I dated a girl once who really enjoyed toxic arguments. She would flip out over the most basic random crap. The times I lost my cool and said something hurtful it’s like she got high. She lived for those arguments. Which, in the short term, lead to some pretty, let’s say enthusiastic aftermath. In the long term I was genuinely surprised to find she’s still alive.

I dunno. Until very recently Europe at large benefited quite a bit from America’s pro military attitude. I could see European psyops designed to stoke that particular flame.

Stop, no. Don’t do it. You’ll make billionaires mad bro don’t do it.

It’s not. Unlimited plans are ubiquitous and can be had for pretty cheap.

And the US depends on China.

If you rearrange them you can get Neergdanl. Which sounds like but isn’t a Scandinavian word that means “Epstein didn’t kill himself”

Video is posted to Bluesky. The agent walks up to her car window and starts shooting almost immediately. One through the windshield the others through the driver’s side window.

That’s certainly an interesting take

doubt

Sell them to who?

Well see, they’re going to vote blue again this year and again in 3 years. Because that’s worked so fucking well the last 8 times

Now is maybe not the time to throw “not all men” around.

Now is the time to actively resist and prove to the rest of the world yourself an ally in a global fight against fascism taking command of the largest military on the planet.

the only reason they haven’t taken Taiwan is because they wouldn’t have been able to hold it against the west

Eeeeh I’m not so sure about that anymore.

I suspect losing trading partners is the biggest deterrent. As soon as controlling the supply of Taiwanese microchips becomes more financially viable than making billions of tons of cheap goods every year, China will take Taiwan. And the US naval fleet will either be cruise missiled to the bottom of the ocean or we’ll just quietly walk back our threats to defend it.

They literally can’t. Nor can the US dump theirs.

The US, the EU, and China are economically tied to one another. One of the reasons there hasn’t been a shooting war between the East and West is how much we depend on the other’s economy. Without foreign backed assets, there’s nothing to trade against.

Chinese made goods are bought with American dollars. If they’re not putting them back in to the US, there’s no need to take them in the first place. And then who, exactly, would China be making all that crap for?

Well. This is fortunate.

I happen to be the dictator of a moderately developed island sitting on top of the world’s richest deposit of rare earth minerals.

First things first. I am a god. This is necessary to the development of Sippylandia. I will arrange for a few “dissidents” to attempt to assassinate me. As these attempts will miraculously fail, I will use this to push a media campaign to cement my divine status. Within the first year, I am not only the dictator for life but the figurehead of my own church. My word carries the weight of not only earthly retribution but eternal retribution.

I do not make requests of my people, I issue orders. This is necessary to the development of Sippylandia. My populace will be armed. Every man and woman of at least age 16 to the age of 40 is to train every day with rifles. The school curriculum is to revolve around both adoration of the figurehead, and logistics, teamwork, and the defense of the island. All citizens of Sippylandia are henceforth to refer to themselves and each other as Soldier.

The island will need some industry. This is necessary to the development of Sippylandia. All students will take a placement exam each year. Those with the aptitude will learn to become engineers. The strongest leaders will become officers. We will select for the best educators, the best scientists, the best doctors.

As the citizens will have very little say over their own prosperity, all services will be provided at the pleasure of the State. This is necessary for the development of Sippylandia. No man, woman, or child will ever want for a meal, a roof, or a doctor. As developing nations go, this is the long game, but we will at least begin to see the benefit after ten years.

Sippylandia will need to obtain diplomatic missions from superpowers. As we contain deep reserves of rare earth minerals, this will be easy. Sippylandia will promise access to these minerals. If the foreign powers bring in educators, build faculties and infrastructure, of course. The rare collection and relative ease of access to these minerals from within Sippylandia’s DMZ will make the rather limited terms of access.

With only 10 years to establish industry, the first minerals being stopped at the shore by militant locals will likely be the cause of the first attack. This is necessary for the defense of Sippylandia. Even with ten years of training and an island population of soldiers, we will not be able to withstand the full onslaught of a superpower for long. But we will make every mile hurt. It is not necessary to repel the super power, only attract the attention of her enemies. It’s unlikely that the attack occurs without our allies noticing. And a luxurious new contract awaits whomever comes to our defense first. This will be central to every contract for mineral access signed by every superpower. Any aggression will be repelled by all other signatories, and more lucrative access awaits.

Of course, we will be unable to mine these resources ourselves. What with the devastating attack. The populace will need to focus on repopulation, so foreign workers will be to make up the bulk of the manual labor. The God King SippyCup will not have his glorious citizens reduced to manual labor. This is necessary for the prosperity and security of Sippylandia.

I been battling with my wife about cancelling prime. If we didn’t have a child on the way it would be a no brainer.

The overnight delivery is nice but more often than not it’s actually two day shipping. Their delivery times have been so unreliable that I’m actually convinced they just blatantly lie to get you to buy a preferred product regardless of how long it will actually take to get it to you.

Evidently there are ads now for their programming. I didn’t have prime for the streaming but it was the only source of classic Christmas movies this holiday, right up until they cut away mid sentence for 5 minutes of unskippable ads. I almost cancelled it right then.

The local Kroger’s senior citizen card # is (area code) 6345-789

I have a burner email precisely for this crap. An obviously fake name, the only time I even log in to it is when one of these fucking things wants me to click the link they sent me. It’s so heavily bloated with spam in the year I’ve been using it that I’m about to need a new one.

Okay boomer

Function button but same.