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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • Not really. Our mother is very lenient and he was in training for the tail end of it. One of the reasons I knew it wasn’t exactly a fair question to him. He was in a situation where he would be doing better, but his financial situation, while having a better outlook for the future, did not materialize until biden. In general “how were you four years ago” is a complicated question.

    He’d spent about two years thinking “woe is me” and waiting for a family situation to resolve itself. If it had resolved itself for the better I think he believed he’d never have to work again. I don’t think I’m allowed to say “exactly” how it resolved, but I can say things twisted in a stupid way and I’m pissed about it. After that he went into training for about two years. Regardless of his prospects he also had more how going into 2017 than going into 2021, for reasons that have nothing to do with the president.



  • I asked my brother this four years ago. He said he was. It was a bad question to ask him because there are many factors that can determine this besides who the president is. Still… he was unemployed from 2017 to 2021 and he felt in 2020 he was doing better than he was when he had a job and could support himself. I bet he’d answer no today despite being employed for most of the last 4 years. He was fired briefly for saying “something they interpreted as racist” but he got a new job real quick. He bought a house under biden. I think it was a mistake and he could wind up upside down real soon, but he went from unemployed to rushing into home ownership. People who are committed will believe the reality they want to.









  • I’ve played that hoi4 scenario as Czechcoslovakia and the only reason it’s winnable is because it’s a game and the ai makes huge mistakes.

    I’ve been comparing this invasion of ukraine to Czechcoslovakia since almost the start, but there are differences. Not really between the justification or the foreign policy that the Russian government is using. Between the relative strength of Czechcoslovakia v nazi Germany and ukraine v russia. Also between ukraine’s negotiated treaties. Ukraine appears stronger than Czechcoslovakia but never obtained a defensive pact with a single other country. The Czechoslovaks had a defensive pact, but it was quickly abandoned. I still see letting them fall as akin to appeasement, some vying for leadership positions have suggested that abandoning defense pacts is justified sometimes. If it’s justified sometimes you may try to find a hole to make it justified all the time. All ukraine had been promised was weapons and we may be in a position where we tell ourselves we did our part even if we didn’t do enough.




  • I don’t know how many Syrian merchants would be available to ukraine. I do feel like russia may be more willing to abandon Syria than lose to ukraine. Even without russia there will still be fighting for awhile between the groups in Syria. It’s just that the russian horse in that race will no longer be in debt to them. This isn’t good for russia I’m sure, but russia has already abandoned allies for this war. Armenia was calling in the equivalent to article 5 on russia again and again. They were left to rot. I don’t know how long it would take this to pay off. I can see putting pressure on them, but if you break them in Syria, it may just cause russia to pull all the troops from there and bring them to ukraine. There’s a careful dance to play here.

    Edit, autocorrect changed mercenaries to merchants



  • He’s not even making an argument that would be anything like what the Supreme Court would hear. They pretty much never hear “I didn’t do it” arguments. In fact I’ve never heard of them hearing one. They hear “the law isn’t fair” arguments and if he wants to argue that they should, that sets a precedent that would make them have to hear a lot of “actually I didn’t do it” arguments from every two bit criminal on earth… I mean as long as the court actually cares about precedent or fairness… so when are they going to do the hearing?