This would be terminally shameful to anybody who wasn’t completely immune to shame.

I actually don’t care about IP copying. I just wish China would publish what they copied.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thankyou, CCP.

Finnish happiness is derived from actively not being under the control of that certain fully crazy empire to the east, and enjoying every minute of it. Every new day of independence from the Russian Empire is one more chance for Finland to say to their neighbours, “Nananana na na, hahahaha ha ha.” Some of them even say it in Russian: “Нананана на на, хахахаха ха ха. Нас не ебет.”

You may need to examine your opinion of the role of taxes in a functioning country.

You’re right about corruption, though.

A billion dollars in fines might make twitter unprofitable. In a regular company, that would coerce the owners to make changes. But Musk doesn’t own twitter because he wants to make money off of it, at least not directly. What Musk uses it for is control. A billion dollars a year in fines will be worth it to him, as long as it gives him more control.

The only way to deny him this undue influence is to ban it outright or fine him a lot more.

I guess nobody told the EU how many billions Musk has.

The US and EU might buy a little, but most of it is being bought by China, India, and Africa at a steep discount. As I’m sure you know. Everybody buying Russian oil deserves scorn, even if they are living in the EU or the US.

I should maybe add that I don’t think this is actually a good idea. I can just see that it’s scientifically possible, and I enjoy constructing scenarios like this.

But to those who are riding Putin’s dick, just know that these are the things the West could do, but chooses not to. And the fuck you to all buyers of Russian oil still stands. I don’t care how poor they are.

Steal some of the oil. Replace it at correct stoichiometric ratio with ammonium nitrate or some other powerful oxidiser. Attach a detonator and tracking device to the ship. Don’t tell the crew. Let the crew go free. When the ship reaches its destination, detonate. Halifax explosion, round two.

Fuck you, whoever would buy Russian oil.

IDK, Syria has been a huge setback for the CCP. Also, there is a growing wave of Chinese divestment among businesses everywhere, and the CCP is losing influence in Canada and Europe. There is a growing will to break their addiction to cheap Chinese manufacturing. Canada in particular hates the CCP, for the illegal police stations and for the kidnapping and ransom of the Michaels.

Surveys in most countries around the world rank the CCP pretty poorly in terms of public perception. (See for example https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/09/more-people-view-the-us-positively-than-china-across-35-surveyed-countries/ ) If this is the CCP winning, I do wonder what losing would look like.