I know, right? You can just get something else he’s interested in. Like OP, maybe the kid likes antiquities, you could get him some from Benito Mussolini’s 12000 piece collection in the Colonial Museum. Or maybe he likes art, you could buy him one of Hitler’s paintings.

So a country’s internal politics don’t matter unless they fall to Russia - that’s what you said, right?

But wouldn’t you agree that the country’s internal politics are what decides if it falls to Russia or not? If education is not a subject they invest in, if its population isn’t happy with the status quo, if they exhibit corruption, if their healthcare system is so bad that the middle class emigrates and leaves behind only the oligarchs and the poor, if their justice system doesn’t work and they don’t feel safe… All these internal politics have a huge impact on if a country can be influenced by Russia or any other nefarious agent.

I don’t get what you’re saying. You keep saying “yeah but we don’t care about X”, while X seems to be the direct cause of some of your problems that you DO care about. Are you trying to say Romania should take care of its shit internally so we don’t have to deal with it, and not let it grow to the point where it’s a problem for the rest of the EU?

Does this election not matter?

Briefly? No.

1. This is the first round of elections. It’s not a FPTP system. Yes, he has a good shot at winning. But now he has to earn the votes which went to the “third party”, so to speak. Which is difficult for both of the current candidates.

2. Romania’s president has limited power and responsibilities. He’s there as a a dignitary and usually handles foreign affairs more than internal ones. He’s also powerless - the government and the parliament are where the power is.

3. Both these people are corrupt fucks. There is no winning this election. Yes, one’s worse than the other. I’d struggle to say which, although the pro-russian seems to be just a tad more evil.

4. Human nature. Sure, the guy is pro Russia. Great. But how much time will he have to actually bring Romania closer to Russia if he has to split that time between trying to get the country out of NATO and trying to steal enough to retire comfortably? He won’t get anything done, he’s too greedy for it.

Edit: Seems like the number 2 spot in the election may be taken by a less corrupt candidate than initially thought - this invalidates my 3rd point a bit. I stand by the rest though.

It’s the same low-to-medium quality crap that you can usually find on Amazon at a slightly higher price.

“Hate never made America great” ? What the fuck are you even talking about? Your hate of commies launched you to the moon and made you a nuclear superpower. Your hate of the religious freedom in Europe caused you to invade another continent and cause genocide upon its inhabitants. Your hate of black people sparked a civil war that almost destroyed you as a country.

Hate is what defines you. As a reminder of the hate you perpetuate, your majority chose hate of women and minorities instead of throwing a known criminal in jail. Trump is the US. Hate is the US.

When you try to read the epic of gilgamesh and the first 5 pages describe how to pick ripe avocados smh

If the Chinese government asked any of those other companies to give them all the data they have on you in particular, They probably tell them to get bent.

Haha what? You think there’s any chance in hell that China doesn’t get what they want from any US company? Check out this video, this is what happens when a random American says something China doesn’t like. Now go ahead and picture those companies not bending over backwards to kiss Xi’s ass if it means affecting the bottom line.

Ah, good choice - instead of waiting for the company to become increasingly enshittified, you went with the already 100% completely shit company.

The day I have to eat poached applesauce is also the day I overthrow my government.

Please don’t suggest that people call 911. Not in the replies to this article.

Siding with terrorists who rape women and children is not a popular stance.

That’s odd, since siding with terrorists is literally what Israel did when funding Hamas in order to destabilize Gaza.

At this point, considering all the atrocities inflicted by the Israeli army throughout this year alone - “siding with terrorists who rape women and children” means siding with Israel.

I’m patiently waiting for the day a pro-Israel person is fired for their views in a western country. Surely that will go over well.

You can’t negotiate with terrorists that hide behind their “you can’t do anything about us cause we were oppressed in the past” rhetoric. Jewish people haven’t suffered for so many years just for some of their leaders to turn around and inflict the same kind of hate that their parents and grandparents faced. They need to clean up their government, or at some point it will become the task of others to do it.

This is not tragic. This is, has been, and will always be Israeli foreign policy. Ever since the state was created, they were supposed to be a “foothold of civilization in the region”. They have constantly settled outside of borders and into Palestinian territory, and then defended their settlements with their superior firepower. They have constantly waged this type of unorthodox war. They supported Hamas as a tactical strike against the more moderate candidates in Palestine, because you can’t paint moderates as the aggressor as easily - this worked wonders for their PR - they managed to clean their image, because they had an enemy that looked even worse.

