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Cake day: July 23rd, 2023

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  • [Official KGB Statement]

    We are shocked - SHOCKED! - to hear that our esteemed citizen, Vladimir Shklyarov, has taken his final bow on the great stage of life. We cannot stress enough that this was an honest and completely-not-at-all-intentional incident.

    It appears (and we’re not saying it’s a coincidence at all) that Mr. Shklyarov was simply… um, reenacting a particularly rambunctious pas de deux with the building itself. Yes, you heard us right - he was doing a dance move so dramatic, so full of life, and so bereft of any actual physical control, that it could have been misinterpreted as an “accident” (we’re sure).

    We’ve spoken to his ex-wife, who claims he was trying to “dramatically” exit the apartment by stepping off the balcony (she’s a bit of a drama queen herself, we hear). But we know the truth - he was simply on a mission to break the world record for most consecutive pirouettes in a single building.

    The local reports of him being “trapped” in his apartment are, of course, completely fabricated. We’re pretty sure it was just a… creative interpretation of the situation (wink, wink). And as for the painkillers? Oh no, those were just a bit of a… well, we won’t mention that.

    We’d like to remind everyone that in Russia, we have a saying: “The show must go on - and sometimes, it’s better to let the curtains come crashing down.” We’re confident that Vladimir would have wanted it that way.

    So, in light of this tragic… event (we’ll get to the word ‘tragic’ later), we’d like to propose an official KGB investigation into the “unlucky” circumstances surrounding Mr. Shklyarov’s passing. We’re sure it will be a thorough and completely-not-at-all-biased inquiry.




  • RFK wants to ban legal medications and his multiple other statements make it clear he thinks organic food can replace them. That’s creating clear harms for people.

    Can you provide a source for this? I have seen RFK claim vaccines are harmful, but the above seems inaccurately broad. RFK’s criticism of vaccines seems to stem from a misguided goal of “proving” they are safe. I suspect his definition of “safe” does not match the FDA’s. For example, aspirin causes many deaths and injuries each year (aka “not safe”), but I haven’t seen RFK moving to ban aspirin.

    The belief that proposed government funded “wellness farms” would mutate into prison camps where citizens would be confined seems needlessly paranoid to me, but you can be as scared as you want. If there was a prediction market available on whether RFK would involuntary confine American citizens to prison camps in the next 4 years, I would gladly bet against that eventuality.


  • RFK’s proposed program is a state-funded “wellness farm” to enable users of prescription drugs and Adderall to rehabilitate. This is entirely distinct from Trump’s plan to detain and then deport undocumented immigrants. Notably, one group would consist of American citizens and one would not.

    If your level of paranoia regarding Trump is such that you believe he will put his own citizenry in labor camps, then nothing I can say or do will convince you otherwise, as it does not appear to be backed in evidence.

    I am annoyed that you classify this as bad faith, as I am attempting to address and criticize his stated plans and goals instead of catastrophizing about Nazi Germany.

    Again, if you are saying Trump behaves identically to Nazi Germany, then are we going to see a land invasion of Mexico/Canada? Will Trump make the democratic party illegal? That’s what Hitler would have done.

    Will he also turn on Israel instead of offering aid? Isn’t antisemitism a core tenet of Nazi Germany? I find the comparison rather flawed.


  • What I am saying is that people are extrapolating that Trump will have death camps soon because that’s what Nazi Germany did. Since Trump breaks with Nazi Germany in many ways (such as he advocates for friendly relations with the Jewish state, Israel), we can say as a matter of fact that he has policy differences from Nazi Germany.

    If Trump’s behavior differs from Nazi Germany, then it does not follow that he will establish death camps.

    I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the Nazi analogy with Trump. I will agree that he shows some authoritarian tendencies, but philosophically they have some critical differences:


    “The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness.”

    Adolf Hitler

    “America is a land of opportunity, not a place where divisions are created based on race, religion, or background.”

    Donald Trump


    “Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all.”

    Adolf Hitler

    “Great nations do not fight endless wars.”

    Donald Trump


    Those are quotes directly from the two of them and I would say they differ very much in their views of Democracy and the role of warfare in the modern world.

    Trump is such an absolute disaster that you can easily find things to criticize him on without the flawed equivocation to one of the worst dictators of the 20th century:

    • Multiple Bankruptcies
    • Business Practices: (Trump University was sued for fraud and settled for $25 million in 2016 without admitting wrongdoing)
    • Tax Avoidance
    • Impeachments
    • Election Misinformation
    • Environmental Rollbacks (such as withdrawing from the Paris Accord)

    Stating the above is far more factual and accurate than a crude equivocation to Nazi Germany. Given the above, I can say it’s pretty likely we can expect more of the same in his next presidential tour, such as further environmental rollbacks. Despite my distaste for the man, I cannot envision him starting death camps and exterminating people, or starting land invasions to expand the US, which is what Nazi Germany would do.

    All of the above is quite a bit longer than “TRUMP = NAZI”, but I believe speaking in detail about the specific mistakes Trump made (or will make) lets us have a more productive conversation about how to deal with them and may also enable us to contrast his approach to whomever seeks election in the US in 2028.

    We’ve had enough pointless name calling in the US in the past couple of years. Let’s elevate the discussion and hopefully we will be a better nation in the wake of Trump’s reign.




  • Sorry, let me ask more directly. The aims of Trump are exactly the same as Hitler? If no, why are we talking about Nazi-era death camps?

    The difference between you and I is that I am reading the actual words from these fellows (who I don’t like very much anyway) to try to determine their stated goals and you seem to just be saying “TRUMP = NAZI”.

    We all benefit from having an accurate picture of the country next year. You seem to say it’s Nazi Germany. Is it, or is it not?



  • Assuming it is implemented as RFK says, I agree. I can see some people choosing to take some time on a farm to try to address their drug addictions.

    Since neither Trump (nor RFK) have a track record of delivering, I will believe it when I see it. If people in the USA wrestling with drug addiction had a choice to work at a wellness farm it seems like a positive development to me. Since Team Trump is big on words and short on action, I won’t give them the benefit of the doubt here. I suspect it’s just another entry in the long list of stuff they talk about and then don’t actually do.




  • I have read the history of Nazi era labor camps. I do not believe every outcome that occurred in Nazi Germany will occur here. Since neither Trump, nor RFK, is in charge yet, you and I can only conjecture about what they will do once they are in charge. I prefer to restrict my criticism to their stated plans instead of these hyperbolic statements, but you do you.

    I guess under the same reasoning that this will be Nazi Germany, we will also be doing a land invasion of Mexico and/or Canada for more “living space”. If you don’t believe that to be true, then the best I can say is we will have a partial overlap with Nazi Germany. Assuming you do not believe there will be a land-invasion of our closest neighboring countries, can you explain what parts of Nazi Germany I can expect and what I cannot?

    So far, I understand your reasoning to be that Trump and Co. have identical goals to Nazi Germany. I am curious how this meshes with Trump’s broad support of Israel, which would probably be in conflict with the antisemitism of Nazi Germany.



  • Sorry, I can’t follow this logic. What I THINK you are saying:

    “I searched for ‘Canon G2570 wifi’. Since there are results, that means this particular printer has Wifi.”

    However, If I search for “canon g2570 aliens”, I also get the same support page. Does that mean the printer was created by aliens?

    Especially these days,you must actually read the links that appear in search engines. Their job is to take your search keywords and to find the most relevant document. From what I can see above, the indicated document WAS the most relevant to your search. For all you know, that bit about Wifi was for a blurb of a separate product linked from the indicated page.

    If this is how you conduct internet research, I would urge you to actually read and confirm the documents you find in search engines.