Yeah, it’s almost as if he’s selling access to his inner circle and giving them advance notice of policies that may affect markets. Wouldn’t that be wild?

I think they spelled “dystopia” wrong.

Thanks. I hadn’t heard these before.

Pardon my ignorance/naivety. I haven’t heard furry slurs. What are they?

I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the perception from within Russia, but I also doubt it’s the case empirically and objectively. It was proobably good from 2000 to 2013 under Putin and then Medvedev, who was probably Putin’s puppet president.

But now, their GDP per capita is stagnant, if not in decline while their population is decreasing, and their GINI index is similar to that of the US and China. That’s a really bad combo. I can’t imagine how quality of life would be improving under those conditions.

Having said that, there are better metrics like median salary and median household income both adjusted for purchasing power parity, but I haven’t been able to find graphs for those. In fact it was kind of hard to find consistent economic data in general, which is another concern, but not really evidence of economic problems in and off itself.

I believe they’re living like it’s business as usual, but I’d attribute that to hypernormalization more than improvement in quality of life.

It’s not. It’s saying “Mao.” The revolution is at hand.

Partner’s an asstronaut.

Wow, thank you for the thoughtful and very thorough response. I would very much like for this to be the case. Also, I learned a lot.

I like this theory, too. Regardless, I’m on board for whatever stops the killing while maintaining national sovereignty, and I mean that for any and all nations. I hope things get better for the citizens of Russia, too, but I don’t think it should be at the expense of Ukraine either. I just hope the US isn’t just protecting the sale of military equipment and supplies by drawing out the war.

She seems pretty critical of immigrants, does that count?

Fair enough, but maybe pocket some instead of downing more?

Call me biodegradable, because I break down really easily.

You’ll find me near the compost pile, unraveling emotionally.

-Lil Cringe, feat. MC Spiral, Wheezy Feelin’s and Tissue Boxx

Calvin’s dad says it builds character.

But are you also overheated?

I never understood the impatience. Try one and leave it at that for the first time. If it wasn’t enough, try two the next time, which should be at least 24 hours later, and so on and so forth. There’s nothing wrong with accidentally microdosing.

I feel like they’re also pretty good at providing fire support for holding defensive positions. Truly a versatile creature.

Do we think this was the classic, “create a crisis and solve it” strategy, or are we about to find out later what unreasonable demand Ukraine had to cave to for survival?

Yeah, won’t this effectively result in de-facto unlimited campaign contributions, if not outright electioneering? Churches are often polling places for elections.

Was it because the US President threatened to annex Canada? I feel like that would probably do it.