The /mistake/ appears to have been Jefferson/Madison not lining the God-botherers up against a wall and shooting them when they had a chance.

It’s a fair point. It’s also much easier to be all Billy Big-Balls “just kick them out” when it’s Hungary - but what about when Germany elects AfD or France elects Le Pen; do we kick them out too?

A federation of democracies needs to be resilient to the fact that democracies don’t always elect people we like. Kicking members out every time that happens is not reslience, it’s a deathwish.

The important thing is this: can you still deliver lectures to the rest of the world on the Importance of Freedom Of Speech, and the fact that only Yanks have it because Elon can worship Hitler on the Internet?

And the answer is, yes. Yes you can, and always will. So the actual reality isn’t really important. Because all you actually learned from 1984 is that of the government tells you that you have freedom of speech, and also tells you that Eastasia and Eurasia don’t, That’s Good Enough For You and you’re The Free-est People In The World.

Probably because it is not confirmed yet? The first drone was definitively confirmed to be a Russian Shahed, the second drone I’m not sure an announcement has been made yet (It was only shot down a few hours ago.)

I don’t think it requires a genius to guess, but it’s not really the job of news to promulgate guesses as facts. Not outside the US, anyway.

I don’t buy the Epstein files distraction, because it’s pretty clear the US public don’t give a shit. What would the Epstein files even prove?

You could release an authentic video of Trump fucking an 8 year old and then throwing the lifeless body down a laundry chute and most Yanks would just shrug and say “whaddaguy”. Hell, if the kid was an immigrant’s, his ratings would probably go up.

There is nothing in the Epstein files that could possibly touch Trump. It’s all already priced in and you elected him anyway.

I turned kitty’s bed - that she slept in as a kitten, but then spent about 5 years refusing to acknowledge - back into a bed by putting an electric heating mat under it. Hey presto, it’s back in favour!

This is not correct; they haven’t been convicted of anything yet.

They’re out on the equivalent of bail awaiting trial. That they are not wearing ankle tags or the like and are allowed to travel was thanks to pressure from the US Government, though.

Cretin.

plonk, as we used to say in the good old days.

No, they’re not.

Next idiotic question?

At least a half dozen countries will block Ukraine joining the EU in its current state, and another dozen will secretly be glad they don’t have to take the flack.

Ukraine is decades away from EU membership. Anyone suggesting otherwise is doing all concerned a disservice (yes, looking at you UVdL.)

Hey now, can’t you tell? He Does Hid Own Research.

Ukraine is not a European country then?

I tell you who is crying a fucking river - fucking yanks like you who think putting a bumper sticker on their car is “protest”. I’ve spent time in Ukraine, I’ve had Ryssian soldiers - supported by YOUR president - try to lynch me as a NATO spy. I know what it’s like to wake up to a rocket hitting the building next door to the one you are sleeping in, and I know what is like to drive gingerly around the wreckage of a car that’s been hit by a drone and will never forget how car parts and body parts seem to almost meld together in the wreckage.

So with literally ALL due respect - go fuck yourself.

Yeah, blame the victims, go ahead.

Sort. Your. Own. Shithole. Country. Out.

I feel like you should sort your own fucking house out before worrying about anyone else’s.

The days of Yanks getting a free pass to lecture everyone else are long gone.

No idea why the downvotes here.

I mean, someone up there just unironically called someone else a “class traitor”.

This is not a crowd that’s hanging straight on its hinges.

A brigade of yanks with “you just can’t understand how many solar systems fit in Texas, though” is incoming…

Thank you! I see it has a Linux version, so I will genuinely check that out - as soon as I get home. (As I write I’m waiting to board the first of 13 hours or so of flights - that’s why I happened to be checking out gaming reviews yesterday ;-). I’m hoping the 7th Guest remake will keep me sane…)

Genuinely, thank you both for the suggestions. I’m just wary of falling down the YouTube rabbithole - I refuse to even log-in to the damned site - so if I start watching one of them it’s going to have to be one I can remember the name of to search ;-).

(I thought Facebook was a bad idea from the get-go and never signed up, quit Instagram when FB bought them, quit Twitter when that asshole bought them… Lemmy and (sorry to say) Reddit are literally my only social media, and I question both of them fairly regularly. I do not claim to be normal ;-).)

The only reason I make an exception for Yahtzee is that having had a Steam account since Half-Life 2, Steam nevertheless remains comically bad at recommending games I’d be remotely interested in. Yahtzee’s reviews I often don’t agree with, but they do at least give me a hint of things I should check out.

Don’t include Romania in this - we already have AC. The weather currently getting everyone in north-west Europe highly exercised is a mild summer day in Romania. I assume this is also true of Bulgaria.

Air conditioners are heat pumps.

Air-to-Air heatpumps (i.e. AC) are trivial to install in apartments (drill one inch hole in wall, mount compressor on one side and head unit on other, done,) and make for very efficient heating in winter just as much as they can be used for cooling in summer.