[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 8:11 am

Kaelik wrote:
Laertes wrote:From what I've read, Putin is a political lame duck now. This means he's more likely to take insane risks posturing to the domestic audience. I can't see this ending well.
Uh what? He was a political lame duck before, and he responded by temporarily switching offices. Is there any reason he can't just do that again? Isn't he just going to re become President/Prime Minister and make that the real power office again?

I'm not sure why you people keep calling him a lame duck. His current term ends in 2018, at which point he can participate in the election for the second 6 year long term. And with the public opinion boost Ukrainian crisis gave, he has a decent chance to win the election.

darkmaster wrote:But you know what the best part is? Ukraine doesn't need to use force, it just has to turn off the power and water to the citizens of a foreign country that are not paying taxes for the continued upkeep of their access to Ukraine's natural resources. See how long until the citizens want to stay part of Russia when they're living in the third world.

The Ukraine has already done that, even before Crimea had a referendum. They cut off the water supply, killing some of their own fields in the process.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:25 am

Longes wrote:I'm not sure why you people keep calling him a lame duck. His current term ends in 2018, at which point he can participate in the election for the second 6 year long term. And with the public opinion boost Ukrainian crisis gave, he has a decent chance to win the election.

Well I wasn't calling him a lame duck. My point was that even if he couldn't run again, he could just do the thing he already did once. I don't know anything about the actual rules, but I do the past events that led to him circumventing the rules, so it seems like he is never a lame duck in the strict can't run again sense.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:29 am

Kaelik wrote:
Longes wrote:I'm not sure why you people keep calling him a lame duck. His current term ends in 2018, at which point he can participate in the election for the second 6 year long term. And with the public opinion boost Ukrainian crisis gave, he has a decent chance to win the election.
Well I wasn't calling him a lame duck. My point was that even if he couldn't run again, he could just do the thing he already did once. I don't know anything about the actual rules, but I do the past events that led to him circumventing the rules, so it seems like he is never a lame duck in the strict can't run again sense.

Actual rules are: one term is six years (four in the past, extended by Medvedev), a single man can't hold more than two consecutive terms.

I honestly don't think Putin will go for the fifth term. He is 61 already, and by that time he'll be 77 years old.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:44 am

Obligatory picture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald–hairy

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 5:43 pm

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/ ... TU20140717

(Reuters) - A Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine by militants on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard, a Ukrainian interior ministry official was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The aircraft, which other sources said was a Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, came down near the city of Donetsk, stronghold of pro-Russian rebels, Anton Gerashchenko said, adding that it was hit by a ground-to-air missile.

There was no further confirmation of the report, although Ukrainian officials said local residents had found wreckage.

Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed it had lost contact with its flight MH-17 from Amsterdam. "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace," it said.

Gerashchenko was quoted as saying: "A civilian airliner travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has just been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft system ... 280 passengers and 15 crew have been killed."

Interfax-Ukraine quoted another Ukrainian official as saying the plane disappeared from radar when it was flying at 10,000 metres (33,000 feet), a typical cruising altitude for airliners.

true

It came down at Torez, near Shakhtersk, some 40 km (25 miles) from the Russia border. The area has been the scene of fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels.

Ukraine has accused Russia of taking an active role in the four-month-old conflict in recent days and accused it earlier on Thursday of shooting down a Ukrainian fighter jet - an accusation that Moscow denied.

war? huh?

Count Arioch the 28th · Thu Jul 17, 2014 7:09 pm

Stahlseele wrote:http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/ ... TU20140717

(Reuters) - A Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine by militants on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard, a Ukrainian interior ministry official was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The aircraft, which other sources said was a Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, came down near the city of Donetsk, stronghold of pro-Russian rebels, Anton Gerashchenko said, adding that it was hit by a ground-to-air missile.

There was no further confirmation of the report, although Ukrainian officials said local residents had found wreckage.

Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed it had lost contact with its flight MH-17 from Amsterdam. "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace," it said.

Gerashchenko was quoted as saying: "A civilian airliner travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has just been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft system ... 280 passengers and 15 crew have been killed."

