Except that was a peaceful process, not an invasion/annexation. Because part of Taiwan’s strategic defense policy is “we will melt our chip fabs to slag if the PRC invades”. Thus, they hold a gun to the head of pretty much all of the most advanced chip fabrication in the world, which most of the rest of the world has a vested interest in keeping working.

It would be pretty wild if the Korean reunification was accomplished due to the complete demographic collapse of South Korea.

Though, NK isn’t doing that much better, coming in with a fertility rate somewhere between 1.3 and 1.4, which is somewhat unusual when compared to other countries with extreme poverty.

Frankly, security assurances from the current US regime to Ukraine are very probably worth less than the paper they’re written on.

Hey, remember when Baldur’s Gate 3 came out, was pretty excellent, mostly everyone loved it, and then all the AAA studios started whining that it was an unrealistic standard to be held to?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

please notice me, Xi senpai 🥺

It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it

13% JS? 😬

If past precedent is any indicator, they’ll just deport the guy anyways and not give a fuck

Generations, more like

You’re debating a tankie, so rhetorical fact-based argument is not going to yield positive results.

That’s not how IADS works.

Also, the Ukrainians have more than enough air defense capacity to massively maul any aerial force that attempts a north-south transit of the country. Russia has been keeping their sorties almost entirely over airspace they control, as a result. The strikes you have been seeing them do (against Ukrainian military and civilian targets) are almost exclusively executed with standoff weapons like cruise missiles (of which “kamikaze drones” are essential subtype), glide bombs, and SRBMs. Russian stealth doesn’t really work, and they’re super nervous about losing their supposed wunderwaffe (e.g. the dozen or so Su-57s they’ve made over a couple decades)

It’s a bit of an indirect approach, but we technically have that - for offshore quakes at least

We wouldn’t be giving them an airstrip in the middle of Europe, because all the countries around it (except Ukraine) are in NATO, and there is no path to the sea that is over a non-NATO country. And the ruskies demonstrably do not have the capability to fly across the entirety of Ukrainian airspace unmolested.

Legislators? Too busy?

That’s a great joke - particularly given how much vacation time they vote to give themselves.

• I agree that the seizures are deeply inappropriate and almost certainly illegal. The strikes, doubly so.
• the USCG actually deploys overseas from time to time - for instance, they were a part of the international force that was off the coast of Somalia a few years back to help defend against the rampant piracy and hijacking.

Tbh David Brooks definitely has that “I enjoy inviting the neighborhood children over for storytime in my naked puzzle basement” aesthetic going on

Tangentially, I’m curious to see how ticket sales crater from international visitors compared to years past, due to our the absolutely unhinged customs/border policies the regime has introduced (and is actively making more extreme).

As a unitedstatesian, look into the wildly changed and extremely invasive entry/visa requirements before you consider visiting. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t - and I say that out of respect for privacy and human rights, not any sense of xenophobia. Shit is getting very weird here in a very bad way, if you’ve not been paying attention.

I’m a little bit surprised that the Tolkien estate never sued them for that. I suppose the terms were never copyrighted…? But at the same time, appropriating a character or concept name from a copyrighted work and using it as a company name does seem like something a good lawyer could work with… but idk, I’m not an attorney.