Do y’all read the articles before commenting?

Underlining the difficulty Europe could have in summoning a united response, some member states, including Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Romania, said they were unhappy that the Paris meeting was not a full EU summit.

“On a symbolic level, the organisers of the Paris summit show to the world that even within the EU, not all states are treated equally,” Slovenia’s pro-European president, Nataša Pirc Musar, said in a statement.

I’m what the culture’s feeling. I just speak on it because we’ve been eating this shit for so long, but no one seems to notice and no one seems to care.

I just invited you (well, presumably, the Romanian government) to do that. And also mentioned how that’s kind of a foot in the mouth moment:

I can’t disprove that I’m part of the Romanian government without revealing personally identifiable information. This is called arguing in bad faith and violates the rules of this community. Read the tab on your right. Furthermore, this is an attack on my character, not my argument.

You can’t decided on a “what” question, only on a concrete proposal. A plan. Can you field such a thing? Do you have it somewhere in a drawer? Why have a prominent, high-stakes summit if there’s nothing to decide. Press will be there, expectations high, results are expected. So make sure you can deliver results. Things must be hashed out beforehand using the usual diplomatic channels.

You are speaking nonsense. If we had to have a plan precooked before we could be invited, what’s the point of the brainstorming session? Did all those 8 countries have a fucking plan too?

Do you want UK boots next to EU boots on Ukrainian ground? Then include the UK. It can’t be a EU summit because the UK is included. It must be done before the EU thing so we know what the UK is ok with, what not, what its whole idea of the thing is. Outside perception wise, this summit (as opposed to diplomats having a zoom call) is about signalling: The UK is in the fray.

If it’s just about signaling that the UK is in the fray, why invite a bunch of EU members to the backdoor meeting? We would have seen each other in the regularly scheduled summit, right?

Oh. Good one. But the reason is simple: Because Turkey is a giant PITA both-sides’ing the whole thing. You’ll never get a firm stance out of them, for the simple reason that they don’t do firm stances. They juggle. “Zero problems with any neighbour to bring about the justice that Allah commanded” and they do consider Russia a neighbour.

They consider Russia a client, not a neighbour. Much like anyone else who is willing to dish out some money. I’m not saying they’re morally correct. I’m saying that they are strategically relevant and yet were not invited.

Not terribly relevant right now, no. It’s not like Turkey wouldn’t be selling them… or that Ukraine didn’t, by now, have actually equally capable to superior drone tech themselves.

We’re brainstorming, right? If America isn’t selling drones anymore, gotta get 'em from somewhere. You’re just arrogantly writing off a supplier.

No you’re a drunken land bridge to Greece with a language without grammatical exceptions, because for there to be exceptions there would have to be rules in the first place. If you want to be useful right now, yes, do summit with EU neighbours and Moldova and non-EU Balkans, then bring that to the EU table as France will bring the UK’s stance to the table.

Your overt bigotry aside, I bring forth to you again the question, if it’s just about signaling that the UK is in the fray, why invite a bunch of EU members to the backdoor meeting? Much less ignore a bunch of other EU members.

OK so at this point you have sufficiently demonstrated my point. It was never about strategic relevance, because then Romania, Bulgaria and Greece would have been invited. If it was about being in the EU, then they wouldn’t have invited the UK. If it was about military might, they would have invited Turkey. What I can only surmise from here on is the fact that we in Eastern Europe were never part of the equation. We are only here as a buffer. They could have invited our reps just for show, but they couldn’t be assed to do that.

Damn, I forgot about the teaching aspect of programming. Must be hard. I can’t blame students for taking shortcuts when they’re almost assuredly swamped with other classwork and sleep-deprived, but still. This is where my defeatist comment comes in, because I genuinely think LLMs are here to stay. Like autocomplete, but dumber. Just gotta have students recognize when ChatGPT hallucinates solutions, I guess.

OK if they’re a dime a dozen, then why not drop a dime and call a god damn EU summit? The agenda is pretty fucking clear, no? What are we doing about Ukraine? Why leave us in the cold? The fact that the UK is invited but Eastern EU isn’t is so fucking insane. Actually, let’s go a step further. Why wasn’t Turkey invited? It’s not EU and Erdogan is a piece of shit, sure, but I’m betting those Bayraktar drones would prove pretty useful during wartime, no? Add to that the fact that it also shares the Black Sea with Ukraine. Really ask yourself the question: What was the criteria for an invitation? The UK was invited so it’s not about being in the EU. All of Eastern EU + Turkey wasn’t invited, so it must not be about military might and strategic relevance. So what are the criteria?

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: If you want a united EU, then stop treating us as if we’re just a buffer zone between Western Europe and Russia. Enough is enough.

Be that as it may, it’s way out in Western Europe. The question was whether those countries have military offerings. The answer is yes, by virtue of proximity. Furthermore the Hellenic Army is significantly larger and the combined weapons manufacturing industry of the Balkans is nothing to scoff at. It just boils down to the fact that if Ukraine falls, we in Eastern Europe are next, but no one fucking gives a shit. Cannon fodder for the West.

