Indeed, I think they would at this point.

But they’re sure as shit not keeping the pound sterling if they try to rejoin. That was a one-time deal.

wtf are you even talking about?

Payment of the bond does not guarantee a visa will be granted, but the amount will be refunded if the visa is denied or when a visa holder demonstrates they have complied with the terms of visa.

I would bet money that they’re gonna “find ways” to not give a lot of those bonds back

This does seem like the UN’s League of Nations moment

• annex Venezuela
• make Venezuela your vassal
• loot and pillage Venezuela

Reminder: the vestiges of Blackwater now operate under the auspices of Constellis, so watch for them to get PMC contracts in Venezuela.

Just in case there was any confusion on what one of the primary goals here was

Except that was a peaceful process, not an invasion/annexation. Because part of Taiwan’s strategic defense policy is “we will melt our chip fabs to slag if the PRC invades”. Thus, they hold a gun to the head of pretty much all of the most advanced chip fabrication in the world, which most of the rest of the world has a vested interest in keeping working.

It would be pretty wild if the Korean reunification was accomplished due to the complete demographic collapse of South Korea.

Though, NK isn’t doing that much better, coming in with a fertility rate somewhere between 1.3 and 1.4, which is somewhat unusual when compared to other countries with extreme poverty.

Frankly, security assurances from the current US regime to Ukraine are very probably worth less than the paper they’re written on.

please notice me, Xi senpai 🥺

If past precedent is any indicator, they’ll just deport the guy anyways and not give a fuck

Generations, more like

You’re debating a tankie, so rhetorical fact-based argument is not going to yield positive results.

That’s not how IADS works.

Also, the Ukrainians have more than enough air defense capacity to massively maul any aerial force that attempts a north-south transit of the country. Russia has been keeping their sorties almost entirely over airspace they control, as a result. The strikes you have been seeing them do (against Ukrainian military and civilian targets) are almost exclusively executed with standoff weapons like cruise missiles (of which “kamikaze drones” are essential subtype), glide bombs, and SRBMs. Russian stealth doesn’t really work, and they’re super nervous about losing their supposed wunderwaffe (e.g. the dozen or so Su-57s they’ve made over a couple decades)

It’s a bit of an indirect approach, but we technically have that - for offshore quakes at least

We wouldn’t be giving them an airstrip in the middle of Europe, because all the countries around it (except Ukraine) are in NATO, and there is no path to the sea that is over a non-NATO country. And the ruskies demonstrably do not have the capability to fly across the entirety of Ukrainian airspace unmolested.

Legislators? Too busy?

That’s a great joke - particularly given how much vacation time they vote to give themselves.

• I agree that the seizures are deeply inappropriate and almost certainly illegal. The strikes, doubly so.
• the USCG actually deploys overseas from time to time - for instance, they were a part of the international force that was off the coast of Somalia a few years back to help defend against the rampant piracy and hijacking.

Tangentially, I’m curious to see how ticket sales crater from international visitors compared to years past, due to our the absolutely unhinged customs/border policies the regime has introduced (and is actively making more extreme).

As a unitedstatesian, look into the wildly changed and extremely invasive entry/visa requirements before you consider visiting. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t - and I say that out of respect for privacy and human rights, not any sense of xenophobia. Shit is getting very weird here in a very bad way, if you’ve not been paying attention.

Unitedstatesian here: that “elbows up” strategy really is going to be your best bet going forward. You should start treating our government as a potential/likely adversary.