Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, elected Thailand’s new prime minister

Thailand’s parliament has voted to approve the daughter of the divisive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra as the new prime minister, two days after a court removed the last incumbent over an ethics violation.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, who is the leader of the Pheu Thai party, becomes the country’s youngest ever to hold the office.

Ms Paetongtarn is Thailand’s second female prime minister and the country’s third leader from the Shinawatra family, after her father and her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra.

In her first comments as prime minister, she said she had been saddened and confused by her predecessor Srettha Thavisin’s dismissal and decided it was time to step up.

“I talked to Srettha, my family and people in my party and decided it was about time to do something for the country and the party,” she told reporters.

“I hope I can do my best to make the country go forward. That’s what I’m trying to do. Today I’m honoured and I feel very happy.”

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday removed Mr Srettha from office after finding him guilty of a serious ethical breach regarding his appointment of a cabinet member who was jailed in connection with an alleged bribery attempt.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-16/thailand-prime-minister-paetongtarn-shinawatra-pheu-thai-thaksin/104234648

Those fun-loving Turks:

Blood shed on floor of Turkish parliament as government and opposition MPs brawl

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-17/fistfight-breaks-out-in-turkish-parliament/104238346

Bubblecar said:

Those fun-loving Turks:

Blood shed on floor of Turkish parliament as government and opposition MPs brawl

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-17/fistfight-breaks-out-in-turkish-parliament/104238346

Meanwhile……………. Turkey burns.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-16/anzac-cove-under-threat-as-fires-rage-across-turkiye/104234492

Woodie said:

Bubblecar said:

SCIENCE said:

fucking the genius

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-16/anzac-cove-under-threat-as-fires-rage-across-turkiye/104234492

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned of the possibility fires raging towards Gallipoli may reach the graves of Australian soldiers at ANZAC Cove.

Mr Albanese’s statement comes after an update from the general manager for Türkiye’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Bekir Karacabey, who said firefighters were managing the blaze.

“Let’s be careful to prevent other fires in these days when the risk of fire increases due to extraordinary weather conditions.”

so might “extraordinary” be the new ordinary when global warming potentiates fires like there’s no tomorrow, do yous think that taking better action to turn that warming around might be careful preventative action at all nah fuck it burn more coal and gas

Those fun-loving Turks:

Blood shed on floor of Turkish parliament as government and opposition MPs brawl

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-17/fistfight-breaks-out-in-turkish-parliament/104238346

Meanwhile……………. Turkey burns.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-16/anzac-cove-under-threat-as-fires-rage-across-turkiye/104234492

(y)

How Unfair Is This Not All Men Rape Doctors Who Menstruate But Healthcare Workers Are Denying All Men Health Care

Doctors and medical professionals across India have started a 24-hour shutdown as protests continue over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor.

The 31-year-old doctor was found dead in a medical college in Kolkata earlier this month.

Yeah but they’re communist

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-sock-yong-phang-henry-george/104237980

ASIANS so we should do nothing like them¡

SCIENCE said:

Yeah but they’re communist

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-sock-yong-phang-henry-george/104237980

ASIANS so we should do nothing like them¡

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

Yeah but they’re communist

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-sock-yong-phang-henry-george/104237980

ASIANS so we should do nothing like them¡

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

Yet we had a housing commission that commissioned what were called Commission Houses.

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

Yeah but they’re communist

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-sock-yong-phang-henry-george/104237980

ASIANS so we should do nothing like them¡

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

Housing availability/affordability is a means of social control, too busy surviving to kick up to much of a stink about anything

roughbarked said:

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

Yeah but they’re communist

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-sock-yong-phang-henry-george/104237980

ASIANS so we should do nothing like them¡

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

Yet we had a housing commission that commissioned what were called Commission Houses.

About 3% of residences are public housing in Australia.
It doesn’t really do anything about keeping home prices affordable, which seems largely tied to supply. About 80% of Singaporeans live in buildings that either are Housing Development Board buildings, or were originally built by the HDB.
For locals it is quite affordable. You can get a 3 brm apartment 10 km atcf from the CBD (15 minute ride on the MRT) for $S450000 (about 510000 AUD). This is one of the busiest and most prosperous cities on Earth. The govt takes it as a responsibility that there are available family homes that cost no more than 6 times average fulltime income.
The extent to which the Singapore govt micromanages housing, food and health costs is, I suppose, socialistic, but there is a completely separate unregulated market for luxury condominiums and homes on large blocks that can easily run to 8 to 10 million dollars: this way the govt can glean benefit from the ultrawealthy investors and foreigners while still attending to people’s basic needs for the sake of social cohesion.

I’m not sure what the cheapest 3brm home within 10 km of Sydney’s CBD is. I would suppose Marrickville is still one the less expensive places that close in? Correct me if wrong. The median 3brm apartment price in Marrickville in the last quarter was $1.435 million.

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

Yeah but they’re communist

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-sock-yong-phang-henry-george/104237980

ASIANS so we should do nothing like them¡

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

They probably don’t want to reduce the prices to the point where banks foreclose and kick the owners onto the street.

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

Yeah but they’re communist

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-sock-yong-phang-henry-george/104237980

ASIANS so we should do nothing like them¡

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

They probably don’t want to reduce the prices to the point where banks foreclose and kick the owners onto the street.

The banks don’t want that, either. That would be the beginning of a very rapid collapse of the Australian housing market.

It will happen one day, but the banks are naturally keen to postpone it for a long as is possible.

captain_spalding said:

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

They probably don’t want to reduce the prices to the point where banks foreclose and kick the owners onto the street.

The banks don’t want that, either. That would be the beginning of a very rapid collapse of the Australian housing market.

It will happen one day, but the banks are naturally keen to postpone it for a long as is possible.

In previous cycles there have been longish periods of near static house prices, combined with mid to high level geberal inflation.

There’s no reason that can’t happen again, if things are handled sensibly.

captain_spalding said:

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

It’s kind of hard to picture any Australian political party, including the Greens, having the gumption to make housing affordability a government responsibility.

They probably don’t want to reduce the prices to the point where banks foreclose and kick the owners onto the street.

The banks don’t want that, either. That would be the beginning of a very rapid collapse of the Australian housing market.

It will happen one day, but the banks are naturally keen to postpone it for a long as is possible.

The obvious solution is to reduce the benefits for purchasers of multiple properties – such as negative gearing. Own an investment property? Full negative gearing. Got a second? 50% benefits. A third? None.

They Blamed Havana But

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-20/elite-adf-soldiers-concern-blasts-from-own-weapons-brain-injury/104154038

Interesting

I still can’t believe this. It really is straight out of fiction.

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/news/kids-of-released-russian-spies-didnt-know-they-were-russian/news-story/3ca4b39fbb605b001ad39eb162150c07

Kids of released Russian spies didn’t know they were Russian
Life was pretty uneventful for this Argentinian brother and sister – until they found out they were actually Russian and about to meet President Putin, after their spy parents became part of a major prisoner exchange

The lives of two kids have been turned upside down after they found out they were living a lie.

The siblings, aged 11 and eight, had been living in Slovenia since 2017 – but nothing was as it seemed.

Friends and families knew their parents as Argentinian couple Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and her husband.

dv said:

I still can’t believe this. It really is straight out of fiction.

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/news/kids-of-released-russian-spies-didnt-know-they-were-russian/news-story/3ca4b39fbb605b001ad39eb162150c07

Kids of released Russian spies didn’t know they were Russian
Life was pretty uneventful for this Argentinian brother and sister – until they found out they were actually Russian and about to meet President Putin, after their spy parents became part of a major prisoner exchange

The lives of two kids have been turned upside down after they found out they were living a lie.

The siblings, aged 11 and eight, had been living in Slovenia since 2017 – but nothing was as it seemed.

Friends and families knew their parents as Argentinian couple Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and her husband.

One thing I would like to know about this story was were the parents actually prisoners? Or did the family get a knock on their door one evening and told to pack their bags?

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

I still can’t believe this. It really is straight out of fiction.

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/news/kids-of-released-russian-spies-didnt-know-they-were-russian/news-story/3ca4b39fbb605b001ad39eb162150c07

Kids of released Russian spies didn’t know they were Russian
Life was pretty uneventful for this Argentinian brother and sister – until they found out they were actually Russian and about to meet President Putin, after their spy parents became part of a major prisoner exchange

The lives of two kids have been turned upside down after they found out they were living a lie.

The siblings, aged 11 and eight, had been living in Slovenia since 2017 – but nothing was as it seemed.

Friends and families knew their parents as Argentinian couple Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and her husband.

One thing I would like to know about this story was were the parents actually prisoners? Or did the family get a knock on their door one evening and told to pack their bags?

B

SCIENCE said:

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

I still can’t believe this. It really is straight out of fiction.

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/news/kids-of-released-russian-spies-didnt-know-they-were-russian/news-story/3ca4b39fbb605b001ad39eb1

Kids of released Russian spies didn’t know they were Russian
Life was pretty uneventful for this Argentinian brother and sister – until they found out they were actually Russian and about to meet President Putin, after their spy parents became part of a major prisoner exchange

The lives of two kids have been turned upside down after they found out they were living a lie.

The siblings, aged 11 and eight, had been living in Slovenia since 2017 – but nothing was as it seemed.

Friends and families knew their parents as Argentinian couple Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and her husband.

One thing I would like to know about this story was were the parents actually prisoners? Or did the family get a knock on their door one evening and told to pack their bags?

B

That said it really isn’t all that unusual for refugees or even economic migrants to live under assumed identities so shrug.

SCIENCE said:

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

I still can’t believe this. It really is straight out of fiction.

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/news/kids-of-released-russian-spies-didnt-know-they-were-russian/news-story/3ca4b39fbb605b001ad39eb162150c07

Kids of released Russian spies didn’t know they were Russian
Life was pretty uneventful for this Argentinian brother and sister – until they found out they were actually Russian and about to meet President Putin, after their spy parents became part of a major prisoner exchange

The lives of two kids have been turned upside down after they found out they were living a lie.

The siblings, aged 11 and eight, had been living in Slovenia since 2017 – but nothing was as it seemed.

Friends and families knew their parents as Argentinian couple Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and her husband.

One thing I would like to know about this story was were the parents actually prisoners? Or did the family get a knock on their door one evening and told to pack their bags?

B

I’d be interested to solve that mystery as well.

Amish community fined $400,000 for failing to download ArriveCan app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZYUJYQLAs

sarahs mum said:

Amish community fined $400,000 for failing to download ArriveCan app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZYUJYQLAs

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

dv said:

sarahs mum said:

Amish community fined $400,000 for failing to download ArriveCan app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZYUJYQLAs

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

https://www.rebelnews.com/amish_community_under_attack_over_digital_mandates_they_didnt_know_existed
?
Link

dv said:

sarahs mum said:

Amish community fined $400,000 for failing to download ArriveCan app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZYUJYQLAs

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

It seems to only be reported on so-called “Rebel News” and social media etc.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

sarahs mum said:

Amish community fined $400,000 for failing to download ArriveCan app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZYUJYQLAs

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

https://www.rebelnews.com/amish_community_under_attack_over_digital_mandates_they_didnt_know_existed
?
Link

Rebel News is right-wing woo and conspiracy.

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

sarahs mum said:

Amish community fined $400,000 for failing to download ArriveCan app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZYUJYQLAs

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

It seems to only be reported on so-called “Rebel News” and social media etc.

Yeah. Probably some bogus thing.

Bubblecar said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

https://www.rebelnews.com/amish_community_under_attack_over_digital_mandates_they_didnt_know_existed
?
Link

Rebel News is right-wing woo and conspiracy.

That’s why the ? was put there.

sorry. I try hard not to click on right wing shit.

At the old place in 2008 I predicted that we would never again see oil prices over 140 USD. Demand would flatten as alternatives ramp up, I thought.

We gave it a bit of a nudge in the post Covid rush with a top of 117 USD.

The 2nd graph shows the inflation adjusted price.

The sharp increase in oil production in the US in the past two years is kind of astonishing. The US now produces twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

The Americas as a whole produce more oil than OPEC.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

sarahs mum said:

Amish community fined $400,000 for failing to download ArriveCan app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZYUJYQLAs

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

https://www.rebelnews.com/amish_community_under_attack_over_digital_mandates_they_didnt_know_existed
?
Link

I mean a real news item.

sarahs mum said:

sorry. I try hard not to click on right wing shit.

I didn’t click, just copied the only ‘so called’ news link.

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Are you able to find a news item on this?

It is just that no one needs to use that app. It’s just to speed up the arrival process. Plenty of people enter Canada without it.

https://www.rebelnews.com/amish_community_under_attack_over_digital_mandates_they_didnt_know_existed
?
Link

I mean a real news item.

Yes. I gathered that.

The tribunal, convened by Sport Resolutions, accepted Sinner’s explanation the anabolic agent clostebol entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy.

Wrong excuse mate you should have blamed the catering services.

This needs a good guy with a gun.

Several people have been killed in a stabbing incident in the western Germany city of Solingen, according to local media. Newspaper Bild reported a man armed with a knife stabbed passers-by at random at a city festival on Friday night, local time.

SCIENCE said:

This needs a good guy with a gun.

Several people have been killed in a stabbing incident in the western Germany city of Solingen, according to local media. Newspaper Bild reported a man armed with a knife stabbed passers-by at random at a city festival on Friday night, local time.

So what do we do about the ?honour stabbings?”:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-24/stateline-honour-based-violence-on-the-rise-globally/104243642

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

This needs a good guy with a gun.

Several people have been killed in a stabbing incident in the western Germany city of Solingen, according to local media. Newspaper Bild reported a man armed with a knife stabbed passers-by at random at a city festival on Friday night, local time.

So what do we do about the honour stabbings?

oops.

So like all good insular USAoles we never heard of these fellas so

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-25/vietnamese-leader-to-lams-rise-power-compared-xi-jinping/104247160

it led us like The Rev Dodgson to these fellas we never heard of

https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/restaurants/article187900759.html

and found early examples of woke pinko commie leftist illegal immigrant cancel culture

and the scoping WINTATE assertion that

By around 2015, the concept of canceling had become widespread on Black Twitter to refer to a personal decision, sometimes seriously and sometimes in jest, to stop supporting a person or work. According to Jonah Engel Bromwich of The New York Times, this usage of the word “cancellation” indicates the “total disinvestment in something (anything)”. After numerous cases of online shaming gained wide notoriety, the term “cancellation” was increasingly used to describe a widespread, outraged, online response to a single provocative statement, against a single target. Over time, as isolated instances of cancellation became more frequent and the mob mentality more apparent, commentators began seeing a “culture” of outrage and cancellation.

.

Good, this should push the window further to fascism¡

Police said in a statement that the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian man who had “given himself up to authorities… and declared himself responsible for the attack”.

I do kind of question the emphasis in reporting in the US.
Knife attacks in Germany are big news.

The homicide rate in the US is about 7 per 100000 per annum. That in Germany is 0.8 per 100000. The personal safety levels are incomparable.

Of course some states are worse than others. The worst five are as follows (all per 100000)
Louisiana 15.8
Missouri 11.8
Arkansas 10.6
Mississippi 10.6
South Carolina 10.5

The homicide rate in the deep south is on average 14 times higher than in Germany. Might be a governance thing.

dv said:

I do kind of question the emphasis in reporting in the US.
Knife attacks in Germany are big news.

The homicide rate in the US is about 7 per 100000 per annum. That in Germany is 0.8 per 100000. The personal safety levels are incomparable.

Of course some states are worse than others. The worst five are as follows (all per 100000)
Louisiana 15.8
Missouri 11.8
Arkansas 10.6
Mississippi 10.6
South Carolina 10.5

The homicide rate in the deep south is on average 14 times higher than in Germany. Might be a governance thing.

Yes, well, removing guns from society will help enormously. We’ve done the experiment, and it has worked remarkably well.

Michael V said:

dv said:

I do kind of question the emphasis in reporting in the US.
Knife attacks in Germany are big news.

The homicide rate in the US is about 7 per 100000 per annum. That in Germany is 0.8 per 100000. The personal safety levels are incomparable.

Of course some states are worse than others. The worst five are as follows (all per 100000)
Louisiana 15.8
Missouri 11.8
Arkansas 10.6
Mississippi 10.6
South Carolina 10.5

The homicide rate in the deep south is on average 14 times higher than in Germany. Might be a governance thing.

Yes, well, removing guns from society will help enormously. We’ve done the experiment, and it has worked remarkably well.

Small price to pay for True Freedom®.

“It was an operation that failed in its objective of arresting Puigdemont, which can be defined as a mistake, but we weren’t made to look like fools,” Chief Sallent said.

SCIENCE said:

“It was an operation that failed in its objective of arresting Puigdemont, which can be defined as a mistake, but we weren’t made to look like fools,” Chief Sallent said.

Good

SCIENCE said:

“It was an operation that failed in its objective of arresting Puigdemont, which can be defined as a mistake, but we weren’t made to look like fools,” Chief Sallent said.

No, they were not made to look like fools. They achieved that by their own means, on their own initiative ( or lack of it).

SCIENCE said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

I do kind of question the emphasis in reporting in the US.
Knife attacks in Germany are big news.

The homicide rate in the US is about 7 per 100000 per annum. That in Germany is 0.8 per 100000. The personal safety levels are incomparable.

Of course some states are worse than others. The worst five are as follows (all per 100000)
Louisiana 15.8
Missouri 11.8
Arkansas 10.6
Mississippi 10.6
South Carolina 10.5

The homicide rate in the deep south is on average 14 times higher than in Germany. Might be a governance thing.

Yes, well, removing guns from society will help enormously. We’ve done the experiment, and it has worked remarkably well.

Small price to pay for True Freedom®.

Yes.

BBC News:

Now we know why the Taliban is so opposed to girls getting an education.

It’s too risky. There’s too much of a chance that it will kill them (by means of, maybe, some Taliban chappie shooting them with a machine gun).

Not compatible with Islamic law.

It’s not clear to me that prosecution is the best way to deal with the secessionist movement anyway.

dv said:

It’s not clear to me that prosecution is the best way to deal with the secessionist movement anyway.

Which secessionist movement specifically?

Michael V said:

dv said:

It’s not clear to me that prosecution is the best way to deal with the secessionist movement anyway.

Which secessionist movement specifically?

The secessionist movement whose name must not be mentioned, probably.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

It’s not clear to me that prosecution is the best way to deal with the secessionist movement anyway.

Which secessionist movement specifically?

The secessionist movement whose name must not be mentioned, probably.

Is that the Scottish play on words perhaps?

Tamb said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Michael V said:

Which secessionist movement specifically?

The secessionist movement whose name must not be mentioned, probably.

Is that the Scottish play on words perhaps?

Macbeth.

Peak Warming Man said:

Tamb said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

The secessionist movement whose name must not be mentioned, probably.

Is that the Scottish play on words perhaps?

Macbeth.

:)

Michael V said:

dv said:

It’s not clear to me that prosecution is the best way to deal with the secessionist movement anyway.

Which secessionist movement specifically?

Catalonia.

wow

SCIENCE said:

wow

Anything in particular?

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

wow

Anything in particular?

It’s a palindrome.

The Taliban stuff, we mean we suppose we’re familiar with all kinds of religions using religions as excuses for all kinds of things so yeah.

Tamb said:

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

wow

Anything in particular?

It’s a palindrome.

It’s an American mother, standing on her head.

captain_spalding said:

Tamb said:

dv said:

Anything in particular?

It’s a palindrome.

It’s an American mother, standing on her head.

it’s a bat

SCIENCE said:

The Taliban stuff, we mean we suppose we’re familiar with all kinds of religions using religions as excuses for all kinds of things so yeah.

Ar nar

Do various actions, responses, demands from leaders/nations verge on toddler tantrums.

I look at headlines and yes they are click bait sensationalism
However the demands are often so out of line and inappropriate you wonder the fucked up mindset they must have.

Especially all this honour based bullshit
It really does remind me of the bad guys in movies with some absolutely twisted sense of honour.

No wonder all the bullshit in the world goes on.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-31/five-wounded-in-bus-stabbing-siegen-germany/104294542

not all good girls with guns

SCIENCE said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-31/five-wounded-in-bus-stabbing-siegen-germany/104294542

not all good girls with guns

Well, it was a knife actually. ;)

Headline said alledgedly but the first line of the text dropped that word.
“A woman stabbed and wounded five people in a bus in western Germany on Friday, police said, one week after a deadly knife attack that shook the country.”.

https://youtu.be/-HE1fDlWBp0?si=nPex06GK3sobjTxS

History Matters
Austria Hungarian Emperor, Charles I, secretly commenced peacr negotiations with France in 1916.

Honest Government Ad | 🇯🇵 Japan v. Paul Watson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqzOAyXSJMI

Good News Amidst Rising Costs Of Living And Hyper Inflation, Raw Material Gets Cheaper For Renewable Energy Industries

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-03/lithium-price-crashes-and-australian-miners-in-damage-control/104262228

While Mr Putin has travelled to several countries since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mongolia is the first that is a member of the International Criminal Court.

That means it’s obliged to arrest Mr Putin, under an arrest warrant issued 18 months ago accusing him of war crimes for allowing Ukrainian children to be transported to Russia.

But when Mr Putin arrived late on Monday night, he was received by the country’s Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg, who walked him down a red carpet trimmed with gold and flanked by a military guard clad in red and blue formal uniforms.

SCIENCE said:

While Mr Putin has travelled to several countries since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mongolia is the first that is a member of the International Criminal Court.

That means it’s obliged to arrest Mr Putin, under an arrest warrant issued 18 months ago accusing him of war crimes for allowing Ukrainian children to be transported to Russia.

But when Mr Putin arrived late on Monday night, he was received by the country’s Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg, who walked him down a red carpet trimmed with gold and flanked by a military guard clad in red and blue formal uniforms.

Batmunkh Battsetseg is a cad and a bounder and nothing good will ever come of him.

Peak Warming Man said:

SCIENCE said:

While Mr Putin has travelled to several countries since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mongolia is the first that is a member of the International Criminal Court.

That means it’s obliged to arrest Mr Putin, under an arrest warrant issued 18 months ago accusing him of war crimes for allowing Ukrainian children to be transported to Russia.

But when Mr Putin arrived late on Monday night, he was received by the country’s Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg, who walked him down a red carpet trimmed with gold and flanked by a military guard clad in red and blue formal uniforms.

Batmunkh Battsetseg is a cad and a bounder and nothing good will ever come of him.

Just a reminder where Mongolia is in relation to Russia:

!!

The Rev Dodgson said:

Peak Warming Man said:

SCIENCE said:

While Mr Putin has travelled to several countries since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mongolia is the first that is a member of the International Criminal Court.

That means it’s obliged to arrest Mr Putin, under an arrest warrant issued 18 months ago accusing him of war crimes for allowing Ukrainian children to be transported to Russia.

But when Mr Putin arrived late on Monday night, he was received by the country’s Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg, who walked him down a red carpet trimmed with gold and flanked by a military guard clad in red and blue formal uniforms.

Batmunkh Battsetseg is a cad and a bounder and nothing good will ever come of him.

Just a reminder where Mongolia is in relation to Russia:

!!

so while the fascists are distracted on the western front they could really kick them in the gonads where it fkn kills by opening up an eastern front

wait

interesting structure they’re building to extend their territorial waters claim into the Okhotsk Sea there

FKCN

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-05/volvo-cars-drops-2030-electric-vehicle-target/104316262

SCIENCE said:

FKCN

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-05/volvo-cars-drops-2030-electric-vehicle-target/104316262

Just the one, Minister?

SCIENCE said:

Clever fella that Xavier.

Myanmar’s military junta is battered by Chinese-backed forces
The Brotherhood Alliance continues its string of shock victories

It has been many decades since war came to Mandalay, the last seat of Burmese kings. But on September 3rd a 107mm rocket cracked the pre-dawn calm, striking a residential area west of the old royal palace. A local group fighting Myanmar’s military junta claimed the attack. Its target was inside the vast palace grounds, now a military base, and home to the junta’s Central Region Command. It was the third rocket attack in Mandalay this year.

For now, such attacks are still unusual. But recent advances by two armed groups have nearly brought the war against the military junta to the country’s second city. The two groups, part of a coalition known collectively as the Brotherhood Alliance, have benefited from shadowy relationships with China. It is likely that the rocket which hit Mandalay this week was Chinese-designed. Their shocking victories are an illustration of how China has become the most important outside power in Myanmar since the armed forces seized power in February 2021. But the Brotherhood’s progress has taken on a momentum of its own, and now even China is struggling to rein it in.

The Brotherhood groups are distinct from the National Unity Government (NUG), formed by ousted lawmakers after the military coup in 2021. The NUG and its closest allies along the border with Thailand mostly look to the West for support, but have received little, and have struggled to make progress. By contrast, the Brotherhood is made up of three groups, all of which get support from China. Two are active in the hills and mountains of Shan state between the Chinese border and Mandalay. The oldest and strongest of the three, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), broke away from the once formidable Burmese Communist Party in 1989. It draws support mostly from the Kokang ethnic group, who live along the border with China, speak Mandarin and identify as Han Chinese.

For 20 years, under a ceasefire with the junta which then ruled Myanmar, the MNDAA grew rich and powerful. It taxed trade between Myanmar and China, and ran casinos catering to Chinese visitors to Laukkaing, the capital of Kokang. Any opposition was met with violence, including public executions. But brief wars in 2009 and 2015 with the Tatmadaw, as the junta’s armed forces are known, forced it to flee into nearby hills. In its place, the Tatmadaw installed a militia led by a rival Kokang group to govern the area.

In recent years this proxy militia has turned to online scams as a source of revenue. Scam centres in Laukkaing target victims in mainland China, and lure Chinese citizens to work in the centres. Outrage at mounting losses from scams, and at the treatment of Chinese citizens forced to work against their will, pushed the Chinese government to act last year.

In October 2023—with the tacit consent of China’s government, analysts say—the MNDAA launched an offensive against the junta’s forces along the border with China. It routed the Tatmadaw, encircling its forces in Laukkaing. In January Chinese diplomats brokered a truce, under which the junta agreed to withdraw from the city. The junta also allowed the Chinese authorities to arrest the militia’s leaders and extradite them to China to be prosecuted.

The second of the Brotherhood groups, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), played a supporting role in the initial offensive last year. Now it is poised to play the lead role in the assault on Mandalay. Among the various ethno-national armed groups that patrol Myanmar’s hilly peripheries, the TNLA is unusual for its hardline anti-drug stance. It has also banned mining in areas that it controls, citing environmental costs. This has made it popular among ordinary Ta’ang. But its approach to governance, like that of the MNDAA, is authoritarian. The United Nations has criticised forced recruitment of young people in the areas that it controls. And it has come into conflict with other ethnic armed groups, who bristle at how it treats their people in villages that it has conquered, including its practice of taxing non-Ta’ang businesses.

Rebel soldiers
Both groups were among the Tatmadaw’s fiercest enemies prior to the coup. In 2019 they launched a daring rocket attack on the West Point of Myanmar, the garrison town of Pyin Oo Lwin, where the military’s service academies are based. But after the coup, both observed an informal truce with the junta, even as other ethnic armed groups joined the nationwide resistance against it. This allowed them to expand the areas under their control.

The two groups also sought to build up units of ethnic Bamar who had fled central Myanmar—and Mandalay in particular—after the coup. Between 60% and 70% of Myanmar’s population is Bamar. After the military began to shoot protesters, however, the Bamar were forced to seek the tutelage of ethnic-minority armed groups. The TNLA’s support for the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (PDF), which is mostly Bamar, has turned its members into disciplined insurgents.

On June 25th the MNDAA, the TNLA and the Mandalay PDF renewed their offensives against the junta. On August 3rd the MNDAA conquered Lashio, a city of 200,000 people and home to the Tatmadaw’s North-Eastern Region Command. Lashio is a hub of Shan state, in the north-east, where various ethnic groups from across the Shan Hills come to do business. No city of its size and importance had fallen to an ethnic armed group before in Myanmar’s history. This victory led many to think for the first time that the Tatmadaw might begin to crumble.

At the same time the TNLA kept its eye on the road to Mandalay. It has now reached Bant Bwe, not far from Pyin Oo Lwin—where five years ago it could only stage one-off rocket attacks. It also sent the Mandalay PDF and other Bamar cells through the hills that it controls to infiltrate townships north of Mandalay (see map). One of these groups probably launched the rocket attack that struck the city on September 3rd.

The Brotherhood’s intentions with regard to Mandalay are unclear. Both the MNDAA and the TNLA were long thought to be interested only in controlling their home areas in Shan state. Neither seemed to want to overthrow the junta. Some argue that their drive towards Mandalay demonstrates that the Brotherhood is aligning itself more closely with the revolution. But it is more likely that both groups fear that the potential collapse of the junta would lead to a free-for-all. They will want to be the strongest forces should that happen, so are seizing the advantage now.

If the TNLA does decide to move on Mandalay, the road runs through Pyin Oo Lwin. Fears of an impending assault on the city run high; in August convoys of vehicles could be seen snaking down the escarpment from the hill station into the city. But the group might face stiff resistance there. Its capture would be fraught with symbolism for the Tatmadaw’s leaders, many of whom have homes in the former colonial resort. Instead, exhausted after the past year of battle, the TNLA may choose to first pause and regroup. It may also push the Mandalay PDF to stage ever more daring rocket attacks in the city.

What is clear is that, having used these groups to teach the junta a lesson about the scam centres, China is now struggling to contain the forces that is has unleashed. While it is dissatisfied with the junta, it does not want a vacuum to emerge which democratic forces might fill. A recent bid to convene the Brotherhood Alliance and the junta for fresh ceasefire talks in Yunnan came to naught. The Chinese government has also experimented with shutting off the supply of electricity to Laukkaing, and closing border gates which provide customs revenues, to little effect.

Indeed, taking things up a notch, China’s People’s Liberation Army staged three days of live-fire exercises along the border last month. A leaked message to the TNLA from a Chinese intermediary pointed to the exercises and demanded that the group halt its offensive and return to talks. But as Brotherhood groups capture more areas, and junta defeats multiply, the armed groups have fewer incentives to heed their former patrons.

Run from the hills
China’s weakened grip on Myanmar’s most powerful armed groups, and the Brotherhood’s rapid advance, might present an opening for Western countries to play a bigger role in Myanmar. As the Brotherhood has moved outside its home areas, it has entered into discussions with the democratic forces to help legitimise its rule over diverse ethnic groups, with whom it has little experience. Many in these new territories regard the Chinese-speaking MNDAA and ethno-nationalist TNLA as outsiders, while the pluralist NUG is more representative. Mandalay, a multi-ethnic city of 1.5m, would present particular challenges for the Brotherhood to administer.

