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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Yes, but will Trump and Putin chill at a pool and - most importantly - will there be a golden statue of Trump and bearded scantily clothed dancers?

    Jokes aside - this is coming from bonkers people who think authority and stubbornness are enough to get things done, which may to a point apply in internal affairs (where there’s an established body of laws that gives the president that authority), but will not work in geopolitics.

    Also, making sure you know the least bit about what you are talking about before opening your mouth and letting your ugly thoughts out wouldn’t harm: comparing nowadays Ukraine to WWII Berlin just shows you don’t know anything about (at least one of) the two.


  • There are precedents. In October 1979, Paul Volcker, newly appointed as chair of the Federal Reserve, drove up interest rates to a remarkable 13% in a bid to tackle inflation, later raising them to 17%.

    Back then the problem was rampaging inflation and the (by-the-book) cure was raising interest rates to drive it down.

    Nowadays US inflation is not an issue (IIRC it’s like 2% or 3%) and tariffs are gonna bring it up in a confused effort to… rebuild a manufacturing industry? (I’m not sure that’s the goal - it’s hard to say what “great again” means precisely).

    In what way would 1979 be a precedent?

    Anyway… yes, assuming Trump’s goal is to have more manufacturing in the US, tariffs will “work” - the point is how much that’s gonna cost (in quality of life, not dollars) and who’s gonna pay that price.













  • I don’t know whether to downvote or upvote this… on the one hand it contains some interesting insights and we need to talk more about what Putin is trying to do to us, but on the other hand the video is very US-centric and oversimplifies everything to seemingly arbitrary bullet-points.

    For example, the video divides Russian propaganda in “for Russians” and “for West” as if the Kremlin didn’t have a specific strategy for each and every western nation and ignored non-western states altogether (but of course “for West” really means “for the US” and the rest of the world doesn’t matter).


  • One passage, attributed to Pope Sixtus V, reads: “Axle in the midst of a sign”.

    Pope Sixtus’ tenure began 442 years after the first Pope’s rule, and the passage suggests he is in the ‘middle’ of the papal lineage - thus indicating the end of the world would come 442 years later, in 2027.

    The last passage of the book reads: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed, and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.”

    The “seven-hilled city” refers to Rome and some interpret the last passage as Peter taking over as the Pope from Francis due to the latter’s chronic lung disease, making Francis the last Pope.

    I must say, that sounds like pretty solid proof.

    I’m quitting my job, taking on all the debt I can, and spending the remaining two years in as much luxury as possible.

    See you in two years, losers!