A lot of good points here about pros and cons when considering republic vs constitutional monarchy. I was myself against the idea of monarchy for quite a while, but I realize it’s mostly because I was living in the UK at the time and was exposed to how normal people are treated compared to the upper class. In addition, though the British royal family doesn’t have any power on paper, they have vast connections in all parts of the government and private sector with many ways to influence things. Also, the UK was until recently a two party state, which meant almost total power to whichever party won the election.

Scandinavia doesn’t have as much of a disparity between social classes (even counting royals), and what I see here is that the monarchy provides a stability and continuity that we wouldn’t get with a republic. Anyone can lie, cheat and bribe their way to getting elected president, but when you have a dozen different parties with different policies passing laws with a monarch as an anchor, it works out pretty well.

The King of Norway has a mostly symbolic role in day-to-day affairs. New laws that have been passed by the Storting (Parliament) will have their final approval signed by the King, but this is largely a token approval. The King does have veto power over any given amendment, but if he invokes it, Parliament has the right to vote the same amendment through a second time, at which point it cannot be vetoed. He is the head of the Church of Norway, and also supreme commander of our armed forces. Though command is delegated to other commanders, the King would have a more direct role in questions regarding central command or wartime. When representing our country abroad, he is very much considered a personification of the nation, rather than a representative of the ruling party. Norway’s main reason for maintaining our own monarchy stems very much from declaring independence from Denmark and Sweden, which ruled us for about 500 years.

Who needs’em? If Uncle Vlad hears that Ze Germans are rolling across the Polish border, he’ll be skipping on one leg back to Russia while changing his soiled pants. :D

Probably couldn’t trust Trump to come through, but you have to keep in mind that he’s not an autocrat quite yet. Not everyone in the US government shares his views on NATO and the commitments the US has pledged to under that alliance. Look at the rest of NATO. You have four of the top ten military powers in the world to start off with (UK, France, Turkey, Italy). Then add to that the rest of Europe and Poland’s own considerable military might. Canada would also join in, and those otherwise peaceful Canadians go fucking nuts when provoked. Even disregarding NATO, you have the Anglo-Polish Alliance, which is a mutual assurance that the UK provides military assistance (or vice versa) if their ally is invaded. Poland also has many close friends and allies in the old East Bloc, so the misconception that they would be left to their own devices is simply untrue.

Ukraine isn’t a member of NATO. In fact, their wish to join the EU and NATO could very well be the excuse Putin needed to start the invasion.

What else do we have left at this point?

Ukraine not being a NATO member yet is most likely among the main reasons Putin had the balls to send troops across the border. There’s absolutely no way he’d risk a full-on confrontation with NATO, because he knows it would be the end of the Russian Federation.

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An attack on Poland would immediately invoke NATO Article 5, drawing in the combined forces of continental Europe, the UK, the US and Turkey. The world wouldn’t need to worry about it going nuclear, conventional forces would have the Russians back over the Belarusian border by lunchtime.

I don’t even live in the US, but the internet has conditioned me to prepare myself for something batshit insane whenever I read the words “Florida man”. What’s up with that?

Have another downvote, on the house.

The fact that you’re asking has already answered the question. You’re only five weeks in, and already you’re showing more care for the child than some get through their whole childhood. Your greatest gifts will be love, wisdom, patience, understanding and a safe harbour when seas are rough. You’ll do great, and I’m cheering you on. All the best for the pregnancy to come full term.

If it’s Korean noodle soup (like buldak or nongshim), I throw in some sliced spam, an egg, fresh spring onion and a couple slices of American cheese (that plastic cheese they use on burgers). If it’s dry noodles, specifically IndoMie’s Mee Goreng, I shit you not, try adding a teaspoon of unsalted peanut butter in there.

Norwegians are supreme in the Nordics. We can count to five.

I think he’s smarter than he lets on. Being a doofus for the whole world to see is for some reason highly profitable.

Very good point. Many personal journeys of discovery and liberation make for an exodus.

He’s an attention-seeking edgelord and a buffoon, but I highly doubt the Nazi allegations. This comes from someone who genuinely believes in the right to punch Nazis. We need to be careful about throwing the Nazi-card in all directions, or the real ones will slip through the cracks (some have already managed to skip into positions of power while us plebs are squabbling). He did a couple of insanely stupid things that he should have grown out of by age 15, hopefully he learned from that.

Not personally a fan of Pewds, but this is a good thing. Dude’s still got 110M subscribers, he can reach an enormous viewer base. Not only that, but he’s got a magical ability to reach younger people in a way that grumpy old farts like me can’t (I’m five years older than him, which makes me a fossil). If Linux has had one problem through all its years on the good, green Earth, it’s marketing. Pewds might be just what it needs for this to finally be the Year of the Linux Desktop.