I recently visited Barcelona. My Castellano is decent but I know almost no Catalan, and was getting along fine, but one evening I went to a restaurant that served authentic Catalan cuisine. (The street was plastered in Catalan flags!) I spent a bit of time that day learning a few Catalan phrases ("Good evening", "I have a reservation") etc, and my efforts were definitely appreciated, as we very warmly received by the staff, who were courteous enough to switch to English (with a little good-natured ribbing) when my Catalan well ran dry. Big smiles (and great food) all round. It definitely makes a difference.

No matter where I go I always learn a few short phrases out of respect, and it pretty much always brings a smile.

The first and most important is 'thank you' and, while 'yes', 'no', 'excuse me', and 'hello' are good, the second phrase I always learn is how to ask for the bill (or the 'check', as I learned before going to the states). Pretty much anywhere you go you'll probably eat out, there's no response needed (beyond 'thank you'), and it doesn't hurt that it sometimes means the bill comes with a complementary drink.

Truth? From the Trump administration? You've got to be kidding. Even you, the most sycophantic rube I know, admits he's a consummate, pathological liar. Anything to get what he wants.

And sorry. My mom insisted on real, verifiable juice. I wasn't allowed the sugary fake beverage of cultists, which may be why I'm able to spot and avoid it while you lap it up and ask for seconds.

Oh, and in English, the phrase is choke ON it when THE truth comes out, not choke in it when truth comes out, comrade. Update your translators, you're sounding excessively Baltic.....again.

Yes...you did...and still do.
Yes, you did say we're in dire straits."A constant slide toward globalism all the while a less better way of life.
Constant strife, sliding towards a ever more debasement humanity and of values clearly promoted in Hollywood, and media. Who is really pushing this agenda".
Yes, you did admit he's unqualified...."This current state of being is a long time in coming not a POTUS Trump fault.. One can argue Trump is not qualified but this was laid at his feet when he took office" if you don't mean that as an admission, you need to study American phrases, perhaps that means something different in Russian.

Most Americans believe in diversity as a positive trait. Most Americans believe in individual freedom and liberty. Most Americans believe corporate personhood is a horrendous idea that destroyed our political system. If most of America didn't enjoy what Hollywood produces, why are they still buying it?
Granted, adult programs exist. As a parent, it's your responsibility to monitor what your kids watch, not mine. I don't have to go without adult programming because you suck as a parent. Ratings and child locks make it easy as hell for you, but still you whine. (What's your cure? Regulating entertainment to allow pg-13 at most?)
Hyper violence is as American as Apple pie, has been since the great war (ww1) if not our inception.

Is he the only one, far from it. Is he the worst offender, lying about everything, incapable of honesty on any topic, with multiple admitted felons committing treasonous crimes as part of his administration? Clearly. Is he even trying to be honest and give Americans real information, or is he outright boldly lying about tripling the deficit for personal gain. Hint...it's the latter.

Edit: Politicians and police are allowed to lie? Talk about debasement of humanity and values....geez. Only allowed to lie by people like you, not me. Liars are liars, not to be trusted again, not to be handed more power, and are undeserving of respect or acceptance. There's a big difference between lying and mistakes. People who unintentionally make misstatements, then correct them may not be liars. Trump is a proud, intentional, pathological liar, and not even a good one, so intelligent people stopped listening to him long ago, it's just a waste of time. Sadly, that includes our recent allies, who are turning their backs on us in droves. Even you cannot be so delusional or dishonest as to make a case that this is good for America or the globe, or something any rational parent would teach their children is proper behavior....but you are. I hope your kids learn the lesson you're teaching, that it's fine to lie if it helps you get what you want, and the next 7+ years are full of bold lies, unfulfilled promises, and excuses for why your kids are now teenage junkie parents with disdain for civility.

I'm now so tempted to get myself a Pocket Pussy, a camera, and a personal trainer to shout inspirational work-out phrases at Sarah. And a royal blue blanket, obviously.

