Sand dan Glokta from the First Law series of gritty fantasy novels by Joe Abercrombie.

He is a crippled, razor-tongued former war hero turned inquisitor: physically ruined by torture but mentally sharp, cynical, and ruthlessly pragmatic.

In a world worth living in, there would be no billionaires - let alone crypto billionaires.

Have you ever seen the presentations by Boston Dynamics and the like? The biggest contracts for just about every robotics company probably come from the military. It probably won’t be long before war looks like it does in Terminator 2 - let’s just hope Skynet takes a while to show up, given all the AI stuff governments are already using for their military campaigns…

Yes, indeed. It cannot be emphasized enough that the term “fundamentalism” historically referred specifically to a movement within American Protestantism that held the view that the Bible is the direct word of God, free from error and flaw.

However, at the latest after September 11, the term came to be applied primarily to Muslim religious fanatics, thereby unfortunately pushing the danger posed by fanatics from other religious communities into the background.

Now that U.S. fundamentalists are so openly spreading their inhuman terror throughout the world, it is once again becoming clear what unscrupulous monsters they are.

Yes, that’s the point of my comment, albeit a joking one: The absurd wall that the orange pedo built can now serve the same purpose: keeping U.S. citizens trapped in the hellhole that the U.S. has become.

Unfortunately, the German federal government also wants to implement this nationwide - those wretched traitors to the people.

The excessive U.S. military spending is by no means about protecting the people. The point of it is to make billionaires richer. That is why it does not matter whether military spending yields any return or benefit, as investments in the healthcare system, infrastructure, or virtually any other sector would. That is not the intention; it is primarily about redistributing public funds into private hands.

Now it all makes sense: So the wall that orange Fuck wanted on the border with Mexico was meant to keep all the Americans inside, just like the Berlin Wall used to do between East Germany and West Germany.

Did I miss something? Why the hate?

Let’s hope for OP’s sake that Peter Dinklage isn’t hanging out in the Fediverse. You know why…

LobbyControl is a German organization based in Berlin. However, I don’t think the petition I linked to above requires German citizenship. So you can sign it too. Unfortunately, I’m afraid LobbyControl doesn’t have a multilingual website.

In this regard, please see this LobbyControl appeal, as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) -another EU regulation designed to protect citizens from the power of tech giants - is currently not being enforced the way it should be enforced: Strengthening Europe’s shield against the power of Big Tech (in German)

Google, Meta, Apple & Co. are abusing their power. To stop them, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) must be consistently enforced. That’s why you should sign the appeal for an effective DMA now! With the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU has established important rules to protect us, from which we will all benefit. Yet the European Commission is delaying the enforcement of these rules. As long as corporations like Google face no consequences for violating the DMA, the law remains ineffective. Anyone who takes our democracy seriously enforces laws—even against Big Tech.

Anything by the Butthole Surfers?

It’s almost unbelievable. All it took was nearly 170,000 signatures from concerned citizens.

It’s just a shame that the German federal government doesn’t care at all about its citizens and continues to use this fascist platform. But hey, what can you really expect from them…

I’ve always found tattoos a bit strange. Not that they bother me in any way - quite the contrary - I just could never really understand why someone would get a name, a quote, a picture, or whatever permanently inked on their skin.

And when I’m bombed out, I’m either tired or drunk.

Even German: Wayne Newton - Danke Schoen

Rousseau is sometimes cited as a precursor to Surrealism, even though he was self-taught with no formal academic training and is usually classified as a Naïve or Primitive painter.

But yes, that’s true - there are certainly some similarities to the paintings of Max Ernst: an interest in dreams, the unconscious, and irrational visual worlds and so on. Both Rousseau (through his fantastical scenes) and Max Ernst (as a leading Surrealist) drew on the uncanny and the dreamlike.

Either way, I think both have interesting paintings.

Because China can use international law to its advantage. After all, the U.S. is blackmailing its own allies and openly threatening NATO with another war of aggression against one of its founding members. It wouldn’t be unwise to join forces and impose sanctions on the U.S. together in order to strengthen ones own negotiating position. I mean everyone knows what “Taco” means by now.

Sanctions don’t even require the UN, as the example of Russia shows - a country that also holds a veto right in the UN and is a permanent member of the Security Council. Yet they do face sanctions for their war of aggression they wage against Ukraine in violation of international law - the war the US is waging against Iran is just as unlawful under international law, and so was the previous abduction of Venezuelan head of state Maduro.

This time, the US stands alone in its violation of international law - except for Israel, which is committing genocide and should have been excluded from the international community long ago.

In short: International law plays into China’s hands, especially since the US, along with its allies, is committing such horrific war crimes. Bombing hospitals and schools makes it abundantly clear what monsters they are and how dangerous such psychopaths are to the world.

On top of that, this war is paralyzing nearly 20% of global oil trade. It is by no means only China that is affected.

Unfortunately, I’m not so sure about that, because in Germany virtually every established party across the entire political spectrum still stands behind Israel.

There’s even a term for it: “Staatsräson,” which refers to Germany’s historical responsibility toward the victims of the Holocaust. Absurdly enough, it is precisely this historical responsibility that is being invoked to support Israel’s genocide, rather than to prevent it by any means necessary.

In my view, the public by no means supports the blatant abuse of this so-called “Staatsräson” by established politicians, who obviously don’t do so out of any (misguided) sense of morality.

But we’ll see - they might cave in quickly if other EU countries exert pressure, as they rightly should.

Nevertheless: Especially in Germany, the Israel lobby is unfortunately very strong - so strong, in fact, that despite the atrocities and inhuman crimes of this state, there are still many, particularly influential people who are not ashamed to continue standing up for these monsters.

I hope for the best, but I’m not quite that optimistic.