Interfax-Ukraine quoted another Ukrainian official as saying the plane disappeared from radar when it was flying at 10,000 metres (33,000 feet), a typical cruising altitude for airliners.

true

It came down at Torez, near Shakhtersk, some 40 km (25 miles) from the Russia border. The area has been the scene of fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels.

Ukraine has accused Russia of taking an active role in the four-month-old conflict in recent days and accused it earlier on Thursday of shooting down a Ukrainian fighter jet - an accusation that Moscow denied.

war? huh?

Good God, y'all...

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:40 pm

One of the DNR leaders denied their involvement, claiming that they have no weapon capable of reaching such altitude.

Additionally, according to some unsupported information, Poland's troops have landed in the Odessa's airport, to join the war against DNR. Which is terrible, if true, because this will gives Russia the reason to join the war.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:16 pm

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... ve-updates

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:12 am

http://www.3news.co.nz/MH17-crash-What- ... fault.aspx

So, there's a rebel commander admitting capturing a Buk, a rebel commander threatening all Ukrainian aircraft in "their sky", and a rebel commander talking about shooting down a military transport at the time and place the airliner went down, then some of that gets erased and the rebels deny everything.

The airlines had previously decided that because the rebels had no long-range missiles, they'd just fly high over east Ukraine. Turns out the thing on the Buk that tells you not to shoot down civilian flights isn't automatic and you need training to use it properly.

So, yeh, high-tech weapons, and the people who end up firing them, eh. Damn.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:17 am

So, this is only tangentially on topic, but lets say I was financially solvent enough that I could pack up and move anywhere else in the world within the next year.

If I wanted to move to a country that was at least mostly better than the US in areas such as gun laws, marriage/race/gender/class equality, literacy, STEM standards, tech and foreign policy, and wouldn't require me to learn another language* is there actually a country that I could move to, or do they all basically trade around bad and good areas, or do countries that are better exist but restrict immigration, or do the better countries actually manage to not basically have english as a secondary language such that americans can be lazy and get by?

*it's not that I refuse to learn a second language, I'd actually like to learn several, I'm just terrible at it.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:31 am

Attorney general of Ukraine Vitaliy Yarema has announced that rebels don't have Buk or C-300.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:36 am

Prak_Anima wrote:So, this is only tangentially on topic, but lets say I was financially solvent enough that I could pack up and move anywhere else in the world within the next year.

If I wanted to move to a country that was at least mostly better than the US in areas such as gun laws, marriage/race/gender/class equality, literacy, STEM standards, tech and foreign policy, and wouldn't require me to learn another language* is there actually a country that I could move to, or do they all basically trade around bad and good areas, or do countries that are better exist but restrict immigration, or do the better countries actually manage to not basically have english as a secondary language such that americans can be lazy and get by?

*it's not that I refuse to learn a second language, I'd actually like to learn several, I'm just terrible at it.

You'll have to seriously define "better". I, personally, consider Russia to be a good country to live in, roughly equal to some of the other countries I've lived in (Germany, Netherlands) or better (Britain, Greece).

A lot depends on your skills. Software developers can find a job practically everywhere, low-level managers - not so much. I often hear Australia being praised, save for its immigration policy.

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:54 am

Given That Prak is some variant of non-cisgendered, Russia would seem to be a terrible place for him.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:57 am

Yeah, I'm bigender/genderqueer/genderfluid. Also pansexual*.

Also, I should probably have stipulated "not engaged in trying to snatch up stupid spits of land through military means" and basically just not generally an embarrassment to live in.

*What can I say, satyrs are hot.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:08 am

Well, then you are limited to:
-Australia
-Bahamas
-Canada
-New Zealand
-UK
-US

I'd recommend Canada or Australia.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:11 am

Not sure how you disqualified literally the other half of Europe that would also be okay. The Swedes and Spanish don't seem to have much of a big deal with social justice.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:13 am

Yeah, Sweden sounds like it'd be nice, though I think there's something where you can't become a citizen. I don't know how that interacts with just moving there and retaining American citizenship, though.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:20 am

Kaelik wrote:Not sure how you disqualified literally the other half of Europe that would also be okay. The Swedes and Spanish don't seem to have much of a big deal with social justice.

