You say that as if it’s up to the EU whether Russia attacks or not. Then again I suppose it is, insofar as si vis pacem, para bellum.

Stopping genocide by doing what?

You should put more thought into the arguments you make, because clearly 11 members would.

Counterpoint: vetoes are generally anti-democratic.

That reference is a little too “inside baseball” for me, but based on the context, I assume those were companies that operated in the so-called Third Reich?

Really? I was under the impression that Trump had made it a law or something. If not, then what did that executive order actually do?

“What is a vague and carefully unfalsifiable way to slander an entire continent?”, Alex.

I think a lot of politicians are pleasantly surprised that there was still an American that both sides of the aisle could agree on admiring.

Wrong, spying used to be a wartime thing you did against enemies.

Do you really believe that?

Also:

they are truing to use it to undermine their political views.

That’s not “spying on its own” anymore, though, is it?

Spying on allies

Anyone who knows anything about history and politics should understand that everybody spies on everybody and that’s fine because knowing what other countries are up to is how you avoid war. Countries trust their allies because their spies help them KNOW that they can trust them. As soon as spies are taken out of the equation, everybody starts getting WAY more paranoid about what other countries are up to, and that’s how you get pointless wars. Sometimes, foreign spies even HELP a country, because they can sometimes catch things that domestic intelligence misses, like “hey, such-and-such foreign nation has infiltrated your such-and-such government agency; you might wanna do something about that. How did we get this info? Trade secret. But you’re welcome”.

Spying ON ITS OWN is almost utterly benign. It’s certainly better than the alternative. Expecting humans to not be nosy about what their neighbors are up to is just asking for disappointment. Nosiness is an inevitable fact of life. Sure, if you CATCH a spy, you eject them. But it’s naive to be offended by the attempt.

Ain’t nobody waiting for nothing.

Why does everything need to be about the USA and Israel?

I’d be more worried about Joe Pesci.

I dreamed I saw Dolly Parton last night

Alive as you and me

Says I, “But Dolly, you’re 24 hrs dead”

“I never died” says she

“I never died” says she

• Catherine O’Hara: died January 2026
• Brenda Fricker: died July 2026
• Tim Curry: died August 2026

Crosses fingers

Yeah we need whatever microbes break down plastic to remain isolated so that we can break down plastic when we want to but it remains “invincible” otherwise.

There’s a yeast for it now too:

https://www.ucc.ie/en/sefs/news/news2026/researchers-at-ucc-engineer-yeast-to-recycle-plastic-more-sustainably.html

I always wonder how long it’s gonna take before plastic-eating bacteria start to proliferate in the wild. There was a while back in prehistory when there was no microbe in existence that could eat wood and trees were almost immortal, and that’s how we got certain fossil fuels, because when a tree died by getting knocked over by wind or whatever, the wood went into the ground undigested. I think. The main appeal of plastic is that it’s currently nigh on invincible to microbial attack and so is perfect for sealed containers (when you need to keep something fresh and preserved), but I assume eventually plastic will be just as prone to rot as cardboard. I wonder, will glass then make a comeback?

If you think you can do it, do it. But it’s been mooted for years with no real movement so I don’t foresee it happening now, either.

Don’t forget the purple states