Also Europe gave away so many shells that now the European ammo factories work to replenish the most basic strategic stockpiles of the EU militaries.

Both are true. The standard of living did improve. But it was so abysmal, that even after the improvement only very few parts of Russia can compare to the rest of Eastern Europe, not to mention anything richer.

Is it really that good or is it just a meme?

If so is it good compared to other cheap brands or as good as the stuff I can buy in dedicated tea shops?

Oligarchs. You’re missing oligarchs. The issue with Ukrainian agricultire is that a lot of it is a big, concentrated business with ties to Western capital on top of the traditional post-soviet oligarchy. This influences actions of both Ukrainian and EU politicians. The matters of imports or transit from Ukraine could be very well sorted out for the short term, but no one in power is really willing to do so.

In the long term Polish agriculture faces a serious challenge from Ukraine when it gets more and more integrated with the west but it’s also not so binary in terms of who floods whom with produce.

Doesn’t matter if the control is consolidated. No worries about Gen Z do something not profiting big money if these alternatives don’t exist.

I recommend everyone who hasn’t to look up the idea of “Potiomkin villages” (and subsequently Potiomkin anything eg. Potiomkin AI). In short: back in the tzarist days lower ranks put up mock villages which looked clean, modern and prosperous for higher ranks (and tzars) to see during visits. These mockups were essentially theatre decorations which hid the real state of the matters - dilapidated, dirty, poor and corrupt. For at least the last decade everything we saw of Russia was Potiomkin in nature - either to show off before the West or to hide corruption before own superiors.

Ahaha we’re so fucked. The sea temperature is not just higher, it was rising the whole previois year and it’s flatter than in the past. Say goodbye to seasons, we’re heading into the “flood season and heatwave season” territory. Last year I heard top scientists saying “it’s bad and anomalous but not exponential”, this looks… increasingly exponential.

Yes. Most people don’t have the awareness of a lot of what’s been said in the comments or they suspend it in their daily lives. They do what they feel is right and since most were socialised in a similar way the signal-response expectations match. Then a certain rapport can be formed by the empty interactions borne out of the semi-conscious feeling that it’s “right” or “nice” to initiate a small talk and respond to it in kind. In this way indeed most of us are like 15 yo girls, just somewhat more serious and self-controlled.

If I were in a condescensing mood I’d say humans generally are bots following Pavlov’s reaction patterns imprinted during upbringing. But this would be a severe oversimplification and a little a-hole talking through me.

Of course they do someone cleans their houses, someone drives their limousines, someone brings cookies to meetings with lawyers.

Some research shows that the newer variants can hang in the air for up to 12 hours.

That’s an amount of gear and people comparable to what a mid-sized European country could have and what a big European country could muster on short notice. It’s “only” a factor of 2 or 3 less than what Russia prepared for Ukraine at the beginning. It’s likely more than the combined forces of the Baltic states’ militaries and the NATO contingents stationed there.

With a generous dose of optimism it is a force that would at least hold a conventional invasion at bay, if not defeat it via superior tech and sea support. It is a lot even in absolute terms, for an exercise it’s massive.

Sad but maybe at least someone will drag the virus into a mansion of some superrich prick and he’ll spend the rest of his life with brain fog.

…until morale improves.

Rumor has it that the plan is to get 100 bn of this money funneled to Ukraine support mechanisms. With the 50bn EUR the EU is trying to move from their coffers it would add up to 3 years’ worth of secured in advance support for Ukraine. Which is important because who knows what kind of nutjobs and assets will rule both the US and the EU institutions by the end of 2024.

Whether pro-Israeli bots like it or not, numerous acts by IDF do fit perfectly into descriptions of the acts forbidden by the convention. Even if the case is eventually dismissed it will be on technical grounds such as “it’s actually a war crime not a genocide” not because “IDF did nothing wrong”.

👏multi👏bread👏basket👏failure

You’re not getting good data from most of Europe either. At this point hardly anyone cares and death causes are reported as they were before 2020: pneumonia, dementia, cardiac arrest etc. Whether these were caused or worsened by COVID isn’t anyone’s concern.

Oh I know, but I wanted to make sure no one has any grounds to accuse me of prophecies or something worse. Also the precise date doesn’t matter.

That’s a 200IQ move from RSA. This court is embedded in the United Nations so if Israel wanted to ignore it they would have to withdraw from the UN and this is probably too much even for them. So we’re up for a grim, but potentially entertaining festival of mental acrobatics, as the pawns sent by Netanyahu pretend that the anti-genocide convention is not actually an IDF checklist. Because it sure does read like one.

Care to elaborate why is this relevant?

Oh and I forgot an important one:

There is no way this could be prevented!!!