A politician has exactly one job, and that’s to convince people to vote for them.

I disagree, the main job is to form a POLICY! As in a policy that is attractive and will engage people through the potential to improve society.
Democrats completely failed to do that, it was not the salesmanship, although that was pretty bad too, but the real problem was the “product”.
Harris made an attempt to inspire, and I admit I thought she did pretty well. But as the saying goes, it was too little too late.

they sidelined working-class concerns, lost crucial voters,

Yep that right there is probably why they lost, instead of having a solid alternative to Trump, they moved right to reel in some Trump voters, and people didn’t see an alternative worth voting for.
This is the problem with 2 party systems. There simply wasn’t an option on the left for people who wanted to change the status quo.

I really feel for Americans that have maintained their humanity, because that is not something that has any value for the narcissistic administration USA has now, and it’s just about completely gone from the entire Republican party.

Nazi salutes at inauguration! Really? WTF has USA become?

Just saw a video of it, that’s not just Nazi like, that is a textbook ENTHUSIASTIC NAZI SALUTE!

The only way to generate CSAM is by abusing children and taking pictures/videos of it.

Society has decided otherwise, as I wrote, you can’t have your own facts or definitions. You might as well claim that in traffic red means go, because you have your own interpretation of how traffic lights should work.
Red is legally decided to mean stop, so that’s how it is, that’s how our society works by definition.

There’s a reason it’s legally considered CSAM. as I explained it is material that depicts it.
You can’t have your own facts, especially not contrary to what’s legally determined, because that means your definition or understanding is actually ILLEGAL!! If you act based on it.

CSAM = Child sexual abuse material
Even virtual material is still legally considered CSAM in most places. Although no children were hurt, it’s a depiction of it, and that’s enough.

First of all, it’s by definition not CSAM if it’s AI generated. It’s simulated CSAM

This is blatantly false. It’s also illegal and you can go to prison for owning selling or making child Lolita dolls.

I don’t know why this is the legal position in most places. Because as you mention no one is harmed.

true, I thought it was, but apparently not. But it was in the Russian sphere of communist “eastern block” countries.

Responsible to who?
Of course they will sell if there’s a profit to be made. Companies exist to make profits, if they can make a profit from it, it’s actually their responsibility to the shareholders to do it.

Maybe you mean responsible in some way that has to do with morals, but if you think morals apart from staying within the law, have any say in this whatsoever, you are being very naive. That’s not at all how the system works.

That said I don’t see any other way than corruption for Musk to be interested. Musk buys Intel, and Trump doubles the subsidies to Intel and give them extra sweet government contracts. And everybody profit, except the stupid taxpayers including those that voted Trump.

Only the law helps super capitalist narcissists to stay at least somewhat within moral norms.
And in USA the law doesn’t even count anymore. So there you go, everything is fucked up, until Americans figure it out. Which means it will be fucked up for a loooong time.

I never claimed climate change couldn’t cause increased prices. But EU has lots of spare farmland that farmers are paid to NOT use to REDUCE production to avoid huge stockpiles like we had in the 70’s.
EU can increase production a lot if we want.

So as I wrote EU is not and is not likely to become dependent on Ukrainian grain.

The ones that really don’t get it are former Warsaw pact areas like Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia. Who actively SUPPORT Russia!

That vehicles number is relatively low compared to what we’ve been used to the past couple of months.
Seems Russians are running out of golf carts and scooters now.

Slava Ukraini.

True, but as it is now, farmers in EU are actually paid for NOT farming as much as they can. EU can increase production significantly within a year. But yes that would mean that prices would increase on some products, but I don’t think it would increase very much on meat, although it would probably make fodder a bit more expensive.

EU has capacity for significant surplus production overall, and we could shift a lot of imported products to products grown in the EU.

Just think about the fact that in any democratic country, the current economic situation in Russia would have caused the government to be thrown out long ago- even without considering all the casualties from the war.

That’s a VERY good point.

You are aware the Soviet union collapsed due to economic reasons right?
Russia is in just about the exact same position now that the Soviet Union was back then.

At least he improved the lives of those 2500 people.

Not a problem for Europe.

https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-11/efscm-assessment-autumn-2023_en.pdf

Eu is mostly self sufficient on base foods:

https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-11/efscm-assessment-autumn-2023_en.pdf

If you look at fig. 4 on page 5, almost every meat source is above 100%, and fig 5 show most plant foods vary between 60-130%.

In the 70’s the ECC which EU was called back then, turned European agriculture around from huge deficits to huge surpluses. To ensure self sufficiency in case of international destabilization. This resulted in enormous stockpiles, leading to a more balanced policy, which we seem to have achieved.

In short EU is NOT dependent on food from Ukraine, but others are.
We do import soy and maize, but have a surplus on grains.

Putin will absolutely care when his beloved Russian federation collapses because he has been an idiot.

This is about middle of the winter, and Russia (Putin) continues with their insane offensive, maybe an attempt to look strong before negotiations.

But with only 3 days until Trump’s inauguration, let’s have a look at what Putin is doing to Russia, aside from the horrendous human losses.

The points are numbered so it’s easier to comment on individual points:

1. Central bank interest rate at 21% an all time high.
2. Inflation even acknowledged by the central bank is more than twice the economic target. But in reality probably double that again.
3. The inflation hits ALL essentials. with steep increases in food, housing and electricity.
4. Real estate market frozen due to end of preferential treatment of real estate loans. With collapse in the near future very likely.
5. State running at a deficit, despite tax increases and pushing cost to businesses.
6. Gazprom near bankrupt, with the rest of the energy industry struggling too.
7. The industrial complex should be making money, but is running at significant deficits, because the state dictate the prices. And banks are FORCED to lend money to it to keep it running.
8. Shortage of base products like butter, eggs and vegetables.
9. Persistent rumors about frozen bank accounts, signaling an eminent collapse of the financial market.
10. Investments almost at a complete standstill, due to interest rates and most companies running at deficits, making even maintaining current productivity impossible.
11. Pensions (about $200) have become impossible to live on, due to rising cost. Causing widespread poverty.
12. Shortage of workers, in an unsustainable overheated economy, that at the same time is effectively in recession now.
13. The economic cost of the war, is estimated to be more than twice what the budget shows, with the real cost hidden using different types of economic trickery, that hides the cost, but obviously don’t change reality.

So this is Putin’s attempt at looking strong!?
Please let me know if I forgot anything.