It’s pretty ball-sweatingly hot here in the Netherlands as well. Expecting 35c tomorrow and 36-38 on Wednesday.

Problem is, few houses and buildings are equipped to deal with heat like that. Everything’s well insulated, but built more for cold winters rather than hot summers. Every year, more people get air conditioning. Because you need to. It’s that or be miserable for two weeks straight. Anything above 20 makes me want to hit people.

The Netherlands also shipped a large amount of anti-tank, air defence missiles as well as a hundred sniper rifles and 30.000 rounds of ammo to Ukraine. And that was just the start.

You need to walk a fine line in international politics as a country.

But here, just you and me talking: as a Dutchman I remember those victims. And I hope every single one of those 30.000 rounds finds a loving home in the brain of a Russian. Fuck the lot of ‘em. You invade a country, you deserve to get a Dutch-sponsored surprise lead injection.

Nah, I wouldn’t worry about that. We obviously know the difference between the US, Canada and Mexico. And here in the Netherlands, you can be assured that we would choose Canadian if possible. We love Canada.

The ‘buy EU’ trend is solely focused on US goods. If the Canadians stick a maple leaf on their exports, it’ll sell for sure.

Yup. I’m not going to actively hang out with shitheads just to try and change them. I will however steamroll over them if they come into MY space and do it.

I enthusiastically support punishing Russians in every way, shape and form.

They need to seriously quit this bullshit. It serves no practical purpose in our modern society, while also having tangible negative effects. So why keep doing it?

I enthusiastically support getting rid of this nonsense.

You don’t invite foreign invaders, you shoot them between the eyes. See Ukraine.

Glad they got the hint.

Sounds great; anything that hinders Russia is cause for celebration.

Heck, I’ll take any president who lived during my lifetime over Trump.

Dubya definitely got rehabilitated the past decade in many people’s eyes. Of course, he’s still… probably… a war criminal over the whole Iraq / war on terror situation. But I certainly understand the average American wanting him over Trump. I miss when the worst thing a president did was misspeak like his ‘fool me once’.

I miss the good old ‘we don’t negotiate with terrorists’ US.

If someone breaks into your house, kicks your dog and rapes your wife, you don’t negotiate to let them keep your TV. You shoot that fucker between the eyes. That’s what we need to be doing.

There’s also simply way too many people on earth as it is. My country - one of the smallest on earth- had 15 million people back in 1995. Right now, 30 years later, we’re at 18 million. And in 2037, they’re expecting 19 million.

Small numbers on a global scale, but definitely a lot of growth that’s causing issues. There’s a housing shortage, rising prices, healthcare and pensions are under threat, etc etc.

And there’s places that are much, much worse. For example, even India is encouraging population growth. When the country is still very poor. That’s going to help their economy in the short run, but it’s going to be a much larger problem down the line.

We need a controlled population decline, sooner rather than later.

I had to use mine as a desktop for two weeks while my PC was undergoing a repair. It was wholly uneventful: installed OpenOffice and had a wholly normal workweek. It’s perfectly fine to use as a regular, boring desktop if you need it to. Absolutely love the Steamdeck. Every gamer should have one.