I swear, YT comments seem to be 60% bots, 20% people who have to be reminded to breathe, 10% trolls.

Of course, 110% of all statistics on the internet are pulled out of someone’s ass.

Every neighbour of theirs has a score to settle. Russia has never been a good neighbour to any of us.

I know someone who got had by a spearfishing call. They knew all the details about his phone contract, sounded 100% legit. The scammer got thousands of dollars in prepaid SIM cards from his account.

After the police investigation, turned out that the scammer was actually a former employee of the phone company who downloaded a copy of the customer list when he got fired.

The EU has multiple “second class” membership options. Multiple non-EU countries are in Schengen, even more have no visa requirements.

Multiple countries have trade deals with the EU, including Canada (as soon as CETA gets fully completed).

I enjoy the “Canada can into EU?” memes, they’re fun. It’s also really nice that in this period of insanity we can help each other.

That said, yeah. A trade agreement that drops basically all friction, bilateral visa agreements that make travel and business easier & cooperation on military purchases would be the ideal scenario. There’s a ton of things the EU and Canada can help each other with without Canada becoming a member.

What is also obvious to anybody with a minimally functional brain is that Russia would invade if they thought they could. Therefore ramping up defence is a good idea to dissuade Russia from thinking it’s a good idea. Even with that deterrence, those not covered by this (Moldova, Georgia, as mentioned) are still vulnerable.

It is a reasonable point that there needs to be a balance, as throwing the entire economy into the military by pulling societal investment will fan anti-EU pro-Russian sentiment, so a balance needs to be struck. From the tone, I doubt you’re the right person to discuss the nuance though.

Yes, total fantasy. They would never do such a thing.

I wonder what the mental gymnastics will be if/when Russia invades non-NATO countries like Moldova and Georgia.

I don’t like referring to people fighting for their culture, society, family and future as a “crumple zone”.

In this brave new world, we are all Gaullists.

Make all the “France surrendered” jokes you want

It’s so weird to me that France has been a military force that has oscillated between a force to be reckoned with and the most powerful land force in the world since the 17th century, but you lose one war to a blitzkrieg with an overconfident military leadership…