They are the most efficient way of transporting goods on land. Using huge cargo ships si still the most efficient way, once the distance is far enough and the volume high enough.

It’s not only about copying or distribution, but also use and reproduction. I can buy a legit DVD and play it in my own home and all is fine. Then I play it on my bar’s tv, in front of 100 people, and now it’s illegal. I can listen to a song however many times I want, but I can’t use it for anything other than private listening. In theory you should pay even if you want to make a video montage to show at your wedding.

Right now most licenses for copyrighted material specify that you use said material only for personal consumption. To use it for profit you need a special license

Copyrighted material can be used or reproduced only with a license that allows for it. If the license forbids you from using the copyrighted material for business purposes, and you do it anyway, then it’s pirating.

Oh I feel you, I too think it’s overpriced, also I think it tastes like shit.

Pretty sure Red Bull is Austrian fwiw.

Anyway, there are lots of Irish, Scottish, English whiskeys. Don’t know about honey flavored ones

It’s definitely dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. As in, “you can die” kind of dangerous.

But if you know what you are doing, nah, it’s perfectly safe, and kind of easy to do too.

Probably most definitely illegal in most places too, but if you just shut the f up and don’t blabber about it to everyone you meet or try to sell or give it away, there’s pretty much nothing they can do about it, cause they don’t know about it, and neither does anyone else.

With the Guano Act the US “acquired” lots of islands all over the world. Choose one of those bird shit covered rocks and put him on there

I’m like, wait, what happened in the 1930s that meant the wipeout of the republicans and what happened in the next 60 years?

Oh yes, an overinflated market crashed during the republican presidency, the burst ignited by the proposal of a tariff increase law, made to shield American industries and that was actually signed into law and significantly worsened the great depression. This pretty much caused the rise of Nazism in Germany and WW2

What happened then in the next 60 years? Oh yeah, the US won the war and became the biggest world superpower, the economy boomed and you had pretty much the most prosperous time in America’s history.

Maaaaybe a republican wipeout isn’t that bad now, is it?

My Toyota: click H button, done. My mom’s Suzuki: two different clocks, not synced, no option or idea on how to change either

sanctioned region

What’s that?

I don’t know your country’s laws, but where I live, if it’s not inhabitable it is taxed way lower (and without a roof, it’s definitely not inhabitable)

Auchan left Italy years ago

Opera mini was also great when I had very little MBs of internet traffic in my plan. Nowadays I have pretty much infinite traffic, so I haven’t used it in ages

It’s not that they will run out of people. They have people, but to keep recruitment levels so high and equipment manufacturing so high they are overcharging their economy. Right now in Russia there are three types of jobs if you want to make money afaik, work in the military complex (arms manufacturing), in the gas extraction industry or directly in the military.

It’s Dutch disease x100, if the state at some point stops being able to fund the war machine, their economy collapses.

I was thinking more about their history of being occupied for the last millennium, invaded by the mongols, then occupied and partitioned by many states, including the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, the Ottomans, the Austrians, then finally conquered by the Russian tzars, then having their independence dreams being shattered by the Soviets, then being invaded by the Nazis and now by Russian Federation, with the latest nail being Trump’s actions.

So yeah, superpowers plural

I’m pretty sure Ukraine is already used to being invaded and picked apart by superpowers without any real say

Wasn’t china in the 19th century a literal empire?

Nine dash line

European workers didn’t get their rights from being imperialist, they fought hard against the imperialist elites to get where they are now, and China’s elites are being just as imperialist today as any European or American elite has been since forever.

China and India is apples to oranges. There are a myriad of reasons why their paths diverged. There are other East Asian countries that did better than China way before China, while starting from a much more similar point (or even a worse point).

You could say the same about every developed nation. It took a bit more for most nations, but these nations had to literally invent concepts like public health and education, welfare and even socialism.

But yeah, every western European country has already eliminated the worst kind of poverty and on average European citizens are better off than Chinese citizens. Working conditions, working hours and safety laws in Europe are much better than the Chinese average.

The US is doing its own thing with extreme capitalism, and I’m against that, but let’s not kid ourselves, China has taken a lot of pages from the US’s economic model