 2's, 16 tacos!
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Feb 22, 2022 20:40
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:Who's getting tacos today? Dammit now I want Jack in the Box
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