Well, Russia didn't want NATO members, and what can come with NATO membership at their borders, much like how we didn't want Soviet missiles in Cuba, in 1962. They certainly viewed their former Soviet states and bloc countries joining NATO, as an expansion of NATO.
Regardless of what looked like who, and who thought what, Russia invaded Ukraine, and they shouldn't have.
My teen daughters were both surprised, when I told them of my ban - like I'm some sort of subversive rebel they didn't know existed. They both laughed when I told them what Reddit said was the reason, and were both familiar with the video, from other sources. Life goes on. Less time on a screen can't do any harm.
I was coming up on 4 years. I haven't brought myself to deleting the app though, as there are some good subs there. I've been here for less than 1 full day so far, so I have a lot of exploring to do.
Oh, I don't discourage them from using/learning Microsoft products at all - they just don't happen to be in our home, because as consumers, my wife and I don't spend our money in Microsofts direction. While I can't say it with accuracy anymore, because it's been 20 years since my switch, one of the selling points with the Linux distributions was that some of them looked and felt like either Mac or Windows. My Ubuntu distribution looks pretty similar to my wife's Mac, and the initial installation of Linux Mint, several years ago was made to look and feel like Windows XP. Honestly, the last time I touched Windows was before retiring from the US Navy, where the Submarine LAN was run on Windown NT - but I retired in 2009.
If my kids came home with a Windows PC, or the cheaper option, wanted to turn one of my laptops into a dual-boot machine, I wouldn't care...more exposure to (that bad word) diversity in operating systems. I don't think they're missing out on not having Microsoft in our home though. Microsoft Word in the Tux world is Open Office, Microsofts Excel is Calc, etc....if you know one, you'll be able to work on the other.
I think our allies are doing everything they can do. They can't "help" us militarily. What they can do is help us economically. Then the US attempted to help itself during trump 45, what did all the censures, panels, investigations, lawsuits, and eventual impeachments amount to? Liberal tears. Prior to Inauguration Day, one of the democratic strategies discussed, was to let trump do his thing, without all the interference. Of course there are the lawsuits - anyone can sue anyone. Maybe the way to get MAGA voters to recognise how terrible trump (and MAGA) is, is to just let things happen, to the point where the MAGAs get pissed at MAGA.
Our allies are doing their part to come to our defense by retaliating on the tariffs, moving away from buying American goods, finding other trade partners, moving away from depending on the American Military, and potentially moving away from the US Dollar. No matter how this all plays out, it will hurt Americans, because in this case, the threat to America is coming from within America.
In the end, if our democratic republic survives, do we really need to be the "world police?" Do we really need a military that's bigger than the next 13 militaries combined? I'm not really saying that we should or shouldn't, but the "liberal world order" that has been enjoyed since WWII is expensive, but well worth it, considering what the cost of WWIII will be. Additionally, the expenses endured by the US in "running the show" also bought the influence of American Interests all over the world. Do we really need to run the show? Do the interests of the US align with that of our allies close enough, that we could simply be members of the team, instead of having to watch the "orange dipshit" shove his way to the center of the front row of every photo, where national leadership is gathered.
America has lost its way. Our allies are doing everything they can, to help our nation recover from the threat within. While President Turd-gurgler swings his bludgeon of tariffs, then no tariffs, then new tariffs, Canada targets its tariffs at the people who voted for the president and his tariffs. When the half of the nation who didn't vote for trump is joined by the half of the nation who did vote for trump, the trump problem can be solved. Until then, any objection to trump is simply another liberal tear.
And don't forget the importance in supporting our institutions, the ones that DOGE is working hard to kill.
First you break government. Once broken, privatize everything on the justification of government not working.
Use propaganda to make people hateful and violent towards election workers. Use to loss of election workers to either have the incumbent administration run elections with "impartiality" or cancel elections altogether.
