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 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.

I feel like I did mention that, but I agree it needs to be stated twice, because he would absolutely sell people, fail to deliver, blame it on the buyer, tie them up in court until the buyer gives up, and then sell the people again.

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.

Calvin’s dad says it builds character.

Agreed. Also, I just wanted to point out that the way your comment is phrased makes it uncertain whether it’s the name “Seattle” that Trump would sell to Nestlé or the actual city itself, including its, people, land, government and infrastructure. To clarify, I believe it would be both of those things.

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.

Hope an Android version comes out, too.

I think it’s just a WWE match at this point. They’ll have a dramatic fight with some fake blows, and then go pick up their paychecks. They might even go hang out if there’s not actually any bad blood between them. They’re pretty much coworkers at this point. They might have real personal conflicts, but I doubt they’ll actually air those grievances with their customers. Too many skeletons, as others have said.

Ha! You think some kid can afford a luxurious staircase studio on minimum wage? That’s prime real estate!

Yeah, at that point, he was more American than Canadian. The US government should have to explain either why he wasn’t granted citizenship or else why he wasn’t deported. Keeping people in citizenship limbo is just diet slavery, a disposable workforce. I get that’s probably the whole point and has been for a while, but I also think it’s good to call it out until enough people care to make a change.

Are politicians on the menu?

Not a citizen, but he should have been. If a legal resident has been in the US for ten years, the government should either have to grant them citizenship or explain why they don’t qualify and deport them. This guy was selling drugs, yeah, but he was also probably paying taxes. That’s the whole point of the system as it is, exploiting immigrants for illegal labor and then blaming them when they get caught. This guy should have gotten a trial, probably some prison time, and enough rehabilitation to reenter free society.

Several young men have gone missing and are presumed to be having the time of their lives.

In this scenario, the upstairs neighbor is a millipede. Several shoes have dropped. Many more will follow.

It doesn’t matter. Even if you deliberately attempted to manipulate him into a relationship, knowing full well he was 33, he would still be the predator. Tell Professor Humbert he can fuck off with that Lolita shit.

Ask and ye shall receive: