Hyperreality

Have you tried switching it on and off again.

I find it depressing that not wanting migrants to drown, is framed as 'support for migrants' and somehow left wing.

If a suspected rapist was drowning in a pond, I'd expect the police to save them, then jail them. Leaving people to die without any right to a trial or to be heard, is simply sociopathic.

It's perfectly possible to have a hardline anti-migration policy, which doesn't involve allowing thousands of people to drown.

Also forces the Ukrainians to use artillery shells and ammunition.

The Kremlin has basically made the cold hard calculation that one Russian life is worth less than an artillery shell and some bullets and the chance of delaying the inevitable for a while longer.

Wouldn't be surprised that by the time this is over, half a million Russians are dead.

Of course, to paraphrase Stalin, it's not the dead that count, it's the people who count the dead. I'm sure they'll simply deny half of them died at all, and families will have to live with it. Just Russia things.

Europe:

1. 'Local' stores were/are often ridiculously overpriced, had a very limited range, and it's not like we're talking about independent stores either. Many of those were killed by the unfair practices of large corporate chains who would sell at a loss. Before amazon killed chain mall businesses, the mall killed independent businesses on the high street.
2. Packages are delivered to me personally. If I'm not there, they don't deliver and are forced to try another time.
3. No need for a PO box, as small independent stores and grocery stores often have a side hussle as a pick-up point. You go to pick-up your parcel and buy something in their store or do your groceries.
4. Amazon prime is entirely unnecessary. You simply have to wait a bit longer.
5. You can find independent sellers on amazon, then if their product is good, you buy from them directly next time around.
6. Thanks to amazon, ebay, etc. it's become far easier to buy second hand products. In the past you'd have to go to a second hand market, garage sales or visit twenty vintage/antique stores to find what you needed.

Amazon is evil though. So, yeah.

But there are perfectly rational reasons to use amazon.

Silver lining: bed bugs start to die at 45C, so climate change will likely kill off bed bugs in Spain. Hotels can simply turn off the AC and let a room bake in the sun.

"Dear passengers, we apologize for the delay, but one of our pilots pilot died last week, we all knew them quite well, and we feel really bad about it, so out of respect we'll delay hiring a replacement and cancel the hundred flights they would otherwise have flown over the coming week."

In September 2006, Stallman wrote, "I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily [sic] pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing." ... In September 2018, Stallman again attracted controversy when he wrote on his website, "However, it is normal for adults to be physically attracted to adolescents", in a defense of convicted sex offender Cody Wilson. ... In the thread, discussion had turned to deceased MIT professor Marvin Minsky, who was named by Virginia Giuffre as one of the people that Epstein had directed her to have sex with. Giuffre, a minor at the time, had been caught in Epstein's underage sex trafficking ring. In response to a comment where one reply stated that Minsky "is accused of assaulting one of Epstein's victims", Stallman questioned whether the word "assault" was applicable in that case, arguing that "the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing." ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman#Controversies

“He, you know, wants to be respectful and not name somebody while folks are still grappling with their grief,”

What a load of crap.

She was 90, everyone knew this was coming, arguably she'd already left the building a while ago, and this is politics not a private family gathering.

They're delaying because they want to be seen as respectful. It's optics. That's all.

I assume the classic JFK quote about those who make peaceful revolution impossible, making violent revolution inevitable would also get you banned.

Protected free speech, even outside the US, and simply a fact.

What a shithole that site was. I'm sad I wasted so many years on it.

He's the guy who defended paedophilia and basically admitted to being attracted to adolescents, isn't he?

Fuck that guy.

I was checking on reddit, found a story about Feinstein's death, and apparently you're not even allowed to say you're indifferent to someone's death from natural causes now.

It's frankly absurd.