Cut government funding and make everything unpredictable, causing farmers and business owners to go bankrupt. Have oligarchs buy up everything at rock-bottom pricing, and turn the citizens back into serfs, who will be poor enough to shut up and do as they're told.
Ukraine should declare that they're withdrawing from the Lisbon Protocol, and will start working towards creation/procurement of nuclear weapons. Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belaruse agreed to give up their nuclear weapons, in exchange for guarantees on their border security, secured by the US and Russia. Since Russia has reneged, and the US appears to be doing the same, maybe Ukraine could bolster the "cards in their hand" by looking towards rearming. While I hate the idea of another nuclear power, Ukraine was the #3 nuclear power, between separation from the USSR and the 1992 Lisbon Protocol. Maybe their next strategic move should be to fail, like the US and Russia have.
I understand Russian concerns - Gorbachev was told, when the Berlin Wall came down, that NATO would not expand towards the Russian Border. That promise was not ratified by NATO, but was a part of the decision making process, as it was a Russian concern. NATO has expanded 12 times since then, towards the Russian Border. As mad as they might be, the answer is not to simply take back lands they gave up.
The same goes for the US. A few decades passing by, is no excuse to simply decide to not honor obligations previously entered into.
But, if everybody is just changing their minds, and simply "doing whatever we want" is on the table, I'm sure, since Ukraine supplied much of the Cold War hardware and expertise to the USSR, that manufacturing and knowledge base is still there, at least to some degree.
They probably wouldn't have to do it....mentioning the interest as a strategic consideration could be the kick in the ass needed, to help the Lisbon Protocol participants to remember their roles in the guarantees made, on the condition of giving up those nukes.
Last week, I got a 3 day ban from Reddit. The next day it turned into a permanent ban. Reddit claimed that it was due to a comment made about a video, showing a coach pull the ponytail of one of the girls on his team. While I don't recall what my comment was, as the father of a HS girl who plays sports, it bothered me, but as a man in his 50s, who played football in the 1980s, who periodically got his ass kicked by his coach, when he screwed up, it didn't bother me enough to say anything terrible. Of course, they deleted the post, and refused to elaborate. I've been supportive of Luigi, and have heard that Reddit was coming after Luigi supporters, so I thought that could be the real reason. Who really knows?
So, shortly after checking aboard the first fast-attack submarine I served on, in April 1991, the boat was locked down one evening, when the engineer couldn't find his Zenith SuperSport 286e computer. Suspecting someone stole it, the boat was locked down and searched - for 3 hours. Everyone was really angry... It's 2025 and I remember it well.
Anyway, after 3 hours or so, at the Captains insistence, the ENG, doing paperwork in his stateroom, let someone else in, to look for his computer. There it was, sitting plain as day, on his bunk, where his pillow should have been. The ENG said he didn't notice it, as he thought it was his pillow...gross, considering everyone else's pillowcase was white.
The Captain immediately lifted the lockdown, and all the off-duty people went home. The anger lingered though, and the Engineer seemed to have a dark cloud over his head. He was fired a few months later, and I've always wondered if it had something to do with that computer - I was just too new to know anything about the guy, and I didn't work in engineering.
LOL! I had the Timex Sinclair 1000. It connected to a B&W TV, and a cassette tape player for a drive. My dad won it from our local bowling alley.
I didn't get too far with it.
I'm in my mid-50s. I play Warzone 2100 and BOS wars on my computer. I've has Steam for several years, and have a game there....I think it's "World of Goo." I like to stick to games that serve as stress relievers, and take no more than about an hour. Between owning a business, 2 teens, 3 schools, 4 sports, a wife, a house that would love to fall apart if I'd only let it, a lawn to mow, and 2 antique cars I love to keep driving, I don't have much more time to let myself be sucked in to some of the really cool stuff I see.
I recently bought a replacement PS2 though...the old one broke, and I'm still in love with GTA Vice City. I usually just steal a cop car and do vigilante mode until I'm killed though.