But Western governments have been reluctant to provide humanitarian assistance directly to the NUG, fearing that it falls foul of international norms which insist that such aid not be politicised (see chart). As a result, it lacks the resources to administer liberated areas, many of which are still reeling from recent battles. If Western governments were to put aside these qualms, the NUG would have more to bring to the table in talks with the Brotherhood over the future of these areas. That would be a good development for residents; the NUG would govern more responsibly than the Brotherhood. It would also help to shift the balance of power in Myanmar from China to the West.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/09/05/myanmars-military-junta-is-battered-by-chinese-backed-forces?

Regine change good¡

NATO countries push for powers to defend themselves as Russian drones enter Romanian and Latvian airspace

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country is now implementing a nuclear force construction policy to increase the number of nuclear weapons “exponentially,” according to state media.

In a speech on North Korea’s founding anniversary on Monday, Mr Kim said the country must more thoroughly prepare its “nuclear capability and its readiness to use it properly at any given time in ensuring the security rights of the state”, said KCNA.

A strong military presence is needed to face “the various threats posed by the United States and its followers,” he added.

Mr Kim also said North Korea is facing a “grave threat” from what it said was a US-led nuclear-based military bloc in the region.

The leader said North Korea will redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state including the nuclear force fully ready for combat,

roughbarked said:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country is now implementing a nuclear force construction policy to increase the number of nuclear weapons “exponentially,” according to state media.

In a speech on North Korea’s founding anniversary on Monday, Mr Kim said the country must more thoroughly prepare its “nuclear capability and its readiness to use it properly at any given time in ensuring the security rights of the state”, said KCNA.

A strong military presence is needed to face “the various threats posed by the United States and its followers,” he added.

Mr Kim also said North Korea is facing a “grave threat” from what it said was a US-led nuclear-based military bloc in the region.

The leader said North Korea will redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state including the nuclear force fully ready for combat,

good, strong deterrent systems are a boon for regional security

So was

“The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US,” Apple said.

it or was it not¿

Lula, Maduro, and a New Cold War in Latin America
In the aftermath of Venezuela’s disputed election, the compact that has long bound the region’s left together appears finally to be breaking down.

By Jon Lee Anderson
September 12, 2024

Like most of Venezuela’s official institutions, its supreme court is an assemblage of pro-government loyalists. Three weeks ago, the tribunal’s president announced its “unequivocal” support for President Nicolás Maduro’s questionable claim of victory in the July 28th Presidential election, bringing an end to the idea that negotiations might somehow resolve the country’s political crisis. On September 2nd, an arrest warrant was issued for the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, whom Maduro claims to have defeated. Last Saturday, González flew to Spain, on a Spanish Air Force plane, and he has been guaranteed political asylum there.

The latest iteration of Venezuela’s long-running crisis began after the head of the National Electoral Council, a Maduro apparatchik, declared him the victor on July 29th, with fifty-one per cent of the vote to forty-four per cent for González. Maduro has been Venezuela’s President since the death in office of his mentor, the strongman Hugo Chávez, in 2013. Maduro’s latest “win” will give him an additional six years in office when his current term ends, in January. Maduro’s claims are widely regarded as specious, not least because neither he nor Venezuela’s electoral council have produced any evidence to support them—namely the vote tallies. Meanwhile, the opposition has published the tallies of more than eighty per cent of the voting machines which suggest that González won by a factor of more than two. Maduro’s government denounced the documents as “forged,” part of an “unprecedented and barbaric fraud.”

The impasse has created new political divisions that are already beginning to play out through the hemisphere. Election monitors from the United Nations and the Carter Center denounced the lack of transparency and integrity; a group of countries including the European Union nations, the United States, and thirteen of its allies in the Americas—Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica among them—has demanded “the immediate publication of all original records and the impartial and independent verification of those results.” But a grab bag of authoritarian regimes around the world (notably Russia, China, and Iran) and rhetorically leftist regimes in the region (Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba, and Bolivia) have applauded Maduro’s reconsecration in power. This handful of Latin American governments is the most performatively militant in the region, decrying U.S. support for Israel, the economic embargo against Cuba, and the more recent sanctions against Venezuela, as well as drug-trafficking charges filed in 2020 against Maduro, as “interventionist” and “imperialistic,” while celebrating Vladimir Putin’s actions, such as his invasion of Ukraine. (Maduro denied the charges, calling Trump officials “racist cowboys.”)

In a sign of the changing times, however, the left-of-center leaders of the Latin American nations that are more economically and politically relevant to the rest of the world—Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—tempered their statements, trying to de-escalate the crisis and create the conditions for a compromise with the opposition. Petro and Lula also urged Maduro to produce the vote tallies, while López Obrador pleaded patience.

Lula, who is now seventy-eight, previously served two terms as President, and since returning to office last year, he has reëmerged as the region’s leader. Whether as the custodian of Latin America’s largest economy and of the biggest piece of the Amazon rain forest, or as a key mover in BRICS, an alliance of nations that includes the major developing countries, Lula is in his own league as a global player. A wily pragmatist, he has sought to maintain good relations with U.S. adversaries, including Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, while maintaining his democratic credentials with the Biden Administration by narrowly beating Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of Donald Trump’s, in the 2022 Presidential election. In a sideshow to the drama in Venezuela, Lula’s government and Brazil’s supreme court have been engaged in a battle of wills with Trump’s champion Elon Musk, who has used his X platform to intervene in the country’s political divisions on behalf of Bolsonaro. After Musk refused to obey a judicial order to block some X accounts in Brazil for spreading disinformation and “hate speech,” the entire platform was blocked across the country, setting off another debate about corporate responsibility and free speech. Lula said in an interview, “The Brazilian justice system may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s extreme-right-wing anything-goes just because he is rich.”

In any case, Maduro has doubled down on his story of an international plot hatched to destroy him and the vaunted “Bolivarian Revolution,” which is how the regime he inherited from Chávez describes itself. Since the election, and the protests that followed his victory announcement, he has dispatched security agents to arrest his critics and political opponents, holding them on charges that range from “incitement of hatred” to “terrorism.” According to the Venezuelan rights organization Foro Penal, more than sixteen hundred people have been detained for political reasons. Six opposition leaders are sheltering at the Argentinean Embassy, which—since Venezuela expelled Argentina’s diplomatic staff, after the election—has been overseen by Lula’s government. On Saturday, Caracas ended that arrangement, and security personnel have surrounded the building.

Edmundo González himself had been in hiding since the election and had taken refuge at the Dutch and Spanish diplomatic residences in Caracas. A seventy-five-year-old retired diplomat, he explained his reticence to appear before the authorities on the reasonable ground that Maduro, who called him a “coward,” offered no legal guarantees if he did; he was under investigation for “presumed usurpation of functions, forgery of a public document, instigation of legal disobedience, information technology crimes, association to commit crimes, and conspiracy.” (González denies the charges.) On August 27th, Maduro named Diosdado Cabello, a military officer and Chavista hard-liner, as his new minister of the interior, with control over Venezuela’s intelligence service. Following a nationwide power blackout on August 30th, the government blamed the opposition for “sabotage of the electricity system.” Three days later, the warrant was issued for González’s arrest—a move that the U.S. State Department immediately condemned. Later that day, Maduro made a typically grandiose announcement on his weekly television show: “This year, to honor you all, to thank you all, I am going to decree the beginning of Christmas on October 1st. Christmas arrived for everyone, in peace, happiness, and security!”

Beyond Venezuela’s borders, its crisis is altering the political landscape, opening a breach in the hitherto fraternal ranks of Latin America’s left, in ways that may prove to be significant. During the past few weeks, in effusive statements of solidarity with Maduro, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, the onetime leader of the Sandinista revolution—who has consolidated his own repressive tenure in recent years by imprisoning and expelling hundreds of critics, including former comrades—has blasted Lula as “un arrastrado,” a groveller, and a “wannabe lackey of the Yankees in Latin America.” Ortega went on to declare that Nicaragua’s diplomatic relations with Brazil were “broken.”

Lula’s main transgression, it seems, is to have gone public with his criticisms of Maduro. On August 16th, he gave an interview in which he described Maduro’s regime as “unpleasant,” even if, he hedged, it has an “authoritarian tendency but is not a dictatorship as we know it.” But he has also said that he won’t yet recognize the electoral results and that “Maduro knows he owes Brazilian society and the world an explanation.” This is a volte-face for Lula, after years of diplomatic rope-a-dope, when it comes to the transgressions of the regime next door. When I interviewed him in Brasília in March, Lula spoke scathingly about Washington and its allies for inaction regarding the killing of Palestinians in Gaza while focussing on the state of democracy in Venezuela. He made a plea for an expanded U.N. Security Council, one that would more fairly represent the world’s population—not just the main nuclear powers. The system was no longer fit for purpose, he said, because there are no brakes on the major powers, which do whatever they want. “Russia goes to Ukraine without consulting the U.N. Security Council. Bush goes to Iraq without consulting anyone . . . the Israeli Army is destroying the Palestinian people, and the U.S. doesn’t provide any U.N. resolution. And all of this seems to be normalized. And yet their main concern is with Venezuela, with Venezuela!”

Things have clearly moved on. Maduro’s latest actions pose potentially adverse consequences for all of Venezuela’s neighbors, not least the prospect of a new influx of desperate migrants. An estimated half a million Venezuelans have decamped to Brazil since 2014, and, if a new exodus is forthcoming, as seems likely, more will head to Brazil. And tensions have also been building owing to Maduro’s propensity to cause trouble. He has revived an old Venezuelan claim on a jungle region, the Essequibo, in the small neighboring country of Guyana, which is coincidentally undergoing an oil boom, and noisily reinforced Venezuela’s troops near the border, causing Lula to dispatch an Army detachment to bolster Brazil’s own frontier in the sensitive region. When we met, Lula also alluded to the presence of Venezuelan gold miners operating illegally inside Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous territory.

Venezuela’s other neighbor, Colombia, is the nation to which most Venezuelans have fled, with more than 2.8 million settling there during the past decade. The nations have long had a problematic relationship. Colombia’s National Liberation Army (E.L.N.) and dissident groups that emerged following the demobilization of the FARC have been granted covert sanctuaries in Venezuela for their leaders and some of their fighting units. Oil, drugs, gold, and arms-smuggling rackets and cross-border violence have made matters more contentious. Relations broke down entirely during the Trump Administration, which backed failed efforts to unseat Maduro in collusion with Colombia’s then right-wing government. After Gustavo Petro, himself a former guerrilla, came to power two years ago, however, relations were restored. Pursuing an ambitious policy of “total peace,” through negotiations to end his country’s internal wars, Petro sought out Maduro’s assistance, and outwardly, at least, it was forthcoming.

Since the election, however, with Petro joining Lula’s call for Maduro to produce evidence of his victory, that rapport has begun to break down. Maduro has not openly attacked Petro, but he has issued thinly veiled reminders that Colombia’s guerrillas were on his side. During a meeting of ALBA, a group of countries allied with the Venezuelan government, Maduro explained that, whatever changes of policy Colombia’s government might implement, Venezuela had “many Colombian friends” who thought differently, adding, “Our friends will protect us.”

Daniel Ortega has generally been more explicit, warning his Venezuelan friend that he should keep an eye on Colombia, because he might yet face an armed threat from there. But, in that event, he assured Maduro, he would send “Sandinista fighters” to defend him. “Poor Petro,” Ortega added. “I can see he’s trying to compete with Lula to see which of them will become the leader to represent the Yankees in Latin America.” Petro fired back on X, writing, “Daniel Ortega has called us ‘grovellers’ merely because we wish to see a democratic and peaceful negotiated solution for Venezuela. Such an insult allows me to respond: at least I don’t debase the human rights of the people of my country, and much less those of my former comrades in arms and in the fight against dictatorships.”

Despite the growing disarray in the ranks of Latin America’s left, so far only Chile’s leader, Gabriel Boric, a thirty-eight-year-old social democrat a little more than halfway through his single four-year term (Chilean Presidents cannot immediately run for reëlection), has openly positioned himself against Maduro. Boric alone rejected Maduro’s initial claims of victory without proof, and after Venezuela’s recent supreme-court decision, he reiterated his position on X, noting, “There is no doubt that we are faced with a dictatorship that falsifies elections, oppresses whoever thinks differently, and is indifferent to the greatest exodus of people in the world, comparable only to that of Syria, which was caused by a war.”

Boric has expressed his dismay in ethical and moral terms, but he, too, has a logistical Venezuelan problem. As many as eight hundred thousand Venezuelans are believed to have immigrated to Chile, where many exist on the margins of society and are blamed for an unprecedented crime rate. A hyper-violent organized-crime network known as el Tren de Aragua, which originated in a gang-run Venezuelan prison, has made an appearance, too, and some security analysts suspect it of operating at times as a clandestine arm of the Maduro government. Boric’s government believes that the group may be responsible for the kidnapping and murder, in February, of a Venezuelan former military officer turned dissident who had been granted asylum in Chile. Maduro’s government has at times denied the existence of the network, calling it a politically motivated “fiction created by the international media.”

In such ways, the compact that has long bound the Latin American left together as a single unit, resolute and defiant in the face of “Yankee hegemony,” appears finally to be breaking down. Eight years after the death of Fidel Castro, and three years since the retirement of his younger brother, Raúl, who succeeded him in power, Cuba’s long-term leadership of the region’s political left is effectively no more. Under the uninspired leadership of the Castros’ successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a sixty-four-year-old Communist Party official, the island has suffered a precipitous economic decline. Bilateral coöperation with Venezuela continues, but gone are the days when Cuba could depend on Venezuelan oil and cash in exchange for the services of trained Cuban doctors, teachers, and security advisers. Since 2022, Cuba has seen the largest exodus of its citizens since the earliest days of the Revolution, with as many as 1.8 million people fleeing the island for better lives elsewhere, contributing to an eighteen-per-cent decrease of the population. Foremost among them are qualified professionals and young people eager for a future.

What it all comes down to is the end of the revolutionary dream in Latin America. A generation ago, Chávez came to power and revived Fidel Castro’s hopes of keeping the revolutionary flame going—and effectively managed to do so for about a dozen years. But then oil prices dropped and Chávez died, followed by Castro, and the money that had flooded into Cuba to fund Revolution 2.0 was gone, largely misspent and stolen. And, nowadays, there are no rebels in the hills who can talk convincingly about “a better tomorrow,” and urge others to sacrifice their lives for such an ideal.

Lula is an old leftie, too, but he has learned to temper his more radical illusions and has carved out enough alliances to consolidate his power, and, as a result, he is the last man standing. Maduro and Ortega and Díaz-Canel may still speak the old language of revolution and antiyanquismo, but their economies survive from remittances from their fleeing citizens, who have left in droves to seek employment wherever they can, ideally in the Empire itself. For those who remain behind in those countries, for now there seem to be few good options for change.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/lula-maduro-and-a-new-cold-war-in-latin-america?

SCIENCE said:

SCIENCE said:

Good point, fuck the Land Forces Expo Exhibitors supplying weapons to Palestinian defenders¡

Well look it’s the Palestinian terrorists’ own

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-12/what-we-know-about-israeli-air-strike-killed-six-un-workers/104344132

fault they let UN personnel hide in their schools extremist camps as human shields.

Question, why didn’t the exhibitor ask “What about Myanmar¿” and say protestors were only worried about places west of Volgograd¿

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-14/rohingya-forcibly-conscripted-arakan-rebels-myanmar-military/104347840

SCIENCE said:

SCIENCE said:

SCIENCE said:

Good point, fuck the Land Forces Expo Exhibitors supplying weapons to Palestinian defenders¡

Well look it’s the Palestinian terrorists’ own

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-12/what-we-know-about-israeli-air-strike-killed-six-un-workers/104344132

fault they let UN personnel hide in their schools extremist camps as human shields.

Question, why didn’t the exhibitor ask “What about Myanmar¿” and say protestors were only worried about places west of Volgograd¿

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-14/rohingya-forcibly-conscripted-arakan-rebels-myanmar-military/104347840

What About Sudan ¿

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-15/war-in-sudan-by-the-numbers/104185130

Why China’s sinking economy could backfire on Vladimir Putin

Mary Wareham is a global expert on autonomous weapon systems and the deputy director of the crisis, conflict and arms division at Human Rights Watch.

In 1997, she was a co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize for coordinating the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

And now, decades later, she’s advocating for a similar ban on these weapons as global coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

ABC link

https://youtu.be/BFSe5-i1LoU?si=rED442EvnZrfyZpO

The alt-right playbook
Why don’t you respond to criticism

dv said:

https://youtu.be/BFSe5-i1LoU?si=rED442EvnZrfyZpO

The alt-right playbook
Why don’t you respond to criticism

Alt-right, alt-left, no thanks.

Sending Attack Units Around The World Is Defensive, Not Offensive, Posturing

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-24/north-australia-nt-us-defence-expansion-china-tensions-concerns/104376384

SCIENCE said:

Sending Attack Units Around The World Is Defensive, Not Offensive, Posturing

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-24/north-australia-nt-us-defence-expansion-china-tensions-concerns/104376384

Well, i suppose it could be taken as evidence of aggression.

If it went the other way, and Australian forces were sent to train with US forces in America, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Mexico to suspect that Australia and the
US were planning to attack it, would it not?

captain_spalding said:

SCIENCE said:

Sending Attack Units Around The World Is Defensive, Not Offensive, Posturing

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-24/north-australia-nt-us-defence-expansion-china-tensions-concerns/104376384

Well, i suppose it could be taken as evidence of aggression.

If it went the other way, and Australian forces were sent to train with US forces in America, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Mexico to suspect that Australia and the
US were planning to attack it, would it not?

Remember the Alamo.

Tamb said:

captain_spalding said:

SCIENCE said:

Sending Attack Units Around The World Is Defensive, Not Offensive, Posturing

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-24/north-australia-nt-us-defence-expansion-china-tensions-concerns/104376384

Well, i suppose it could be taken as evidence of aggression.

If it went the other way, and Australian forces were sent to train with US forces in America, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Mexico to suspect that Australia and the
US were planning to attack it, would it not?

Remember the Alamo.

What if they deployed nuclear bombers to the border ¿

Under the US Force Posture Initiatives, the US defence force is in various stages of spending between $490 and $970 million to expand RAAF bases in Darwin and Katherine, including command centres, barracks and hangars. In 2022, the ABC revealed RAAF Base Tindal, outside of Katherine, would host rotations of six nuclear-capable US B-52 bombers, though US and Australian military figures have remained silent over when those deployments will begin.

SCIENCE said:

Tamb said:

captain_spalding said:

Well, i suppose it could be taken as evidence of aggression.

If it went the other way, and Australian forces were sent to train with US forces in America, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Mexico to suspect that Australia and the
US were planning to attack it, would it not?

Remember the Alamo.

What if they deployed nuclear bombers to the border ¿

Under the US Force Posture Initiatives, the US defence force is in various stages of spending between $490 and $970 million to expand RAAF bases in Darwin and Katherine, including command centres, barracks and hangars. In 2022, the ABC revealed RAAF Base Tindal, outside of Katherine, would host rotations of six nuclear-capable US B-52 bombers, though US and Australian military figures have remained silent over when those deployments will begin.

Possibly only if a war ensues.

Tamb said:

captain_spalding said:

SCIENCE said:

Sending Attack Units Around The World Is Defensive, Not Offensive, Posturing

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-24/north-australia-nt-us-defence-expansion-china-tensions-concerns/104376384

Well, i suppose it could be taken as evidence of aggression.

If it went the other way, and Australian forces were sent to train with US forces in America, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Mexico to suspect that Australia and the
US were planning to attack it, would it not?

Remember the Alamo.

I don’t, as it happens.

Michael V said:

Tamb said:

captain_spalding said:

Well, i suppose it could be taken as evidence of aggression.

If it went the other way, and Australian forces were sent to train with US forces in America, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Mexico to suspect that Australia and the
US were planning to attack it, would it not?

Remember the Alamo.

I don’t, as it happens.

I wasn’‘t there either.

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

Tamb said:

Remember the Alamo.

I don’t, as it happens.

I wasn’‘t there either.

It’s now a rallying cry like “I have not yet begun to fight!”