Did you just call the meeting where EU decides their approach to the conflict in Ukraine with waning American support a fucking brainstorming session? This is not fantasy football. People’s lives are at stake, both in Ukraine and otherwise. If the world wants for the EU to show a united front, then why not have a fucking summit, instead of cherry-picking?

Adding to my answer, it is just as I said. The reps of only those 8 countries were invited, plus Ursula von der Leyen, Antonio Costa and Mark Rutte. This is not an EU summit. That’s the entire problem.

Aight sick, so why invite anyone? We’re all NATO in the EU, right? Just have Macron, Antonio Costa, Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte in the room.

Poland is officially considered Central Europe, but sure, why play semantics? Let’s call it Eastern Europe. This would be an even better reason to invite all other Eastern Europe reps. Why just invite one, right?

As far as I can surmise from the article, no. No one else was even invited.

Does Spain? Or are they just bringing the fucking paella for the meeting?

Look up the size of the Hellenic Army. Notice that Romania borders with Ukraine. Notice that Bulgaria and Romania share the Black Sea with it.

The whole world cries for a united EU and yet we never get a seat at the table. Sorry for being annoyed by the hypocrisy a little.

The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council and the Nato secretary general are expected to attend.

Discussing Ukraine crisis, but doesn’t invite Romania, Bulgaria, Greece or any Balkan country for that matter. Love it. Why would Euroscepticism be on the rise? Why would far-right parties be on the up-and-up? Why would people be turning more Z?

Call out America for discussing the conflict without involving Ukraine (as you rightfully should), but then do basically the same thing with literally everyone in Eastern Europe. Fucking hypocrites.

Edit:

Let this thread be a demonstration of the fact that Western Europe has always seen us of Eastern Europe as nothing more than uneducated barbarians. They will judge the American harshly for their treatment of minorities, but they will never exercise the same level of criticism to their treatment of their own neighbors, let alone their own minority groups. I don’t agree with much of what Slavoj Žižek says, but what he said back in 1996 rings true even now, which is that they will always see us as beneath them.

Look, ultimately the problem is the same as it has always been: juniors doing junior shit. There’s just more of it going on. If you’re hiring one, you put a senior on them ready to extinguish fires. A good review process is a must.

Now that I think about it, there was this one time the same young’un I was talking about tried to commit this insane subroutine that was basically resizing a vector in the most roundabout way imaginable. Probably would have worked, but you can also just use the resize method, y’know? In retrospect, that was probably some Copilot bullshit, but because we have a review process in place, it was never an issue.

I’m a little defeatist about it. I saw with my own 3 eyes how a junior asked ChatGPT how to insert something into an std::unordered_map. I tell them about cppreference. The little shit tells me “Sorry unc, ChatGPT is objectively more efficient”. I almost blew a fucking gasket, mainly cuz I’m not that god damn old. I don’t care how much you try to convince me that LLMs are efficient, there is no shot they are more efficient than opening a static page with all the info you would ever need. Not even considering energy efficiency. Utility aside, the damage we have dealt to developing minds is irreversible. We have convinced them that thought is optional. This is gonna bite us in the ass. Hard.

I didn’t know about this so I checked out the Wikipedia article. Wild shit, I tell you.

Yarl sought help at three different homes before someone finally complied.[14] Neighbors had found him lying injured in the street and called police, who found him with at least two gunshot wounds to the head and arm.[13]

The district attorney stated there was a “racial component” to the case.[3] Assistant prosecuting attorney Alexander Higginbotham clarified that “there is not a racial element to the legal charges that were filed”. Legal experts noted this was likely because a hate crime charge would have carried a lower maximum sentence.

Increase the price of the product, prepare for less clients and weather the storm. We’re all eating a free market-sourced shit sandwich out here.

Fuckin’ hell, imagine seeing your dad do this. I’m generally not all that sympathetic to the plight of rich kids, but man do I hope that North doesn’t get affected by this in any irreversible way.

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Actually the preferred term is illegal aliens. I omit the latter because calling a human being an alien is the actual dehumanising part. Spare me the insipid fuckin moralisation.

Indeed. It’s a lot to put on Canada and Mexico, but such is the situation. You’re the world’s first line of defense against the McReich.

I’ll do my part by buying your exports the most I can, especially if the other option is to buy from America. If there’s anything else you think we can do to help even on an individual level, please share.

I agree, but something has to give. It behooves the world to treat current version of Repubs as the 2nd 3rd Reich. Appeasement concessions is what they’re looking for. As such, it’s on Canada & Mexico to establish robust trade partnerships that don’t include the putrid carcass of Uncle Sam that’s being marionetted by that orange psychopath.

You don’t avoid tariffs per se. When the good enters the country, the tariff is paid to customs. It’s just an import tax. Now to recoup the loss from that tariff, it will be sold to you at a markup. You can still pay Canadian and Mexican goods, but the best thing you can do is optimize shit where you live.

My recommendation to you would be to buy less if you can help it. Don’t use Amazon if you can help it. Legumes, grains, dairy, produce, water, cheap protein, all bought locally. If you can purchase from illegals even better. I got this guy that sells me honey on my way back from work. It’s fire. Look at it as a little challenge you impose on yourself. You don’t need to do it perfectly. If enough people do it imperfectly, the corporate concerns that got you all into this mess will feel the hurt.