Russia has a few military bases in neighboring countries, but it's very limited to its region of the world. That's categorically different from plopping down military bases on every continent and toppling overseas governments. They're militarily irrelevant outside their little sphere of influence.

They just say it. 🫴

People spray their lawns with pesticides to keep "pests" out. A perfect grass lawn is green concrete, it might as well be dead.

Well remember, this is in the context of talking about pure grass lawns.

Your kids and dogs don't care if your lawn has clover and dandelions in it, but so many people will spray down their lawn with pesticides to remove "weeds" and maintain perfect green concrete.

You sound like a man.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with AI games being bad.

It doesn't necessarily look bad, but it has a certain look. Once you start to recognize AI's tells you can't unsee it.

I don't think individual use matters that much. It's slop, but if it doesn't matter then slop is fine. It's when institutions and companies and governments are using generated images instead of hiring an artist that it becomes a problem; an artist didn't get paid for what is essentially stolen work and now that slop will be crammed down our throats.

and defected to a MUCH worse country

Why do you actually think this? Obviously you believe the war in Ukraine was unprovoked and evil, but like, the US does unprovoked and evil wars far more often. The US has far more people in its prisons, and kills more people through both military and economic warfare. The US supports Israel and UAE in their barbarism, while Russia supports anti-colonial governments in the Sahel region (for cynical reasons, because those movements are kicking out the US and France, but the motivations don't change the results).

Based on the sheer numbers, Russia is at least the lesser evil. The US is still the Great Satan.

This isn't even new. Women and girls have been starving themselves for a lot longer than guys have been hitting themselves with hammers.

"Might as well" was meant to indicate that I don't think lawns are different from AstroTurf. Lawns might as well be green concrete.

In a lot of cases they're really only good at manipulating other people into giving them money, but otherwise not particularly intelligent. They're highly skilled at that one thing, and basically nothing else.

It's that Bruce Lee quote; "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Except instead of practicing kicks they practice lying.

Well it started as a wealth symbol because the amount of energy, labor, and money it took to maintain a pure grass lawn was immense. No one ever saw a well manicured, pure grass lawn outside of mansions and palatial estates and such.

Then we got push mowers and fertilizer and weed killer and sprinklers - everyone could have their own green carpet!

But yeah, fuck lawns. Might as well just roll out AstroTurf.

If the business is not paying their employees a livable wage, customers shouldn't eat there.

So AI got something right?

Have you given "Just Egg" egg substitute a try? It's basically like a beaten egg in a carton, but it's made of beans so it should be fine for whatever intolerance you've developed.

Anyway can we just completely get rid of both of them for the good of humanity

No. You have to pick a side.

So. Hezbollah or Israel? Choose

More than that, it showcased status as a wealthy person that could afford to hire servants to care for unproductive grass... or, in some cases, afford to have slaves to care for unproductive grass. It's more impressive than just leaving the dirt bare or letting weeds grow wild, it required intensive inputs to maintain.

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/...

Where do you think economic growth even comes from? It comes from labor! All of the value in the economy is created by labor, literally nothing would exist if it weren't for working people doing their jobs. Then, those same workers who created value with their labor are paid wages, and then they spend those wages to pay for food, housing, utilities, clothing, entertainment, etc etc.

There's a reason so many countries are panicking about low birth rates. Population growth is critical for economic growth.

By the way, you're the one making the claim that "both are bad" - why don't you have to show me a study or something to back up your idea?

The risk to pedestrians is a bonus to the average motorist.

I will never believe the 2020 Iowa caucus was legitimate - the Iowa Democratic Party chair resigned after that disaster and Iowa lost its first in the nation status because of how badly it fucked things up.

But, party insiders working together with party leadership to discipline party voters is normal political party stuff. The fact that Clinton, and later Biden, won because the Party put its thumbs on the scale is simply a factor of running in the Dem primary. Any insurgent candidate has to be able to deal with that, and Bernie failed. He tried to run as if the election would be fair, and lost.