In other words: he was playing golf with some shipping magnate who complained about the high fees.

This only goes for the movies. In the books they have arranged a house for Frodo on the eastern border of the Shire, where he will go lay low for several months before going to Rivendell. Merry, Pippin and Fatty Bolger have figured out the plan months in advance and made their own plans, in such a way that when the black riders arrive in the region, they leave within 5 minutes and have a route planned out already.

Also, it's tobacco as clearly mentioned in the books. They are probably quite drunk in this scene though.

Edit: and of course Samwise was also involved in the plans, he was the one who told them. Frodo was being played by all his close friends.

I like diamonds, my wife calls me a magpie. I buy her jewelry so I get to look at it while she wears it. That being said, I only buy jewelry with artificial diamonds for my better half. She jokingly reacts affronted when I tell her, with an incredulous face she will go "What? No children died for this? Some husband you are!"

Looks like there has been a communication breakdown. He can ramble on all he wants but he won't get a whole lotta love.

I just pay whatever they ask without fishing for a discount. When they offer a discount I tell them that's really not necessary and I'm happy to pay full price. But if they keep insisting, I will take the discount, not going to argue over that.

I disagree with the paying more, that could well be interpreted as offensive, as it makes it seem they need a handout. Just let them set the price and don't beg/demand/fish for a discount.

That was Charles Michel, president of the European council, congratulating Putin with his landslide victory on the morning when voting began. Not a fan of Michel, but that was pretty good.

Ah yes, his wife who made the unforgivable crime of being born black.

We're witnessing the second reddit wave now, just like we always knew it would come eventually when reddit crossed another enshitification threshold.

Welcome all!

Trump can raise them to 1000% and China won't care too much. It will hurt, sure, but China has all the cards. They've been preparing for this since Trump v1.0 and know exactly where to hit the US. And they have already proceeded with a surgical strike you don't read much about. It's not a tariff increase, it's more a bureaucratic measure. They sent all US buyers of certain rare earth metals required for high tech electronics to the back of the queue of buyers. Not an outright block, just "extra investigation" required before rubber-stamping the export, indefinitely if need be.

Thinking about why the US is so keen on Greenland: It's only relevant for them if they intend to make enemies out of the EU, because they already have all the access they need. But only as long as they are allied with Europe.

It's clear where this is headed. Russia is not the only reason why Europe is rearming.

“Hungary, strong country. Run by a very powerful, tough leader. He’s a tough guy. The press doesn’t like him because he’s tough. Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, very tough man,” Trump said in his speech.

This almost gave me a brain aneurysm. It's like the orange doofus takes two words and scrambles it in a random sequence of sentences while being incapable of adding extra information.

I'm a sync user and pretty tired of these pointless statements. Don't want it, don't use it! I pay for ultra to support the dev and that's my choice. Again, if you don't want it, don't use it. But can you please stop this sync bashing? It's not as if the torrent of anti-sync memes forgot to cover what you are saying.

The rag called metro making news from random stuff again, I see. This is not even news. It's literally "reporting" that something is not happening.

Like this: "Intel not buying AMD for 6B$" Industry insiders report that Intel has decided not to buy their rivals for 6B$. The CEO of AMD has reportedly stated having no interest in selling to Intel. Their spokesperson, when confronted with this breaking news, replied "WTF have you been smoking, Pringles?" We will continue to report on this story as it continues to develop.

Having no shame is actually a perfect tool against blackmail. Take for example the former Indonesian president Sukarno. Sukarno was delighted when the KGB told him they had a tape of him having an orgy with Russian flight attendants and asked if he could have some copies. The CIA also tried and failed to blackmail him with (fabricated) sex tapes.

If you can see an F-22, you weren't the target.

This is literally a conversation I have had with a specific friend several times this year.

That's not honest at all. European leaders may not always have liked how the Americans operated, but there always was a large amount of respect that stemmed from much more than just military might. The US has been a frontrunner humanitarian aid, soft diplomacy, scientific research and economic development since at least the end of WW2. Europe looked to the US to take the lead in global conflicts because the US always took the lead and would not have it otherwise.

With the Trump 2.0 administration however, European leaders do look down on the US administration for their incompetence and severe lack of manners and decency.

I had to scroll waaay too far down the article to find the name of the person referenced, so for those just wanting to know the name of the immigrant: Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben

You're welcome

Don't humanize centipedes! That leads to strange and disturbing things...