Well timed article, haven’t we(0,1,1) all realised yet that only hostile racist dirty others would poison the supply chain and do things like this¿

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-25/us-banning-chinese-cars-why-some-want-australia-to-take-notice/104391740

sorry we thought he wasn’t able to string 1.5 words together oh well
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-25/joe-biden-war-gaza-ukraine-sudan-united-nations-general-assembly/104392042

SCIENCE said:

sorry we thought he wasn’t able to string 1.5 words together oh well
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-25/joe-biden-war-gaza-ukraine-sudan-united-nations-general-assembly/104392042

He may have lucid moments?

The World Is The Best When Everyone Can Dial Up The Anti Immigrant Rhetoric And Everyone Else Just Goes Back Where They Came From

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-28/fatal-stabbing-of-schoolboy-sparks-debate-in-china/104399554
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-29/racist-attacks-in-tasmania-make-chinese-immigrant-feel-unsafe/104404158

Who’s Starting It ¿

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-02/us-brigadier-general-lozano-warns-fight-coming-china-alliance/104418898

totally

very fond

actually this makes it all right

Visiting US general warns ‘there is a fight coming’, but insists ‘coalition of the willing’ can outpace China
Exclusive by defence correspondent Andrew Greene

Topic:Army

17m ago
17 minutes ago
A man with a short tight haircut and military uniform stands speaking.

US Brigadier General Frank Lozano said it was essential to maintain a “coalition of the willing”. (US Army program executive office missiles and space)
In short:

A visiting American general says the ‘coalition of the willing’ must be maintained to deter adversaries like China.

In candid remarks, General Frank Lozano also expressed concern a fight was coming.
What’s next?

The visiting Army General said Australia and the US must continue to build joint capability.
Link copied

A senior US Army officer has emphasised the importance of strategic allies like Australia for building collective military strength to deter adversaries including China, while warning local defence and industry officials that a “fight is coming”.

In candid remarks during last month’s International Land Forces conference in Melbourne, visiting Brigadier General Frank J Lozano also expressed confidence that a “coalition of the willing” could outpace Beijing’s rising regional dominance.

“We’re not really in a one-for-one race with the PRC , because we understand that we will always go into a fight as a part of a coalition of the willing,” General Lozano said during an address to a defence industry dinner.

Back in 2003, Australia along with a handful of countries joined a United States-led multi-national force, known commonly as the ‘coalition of the willing’, which was formed by then president George W Bush to invade Iraq.

During last month’s speech to an audience including Air Marshal Leon Phillips, the chief of Australia’s guided weapons and explosive ordnance (GWEO) enterprise, General Lozano also emphasised the importance of building up war stock for deterrence.

“I believe that if we are ready, and we’re doing the hard work right now to get ready, but I believe that if we are ready then we fight and win the war that never has to get fought and that’s the war of deterrence,” he said.

“I’m fond of saying that there’s a fight coming; I hope, and I pray that that fight never is realised or that it ever materialises,” the US Army program executive officer for missiles and space added.
A man stands at a lectern in a suit speaking.

US Brigadier General Frank Lozano spoke at a dinner for defence and industry officials. (US Army program executive office missiles and space)

“I know that as a partnership and as we move forward with different alliances that we can coalesce, and we can aggregate capability to achieve any common goal and objective that we’re looking to achieve,” General Lozano explained.

“We live now in a very dynamic and volatile global strategic situation, one that is more volatile than I recall ever having seen in my lifetime or in my 30 plus year army career and that even puts a greater level of focus on our strategic partnership and our allies.”

“That’s why relationships, events, opportunities like this are so important to building that strength and power and unyielding resolve that’s needed to deter adversaries. So that when the PRC, or when Iran or North Korea or any adversary wakes up on any given day – they say: ‘not today cause we can’t win’.”

In the same week as General Lozano’s September 10 comments, China’s military broadcast video on state TV appearing to show its dangerous intercept of a Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane in 2022, which it described as “the enemy”.

Michael V said:

SCIENCE said:

Bogsnorkler said:

SCIENCE said:

Bogsnorkler said:

https://www.wunc.org/2024-09-30/a-tiny-town-just-got-slammed-by-helene-it-could-massively-disrupt-the-tech-industry

Link

Quartz.

good to see modern learning in action

sorry we mean leaning

won’t it stop though, surely it’s correct

LOLOL

ahahahahahaha

The association’s president, Harold Daggett, has called for a better pay deal and stronger protections against the creep of automation that is cutting jobs. In a recent interview he made the economic impact clear.

guess the point of automation is that if you strike then even better, proves that the machines are going to do the job, boom boom

“First week, be all over the news every night. Boom. Boom,” he said. “Second week, guys who sell cars can’t sell cars because the cars aren’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off.

oh wait what’s that, CHINA bad so nobody is buying their stuff anyway, oh no we mean they’re so bad that to stop people buying CHINA stuff we need the biggest baddest tariffs ever, oh well then if we interrupt shipping then no need tariffs then no need hyper inflation eh

“Third week, malls are closing down. They can’t get the goods from China. They can’t sell clothes. Everything in the United States comes on a ship.”

LOL sorry we mean RCR

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-02/us-dockworker-strike-could-increase-global-shipping-costs/104418662

But It’s Too Early For 2039 Isn’t It ¿

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/donald-trump-lord-haw-haw-world-war-ii-ukraine-war-russia-4798963

SCIENCE said:

But It’s Too Early For 2039 Isn’t It ¿

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/donald-trump-lord-haw-haw-world-war-ii-ukraine-war-russia-4798963

oh shit

Decades after it was dropped, an World War II American bomb has detonated in Japan. Video shows the moment the bomb exploded at Miyazaki Airport, throwing dirt and asphalt high into the sky. Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 as a former Imperial Japanese Navy flight training field from which some kamikaze pilots took off on suicide attack missions.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-03/world-war-two-bomb-explodes-at-japans-miyazaki-airport/104425304

Odd way to run a country:

…

Behind the scenes: How former Japanese PMs swayed Ishiba’s election
Come-from-behind victory indicates a change in LDP internal politics

SUSUMU KURONUMA and GAKU SHIMADA, Nikkei staff writers
October 2, 2024 15:08 JST

TOKYO — It was a torturous road to victory for Shigeru Ishiba, the veteran politician who is now Japan’s new prime minister — in no small part thanks to the machinations of Fumio Kishida, the outgoing prime minister, and two of his predecessors.

The election for the presidency of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party last Friday was contested by nine candidates in two rounds of voting.

In the second round, Ishiba overtook Sanae Takaichi — who had beaten him in the first round by a margin of 27 votes — to win by 21 votes. Had Takaichi won, she would have become Japan’s first female prime minister.

In the runoff, Ishiba won 189 votes among LDP lawmakers, compared with just 46 votes in the first round. He won a come-from-behind victory with 215 votes over Takaichi’s 194 in total.

This was Ishiba’s fifth bid for the party presidency — and thereby the premiership. The key to his success was winning the support of outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

On Sept. 25, two days before the LDP presidential election, Ishiba clarified his economic policies, and promised that if elected LDP president he would stick with measures taken by the Kishida government.

Kishida, who did not make his successor preference clear until the last minute, instructed LDP lawmakers from his group — formerly known as the “Kishida faction,” which dissolved in the aftermath of the party’s political funding scandals — on Sept. 26 to vote for “someone other than Takaichi” in the runoff she was expected to reach.

Behind Ishiba’s dramatic victory was a secret power struggle between Kishida, Suga and another former prime minister, Taro Aso.

When Kishida announced on Aug. 14 that he would be stepping down, Ishiba and Shinjiro Koizumi — the 43-year-old son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi — were considered the likely top candidates to replace him.

Suga had made positive remarks about Ishiba as early as June, but made no secret of his intention to support Koizumi, who was elected to parliament from constituencies in their shared prefecture of Kanagawa.

Suga resigned as prime minister three years ago and was succeeded by Kishida. He has since become a leading critic of Kishida’s leadership within the LDP. There has been internal speculation that he is keen to regain some lost political influence.

Aso was meanwhile unhappy to see Suga’s strong influence on the two powerful candidates, Ishiba and Koizumi. After stepping down as prime minister in 2009, he supported the successive LDP-led governments of Shinzo Abe, Suga and Kishida, serving as deputy prime minister or LDP vice president.

Before last week’s LDP presidential election, Aso told people around him that he would “not assess the situation until the last minute,” and described the election as “Suga versus anti-Suga.” His faction agreed at a meeting in late August to basically support Taro Kono, one of the nine politicians who had thrown their hats into the ring, but at the same time to allow faction members to support other candidates.

About a week after official campaigning for the LDP presidency kicked off on Sept. 12, the candidates expected to be possible contenders in the two-person runoff had been narrowed down to Ishiba, Takaichi and Koizumi.

In a survey of LDP supporters and party members, Ishiba hung on to his lead but with Takaichi closing in on him. Koizumi was meanwhile flagging, and some of his remarks during news conferences contributed to a public perception that he lacks the experience to lead Japan.

There nevertheless remained three possible runoff combinations: Ishiba vs. Koizumi, Ishiba vs. Takaichi or Takaichi vs. Koizumi. Key players at this stage — including Aso and Suga — shifted their focus to which runoff scenario would enable them to be most influential.

Aso had no reason to support Koizumi, who had Suga’s support. During the Aso administration, Ishiba, despite being a sitting cabinet member, had pressured Aso to step down.

“Ishiba is out of the question,” said Aso. He even joked: “If it comes down to a final round between Ishiba and Koizumi, I might have to flee the country.”

Despite some caution from members of his faction, Aso decided to support Takaichi in a runoff since her political views were relatively closer to his. On the eve of the leadership election, Aso directed members of his faction to vote for Takaichi in the final round.

Takaichi garnered 72 votes from lawmakers in the first round, surpassing expectations. However, the last-minute maneuverings by big players had sparked concerns about her strong conservatism. When she made it to the runoff, both Kishida and Suga threw their support behind Ishiba. It was not so much a question of endorsing him but acknowledging the rising unease over Takaichi.

Kishida was watching developments like a hawk. To put to rest the political funding scandal across the party, he had sacrificed his own chances of being reelected party leader. After carefully evaluating each candidate’s stance on party reform and inclination to carry on with his own policies, he opted to support a candidate “other than Takaichi.”

Among Takaichi’s 20 endorsers, 14 were from the former Abe faction — and as many as 13 had failed to properly disclose sources of political funding in their financial reports. Takaichi is the self-proclaimed standard bearer of the late Abe’s policies.

Among other things, Takaichi’s strong conservatism meant she might take a hawkish stance toward neighboring countries, exemplified by her visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where many of Japan’s war dead rest and serves as a reminder to the world of Japan’s past militarism.

For Kishida, a former foreign minister, this was another reason not to support her. He was proud of improving ties with South Korea on his watch and of stabilizing security partnerships between Japan, South Korea and the U.S.

Shigeru Ishiba, right, holding the hand of outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, whose support was crucial to his victory. Coming a close second, Sanae Takaichi, left, would have been Japan’s first female prime minister. (Photo by Mayumi Tsumita)
The old party factions that influenced leadership elections have withered, and the power game has significantly changed. But it remains to be seen if Ishiba can manage the new party dynamics that helped get him elected.

Ishiba is less popular with many lawmakers due to his often open criticism of the party’s executive and heavyweights. That showed in the only 46 votes he secured in the first round — far fewer than Takaichi or Koizumi.

To promote party unity, Ishiba offered Takaichi the post of chairperson of the LDP’s General Council, a decision-making body, but she declined. Among the former Abe faction, which has the largest number of lawmakers, none of them were appointed to Ishiba’s cabinet.

Ishiba also approached Aso to take the post of party supreme adviser, which had gone unfilled for 30 years, and Aso accepted. However, after the meeting on Monday, Aso left the room before a commemorative photo session with Ishiba, ignoring the voices that tried to stop him.

Speaking to supporters on the Friday morning of his election, Ishiba made an admission that may return to haunt him: “This time, I realize just how much I still lack.”

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japan-s-new-PM/Behind-the-scenes-How-former-Japanese-PMs-swayed-Ishiba-s-election?

such technicality

In 1993, Canada’s Kim Campbell was appointed the first woman to head the government of a North American country, but as prime minister, she was not head of state. The British monarch is technically Canada’s head of state, but is unelected.

and bastardry

LOL

good luck

SCIENCE said:

LOL

good luck

So what country is that particular nutbag in?

SCIENCE said:

such technicality

In 1993, Canada’s Kim Campbell was appointed the first woman to head the government of a North American country, but as prime minister, she was not head of state. The British monarch is technically Canada’s head of state, but is unelected.

and bastardry

Still, Canada had a female HoS for about 2/3 of the last 200 years.

As had Australia.

Kingy said:

SCIENCE said:

LOL

good luck

So what country is that particular nutbag in?

Canada, with AB for Alberta.

Marine Le Pen and her party face court over fake EU jobs scandal
By Henry Samuel
October 1, 2024 — 3.04pm

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron’s main rival, Marine Le Pen faces a possible 10 years in prison as she goes on trial alongside dozens of members of her party over an alleged “fake jobs” scheme that took money from the European Union (EU) and channelled it into her far-right party.

The National Rally (RN) leader, 24 members and the party itself stand accused of using funds for EU parliamentary work to pay staff who were working for the party, known as the National Front at the time.

In the Paris dock were nine former European Parliament members (MEPs) including Le Pen and Louis Aliot, the party vice-president, Julien Odoul, a party spokesman and one of nine former parliamentary assistants, and four RN staff.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, 96, Le Pen’s father and co-founder of the National Front, is being tried in absentia due to his waning mental and physical health.

As she arrived at court, Le Pen, who will plead not guilty alongside her colleagues, said: “We have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament”.

As well as a maximum 10-year prison term and €1 million ($1.6 million) fine, the misuse of public funds carries a potential five-year ban from public office, which could torpedo her hopes of claiming the French presidency at her fourth attempt in 2027.

The two-month trial, which Le Pen has blasted as politically motivated, has threatened to cast a shadow over the party’s record victory in the July snap election, when it won 126 seats and claimed a kingmaker role over new Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s fragile minority government.

MEPs are allocated funds to cover parliamentary expenses, including salaries for their assistants.

The RN’s alleged fake jobs system, which was first flagged in 2015, allegedly involved workers being paid and listed as assistants while carrying out unrelated roles within the National Front.

Prosecutors claim the assistants worked exclusively for the party outside parliament under a “system of fraud managed by successive leaders” that saw almost €7 million in EU funds misappropriated.

The trial covers a period in which €3.2 million was allegedly embezzled, a third of which has already been “reimbursed”, notably by withholding MEP’s salaries to claw back the funds.

Many of the RN “assistants” were allegedly incapable of describing their day-to-day work and some never met their supposed MEP boss or set foot in the parliament building.

A bodyguard, secretary, Le Pen’s chief of staff and a graphic designer were all allegedly hired under false pretences.

“Isn’t it a bit risky that Marine takes me on for her?” Yann Le Pen, Marine’s older sister, asked in an email in 2012.

She later told investigators she had never set foot in the European Parliament or “worked on a European political dossier”.

“I don’t have the skills and it was never asked of me,” she conceded. She’s understood to have been paid as a parliamentary assistant.

Four months after his parliamentary assistant contract began in 2015, Odoul asked Le Pen: “Could I come to Strasbourg tomorrow to see how a session works and get to know Mylene Troszczynski who I’m under?”

“Yes, of course,” she replied. According to Le Canard Enchaîné, he had two phone calls with Troszczynski in two years.

Several people have testified about a 2014 meeting that one said discussed a clear “fake jobs” structure.

One message from Wallerand de Saint-Just, the party treasurer, warned about its disastrous finances – at one point, it was €20 million in debt – writing: “We won’t get out of this without making significant savings thanks to the European Parliament”.

In 2014, Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, another former National Front MEP, expressed his concern to the party treasurer in explicit terms. “What Marine is asking us to do is the equivalent of us signing up for fictitious jobs … we’re going to get caught out,” he said.

“I think Marine is fully aware of this,” came the reply.

Last week, Laurent Jacobelli, an MP in France and party spokesman, insisted that Le Pen was not worried about the trial.

“She knows that what we are accused of is having a different understanding, as a French party, of what an assistant role is, compared with the European Parliament’s understanding,” he told Reuters.

Her entourage pointed to the recent acquittal of François Bayrou, the leader of the French centrist MoDem party, in a similar case.

Eight people, including five former MEPs, as well as the MoDem party itself, received suspended prison sentences and a ban from holding public office.

Judges afforded Bayrou “the benefit of the doubt” that he was not the “principal decision-maker” in a “fraudulent system” involving parliamentary assistants.

Prosecutors in the current trial argue that there is ample evidence that Le Pen was indeed the main decision-maker.

Analysts differ over whether the trial will have any lasting negative effects on a party with the wind in its sails after the July snap election.

The current Barnier government could be toppled at any moment if the Left NFP alliance and the RN join forces in a confidence vote, once again putting Le Pen in a kingmaker role.

“Every time the party or its leaders are attacked, it lets them cast themselves as the victim,” Nonna Mayer, a political scientist at Paris’ Sciences Po university, told AFP.

But Brice Teinturier, the deputy director general of the Ipsos institute, said that it could be harmful to a party seeking to bolster its credibility.

“Of course, part of the RN’s voter base will be galvanised by the trial. But is never a good thing, can only limit the negative effects,” he told Le Monde.

“A trial doesn’t have an immediate and powerful effect, but it creates a negative halo that always ends up causing damage.”

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/marine-le-pen-and-her-party-face-court-over-fake-eu-jobs-scandal-20241001-p5kf09.html

So where’s the enthusiasm for defending yourselves¿

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-08/australian-security-leaders-climate-group-risk-report/104442438

Oh No If There’s War In The Middle East Then Inflation Will Kill Everyone But

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-08/middle-east-war-oil-inflation-interest-rates-global-economy/104441940

How Dare Iran Supply CHINA And Help Them Keep Process Low¿¡

India has agreed to extend hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support to the Maldives to help strengthen its struggling economy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly4eq78k5qo

Kind of a weird piece of news.
Maldives’ GDP per capita is about five times that of India.

dv said:

India has agreed to extend hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support to the Maldives to help strengthen its struggling economy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly4eq78k5qo

Kind of a weird piece of news.
Maldives’ GDP per capita is about five times that of India.

Also 8% below poverty line, compared with 80% in India.

Although I do wonder how valid those numbers are.

I kind of missed the news that late last year India became the most populous country on earth

dv said:

I kind of missed the news that late last year India became the most populous country on earth

Call centres were flat out letting people know

Donald Trump secretly sent COVID tests to Vladimir Putin during the initial outbreak of coronavirus in 2020, despite a US-wide shortage, a wide-ranging book by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward claims.

The book sets out an enduring relationship between the former US president and the Russian leader, claiming Trump continued speaking to the Russian president after leaving office.

Woodward’s book also chronicles some of President Joe Biden’s own acknowledged missteps and his struggle to prevent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, including exasperation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over futile efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire.

Here are some of the new claims in War, due out later this month.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-09/book-claims-trump-sent-covid-tests-to-putin/104449904

SCIENCE said:

I say those who defend rational debate should reclaim the word “believe” rather than rejecting it.

If you think the scientific description of some phenomenon is likely to be true, then you believe it.

The word doesn’t imply any acceptance based purely on authority and trust.

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

I say those who defend rational debate should reclaim the word “believe” rather than rejecting it.

If you think the scientific description of some phenomenon is likely to be true, then you believe it.

The word doesn’t imply any acceptance based purely on authority and trust.

good luck with that.

Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has reportedly been issued with an international arrest warrant over his conduct as president of French rugby union club Narbonne in 2015 and 2016.

AFP and sports daily L’Equipe were among French media outlets reporting Elsom, 41, was found guilty of forgery, use of forgery and misuse of corporate assets by a Narbonne court on Friday, local time.

fkn interfering globalists

LOL

TikTok says it is cutting hundreds of jobs because the company is shifting towards AI-assisted content moderation.

SCIENCE said:

Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has reportedly been issued with an international arrest warrant over his conduct as president of French rugby union club Narbonne in 2015 and 2016.

AFP and sports daily L’Equipe were among French media outlets reporting Elsom, 41, was found guilty of forgery, use of forgery and misuse of corporate assets by a Narbonne court on Friday, local time.

fkn interfering globalists

He’d be one of the chaps, the chaps will rally round.

dv said:

That was the 2016 US election, and hopefully not the 2024 election.

dv said:

The Internet suggests that this scene is probably set in Italy.

