OpenStars

What I replied to though said this:

That’s not really a tag though, you’d have the same search result just searching for “school”, right?

So it seems relevant to me that the search results are not identical?

Beyond that, it would find many more instances if people started using it, ofc, but the manner in which people use it may still facilitate easier searching - e.g. instead of casually bantering around with "school", "college", "education", "edumacashiun", if you knew that a specific term was used like "#school", then you could still find it easier.

Anyway, I am not here to defend using hashtags - I have no skin in that game and truly don't care one way or another. I just did not want OP to feel attacked like we are a bunch of Karens asking to speak to the manager about their choice of language:-P. Lemmy has little enough content as it is - we want moar content creators, not to turn away people offering us free stuff to ~~distract us from the pain of existence~~ enjoy!?:-)

I normally despise animated gifs - bc THEY NEVER F-ING STOP!! (seriously, how difficult would it be for the browser to allow it to play 3-5 times and then auto-pause it!?) - but in this one case I will make an exception:

Having just tried it, no. There are many instances of the word "school", but I only saw a single one with "#school".

I often want to use the search to find things, but cannot due to the deluge of irrelevant crap. Also the terms seem broken in that while some work 100% of the time, others 100% of the time fail to function as stated - e.g. asking for "all" results from the last "top 6 hours" ago returns MANY comments from 10 months in the past, though no posts prior to 6 hours ago, so it functions only halfway i.e. it does not work at all if my aim was to find a particular thing.

So if OP wants to use hashtags, and they help, why try to restrict them? We are supposed to be the welcoming Fediverse here!!? :-)

Those eyes though...

We can do more! Maybe... significantly lower the resolution, while keeping the image the same size?

Also, image search found this completely unrelated gem: link

While not automated, typing those terms into the search bar does function to retrieve posts with those hashtag terms. So OP is not confused - rather, they are taking us all #backtoschool:-).

To be clear, not of himself, but rather when Trump assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani - whatever else he may have been, he was employed in that capacity by a foreign power, and Trump killed him with a "precision strike", aka assassination. I thought that event might have literally started WWIII, but instead Iran was like "naw, we're cool bro", and that was it.

Hrm, they seem off by a little, maybe... 42 units?

Russia can be smart... in some ways, sometimes (while also simultaneously dumb in others, as aren't we all?:-P). e.g. wasn't it 2025 that Germany was scheduled to eliminate its dependence upon Russian oil (or was it rather all?) for energy. Knowing this does seem likely to have influenced the timeline of events somewhat, seeing how in that regard at least (and some others) it was the perfect time to strike - i.e. if they had waited longer it would have become far more difficult?

And let's be blunt: if they had managed to take over what they wanted in that "three-day" timetable as initially planned, wouldn't Europe have simply let them have it? As we consider that, let us not kid ourselves here b/c this invasion has gone on for a decade at this point - Georgia, Crimea, the area west of Crimea, etc. - each time citing "no, I swear, this was all that I wanted, I won't do this ever again, I promise". So if EU nations are somehow shocked, Shocked I tell you, SHOCKED, that those leopards would not one day turn and eat THEIR faces off, then I don't know what to tell them...

However, I was pleased to note how e.g. Germany quickly turned its economy upside down and started mass-producing weapons. They tend to be a very smart and technically-minded people, so I for one have no problems believing that it at least could have been a strategic move on their part to "not have weapons", when they were not immediately needed, yet also be ready to start producing them at a moment's notice when the need for such became apparent - as you pointed out.

Likewise but with very different factors involved, those nations physically closest to Russia may have wanted weapons yet been afraid of enraging the bear by having them? So what I am trying, probably ineptly, to say is that it may not "purely" be due to willful ignorance on behalf of every EU nation, to lay down those older-style weapons that cost a lot yet haven't been necessary for literally decades. A better cost-to-benefit ratio may have been to invest in something like energy independence, so long as the military factor was covered at some very minimal level.

Plus technology changes so fast... as we are seeing live in Ukraine, "tanks" were not the big thing, especially as Russia heavily misused them at first, compared to drones, right? So EU nations were "not prepared", in the specific sense, but by investing into robotics and batteries and such, the converse does not seem quite true either i.e. we cannot say that those same nations were not entirely "unprepared" either?

That is why it is so amazing that Ukraine is holding off Russia, essentially acting as the shield for the entire fucking world, making Russia expend all of its military might & resources upon it, which could otherwise be put to use elsewhere, into saving up and preparing for the next target, which they ofc according to Russa "we have no plans for, b/c Ukraine is all that we want, we promise"!

Ukraine really does deserve aid then - they've earned that. But... there are >100 Republicans who seem to believe rather that Russia has "earned" the right to take whatever they want. And that should worry us all, around the world.

Maybe DeSantis should spend a billion dollars building a wall, to keep out the immigrants from NYC!? :-P

He already effectively did that to keep out Disney it seems. :-|

When [NYC] sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

-Donald Trump

There's a lot we could unpack there - e.g. it makes me all the more glad that they passed this, since we've already spent it either way!?

One quick item: Biden has stated that the aid can be there this week. He was prepared to spring on this. As you already said, this package was mostly to replenish already-spent funds, not as much directly to push forward with new ones. Although with that replenished stamina, I would expect to see new pushes happen as well.

Another big item is that Ukraine is not a member of the EU or NATO. As such it is "entitled" to nothing - everything that is being offered is purely voluntary. So, compared to nothing, $60B USD is quite a lot? Hence why he is grateful, and rightly so.

Another is that the USA does not need to be the sole provider of this aid - not that I am glad for the pause, but given that it happened anyway, I was heartened to see other nations rise up and cover the slack. And now for the USA to join the right side of history - well, better late than never, and all the more so with an amount this big!:-)

As you pointed out, the biggest one is that there is a faction within the US government that looks to be wanting Ukraine to fail, or more precisely for Russia to win. If Trump "wins" the next election, one way or another (i.e. legally or... otherwise), the USA may even go so far as to join Russia against Ukraine?! But for now, even delaying that aid may hamper it enough for Russia to finish the job. Maybe. Even so, this particular aid package got passed. Come what may, this one is a success. It is as important to celebrate success as it is to call out failures - failing to do either is biased, and therefore wrong.

Speaking of, the USA may also fail one day, less due to direct Russian military intervention and more from an internal civil war. But not today, b/c again, come what may, this particular aid package got passed, whoo-hoo!:-)