This has been the law in the US for a long time already. Not exactly illegal, but any cash transaction $10k+ legally requires federal documentation. This gets at what people misunderstand about crime and money laundering. Money laundering=paying taxes. Once you are making real money “under the table”, you have to find ways to pay taxes, if you want to be able to buy cars/houses/etc

Is that specialized training they would need to go to China for?

Trained on what?

“How it all Vegan” is great, and also one about vegan Italian cooking by Chloe Coscarelli.

“How does all this fascism keep getting in my heckin anti-tankieism??”

My wife told me her mom used to eat a bit of dirt when pregnant.

That’s an interesting proposal. A couple years ago it would have sounded crazy, but now… I’m not sure. If I really had to predict, I would say that Zelensky will get pushed out or made to sue for peace. Russia will keep all gained territory.

I’m not suggesting that this is a good strategy, or that Russia doesn’t have their own strategy. I predict that if we see Russia begin to convincingly turn the tide (perhaps it has begun) we’ll see renewed aid to Ukraine-- maybe newer fighter planes. In general though, it doesn’t seem like Ukraine could really “win” on the terms they would like. Ultimately, as you mentioned, attrition favors Russia. You need soldiers to hold territory.

Again, the idea isn’t necessarily to make Russia lose. It’s to make them fight for a long time.

Flying back on a government plane? Lame.

Of course he knows. US support for Ukraine is perfectly calibrated to make sure the war remains at a stalemate. The whole idea is to keep Russia bogged down.

If reforms from democrats was enough, we wouldn’t have Trump right now.

Convicted for one crime and sentenced for another? Sounds like freedom and democracy!

Yes, I guess it did seem like a good idea at the time. Fake it (low birth rate) til you make it (improved living standards).

Those are outliers. Even within many of those subcultures, birthrates will fall over time. A few generations ago, Catholics in the US regularly had a dozen children. Not very common here now.

It’s not “culture”, it’s economics.

This happens everywhere as the standard of living rises. Most countries solve it through immigration.

US foreign policy towards Iran has always been about control of global energy supplies.

I’ve been in this cycle for decades.

No it was a military dictatorship. What you’re talking about is how it is now.