Bendingo

> for weeks

Every weekend for more than 1 year, actually.

> It still adequately captures the state of our modern leadership.

It also still describes the apathy of the population.

It was fun to read also :) молодец. й миин, вал данн

> about a content moderation mishap

The video was offline for 50 minutes: hardly a big deal, or even a moderate deal.

I think there's a lot of people (in the West) who are happy to criticise anything Chinese, for the slightest possible reason.

> you have committed an illegal entry at the moment you entered Crimea without going through a legitimate border checkpoint - so they'll just arrest you for that

This is true.

A few years ago I flew from Moscow to Simferopol (Crimea) and was advised that to not visit Ukraine in the future, for risk of arrest at the border. I'm not sure how Ukrainian border authorities would know of my visit to Crimea, since there is no record of it in my Australian passport, but I would not want to take the risk.

> why didn't we just take over the World after WWII

Both the UK [1] and US [2] developed plans to do just that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable?

[2] https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-pentagon-estimated-20...

"To nature we apply for truth in vain, God should His will to human kind explain." -- Voltaire

> Suppose the US claimed that the entire Gulf of Mexico was US territory

Since China is a long way from the Gulf of Mexico, and has no need to sail there, I'm confident that China couldn't care less about this.

On the other hand, The South China Sea is very important to China, and very far away from USA -- why does USA care so much about it?

Perhaps you could also comment of USA claims over the Northern Sea Route (which lies within Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone) ? [0], [1]

[0] https://www.rt.com/business/423913-northern-sea-route-us/?

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/geopolitical-conse...?

> there had been forewarning of "Gods" from the east who would conquer the Aztecs

I'm reading a history of Christianity right now, that says this. Apparently the Aztecs had wiped out an earlier civilisation (Toltecs), and the legend is that the defeated king would return as a god and take revenge. The return would occur in a certain year of the 53 year Aztec cycle, and the avenging god-king would come from the East, and be light-skinned (all of which matched up).

> equating Russian oligarchs to American businessmen

Do you understand that many Russian oligarchs actually were American Businessmen?

Eg; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder

It's OK if USA/Israel does it, otherwise it's an act of war. More hypocrisy from the "good guys".

Best summary I've read so far, of the whole fiasco.

> "I will not sell you that cake because you're gay" is the issue, not the type of cake.

This contradicts everything I've read about the case. The baker disagreed with gay marriage, not being gay. To suggest that the baker wouldn't have sold any cake to a gay customer is ridiculous.

> It was a coordinated, state-sponsored attack

If this were so, why has no evidence been found after 2 years of desperate searching?

Please stop repeating this entirely unsubstantiated claim.

> We don't need to worry about the longer term beyond about 50-100 years

This is terribly irresponsible.

Creating a massive problem for other people, and believing that the future will solve it, is the very definition of magical thinking.

Orcas have also been know to cooperate with humans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_Sou...

> then I'm afraid you are rather entitled, and deserve a serenading by the world's tiniest open source violin.

This comment is unnecessarily belligerent; parent was stating facts. not complaining. Your attempt to guilt or shame them is completely unjustified.

I develop accessible android apps. Between complicated designs, broken android libraries, different talkback behaviours, and vendor bugs, accessibility can be very difficult. The effort we expend on accessibility (including dedicated testers) is massive. Only large organisations can afford to do this.

> so they can beat the crap out of those inside

Except this is speculation based on anti-China propoganda

This 'journalist' is clearly biased for the protestors.

> Another problem is that if you yaw slightly, the yawed backward wing gets more straight on airflow, and the forward wing gets less, causing a stronger yaw force

According to geometry, this problem must also occur with conventional backward swept wings.

> Capitalism is the one system which has lifted more people out of poverty than any other

I often hear this, but is it really true?

The millions lifted from poverty in USSR and China, was not due to capitalism.

Upvoted for insight, accuracy and conciseness.

Would upvote this a million times if I could.

Except he didn't say anything like this.

Good question. But unfortunately evidence, facts, proof, logic etc are all irrelevant. At this stage, the anti-Russia narrative will never die.

> "We are a poor country. We have 70 [per cent] people living in rural area. We are very busy, very, very busy working to develop our own country. So these kind of stories is really very absurd."

Which part of that is a blatant lie?

> Donald Trump famously applauded it in 2002

Excuse me, but noting something, is not the same as applauding it.

And yet another international agreement unilaterally exited by the US.

These agreements (eg INF ABM) are extremely difficult to create, but easily trashed by a single recalcitrant.

It seems like the whole international order is breaking down.

> Would you rather have a friend or an enemy spying on you?

A better decision rationale would be; which of the two is more likely to use their spy-data against you?

And the answer to that is without doubt; your own local spy agency, not the one operating in another country.