It was always burning,

Since the world’s been turning,

We didn’t start the fire,

No, we didn’t light it,

But we tried to fight it.

The cold war with Russia is escalating and may become a hot war soon. Western democracy is under serious threat and democracies are on the brink with recent far right gains.

Turkey is a key NATO ally. The western allies didn’t criticise the USSR too much during the war either, don’t expect much from European leaders now. It won’t change much anyway. European leaders have little to no leverage over Turkey.

It’s Realpolitik. It’s deeply unpleasant, but worse is yet to come. Greece has already signed weapons deals with Israel, expect the EU to look the other way with Serbia, etc. etc. etc.

I share your disgust and hope for something better, but I for now Europe will continue to drown in red tape, choke on its mealy mouthed letters of concern, and do not enough too slowly.

Maybe a full blown war with Russia will shake European leaders out of their complacency.

I owned a Citroen with a 1.0TSI engine that was supposedly more efficient than the 1.4TSI in my VW. In reality the VW was and still is far more fuel efficient, even though it’s a significantly more powerful engine. Could be that the Citroen was shaped like a brick though. LOL.

I get why manufacturers did it.Wet belt perishes outside warranty or after the lease contract ends. Customer ends up footing the bill and increased cost over a dry belt. Lower emission under test conditions for regulatory compliance.

This being said, I just replaced the belt on my vw at less than 150k km/ 93k miles and coming up on 10 years. VW recommends it. Some markets they recommend replacing it much sooner. That’s arguably a shorter interval than some wet belts. But it is much cheaper to replace than a wet belt, much much cheaper than a new engine, so a no brainer. (400E/$)

I’ll be glad to move to an electric car. Hopefully be able to avoid some of that nonsense.

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

IME you should add “and laziness.” to that sentence.

It’s quite useful for getting what you want really. Make not doing what you want more effort. Most people are too lazy or tired to not give in for unimportant stuff.

Eg. when being stopped by the police, take your time finding your driving license. Chances are they’ll get bored and let you go on your way before you’ve found it.

Wet belt?

Skin irritation, rash, potentially for toxins to be absorbed through the skin, but especially dangerous if you have a small cut or abrasion you may not have noticed. Touching your eyes or nose after handling is also problematic and an easy mistake to make if you’ve been around plants that easily cause irritation.

All the advice I’ve ever read says don’t touch. Don’t know of a grown adult who’s ever died doing so, but it’s nasty stuff. I googled (duckduckgod?). Eating 6 leaves is enough to kill you, seeds and roots even less.

Here’s a bbc countryfile article. The problem with some of these poisons is that it takes a while before you know you’ve been poisoned and even longer for you to die an unpleasant death.

Luckily it’s not as bad as the organometalics. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Karen Wetterhan. Chemistry professor who dropped one or two drops of dimethylmercury on her protective gloves. Thought nothing of it. Went through her latex glove, absorbed through her skin within 15 seconds, she didn’t notice it happening. Took her 10 months to die of mercury poisoning.

Shit’s no joke. I have two relatives who worked in the chemical industry. One has chronic leukemia. The other has Parkinson’s. Environmental exposure is likely to be a factor or have exacerbated things for both of them.

TLDR: wear gloves and protective gear when necessary.

As far as toxic to touch I don’t think I am aware of anything in the UK you are realistically going to come into contact with.

Giant hogweed (related to hemlock, looks a bit like parsley). Looks like normal hogweed, but far more toxic. Won’t kill you from touch alone, but not a great idea to handle it without gloves. Found all over the UK.

Variants of hemlock are also abundant in parts of the UK. Quick google turned up a story about it growing near a school. Obviously parents panicked, which is silly because it grows all over the place. Hemlock water dropwort is the super poisonous one, found all over the place but I doubt most people’d realise. Left is hemlock and right is cow parsley:

Obviously the person holding them is touching the hemlock with bare hands, which is a bad idea.

Most people think they might get a bit ill or have a bit of stomach issues. Perhaps they know to avoid oleander or foxglove. Most don’t realise they’d die a painful and entirely unpreventable death after eating a relatively small amount of leaves or seeds of other common garden plants.