He asked for english speaking countries.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:22 am

Or at least countries where the majority of people are passably fluent in english.

...I mean... honestly it'd really only matter when I went to get groceries or dinner, given that I'm basically a shut in, but...

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:42 am

It's pretty easy to learn a language if you immerse yourself in it, couple weeks and you can talk, and you get by until then on primitive hand signals, the problem would be that so much of world speaks English that the locals would prefer to practice with you rather than teach you theirs.

Anyhoo, you can go live in Sweden, Finland, places like that. Try getting a long-term renewable working visa that you can turn into residency at some point in the future. Most places will let you grab citizenship after 3-5 years, and you should get that ASAP so some new government directive doesn't leave you out in the cold. Japan's awesome but they'll never let you stay.

If you want English language without the crazy, just go live in Canada.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:56 am

The Viking people tend to speak better English than the English - indeed it's been a long-running joke that if you want to learn "proper" English, you go to Germany.

As for Australia, I should remind you that our Catholic far-right leader actually inspired Senator Frothy Mixture to have another crack at US Presidency*, and has the British conservatives saying he's a total nutjob and going too far. It's still very much a thing to shout slurs at people from moving cars because they look a bit foreign or gay.

So while life here for people who are of British decent is acceptable and his actual human rights violations are being committed against brown people, if you're not a rich, white old man then it's about as shitty as that status is in America, and coming here will only make you happier if you needed more sun or if a spider injects serotonin into you with its bite.

*No really, he said in an interview that it gave him hope that there is still a place for Catholics who are not willing to negotiate or veer from their religious craziness.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:54 am

Going back to airplane crash. The conspiracy ideas began flowing around.

The passports are in a remarkably good condition
MH370 that disappeared in March has registration number 9M-MRO. MH17 that crashed has registration number 9M-MRD.

Obviously, no real proof of anything is present.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:03 am

Russia is going to end free healthcare for the "unemployed", who are estimated to comprise 1/3 of the total population per year (meaning: each year, 43 million people will need basic healthcare while unemployed and will be told to pay up or gtfo), starting in 2015. The previous minister of labor argues against the change, stating that while single-payer is shit and Obamacare is a hilarious failure, Russia is too poor to afford anything but single payer. Yes, seriously.

Russia is not a country you want to live in under [almost] any circumstances.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:34 am

Starmaker wrote:Russia is going to end free healthcare for the "unemployed", who are estimated to comprise 1/3 of the total population per year (meaning: each year, 43 million people will need basic healthcare while unemployed and will be told to pay up or gtfo), starting in 2015. The previous minister of labor argues against the change, stating that while single-payer is shit and Obamacare is a hilarious failure, Russia is too poor to afford anything but single payer. Yes, seriously.

Russia is not a country you want to live in under [almost] any circumstances.

Correction, ministry of finances put out a suggestion to end free healthcare for the unemployed (why quotation marks?). No one is ending anything yet.
Additionally, people who are officially jobless, retired, children and invalids are exempt from this.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 11:38 am

Koumei wrote:The Viking people tend to speak better English than the English - indeed it's been a long-running joke that if you want to learn "proper" English, you go to Germany.

Well, I do like sausage...

As for Australia, I should remind you that our Catholic far-right leader actually inspired Senator Frothy Mixture to have another crack at US Presidency*, and has the British conservatives saying he's a total nutjob and going too far. It's still very much a thing to shout slurs at people from moving cars because they look a bit foreign or gay.

Yeah, there's a musician who wrote a pro-pubic hair song called Map of Tasmania while she was visiting Australia, this is slightly telling, just in that "show us yer map'a Tasmania!" is a thing

So while life here for people who are of British decent is acceptable and his actual human rights violations are being committed against brown people, if you're not a rich, white old man then it's about as shitty as that status is in America, and coming here will only make you happier if you needed more sun or if a spider injects serotonin into you with its bite.

Could you imagine if a spider like that existed? There'd be people pinning them to their shirts on leashes poking them with sticks every five seconds.

*No really, he said in an interview that it gave him hope that there is still a place for Catholics who are not willing to negotiate or veer from their religious craziness.

Tell you what; let us ship all our crazies over, and your sane people can come here.