Ser Reptitious

That person might have to avoid stairs and windows for a while...

Sounds like DeSantis tried to 'cancel' this prosecutor. Will the Bill Mahers of the world take notice? I somehow doubt it.

Psst, you're not supposed to notice the bigger, far more important issues mentioned in the rest of your post until it's too late. The culture war stuff is supposed to distract you until then. Once truly free & fair elections have been eliminated by way of reducing the franchise to a segment of "reliable" voters, pointing out the sort of things you just did will get you hauled off to a gulag/for-profit prison in no time! [Btw, while your rant was ostensibly non-partisan, and I think you are a (ex-?)Republican, I hope the specific example you have given means that you very much realize which of the two major parties is the true threat to America's future!]

As @Clueless Northman already pointed out, Napoleon III got played hard by Bismark, so while France may technically have been the aggressor, in reality it was Bismarck and Prussia, who just needed an excuse. That is not remotely comparable to Ukraine, which tried its best to avoid war (but understandably without outright giving away territory). Putin's Russia is much more comparable to Bismarck's Prussia, just without Bismarck's deceptive cleverness. And @Toth, to be even more pedantic, no war was declared in the current "special military operations" at all, so that's another reason why the comparison doesn't stand.

Well, it was the Prussians who invaded France there, so I'm not sure how that works as a potential cautionary tale? If anything, it goes to show how Russia defeating Ukraine and imposing a harsh peace would be bad for future stability in the region.

How about if the police found that Starmer broke COVID rules after all, and the Tories can't stop calling for his resignation (as they obviously will), Starmer offers to resign if Boris does as well (and Boris has to go first, or they do it together at a joint press conference)? If Boris refuses, that would allow Labour to hammer him and the Tories with "either breaking COVID rules is a resignable offence for party leaders or it is not - which is it?" This puts the onus on the Tories and removes from them the opportunity to claim hypocrisy from Labour, since Labour would be ready to consistently apply (to both parties) the standard that the Tories decide to apply.

Fox News better be covering this!

@RhaenysBee I wanted to belatedly thank you for your thorough response yesterday. Much appreciated!

I think part of the problem is that Victor Orban is a close ally of Putin (even if he currently tries to hide that a bit, for self-preservation reasons), and since he controls (directly or indirectly) most Hungarian-language media, most Hungarians are therefore far less pro-Ukraine than most of the West. Here in Transylvania the Romanians are strongly pro-Ukraine, whereas the Hungarian minority is much more likely to claim that things are more complicated, with both sides having done bad things. A poster (can't remember his name right now) a thread or two ago from Satu Mare (northwestern Transylvania), who is an ethnic Hungarian, encapsulated that sentiment perfectly. This is in no way intended negatively towards @RhaenysBee, whose qualms about humans killing other humans I understand, but I do think it is not a coincidence that Hungarians as a whole (whether they like Orban or not) are far more reticent in their support of Ukraine. The media we consume does obviously shape our views. I wonder if the recent discovery of the mass grave in Bucha, for example, is reported in Hungarian-language media (and if so, how)? ETA: This post is in addition to the post of @VarysBlackfyre from about an hour ago, responding to @Rippounet

@Werthead I know others have already said so previously, but thanks for your well-informed updates, complete with analysis. I always look forward to your posts in this thread!

Isn't that just classic Putin, letting some random official/politician make crazy comments, so that he will seem reasonable by comparison?

Next spin-off thread for Scot to start?

It's always the same with people like her, Trumpists, anti-vaxxers, etc: it's the people on the 'other side' that need to be willing to open up and genuinely listen to them (and thereby be persuaded by the sheer power of their arguments, I guess?). But of course it never works the other way. And when the people on the 'other side' do actually try to engage in a serious discussion (with facts and all), they suddenly run away, usually while still whining about just wanting to present a different viewpoint (but not stick around to engage with opposite viewpoints and actually *gasp* have a serious discussion on the merits of each viewpoint).

That is indeed a very germane question...

Such a well-put answer that HoI couldn't even pull his usual move of a confused or laughing emoji. Can't help but think how different things would be if the UK had someone with your mindset in charge, instead of the current clown. We sadly live in "interesting" times indeed!