Make no mistake friend - Israel has never been the abused, and throughout their short lifetime as a state they have only abused. They have been conducting an ethnic cleansing in the area. The only hope Palestinians have is that history books write the truth, but seeing as how Israel’s money isn’t running out and their reach is long, even this seems unlikely - just look at all the support they still have despite their foreign policy being literally genocide.

Maybe its their instances and those are just the way they are

Russia wants to annex a country. Israel is fighting a terrorist group.

There’s a difference between disagreeing with someone and insulting and attacking someone, and if you can’t tell that there’s a difference you can go fuck yourself with a cactus, you cumdrowned dicksphincter.

This has some real “don’t be intolerant towards the intolerant” energy.

Yes, sometimes insults are justified. No, when an employee/volunteer helper doesn’t share your view is not one of those times. Yes, when you’re confronted with a toxic fuck and those defending his toxic behavior is one of those times.

If I were to send you a video of a duck quacking, would you abandon going to the supermarket in the hope that your computer/phone/whatever you watch it on will now be able to lay eggs?

Listen. It was made to look like a duck. It was made to quack like a duck. It is not a duck. It is a painting of a duck, with voice features. It won’t fly, it won’t lay eggs, it won’t feel pain, it won’t shit all over the floors. It’s not a damn duck, and pretending it is just because it looks like it and it quacks, is like wanting to marry a fleshlight because it’s really good at sex and never disagrees with you. Sure, go ahead and do it - but don’t goddamn expect it to also give birth to your children and take them to school in the mornings, that’s not it’s purpose.

Just wait for the iteration of duck that is actually meant to and capable of doing these things. It’ll be pretty cool. But this one ain’t it.

Not to disparage your reply, because it’s well thought out and written, but doesn’t it seem to you we’re hiding behind legalese?

I want to buy a turkey. I have money. I will visit a farm, pay for the turkey (if the price is agreeable to both parties) and I now own that turkey. I will then do whatever the fuck I want with that turkdy, from raising it as my child, to cooking it for thanksgiving, to cloning it if I have the technology. Sure, I might not be able to return it in some cases. But that’s a living fucking thing, and nobody can tell me how to use it.

Now - I want to buy a movie. I have money. I will go to the cinema, but it’s not playing anymore. I will look for it on TV, but it’s only on one channel, only while I’m at work. I will look for it on the internet and it’s available on one website, where I need to make an account and provide quite a lot of information about me. So I make the account and click through their shitty prompts, pay for the movie and now I can only do one thing: stream it?

Excuse you? Who the fuck are you to tell me how I can enjoy my media? What if I want to make a vynil record and listen to it? What if I want to watch it on my old-timey projector? What if I want to burn a frame of the movie onto my morning toast every day for 2000 years? What if I want to put it in a small baggy tied to my balls while I’m fucking the mom of some movie exec, am I supposed to put the entire laptop in the baggy? How the fuck dare you make that distinction for me? Oh, because your site isn’t granting me the right to buy a movie, but to buy a license to watch that movie in whichever conditions you decide? Great - here’s the thing: I have my own license, which says whenever I pay for something, I use it however the fuck I want, and if you attempt to exert any control over my property or how it is used I will literally stab you and bury you in the woods, because I don’t take kindly to corporate fucks who attempt to instruct me how to use the things I’ve bought. Fuck you, you should’ve read my license when you took my money.

There is no “license” here, my dude. I don’t pay for licenses, regardless of what the website wants to charge for. I pay for a product, or a a service. Let’s not hide behind legalese and let’s just acknowledge that these are scummy practices to ensure the wealth of corporations at the expense of the rights of consumers. And until these types of shady “licenses” to temporarily view THEIR PROPERTY are smacked into the fucking ground by consumer-friendly laws, piracy is the only way to have justice in a system stacked against you.

Technically couldn’t it be argued that the confederacy were the ones that were the real USA? Even the constitution agreed with them that some people are worth less than others.

If you need to change the constitution to have your side be right, you’re on the right side of history, but you’re not the same country. You’re the new guys who took the country by force from the previous guys, because you didn’t like how they did things. It’s a good thing you did, but let’s not pretend like they were the traitors - the winners of the war were the traitors.

I just think it’s okay to be a traitor if you’re betraying a shitty cause, and by acting like it’s not okay, we’re just enforcing the “snitches get stitches” and “loyalty instead of morals” mentality. Which I get why you would want to do as a country, because you’re trying to keep the power and not raise future traitors to your questionable policies. But I don’t get why you’d want to do this as a human, who will be at one point in time responsible for making a similar decision. You’re just making it worse for future you if you’ll ever need to be labeled as a traitor for, eg: fighting to remove gerrymandering.