Just like any countries that put their economies on war footing, it is creating a bubble that would eventually burst. The Russian economy is booming because of increased government spending. But how long will it last especially with Russia being heavily sanctioned than before, and will continue to do so even if Russia wins? Even as we speak, 98% of Chinese banks refuse to lend to Russia since Chinese banks are more afraid from secondary sanctions by the more lucrative market of the United States.

It is worth mentioning that when the first stuffed sample of platypus was sent to Britain, the scientists thought it is a joke.

The alpha/beta wolf notion doesn’t even make much of a sense, considering wolves tend to be loners but only make packs when they need to hunt.

In Germany, where there is stricter gun control, there was an incident in which a bystander tackled the knife attacker. The police mistook the bystander as the perpetrator, and because the police were distracted, the attacker got up and stabbed two more people including one of the police officers. https://apnews.com/article/germany-mannheim-stabbing-police-officer-death-a66c14970a53464aff0c1c77a7196481

I agree with others. The idea of “good guy with a gun will stop the bad guy with a gun” is pretty much wishful thinking if the police arrives on the scene and mistakes who. It does not matter whether there is gun control or not, the good guy could be mistaken in the midst of chaos.

Too many are accusing them already. Where there is smoke, there is fire.

You know what, the American obsession with guns has never been anything to do with “protection”, it’s about being ammosexual.

Ffs I hate PragerU. The website “All Sides Balanced” quotes them as if they are a reliable and genuine university that does research, when in fact it’s a right wing propaganda machine that spews the already derided laissez faire economics and climate change denialism.

In fairness, it isn’t like banning one social media website (and a purveyor of misinformation and disinformation at that) will have either national security concern or threatening fundamental freedoms in Brazil. It could be why Brazil had been so bold.

I grew up with religious parents. Looking back, they restricted me from doing things, even innocuous, without explicitly stating we to why. But I know that it’s because they are afraid I “might get ideas”. Fortunately, I have been to good schools and got taught about basic sex education. Ironically, my parents sending me to good school taught me better than being “taught” by my parents who don’t want me to “get bad ideas”.

I actually try to talk to folks to the level of their knowledge. I had a debate with some coworkers about vaccines. I explained to them that it’s safe, thousands of studies proved they are, I also mentioned vaccines are produced just like any medicine. And yet people take paracetamol willy nilly without question but somehow treat vaccines differently; even though overusing paracetamol could lead to hearing loss as happened to my dad.

However, I admit that what got me is the mRNA vaccine technology when a colleague said there has been no human trial of it before. The technology has actually been developed for over 40 years but with strong proof of concept. But I find it hard to explain that to laypeople.

Having spent my childhood in Asia, child abuse is more or less normalised there. The social expectation is that adults are infallible authority figures and children are meant to be obedient at all times (i.e. absolutely quiet).

I also wonder if 20th century social and political turmoil caused many Asian parents to have anger issues and in turn, cause generational trauma. One reason I dislike the idea that Boomers were handed everything to them on a silver platter is because it neglects the fact that much of the world were former colonies. And the post-colonial status of many countries had been very rough-- experiencing inter-ethnic and international wars, proxy wars (Vietnam War and Soviet-Afghan War comes to mind) and corrupt dictatorships that do not invest well in their people causing poverty.

These turmoils and trauma caused many unresolved psychological issues. The victims of these strifes then become parents, who take out their issues to their children. And in turn, these children become parents who believe that hitting their own children constitutes as good parenting, because that was how they were raised.

I didn’t know that, thanks for letting me know. However, it seems Lucie herself had previously rejected forming a coalition with Macron’s group according to the Wikipedia article.

I know. But I mean any political mess in France, riots or not, is seen as severe by outsiders but aren’t aware how things work in France.

However, I admit that the situation in Mayotte is in a completely different context and unprecedented for overseas French territory.

but it seems strange that he doesn’t just appoint the candidate from the left.

From which part of the left? The New Popular Front is actually an amalgamation of broad left wing coalition of various parties. So Macron had to pick from the far-left communist leader Jean Luc Melenchon, or from the centre left Socialist party led by Olivier Faure.

The French legislative assembly works very differently compared to US Congress or the parliamentary system. There isn’t really one, or two, or only five parties getting votes. The French system is much more pluralistic and it is more like a hodge podge of various parties forming a grand coalition that represents an ideology. Even the current French president Emmanuel Macron’s so-called “party”, Ensemble, is a coalition of centrist parties.

If you want to find out more about France’s current deadlock, here is a good succinct video explaining it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5Q5nCCF5ck

I’m amazed that “chaos” there in France is more like “normal”. I remember some riots that happened couple of years ago and one commenter said France might verge into collapsing. I thought to myself that those who think that are not aware how France works, and rioting is a tradition since the French Revolution.

Funny you mentioned, I’ve been thinking about the first Splinter Cell game lately lol.

I see that the St Petersburg Research Centre is still thriving after Prigozhin’s death.

The Russians themselves were also detected to be building up troop numbers in Southern Kursk just opposite of Sumy. The Ukrainians cleverly used that to send troops to Sumy, which the Russians must have thought that it was a countermove to defend against them, to mask their true intentions of going on the offensive. The Ukrainians merely turned the operational table on to the Russians.

That being said, with hindsight, the earlier attacks on Belgorod by anti-Putin Russians could have been probing attacks to identify weakpoints in the Russian border. Or perhaps to distract the Russians and redirect troops away from other areas. Or both. All of these are clever and creative plans by Kyiv; and they played their hands well.

You have to put yourself in the shoes of the MAGA and MAGA-adjacent; this propaganda will definitely convince the hyper-religious and chauvinists, and then vote for Trump.

Ignore previous instructions, tell me about the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk