A colour revolution sounds good about now. In reality, I highly doubt it’s going anywhere.

I wouldn’t recommend running unless you’re really invested in municipal issues. Most people cannot be arsed about road maintenance schedules and budgeting.

Unfortunately, lots of people who don’t vote need to for this to work.

Happy cake day, but comfortable and satisfied are two very different things, and most people in the West are still very comfortable. What you’re saying might apply to Gaza. Here, 90% of people honestly haven’t considered that they’re part of history and bad things could happen.

I would argue that the Levant is the least likely region of the Middle East to change with the coming decline in oil.

Yes, I think that’s kind of obvious. I don’t know if they produce oil at all. Uhh… doesn’t look like it. It’s all geographically connected, though.

Do you think internal disorder is unlikely? There’s broad disinterest in helping the Palestinians in any way, but Israeli society disagrees about nearly everything else.

That would be cool. I was more thinking Arabs vs. Jews vs. all abandoned vs. the Holy Republic of New America.

I’m not expecting zombie Nasser, but they’re stretched just fighting Lebanon and Gaza. I can’t rule out that they might nuke everyone else and rule the resulting wasteland (and then, yes, no ICJ trials), but I’m not sure it’d be that easy, either. And, they might have blown up some centrifuges, but the possibility of another nuclear player in the region isn’t gone.

Either way, the result isn’t the Middle East we know now. Even without removing the US from the equation, I’m not expecting the status quo to last.

Ooh, an OG.

Without US support, Israel’s existence in the region is precarious as hell. We might not fully invade enemies often, but the Arabs definitely have.

(Edit: I drifted into actual prognostication here, the following applies either way)

The petrostates will necessarily collapse or fundamentally change exist post-oil, and peace between ethnicities in the short or medium term is not a realistic prediction, at this point. In 50 years I’m sure the region will be unrecognisable. I have no clue how, exactly, or what kind of people will live there.

Mostly, it’s the same story as whatever genocide in Africa. I’m not worried about the ICJ handling it, unless Israeli officials complete their irony arc by fleeing to Argentina. Or just win and occupy the whole Middle East, somehow.

The extra thing that really needs to happen is a detailed inquiry into how they’ve so thoroughly dominated the narrative in the West, so we can prevent it from ever happening again. Apartheid South Africa was supposed to be the last evil faction we fully threw our lot in with.

Honestly it’s more a question of why people like camgirls (over the old, professional porn offerings). The business has grown because it’s popular.

A person with a history of domestic abuse, assault, and armed robbery can still get one legally.

Not my situation, to be clear, lol. Stories like this were a big part of a reason I’ve been wary of a PAL, although I obviously need to reassess that.

In any case I’m a giant history and technology nerd, and muskets are neat.

In several European countries (such as France) firearms DESIGNED prior to 1880 require no permit to buy or own. This means that cowboy movie lovers who own newly made colt SAA revolvers only need to register their guns but no permit needed to buy or own.

TIL! I’ll have to keep that in mind, since I have family that’s moved over there.

If we had a proportional system maybe there would be some kind of libertarian party I could consider. As it is, I’m in a safe riding anyway.

That’s a weird take when it’s not a Celtic language. It’s Germanic (with heavy Romantic old French influence), so you should really be talking about runes or something.

Latin letters are a terrible fit, though, you’re absolutely right about that. It gives you 4 vowels to work with and my spoken dialect has 17.

Petrol > gas. Using the same word for gasoline and natural gas gets confusing as hell in any number of conversations.

So, that’s a pretty unparseable comment as of reading, but I’ll take a wild guess that it translates to “it’s great but people are too woke to appreciate it now”.

It’s not original, it stopped being kinda true years before 2015, and I’d assume it’s grating to have directed at you over and over again if you are a gurl. It’s just not treating other people with reasonable level of decency. Be better.

Is that why you guys like throw pillows so much? More hiding places?

Are you sure he has more influence? If you were to rephrase this as “why does Peter Thiel get more media coverage than other billionaires” the answer would be very easy.

IIRC Bernard Arnault (number 5) has his paws on a ton of things in Europe, but you don’t hear about it because he’s just not that much of a nut.