@Novela
@dgar

@CiaraNi

We need a EuropeShifts.

@Dodo_sipping

I use Wise. It has excellent currency conversion and there is a useful 'friend or associate' direct transfer function.

@SheDrivesMobility

They also understand humiliation and rejection

@Tarnport

The priest seems rather out of it but appears to be simultaneously the drummer?

@Pepijn @benroyce

In the real world there is only China. The USA wants to boost global warming as rapidly as possible. China's economy is predicated on renewables.

The USA is actively threatening. China is a putative threat.

If we set aside history and shared culture, the case is there. Diplomacy is messy.

The sole reason to prefer the USA would be the hope that progressives there get their act together.

We live on a small planet. There are no magical options.

#USpol

@Pepijn @benroyce

If his opponents in the US don't kick out him and his cronies, we are finished. The US is so powerful, especially militarily, that even with determination we could not repel an onslaught.

Caught between two authoritarian behemoths, the rational choice would be to have some form of stand-off alliance with the superpower which is committed to green energy and science.

@Tarnport

On a few instances it is very usual. On most it is shockingly low. Tusky now has a warning if that field is empty.

Ignorance must be a large part of it but I think we have to accept that a lot simply can't be bothered.

I don't really see the problem, as hardly anyone I follow is thoughtless enough not to do it.

@Tarnport

The brown background is just incompetent. The artist wasn't. I wonder whether it started green and was smeared over later? The facial marks are crude, as if applied in anger.

A painting was a hugely expensive item at the time. What artist was so wealthy that they could afford to mess up their work like this?

To me, it looks like an enraged repaint of a commission not paid for.