Hell, I was trimming my yew (taxus baccata) a few years ago and even the small amount of needles I accidentally got in my mouth made me quite ill. No antidote, so you’ll die a painful and prolonged death.

Then there’s the whole hemlock thing, where people confuse it with carrots or parsley. Also no antidote, just a long and painful death.

All too often, you’ll see people trimming or burning highly toxic plants or not wearing gloves while dealing with plants which contain toxins which can be absorbed through the skin.

And then there’s the people who think wood is wood, and toss whatever on the fire.

Unsurprising. A lot of ‘natural’ additives are actually worse for you than the synthetic alternative.

The most obvious example I can think of is almond flavouring. The natural variant often contains traces of cyanide, which is not great even in small quantities.

Bit of a tangent, but I think most people would be surprised how many of the plants in their garden are deadly. And because I don’t want to give anyone any ideas, usually that death is slow, incredibly painful, and involve you shitting yourself endlessly. Wear gloves and don’t burn stuff you don’t recognise.

Bit of a tangent, but I really hope European payment solution Wero succeeds, so that MasterCard/Visa no longer dominate the European credit card market.

I assume Americans don’t fully realise this, but as a non-American you’re often confronted by the many small ways (corporate) America enforces its cultural and political mores on the rest of us.

It’s especially tiresome when you’re then confronted with Americans telling you to be grateful for your continued quasi-vassalage, or even that you’ve been profiting off America’s beneficence.

when you espouse voting for the ‘least terrible candidate

Back to that again. Didn’t happen.

In fact, I compared the choice between voting and not voting, to a choice between plague and cholera.

I doubt you have the masters/PHD in mathemetics to follow it.

You can’t spell mathematics… I don’t think I’ll be attending your statistics lecture.

the poor misguided anarchists who have been fighting against fascism for generations.

If you tried to fight your way out of a cardboard box, you’d probably end arguing with the instruction manual. Don’t think we need your help fighting international fascism.

In the CIA’s defence, they also sell weapons simply to make money, no strings attached.

Obviously, they then use that money to avoid congressional and democratic oversight and perpetuate evil.

Bit of a tangent, but I sometimes wonder if the Banana Republic clothing store was a CIA psy-op to ensure the American people didn’t read too much about actual banana republics and the role of American empire.

I made no progress in my position. As mentioned above, I haven’t voted in a national election in twenty years.

I am simply reiterating my comments from above, in the hopes you will finally understand them. I’m at least glad you’ve finally caught on I’m not telling you to vote for the lesser evil, the rest not so much, but oh well.

Let’s leave it there. This conversation wasn’t productive, that won’t change.

I dont get sullied because trump is an utter cunt. I am sullied for the vote I gave biden who was also an utter cunt.

You are sullied if you vote for the establishment candidate, perpetuating the current status quo. You are sullied if you don’t vote against the fascist. Choisir entre la peste et le choléra, as I said above.

(cough you, lesser evil every day individual, via voting for the fascist wing of the democratic party and whom have been enabling the republican party since 1996 and longer cough)

You didn’t read my comments properly. If you had, you would have gathered I voted for neither Biden or Trump, as I am not American. In any case, I haven’t voted in anything other than a local election in two decades, which once again, wouldn’t surprise you, if you had read my comments.

When someone beats their partner 3 towns over are you responsible through the fact you were watching tv that night despite you knowing that the person was violent? No, of course not.

It’s a poor analogy, but maybe I can rescue it.

If you can save someone from being beaten and perhaps murdered, you should arguably do that. But if always stepping in, results in the abused never leaving their abuser and being murdered when you’re not able to save them, you have arguably enabled poor behaviour and done more harm than good.

There is no good or moral choice. As I said a few comments above, there are no easy answers.

I notice you didn’t answer my question about if Rosa Luxemburg would have voted against the Nazis had she been alive to do so. I find that telling.

In any case, I didn’t shame you for not voting, I simply pointed out that not voting(not choosing) is also a choice and not necessarily a morally pure choice, especially when faced with fascists. Even if there are good reasons not to vote, it does not absolve you of the risks you take in not doing so. And the same goes for those who do vote, and perpetuate the current malaise and risk lending it legitimacy.

