That’s the funny thing. Times are hard as shit - but we’re stuck with all these weak ass greedy boomers.

As a Canadian and former Vermonter I endorse this rabid obsession with maple syrup.

The majority of the world doesn’t have access to maple syrup blood infusions - we can’t give out our miracle cure to everyone.

The closest example to this you’re likely to find is in the Norse realm where, for example, Neil Gaiman (shitty rapist) packaged up “Norse Mythology” which has his retellings of various found and fabricated stories. All of them have elements from quite old tales but were built out into complete stories by adding details. You can absolutely use the old tales to build your own full stories but there are embellishments added in by the author that are their original work - so derivatives of “Norse Mythology” will likely be discernable and copyright enforceable.

Another big example I can think of is Bram Stoker which would be a nightmare for copyright if he was alive today. So much of what we consider generically vampire is just his creation - but it’s so fucking old that all those properties have now become the common mythos and the estate has no right to anything.

And as a last example… you ever wonder why D&D has a race called halflings? It’s because they’re technically legally distinct Hobbits. The Tolkien estate has been pretty loose with derivative works (a MUD I worked on had special permission to use the setting specifically granted by the estate) but they’re sticklers about some things and the word Hobbit (due to the book title) is one thing they’re really defensive about.

So my TL;DR is that a mythos can never be privatized but a mythos can be expanded and that expansion can absolutely be a private property. Sorry about using Gaiman as an example but he’s literally the only person still alive that I could think to reference.

“Look international community - all our neighbors are failed states… I guess that means it’d be more humane if we helped govern them?”

That’s why.

To be perfectly frank. I think Zelensky has done an excellent job for Ukraine and I would hope he has a chance to retire and enjoy life… no matter what he does for the rest of his life, while Putin is alive (and likely afterwards) he’ll have a target on his back and it’s fucking astounding he’s survived as long as he has. If you’ve seen pictures of him landing in Davos it’s pretty clear he’s aware that snipers could be literally anywhere.

If Ukraine is fully dependent on Zelensky surviving for their future sovereignty they’re on the thinnest of ice. I personally hope that Verkhovna Rava is majority on the same page because one mortal’s life is far too fragile to stake freedom on.

If Trump renegs the US gets nothing. This is awful but the real politik is probably that this is the best solution Ukraine can access that stops the violence.

And it’s possible Zelensky is planning to reneg on the deal as soon as Trump is out if America can accomplish that.

Technically, that’d be essentially no different of an agreement than not having a cease fire at all…

While I think this is absolutely exploitative I think one reason Zelensky is agreeing is because the US getting access to those minerals is dependent on ensuring independence (or else making an arrangement with Russia which the US could do without even setting up this cease fire pretense)

It actually opens the door to Ukraine reneging on the deal as soon as Trump is out of office and then working towards a more equitable cease fire. I’d view this cease fire as a stop gap to stem the bleeding.

Terrorists Win.

Unlikely unless Trump crashes the bond market by refusing to honor treasuries. If that happens a lot of banks will be underwater in assets.