The bloodthirsty regime in Iran is not a “hero” in any word indeed. Nor is the US that has engaged in this unjustified aggression and early on killed a school full of pupils. As it stands I don’t know how large the blood toll is, likely the Iranian regime has still more blood of its own people on its hands, but the US is working on getting there. Let’s see how long this 3 days special military operation will take.

Gamla Stan is beautiful, no the colours are not as surreal and exagerated in real life but it is a colourful place also in reality.

I did not say that I would consider those buildings in Petrzalka the height of all taste and beauty but the issue with it is not the colour of the buildings. It is the urban layout on ground level and the rundown horrendously car centric design. That is really dragging the area down. On the plus side, there is so much greenery even with all of that, that it is not looking grey there, certainly not during Spring-Autumn.

PS: Bratislava is west of Stockholm, has nothing to do with Orthodox Europe and Slovakia stopped being part of the East block almost as long ago as it was ever part of it.

Also, it helps not to reduce image saturation to zero and have the blocks somewhat decently maintained. A bit of paint makes also a huge difference:

https://bankfoto.info/zdjecia/petrzalka-3/ (Petrzalka, Bratislava)

Alterlaa is fantastic. Incredible resident retention as well. Lot’s of multigenerational residencies as well. They lower half has huge ass balconies, large enough for trees, bushes or even a small garden. They are also desigend to support all of that.

They have tons of spaces for all sorts of clubs, gyms and they all have sizeable swimming pools on top as well. Car free all around with nicely cared for park area in between everything, a mini shopping mall as part of the complex, a subway station on its own and direct access to a major cycling/walking trail …

Why is it that all those autocracies are projecting all the time?

It is the little known “who is going to stop me when I break the constitution” loophole in the constitution.

A lot of pharmaceuticals are non-flexible markets. In other words, companies can simply pass on the 100% tax to those who need the medicine.

Computer monitors are the only thing acceptable to me nowadays. They are expensive and smaller but they come without all that crap. Get a suitable mini-PC with Linux on it and stream the way you want to.

I find this comparison highly offensive. For all the monster Hitler was, he was objectively a vastly better architect than Trump (and also had some basic understanding and knowledge of that matter) and while his preferred style was, to the surprise of no one, thoroughly fascist, it had proper proportions. Not that I am a fan of fascists or their architecture but just look at the images in this thread. The one building has sound composition and proportions make sense and the other is a wacky McManson on steroids, on the inside and the outside.

What difference does it make? Does anyone believe the US as it stands nowadays would honour Article 5, when for once not triggered by the US itself?

What assertion? Hard to respond to you when you are entirely unspecific. Much of what I wrote were no assertions but simple facts. The US literally threatened to annex territory of a NATO ally for example.

I was being polemic. It is like saying Putin drinks the blood of young Russians. Yes, he doesn’t do that literally but he is sending them to the slaughter house just the same.

Believing Trump is a Russian controlled agent is, acknowledging that Trump is deeply corrupt and bribed by foreign dictatorship is not (not necessarily Russia, but in general). The bribing is happening out in the open for everyone to see. Also just judge Trump by his actions. US support for Ukraine has been scaled down dramatically and largely has been taken over by Europe. Not only that Trump tried to bully Europe into stopping the support as well. Of the stuff that is supposedly still going to Ukraine, much is actually in question. At the same time Trump pushed repeatedly for a “peace deal” that was almost word to word what Russia demanded from Ukraine.

Why Trump is doing that doesn’t really matter, there are plenty of reasons explaining that without him being a Russian agent.

That is false. The US followed a clearly different strategy before. Yes, it has slowly shifted indpendently from Trump but the outright hostility towards Europe does not serve any US interests. It is entirely self harming for the US. Not investing into European strategic assets is one thing, openly attacking Europe and threatening with annexation of territory of allied nations, making it clear by actions (not merely talking) that one considers Russia more of an ally than the EU, is an entirely different thing.

I love that visualisation from the NYT article. What a fitting symbolism. Maybe it is just incompetence but that looks so much like a deliberate act. Block Congress from its view of the White House.

(source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/29/upshot/white-house-ballroom.html)

Only if you take that without a grain of salt. The “Krasnov” story is obviosly not trustworthy but it is obvious that the Trump administration is a lot friendlier towards Russia and a lot more hostile towards Europe as a whole and Ukraine in specific, than the previous administration. Doesn’t matter why Trump and his administration is doing that, the actions speak for themselves. Might be as simple as that Maga’s interests and those of Moscow just align on a lot of things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnur_Mussayev#Krasnov

And then Krasnov turned down Ukraine’s offer to help with modern drone warfare.

The license is a one time payment for third party models. All of them are already aging. The C2 was a white label phone for Sailfish OS, the first dedicated Sailfish OS device in years and does not require any license nor does the new to be launched “Jolla Phone”. Most people ordered the Jolla Phone at 580 EUR. Whatever “postmarketOS-capable” phone you were thinking about but for 58 EUR it can’t be that great. Even cheaper Chinese competition equivalent hardware will cost around 200 EUR. The only Dimensity 7100 device I could find at this point was 260 EUR or so, with a worse screen.

I do agree that they should go fully open source but they are at least gradually opening up those parts that are still closed (mostly UI and some few stock apps). Sailffish OS is light years from mainstream adoption, at the very least. But that is not the game they are playing. This is a niche product for people that either want to get away from Google or Apple, or some that actually like the fairly unique UI of Sailfish OS or like to tinker with its Linux base (whatever you think about Sailfish OS and its not entirely open nature, it is still the most functional Linux based alternative out there, when it comes to functioning as a phone, including VoLTE, camera etc, at least in Europe).

Jolla has been years out of the wheel when it comes to own hardware. The crucial thing they need to prove now is that they are capable of delivering what they announced at maybe 15-20k sales.