I hate the phrase "alt-right". It's just a euphemism for "far right" and we should tell it like it is.

The USSR is gone. No one is trying to guard western industry against communist overthrow anymore. That time is long gone.




Imagine person A pushing person B, and person B pushes back, and the news runs around screaming that B pushed A. That's basically our simplistic news coverage about Ukraine.

Feel free to read about the 2014 coup : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Ukrainian_revolution
I take no issue with Ukrainians giving their old government a swift kick out the door (and for understandable reason - such as corruption). However, with that comes the usual scapegoating of the undesirables. Would it have been better that Russia let groups like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Sector ravage ethnic Russians just across their border?

Crimea has been Russia from 1779 till ~1990, when it happened to end up under Ukrainian control after the USSR broke up. People living there are also Russian citizens, born either while it was still Russia, or to Russian parents.
Take a look:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Crimea
Then ask yourself, considering the right wing neo nazi anti-ethnic-Russian shitstorm in Ukraine, where would the Crimeans rather be?

Russia isn't a saint. It's acting in self interest. It's also not a villain. Things happen for reasons.

The treaty you refer to is : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances
The link explains how it can be read to fault either the U.S. (for coup involvement) or Russia (for subsequent conflict involvement).

Just to put things in perspective :
Imagine Russia getting involved in a coup in Mexico or Canada. Or imagine Russia placing missile launchers in Cuba. Do you think that we would be as cordial to Russia as Russia has been to us?
So Russia tries to help a candidate who prefers friendly relations, that's hardly the sign of a committed adversary.

I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I shouldn't think and analyze the situation from multiple perspectives with consideration for circumstance and motivation, and instead I should just accept what the news has on 24/7 repeat. /s





Collusion is not a crime because /literally/ it is not a crime. You will not find the word "collusion" mentioned as an offense in any criminal code. It's only on TV because people started using that phrase to assert that the campaign and Russia were acting independently (which is irrelevant, they don't need to coordinate to break the law).


-scheherazde

This video is strange to me. It's like the guy woke up and realized what everyone else already knew before the election was even over.

Video makes references to the DNC/Hillary campaign calling the emails a conspiracy - but I don't remember them ever denying the authenticity of the emails.
All it would have taken was one phrase : "these emails are made up".
But they didn't - and the only reason to not deny, is if you know it will be confirmed and you will be caught lying.

The irony of the situation is:
- DNC&Hillary rigs primary election against Bernie, undermining democratic elections.
- *Russia steals and leaks documents showing that the DNC was undermining democratic elections.
- *Russia is the bad guy, because 'letting people know that elections are being rigged' is making people upset at the cheaters, and is improperly influencing elections against the cheaters.

So, apparently it's fine if you cheat, but it's cheating if you let people know who's cheating.

It's like the bizarro episode from SeaLab2021, only applied to political sensibilities.

-scheherazade

What an extraordinary phrase. Call me a party pooper on this one but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I for one have no faith in the quantum maths mumbo jumbo that says extra dimensions are possible.

Exactly. I see a phrase all the time:

'If there are aliens in our galaxy, why haven't we detected evidence of them?'

Perhaps because they are so different from what we even recognize as life that we don't even know what we are looking for. Perhaps the use of radio waves to communicate is something they haven't done in so long, that using it to send a message in space is unfathomable. Or perhaps they never even used that technology in the first place. It's possible that their own physiology would make such technology pointless.

The point is, we're looking for them in very human ways and expecting something very human to come back. Perhaps a civilization at a stage similar to ours out there is asking the same question and using a technology to search that we ourselves have no understanding of. They could be our galactic neighbors and our differing biologies and technology could be so different, that wouldn't even recognize each other as life.

On the flip side of that coin, I once had a UFO experience that was anything but 'lights in the night sky' and the object did things our planes couldn't hope to do. So who knows, maybe they are already here.

In open warfare of govt vs people, drones don't matter, just like jets don't matter. I already covered this above.



