To piggyback on @Syntha@sh.itjust.works, the point of sanctions is to create an extreme economic cost to a state as a bargaining chip. Stop doing the thing we don’t like and you get your trade back. Unfortunately, states control the national currency (most of the time), which means anyone who uses that currency also gets hit. There is no way around that.

Politically speaking, a majority of Russians have been utterly disenfranchised from politics, repeating the refrain “I’m not political” like it’s a magic spell that will ward off the consequences of their government. Consequently I’m not that sad about them experiencing a bit of economic hardship. Maybe it’ll help them realize that politics isn’t just for politicians.

Abandon consoles. Embrace the inevitability of the PC master race.

While we’re on the topic of EU initiatives, the tax the rich initiative still needs signatures. It aims to set a floor on tax rates for the very wealthy, and have member states use that new money for environment, employment and social policies.

They’ve hit the threshold for France and Germany, but still need more signatures everywhere else.

He’s right. There just isn’t the political will in the population to reopen the topic of Brexit now. Whether anyone likes it or not, the things British people really care about right now, in no particular order, are:

• Inflation

• House & utility & food prices

• Immigration

• NHS waiting lists & more dentists

• Train infrastructure.

People can make very legitimate arguments linking Brexit to those issues, but it’s not politically viable to open that can of worms again. They just really want their lives to improve for the first time in over a decade.

As far as I understand the decision (IANAL!), the definition of what constitutes an “Official Act” is left intentionally undefined, so in effect you can only claim this ultimate power if the courts like you in order to declare what you’re doing official.

This means, if I understand it correctly, king powers for Trump and nothing for Biden. They’d just rule everything Biden is doing as not an official act.

I don’t know how you could train people to get out of their cars. The whole situation is bus-ted. Perhaps there’s subway to do it, but I’m at a loss as to how.

We need some action from the bike-ameral legal system. Currently, supporters of public transit are underground, but they need to expose car-centric planning as the utter tram it is.

Fun fact about our legal system: we don’t do jury trials. The evidence and arguments are heard by the judge, who decides both guilty/not guilty and the sentence.

But seriously, are there really women who talk about men in those terms?

Yes. Personally, I see it as the mirror image of the “tradwife” thing where toxic men see their partner as a subservient maid. Seeing men as primarily an income source comes from a similar place imho.

pi ends with the digit 9, followed by an infinite sequence of other digits.

That’s a very interesting use of the word “ends”.

This seems to be the earliest article about Vasile Gorgos, and it seems to be missing a lot of details from this retelling. I think this means that a lot of these details (wearing the same clothes, the same train ticket he left with, the mysterious car speeding off) were all added later.

EDIT: In the video, they actually show the train ticket. It’s from 2021, from Ploesti to his home village, and his daughter-in-law says a friend of his picked him up from the train station after recognizing him. Also, unlike this version, he didn’t say he’d been at home, he said he wanted to go home. He does look and sound very visibly senile.

Also, unlike this version, the original does not give him a clean bill of health. It specifically says he has neurological problems and can no longer recognize his son or his son’s wife.

If you’ll allow a bit of speculation, my guess is the guy abandoned his family, went off and lived life, the police never really took the missing persons case seriously and never really looked for him. Decades later, he starts becoming senile. A befuddled old man, still with his unchanged ID card, gets picked up by a good samaritan who drops the old man home. gets a train ticket home and gets recognized at the train station.