I repeat: kidnapping?

I’m glad we have you to tell us what is and isn’t culture worth preserving; we were at real risk of having a diversity of opinion for a moment there.

Kidnapping?

Obama’s been gone almost a decade at this point and we still have yet to pass this bill because the government always backs down at the last minute in the face of threats from the US that it would “force” US companies to not do business with us. The Dáil (parliament) supports the bill but the cabinet shoots it down. So you’re not wrong to be cynical, but every time Israel commits some fresh outrage the pressure grows for the government to pass it or risk losing the next election.

To be specific, Ireland isn’t in Schengen because the UK isn’t in Schengen and we’re trying to keep the border as non-bordery as possible.

Note: by having the USA abstain from that UN vote right at the end of his presidency, Obama made it possible (ie legal) for us to do this.

If we were targeting Israel specifically, we would run afoul of all sorts of EU regulations since external trade policy falls under EU competency. HOWEVER, because there is a UN resolution specifically identifying the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories as illegal occuptions under international law, it’s possible for us to pass a law that doesn’t specifically target Israel by name, but rather target any territory that is illegally occupied.

If Brussels takes issue with the ban and tries to fine us for some trumped-up reason like arguing that we’re exceeding our reserved competencies, that would initiate legal proceedings which would give us standing to counter and argue that we are only meeting our international obligations as outlined by the UN, and furthermore that the EU-Israel trade deal has a boilerplate clause requiring Israel to meet certain human rights criteria or the entire trade deal goes kaput.

Basically if the EU takes us to court over this, we’ll be able to force the argument to be over whether Israel is violating human rights, at which point (because judges are not politicians) the court will almost certainly side with us, which would THEN put Brussels into the legal position where they’re OBLIGED to ban these goods EU-wide.

Because Brussels knows this, they’re likely to try and avoid initiating proceedings, turning a blind eye. However a lack of consequences for us would embolden other EU members to copy us. Basically it’s a rock and a hard place for Brussels.

Just pointing this out so that people see that UN votes DO matter.

The word “al” means “the” in Arabic - for example, “al jazeera” means “the island”. And a lower case L looks like a capital i, so “AI” is visually indistinguishable from “Al”. So the joke is that people who try to shoehorn Artificial Intelligence into everything look like they’re speaking in Arabic.

Like, extra rights, you mean? Because lots of countries recognize animal rights.

I might have tried it once when I was a kid but it’s not as effective as a fingernail so once was enough.

I don’t think history supports that prediction. Far more likely that America will follow the trajectory of post-USSR Russia. Not as extreme of course, but I think the normalization of open kleptocracy is already on display.

Evidently not, since some voters thought (and still think!) that the solution was to elect Trump. That’s evidently where the bar is, as determined by the voters.

Worse than Trump? No.

Same thing as you, me and everyone else here, I’d wager. Nothing. Welcome to social media.

The headline is a cold take but the article goes in-depth into all the ways the FSB is aware of how China is probing Russia (for example, approaching disillusioned Russian scientists with access to classified tech, and employing academics to study cultural links between current regions of Russia and historic China, such as Outer Manchuria) as well as discussing long-term strategic considerations for all sides like how climate change will make Russia’s northern coast an attractive option for China to transport goods to sell in Europe, and old quotes by Trump about how his priority is to court Russia to “un-unite” it from China. There’s a lot in it, honestly, as the document (which the NYT received from hackers and consulted various intelligence agencies as to its veracity) is pretty detailed, apparently. It also mentions that China is studying the war in Ukraine as it figures out what would best counter Western military tech in the 21st century.

Thanos was right

Well I meant more along the lines of getting fired, but sure

FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States

He’ll take long-distance photos of the crowds so you can’t see the slogans on the picket signs, and he’ll spin it as “look at how many people turned up for my parade!”

To be fair, there are two different kinds of immigration: legal and illegal. Some (not all, but some) immigrants who came via the proper legal channels resent those who didn’t, and of those who feel that way, some feel that way for selfish “screw you, I got mine” reasons and others feel that way for genuine reasons, such as the fact that supporting illegal immigration is, to a certain extent, supporting the human trafficking and drug trafficking that goes hand-in-hand with it. Borders do serve a purpose and believing that illegal immigration should be curtailed isn’t necessarily a hypocritical position for an immigrant.

HOWEVER, that isn’t to say that ICE is the answer.

Step One of imperialistic expansionism is to pretend that nothing in your national history is problematic.