Nowhere is an oppressive dictatorship - until it is.
[redacted]
I feel like people are too distracted with instagram and other B.S. to bother learning about how the world works.
History is long. The current peace is an anomaly. When things go bad, there is little warning. If you're lucky, a year or so of build up. If you're not lucky, weeks or days. Shit likes to spiral.
In bad times, you have only what you have on hand.


Most western countries with [regardless of gun ownership] don't have a population that's F'd in the head.
Nothing stops a German gun owner from taking his AR15 and shooting up a concert.
Storing his guns in a safe that he can open doesn't mean anything.
Paying for a new license card for every few guns doesn't alter the guns.

Gun laws, as proposed, are fluff. Nothing that makes people safer, nothing that prevents ownership, but plenty to crap on collectors.
* 10 round limit = 2 second pause to reload
* Gun show loophole is a misnomer.
* (re. above) Only private sales (gun show or not) don't require checks - but you still end up in court if the buyer does something bad.
* Assault weapons ban only bans pistol grips and threaded barrels. Cosmetics. Just google "California compliant AR15" (they already have a de-facto AWB).
* There's already laws against straw purchase.
* There's already laws against crazy people buying (already part of the background check)
* Registration is pointless as gun control. Doesn't alter the guns or who has them (background check already tells gov who, when, and where bought a gun).

(I'd sooner vote for mandatory roll cage and 6 point harness in every car. Could eliminate 90+% of car fatalities in one rule - if people cared enough.)


By the way, gun owners hate people like the Vegas shooter even more than anti-gunners hate people like him.
Precisely because assholes like that shooter make anti-gunners turn on their frustration on innocent gun owners.

The call to "do something" is the phrase that perfectly describes the sentiments that led to actions, that in turn became described by either "famous last words" or "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".





We had shit health insurance before Obama. We had shit insurance during Obama (only you're required by law to buy it, even if it's not a good value), we continue to have shit health insurance during Trump, and no matter what trump does, it will still be shit.
Problem is that the insurance company lobbyists draft the language of the law (no matter the party in charge), and it's not for our benefit.





Re. Minorities, most are living normal lives. The white eutopia that the few vocal people complain about, doesn't exist. At least I have yet to see it. Don't let a few thousand people in a nation of millions guide your thoughts about overall social norms.

I'm happy to see them protest. Frankly, I wish white people had the same solidarity that black people have. When a black gets shot by a cop, they come together. When a white is shot by a cop, other whites say "he probably deserved it". I wish the black community good luck and success.





Yes, I wish we weren't jailing more people than anywhere else on the planet, over things that harm nobody.
I wish we had the drug laws of Portugal (decriminalization)
I wish we had the legal system of Sweden (no jail before conviction).

Know how I said that most countries don't have as many people that are F'd in the head? Same applies for people in government.
None of this shit will get fixes.
Republicans are bible thumping retards that funnel money to defense contractors and campaign donors.
Democrats are buck-passing censors that funnel money to insurance companies and campaign donors.
And people just pick a team and bark at the other team, while each gets fleeced by their very own side.

-scheherazade

If you provide aid to 2 separate hurricane incidents that affect white people, but drag your heels when it affects brown people, you might be a racist.

If your reaction to a disaster isn't to help people, and those people are brown, you might be a racist.

If you think that when brown people are dying due to a natural disaster and your argument is that they didn't attend meetings, instead of quickly trying to save lives, you might be a racist.

If your fucking around causes all patients in an ICU ward to die, then you are just a shitty human being.

(Apologies for the use of "brown people", but I didn't have any better way to phrase it right now.)

There are certain phrases in America -- I'm sure in Australia also -- that seem to be a random collection of words, but instead evoke huge stories.

Grassy Knoll.

Terrorist Fist Jab.

May Fox News burn in the hell forever.

I hadn't come across the phrase until googling it just now.

I'm completely sure I'll be able to forget it again within 5 minutes

This is really cute.

And it still made me sad -- because "terrorist fist jab."

I can't see a fist bump anymore without thinking of that horrifying phrase.