Badumtss

Exactly, he doesn’t know how to negotiate because a negotiation involves give and take. Trump has only ever known take, take, take

This is exactly it. There are plenty of options, removing what is currently the best option just means picking the next best and so on and so on until we reach stability

I can see the point your making. I’m not suggesting it’d be easy but if we moving to Russia as the example Russia would be the standin for China, not the wider world.

Russia’s economy is now shit because they got embargoed, as China’s would be, it hurt the wider world briefly, but that has mostly passed.

And I didn’t suggest western countries take on the brunt of the manufacturing, I suggested it should be countries that would benefit from the overhaul to their economy

I’m sorry, but I completely disagree. I don’t see any evidence for this vassal worldview (apart from extreme cases like Belarus and Russia). Without that first assumption the whole premise falls apart.

Even assuming the main characters (MC) and vassals idea is true to reality, the rest of the argument is flimsy at best. Even if a MC loses a vassal through mismanagement or foreign interference, that doesn’t automatically mean that the vassal has a new MC overlord. They could be in a limbo state where some of the MCs are vying for control.

As for Trump, I think it’s much less of a stretch to assume that Trump loves the sound of his own voice and what better way to hear his own voice than to create sound bites, hence the 51st state nonsense. If anything Trump’s actions say to me that he has NO capacity for the mental mapping required to envision this kind of complex interweaving of interests and angles that is geopolitics. I find it even less likely that this is the one he would subscribe to.

I agree with almost everything here, but I don’t think an embargo on China would be as damaging as you think it would.

It would hurt, don’t get me wrong, but China is largely in the position it is now because the developed world was looking for cheap labour and China fit the bill. There is no lack of underdeveloped nations who would gladly shift their economy if it meant they could support a fraction of the manufacturing supply that China currently commands. Africa and South America (not a single nation, I know but this is true of many African and South American nations so I’m combining for simplicity’s sake) is positioned both politically and geographically, to be a sudo-China in terms of manufacturing if the wider world decides to embargo China-proper.

The US and EU pulling out of China would devastated them far more than it would affect the former. I’d like to think that the EU at least, would be willing to withstand some economic damage to aid another nation in need.

It’s like he can’t comprehend that other people would react to his actions.

He raised tariffs, other nations reduced trade with the US and looked elsewhere. If he continues to raise tariffs it will inevitably cause the US to be isolated in trade.

It’s not even a shocking/daring tactic, it’s a self destructive tantrum because his misunderstanding has led to mismanagement and now he’s doubling down

I’m definitely not old (~30), and my preference has generally been my age +/- 5 years.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that my sexual attraction has migrated from being solely based on physical attributes to being partially based emotional connection, intelligence, passion, etc.

I think it’s also important to note that an individual’s “peak attractiveness” can occur at different stages of their life.

Honestly, in my mind the codenumber 007 is reserved for the most elite agents and the moniker “James Bond” is a transferable identity given to the best of the 007s.

And no corporation will ever dissuade me

She’s a successful black actress, they unfortunately come with the territory. I imagine they hit differently when they’re coming from actual Nazis though

(This was meant to be a joke but it kinda just made me sad as I was typing it)

This counter-troll from Disney would slightly redeem them in my eyes 😂

It’s laziness. “I don’t have to think tough thoughts if I let someone else do all of the thinking for me.”

Now that you mention it, I do remember hearing about the kidnapping and conversion way back at the start of the invasion.

Thanks for the education, I don’t think the things you brought up are reported widely enough

I disagree with your last statement. Is promising to change not evidence of the motivation to change?

Some people lie about their intentions or don’t plan to change as quickly as expected, absolutely. But to assume everyone who has promised to change won’t feels unfair.

To my knowledge Russia isn’t attempting to commit genocide. They want to have Ukraine under their thumb, not eradicated.

That is in no way a defence of Russia’s actions. I just don’t think we need to levy, what I believe to be a falsehood (I’m willing to accept I may be wrong here if anyone has evidence) at Russia to denounce them.

My comment about genocide was a jab at your Hitler-esque choice of words and comparing your view of Russian people to Hitler’s view of Jewish people.

That’s an interesting choice of words. Feels pretty genocidy in my humble opinion

Was it actually a US-Poland spat?

I thought it was just Musk running his mouth on Twitter as per.

If that’s the case I think it’s a dangerous game for the wider world to conflate Musk’s actions with the US as a whole

Edit: Seems like it was also US official/s taking part. What a wonderful world we live in 🙃

Now, I’m no expert but as I understand it, the North Sea is a pretty big place.

How is this even possible with modern navigation and communication systems? Even archaic, navigation and communication systems would be able to prevent this from happening. A crows nest would probably be able to avoid this from happening.

Am I crazy?

Oh awesome. I’ve never heard of it, I’ll have to check it out

A brain/computer interface. But like you say, depending on the state of tech companies maybe only as an input (I can manipulate computers without allowing them to send a signal of any kind to me).

It’d just be for stuff like mentally dictating note taking, being able to “Google” my thoughts (probably best to send the output to my phone rather than directly into my brain)