I tried to illustrate this with non-American examples, so you’d be less emotional about it, but given you’ve resorted to name calling and insults clearly I’ve failed.

Good luck to you.

Is macron’s successor literally enabling a genocide like harris did

France/Macron has continuously sold Israel weapons, yes. But they’re also being more critical of Israel, want to ban goods from settlements, etc.

Le Pen is a fascist and friend to Israel, so much so that a Likud minister has said she would be an excellent president, they’ve been in secret talks with Israel, and she has been critical of Macron for not supporting Israel enough, etc. The Israelis are almost certainly pushing propaganda to get people to not bother turning out to vote against Le Pen.

By not taking away your vote/support you are directly responsible for their actions.

You can vote for Macron’s guy, who’ll likely continue selling weapons to Israel, and that arguably makes you complicit in genocide. Correct.

Or you can not vote, and risk a Le Pen victory, and even closer ties to Israel. You’re doing what the Israelis want you to (not) do. You not voting, is an implied ok, you’re not going to do anything to stop them.

Rosa Luxemburg: ‘Those who dont move, do not notice their chains’

Do you think Rosa Luxemburg would have abstained from voting against the Nazis, because the other German political parties were corrupt and inept?

I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong to not vote.

I’m saying it’s not a morally pure choice. Your hands aren’t clean either way.

To quote Sapkowski: “Evil is Evil. Lesser, greater, middling… Makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition’s blurred. If I’m to choose between one evil and another… I’d rather not choose at all.”

But I don’t think we get to not choose.

The comment above which started this discussion was complementary, and you admitted as much in your reply to it.

Others have also said and provided examples of the phrase sometimes being complementary.

You yourself moved from saying:

It is always cynical to describe someone as a “political operator,” because that phrase is inherently negative.

To:

It usually is, as in, more often than not.

Ie. sometimes it is positive.

You were wrong about a phrase sometimes having a different connotation, it happens, who gives a shit?

You’re right about the smooth bit. Don’t know how that happened.

In any case, operator isn’t necessarily negative, neither is political operator. It can be and often is, but not necessarily. I often see it being used as a compliment.

I did a google, here’s an example from NPR, which is clearly complimentary:

Street — who calls Obama “one of the biggest celebrities on the planet at the moment” — notes that he is “always able to put a distance between himself and whatever performance he’s giving. He knows he’s playing a game. He knows this is a bit of light relief, a bit of entertainment, but he keeps his dignity … and that seems to me a very clever trick. It speaks to him as a very sharp political operator.”

https://www.nhpr.org/politics/2012-05-10/obama-heads-to-hollywood-conservative-group-mocks-celebrity-president

Here’s the thing though, you could argue that voting in favour of brexit, would have emboldened the centrists and the establishment in the UK, to keep making the lives of the working class worse. Brexit gave them a much necessary bloody nose.

In French they say “Choisir entre la peste et le choléra”. Choosing between plague or cholera. Let’s take the French example:

The French will likely soon get to choose between Le Pen and Macron’s successor. The latter is a likely corrupt centrist dickhead from a party which has lead the country to the brink and emboldened fascists. The former is Le Pen, a Russian aligned fascist.

The propaganda will tell people Macron’s successor is a neo-liberal thief and part of why France is in deep trouble. Which is absolutely true. But the alternative is a literal fascist. You can vote for Macron’s successor, but then the establishment thinks it’s business as usual. You can not bother voting at all, but then it’s likely Le Pen wins…

Electoral systems which favour multi-party governments are often better. But then look at Germany, where ever more parties are forced into a coalition against the far right AfD, because people vote for AfD(or don’t vote against them) in increasing numbers. The propaganda tells them that mainstream parties are incompetent, corrupt, and have ended up costing thousands their jobs. Which is absolutely true.

If Germans don’t vote or vote for smaller parties, they potentially let the fascists in.

If they do vote for a bigger party, who are often quite pro-Israel for historical reasons, it’s likely these parties will think they can get away with business as usual, which emboldens the fascists and further disenfranchises voters for next time around…

Personally, I would always vote for the lesser evil, but I get where you’re coming from.

TLDR: I’m going to watch a shitty vampire show.