despite_velasquez

Merkel, as Varoufakis put it, sending your failed minister to Brussels is a good choice because “In Brussels, you can't hear them scream”

FIA: no, no racing allowed, you will ONLY race into turn 1

Aren’t Doctors Without Borders active, and also losing doctors to IDF strikes in Gaza? What’s the complaint here?

used to kill people in Ukraine

Resisting occupation is a right guaranteed under international law

bro is fellating autocrats left and right

In Taiwan, these people are called 民主二代 (second generation of democracy), oftentimes in a derogatory way, referring to a generation that came of age after Taiwan's democratization, sometimes seen as taking democracy for granted.

I kinda half don't blame them, they suffer from the same issues that most liberal democracies face now:

• horribly low pay and worker protections, in your first year working, expect to barely have 3 holiday days offered to you
• never being able to buy property in Taiwan (Taiwanese property market is insane and I could talk at lengths about it)

In this context, Taiwanese politics is a hugely partisan-tribal affair with a lot of drama. A lot of people become apathetic and just go "you can't eat democracy" (a dig at parties that keep pushing this as their campaign slogan rather than talking about kitchen-table political issues (housing, affordability, high cost of raising kids).

Idk how to feel about this. If this news came from the UK, the replies would've been:

you got a loicense for that, mate?

But because it's China, people will gladly glaze this move.

Living in Taiwan, this is kinda annoying, when one of these cables got cut, the internet was noticeably slower for a couple of days

If there was a suitable banquet hall, why are state receptions held on the South Lawn by every admin?

Not passing judgement, making an observation

That's a reasonable way to think about it, but what "should" happen and what "does" happen are different.

It seems like historically, state visits happen at the White House, which to me makes a lot of sense given the logistics of hosting foreign entourage.

The US is a world power, part of being a world power is being able to project that power, including through aesthetics, compare the aesthetics of a state visit in the Kremlin and Great Hall of the People vs. hosting in a temporary tent on a lawn.

Why is defence of it insane? The article makes a good point re: state guests and needing to erect tents to accommodate them.

Genuinely curious

Don’t care, use Linux.

It’s the ethical choice.

Don’t put yourself in the learned helplessness box