Merry Christmas, if you’re into that sort of thing!

@Shadowplay
Snort.

About the sheer lack of interest in understanding Russia (and Russians) instead of sticking with their own normally wrong ideas.

I should have made that clearer, but was adding it on the edit timer and that freaks me out. 🙂

Those massive advertising boards the Americans are so fond of scattering along their roads. The lettering is usually two or three meters tall.

I am so confused

Stick with me and you’ll get used to it. 😀

People are making your point (about their preference for the Russians in their head over Russians in real life) in large print for all to see and read.

shadow ?? thanks! now I understand. I don’t believe my point is original. it is something i slowly come to think after some time and reading what other people said before. ? maybe it is just time for people to realise this and maybe they will listen now))

@Sheila Crosby

If Ecuador make Assange an Ecuadorean diplomat, can he leave the embassy and the UK using diplomatic imunity?

I’m pretty certain that the host nation (which probably isn’t the correct term) have to agree to recognise someone as having diplomatic privileges, and I don’t see the brits doing that. The ecuadorians can’t just do that unilaterally.

They could try, of course, and the brits would probably just arrest assange when he left the embassy, and then the rest of the sorry affair could be concluded with him in a jail cell and ecuador making disgruntled diplomatic noises from outside.

Host countries can refuse admission to any suggested diplomatic personnel, or expel any currently in country for any reason (or for none at all, but that gets tricky fast).
However, the host country can not directly tell the guest country who to choose, or interfere in the process other than by granting or refusing entry.

It’s a moot point though – diplomatic credentials are only acknowledged if they are granted at the point of origin, so Assange would have to get himself to Quito in order to be given valid diplomatic status by Ecuador in order to be expelled by the UK government. Otherwise every bugger would be doing it and causing chaos.
It’s a very formal system. Usually works well enough.

Subscription only link for me, Mish. 🙁

I’ll take your word on it being clicky-tosh.

because, really Russia is without identity. it is all fabrication of identities stolen from counties occupied. and I say this as ‘ethnic’ Russian.

(from Valya)

I think this is insightful, and probably applicable to most countries (the “stolen identities” part definitely applies to the U.S. and Canada’s treatment of indigenous people).

(from epitome of incomprehensibility)

I can definitely identify with all of the above, as a white Australian. We’ve stolen from our indigenous population, and from our “masters”, be they Britain or the US. No doubt some of this is just par for the course – I don’t think any nation has a “pure” identity.
It’s problematic when we refuse to accept the lack of purity, which is what we do, over and over. Witness the current outrage over #changethedate for Australia Day.

Mish:

The over-30s tend to get hung up on the idea of communication, that when you are texting you are actually saying something, that there is some meaning to convey, whereas what the young have generally perfected is the absolutely vacant, contentless connection, endless insipid variations of “I am here!” Bright bits of nothing. Just hanging out.

So, to summarise: millennials are vapid, and people over 30 are calcified and out of touch? With a hot take like that, she doesn’t deserve to use the name Katie.

Emoji culture didn’t spring fully formed from the head of some current twenty-something. I was seeing smilies in email back in the 80s, and their use was widespread on usenet by the 90s.

(content warning for sarcasm… weak, maybe, but sarcasm nonetheless…)

FINALLY! I understand how the conspiracy-fantasy mindset works. I understand because I have seen proof!!!

Here is what happened:

I went to Sonic for a breakfast and a coffee, however, due to a nasty snow/ice storm yesterday, my window was frozen shut and wouldn’t roll down. I pulled around to the sunny side to let it thaw, checked morning news on my fone (gotta see what the Yellow-Crested Howler tore up last nite), and when it warmed enough to roll down, pulled into the nearest stall… note, this was a different stall than before! Ordered, tried to pay with a debit, but the computer/card reader didn’t work. Tried it again… nada. One More Time!?!… nope. Carhop came with my grub and a bill for $6.73. I mentioned that I had tried the card reader and she informed me that stall #15 and #16 weren’t working, but that I needed to check with my card company/bank to see if it had gone through. All 3 had gone through.

So, what the pleading hell has this to do with the Deep State? (spoiler, nothing, really) This:

1) we had a snowstorm that stuck my window shut.
2) I pulled into one of only 2 out of thirty stalls in which the card reader was wonky.
3) The computer failure was one in which it allowed my purchase to be logged without me knowing it AND without the people in Sonic being aware of it.
4) I am one who, in the face of computer failure, tries again (and again… AND yet again)

Friends, there is NO FRICKIN’ WAY all this is “just coincidence”… that MANY “coincidences”, with the end result that $20.10 of my money is transferred with nobody in the chain of transaction being aware??? No way. That money HAS to be going to the Deep State.

In the immortal words of the god-prince Alex Jones, “HOW ELSE DO YOU EXPLAIN THE SHADOW IN THIS PICTURE??????”

Hope all Mammotheers are safe and warm as possible in the icky weather, hope David F. is on the mend and will be back in the saddle soon!