That community is… something. For every funny or good complaint there’s a dozen whine posts, mostly by the same person. Did someone piss in their coffee or are they the probably least lucrative M$ shill ever?

Welcome to the global game of poker! We’re the chips. Good luck.

That is exactly what I needed to start this day right

I always use butterflies

Imagine you start a new job, where all the old crew just quit yesterday. Except that job is running the federal government of a major power.

The agreements are prerequisite for transition preparations, in order to get his team security clearances, classified information, advance access to office space and agencies so that, come the official transition of power, they’re actually ready to drop right into business instead of losing time getting up to speed with what’s happening.

The world doesn’t stop and wait for the US federal administration to slam to a halt, pick itself up and get moving again. These agreements are supposed to prevent that.

taints in its history

Ooh, let’s play “find the dark history”! What better way to distract from today’s issues and avoid talking about solutions for tomorrow’s problem!

This is me agreeing with you, to be clear. The description “taints in its history” is so ubiquitous as to be useless. Yes, acknowledging the errors of the past is important to learn from them and improve, but the focus needs to be on that learning and improving.

The NATO has potential to be a force of security. In a modern world, conflict between peers is more destructive than ever and the returns on aggressive action are more strongly affected by the strength of the defense, such a union of forces can discourage attack by making it too unprofitable.

Of course, that requires the union to actually stand united and the potential aggressor to be reasonable and motivated by the state’s prosperity. Neither of those seem entirely guaranteed right now…

I agree. It’s like the whole “Not all men” deal: nitpicking the details of the phrasing instead of tackling the root issue. You’re only fighting those symptoms that affect you directly, not the root cause.

The day I have someone yelling in my face that I’m to blame for some other man’s rape is the day I’ll argue about that issue. Until then, let’s focus on the actual problem: In this case (some) young men being pieces of garbage.

It’s bad, but not so bad it can’t get worse

The archetype of “Surely they won’t eat my face”…

When people spew hateful rhetoric against your kind, it’s safer to assume they’re serious. Even if they’re not, they might inspire others who are.

Economies and foreign policy are fragile things - I doubt the damage he does (has and will) will be undone any time soon. Both rely on trust, in one way or another, and that’s far easier to torch than rebuild.

We all will suffer for it.

Violence is the threat backing up the demands of the peaceful. A group of people asking nicely are easily suppressed by violent opposition, unless a threat of escalation exists. If those demands fail, escalation is the necessary response. Otherwise, the threat will have been a bluff and future threats won’t be taken as seriously.

On the other hand, violent change still needs popular support to have lasting effects, and it needs to feed back into a nonviolent result. Many tyrants have claimed power by force, only to have their dynasty crumble within a few generations.

Thus, violence in the name of progress always needs to be preceded, accompanied and succeeded by peaceful efforts to get people on board with that progress and help them actually feel the results.

We’re not.

But then, who is, these days?

revolutionize how women get care

About fucking time for that

Might be a joke?

He was a piece of shit. In his final moments, he was comforted by his kin.

Right, Trump’s fragile ego voted him into office 🤨

There are a lot of contributing factors. Obama making fun of him might have seen him run for office, but without all the enablers along the way carrying him on he would have collapsed a few steps in, fucked off to go eat a gourmet Happy Meal and told himself (and anyone in earshot) how brave and strong he is for running in the first place.

Ridicule may have lit the fuse, but the powder was there long before.

Get me riled up and I can be quite fiendish

The more workers you attract, the higher your standards for hiring can be. That goes for any job, including jobs of passion. If you need to fill three positions and get three applicants willing to do them for shit pay… odds are your applicants are shit too, or they’d be going for better paid positions.

If you offer more, people with better qualifications will be interested more. You get more applicants and can be picky who you want.

As a bonus: better paid employees have more incentive to stay and do a good job to ensure they keep their position.

Yes! It’s pretty nice!

I’ve been giggling for three minutes now. Thanks for making my morning a little sweeter <3

Complacency is Complicity