Kingy said:

dv said:

That was the 2016 US election, and hopefully not the 2024 election.

Trump did say he wanted to be a dictator on Day 1.

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

The Internet suggests that this scene is probably set in Italy.

the best part of it though is that anywhere else you don’t even need to draw an extra box for it, it’s already on the ballot

AussieDJ said:

Kingy said:

dv said:

That was the 2016 US election, and hopefully not the 2024 election.

Trump did say he wanted to be a dictator on Day 1.

fasces are a bunch of sticks and indeed as The Rev Dodgson say they heil from Italia wait

AussieDJ said:

Kingy said:

dv said:

That was the 2016 US election, and hopefully not the 2024 election.

Trump did say he wanted to be a dictator on Day 1.

Dick
Tater?
Maybe he shold team up with Dutton?

dv said:

California Sharpshooter Phallusy

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

California Sharpshooter Phallusy

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-14/trump-rally-man-arrested-weapons-california/104468236

This Isn’t Foreign In… Inf… Interference, It’s Just A Sporting Chance ¡

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-14/png-australia-nrl-deal-security-pact-with-china/104467706

SCIENCE said:

This Isn’t Foreign In… Inf… Interference, It’s Just A Sporting Chance ¡

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-14/png-australia-nrl-deal-security-pact-with-china/104467706

Shoring up the fences.

Freedom Fighters Or Terrorists Wait What

The pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence, movement is a thorny issue between India and Canada. New Delhi has repeatedly criticised Mr Trudeau’s government for being soft on supporters of the Khalistan movement who reside in Canada. The Khalistan movement is banned in India, but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada. India has been asking countries such as Canada, Australia and the UK to take legal action against Sikh activists.

New Zealand’s biggest pivot since the 1980s
An interview with Christopher Luxon, the prime minister reshaping its foreign policy

Oct 17th 2024|VIENTIANE

On September 25th the Aotearoa, one of just a handful of ships in the Royal New Zealand Navy, sailed through the Taiwan Strait alongside an Australian destroyer. The idea was to demonstrate to China that its claims to sole control of the waterway are invalid under international law. America does it several times a year, despite condemnations from China, sometimes with allies such as Canada. Australia does, too. New Zealand has not made such a bold move since 2017.

In an interview with The Economist, Christopher Luxon, New Zealand’s prime minister, notes that, as a small trading nation, New Zealand depends on freedom of navigation. All countries, he says, including China, need to adhere to international law. He plays down the voyage itself: he argues it was just the quickest way for the ship to sail from the East China Sea to the South China Sea.

But the Aotearoa’s transit underscores a big shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy under Mr Luxon, who took office at the head of a coalition government in November last year. His “reset”, as he calls it, has two elements. The first is a push to diversify New Zealand’s diplomatic and trade relationships away from its reliance on China, which takes 27% of its exports. This is mostly uncontroversial.

The second is to bring New Zealand into closer alignment with the other four countries in the Five Eyes, an agreement between America, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand to share intelligence. As part of that, Mr Luxon is prepared to align New Zealand more closely with America than at any point since the two former allies went their separate ways in 1986. The latter change has provoked one of the most spirited debates in New Zealand on foreign policy since that time.

New Zealand is the only Five Eyes country that is not an American ally. That is unlikely to change, at least on paper. America suspended its defence commitments to New Zealand under the ANZUS alliance in 1986 in response to a ban by New Zealand on nuclear weapons in its ports. Because America’s navy doesn’t disclose which of its ships are carrying nukes, that made an alliance impossible.

In the years that followed, New Zealand’s governments of the left and right staked out a new foreign policy for the country. They forged deeper diplomatic ties with New Zealand’s closest neighbours, the small island countries of the Pacific, and traded more with a rising Asia. But it was only “semi-aligned” with the West, according to Helen Clark, who served as prime minister from 1999 to 2008. It avoided getting involved with the war in Iraq, but sent special forces to help NATO fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It also got rich. In 2008 Ms Clark’s government signed a free-trade agreement with China. The pact, which removed 98% of Chinese tariffs on New Zealand’s exports, spared it the worst effects of the global financial crisis. But most of New Zealand’s exports to China are highly substitutable agricultural goods, making it vulnerable to economic coercion.

And as trade with China grew, so did other links between the two, not all of them benign. Under Labour governments from 2017 to 2023, prompted by intelligence-agency warnings, New Zealand cracked down on Chinese attempts to interfere in its politics. It tightened an investment screening process and banned foreign campaign donations.

Although maligned by some critics as the weak link in the Five Eyes, intelligence experts from the other members say that New Zealand’s security services are solid. The agencies are small, but do good work in the Pacific islands and in intercepting adversaries’ internet and satellite communications. There have been no embarrassing counter-intelligence lapses.

It is on defence that New Zealand’s long estrangement from America has prevented it from making more of a contribution to upholding the rules-based order in Asia (see chart). Mr Luxon seems ready to change that. The sailing through the Taiwan Strait, which was followed by multilateral exercises in the South China Sea, is one example. New Zealand has also stepped up its contribution to the multinational task force working to prevent North Korean oil-smuggling. The task force’s work has angered China, even though it is operating under the authority of a UN Security Council resolution, because China fears that it is also snooping on them.

And Mr Luxon has continued some of the Labour government’s earlier, tentative moves in this direction, including a look at joining AUKUS, the defence pact signed in 2021 between Australia, America and Britain. New Zealand wouldn’t take part in efforts to develop nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, but it might join the pact’s second “pillar”, focused on advanced defence technologies.

Critics, like Ms Clark, say that none of this is in New Zealand’s interests. Semi-alignment has served New Zealand well. “It takes longer to fly from Auckland to Beijing than from Beijing to London. We are a long way south and very remote,” she says. But Chinese attempts to sign Pacific island countries up to security agreements over the past three years, and suspicions regarding China’s expanded presence on Antarctica mean that even New Zealand cannot stay out of the way of geopolitics.

If Mr Luxon wants to be more than a bystander, however, he will face real constraints. New Zealand’s defence force is smaller than that of any of America’s allies or partners in Asia. Its army can muster no more than a brigade. Its air force gave up fighter jets decades ago. And its navy is down to eight ships, following an accident which saw a survey vessel sink off the coast of Samoa on October 6th.

The government plans to release a defence-capabilities plan later this month. Mr Luxon will not be drawn on the report’s recommendations before its release. But its choices will reveal much about how far it is willing to go, according to David Capie at Victoria University of Wellington. If naval plans focus on small patrol boats, for example, it would suggest a force concerned with its neighbourhood and tied to New Zealand’s “semi-aligned” foreign policy. If it opts to invest in higher-end capabilities like frigates, however, that would signal a New Zealand ready to do more with Australia and America to uphold the rules-based order.

One seemingly inexhaustible resource is Mr Luxon. Ten months into office, the new prime minister has already visited America, Japan, South Korea and half of the countries of South-East Asia. Each is at least a 12-hour flight from Wellington, the capital. When your correspondent interviewed Mr Luxon, he was in Laos. Asked about his travel schedule, Mr Luxon shrugs. Prior to politics, he spent seven years as CEO of Air New Zealand.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/10/17/new-zealands-biggest-pivot-since-the-1980s?

“Fascism In The DPRNA Won’t Have Disastrous Effects On Anyone Or Anywhere, The Whole World Is All The DPRNA Anyway¡”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-21/abortion-debate-in-queensland-and-south-australia-politics/104489634

Moldova’s referendum on whether to change its constitution and commit to joining the EU hangs in the balance, with the No and Yes votes neck and neck.
With Yes on 49.9% and No on 50.1% – with 97% of the vote counted – it is a result few were expecting, as several recent surveys said the Yes vote would comfortably win.

dv said:

Moldova’s referendum on whether to change its constitution and commit to joining the EU hangs in the balance, with the No and Yes votes neck and neck.
With Yes on 49.9% and No on 50.1% – with 97% of the vote counted – it is a result few were expecting, as several recent surveys said the Yes vote would comfortably win.

It seems YES votes are not popular globally.

dv said:

Moldova’s referendum on whether to change its constitution and commit to joining the EU hangs in the balance, with the No and Yes votes neck and neck.
With Yes on 49.9% and No on 50.1% – with 97% of the vote counted – it is a result few were expecting, as several recent surveys said the Yes vote would comfortably win.

Bummer.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Moldova’s referendum on whether to change its constitution and commit to joining the EU hangs in the balance, with the No and Yes votes neck and neck.
With Yes on 49.9% and No on 50.1% – with 97% of the vote counted – it is a result few were expecting, as several recent surveys said the Yes vote would comfortably win.

It seems YES votes are not popular globally.

You may have a point there.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Moldova’s referendum on whether to change its constitution and commit to joining the EU hangs in the balance, with the No and Yes votes neck and neck.
With Yes on 49.9% and No on 50.1% – with 97% of the vote counted – it is a result few were expecting, as several recent surveys said the Yes vote would comfortably win.

It seems YES votes are not popular globally.

EU? Meh.

But, now ask them if they want to join NATO!

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Moldova’s referendum on whether to change its constitution and commit to joining the EU hangs in the balance, with the No and Yes votes neck and neck.
With Yes on 49.9% and No on 50.1% – with 97% of the vote counted – it is a result few were expecting, as several recent surveys said the Yes vote would comfortably win.

It seems YES votes are not popular globally.

EU? Meh.

But, now ask them if they want to join NATO!

That’s the big question. Foes anyone have the demographic of the population density of the pro-Russian camp compared to the Moldovans?

It’s amazing how much I didn’t know about Singer Hozier.

Peak Warming Man said:

It’s amazing how much I didn’t know about Singer Hozier.

Who?

Peak Warming Man said:

It’s amazing how much I didn’t know about Singer Hozier.

Wrong thread, I’ll show myself out.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

It’s amazing how much I didn’t know about Singer Hozier.

Wrong thread, I’ll show myself out.

Let’s just leave it there.

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

It’s amazing how much I didn’t know about Singer Hozier.

Wrong thread, I’ll show myself out.

Let’s just leave it there.

Yes, no point in going on and on about it.

Peak Warming Man said:

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Wrong thread, I’ll show myself out.

Let’s just leave it there.

Yes, no point in going on and on about it.

In my defense it was a genuine mistake.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

roughbarked said:

Let’s just leave it there.

Yes, no point in going on and on about it.

In my defense it was a genuine mistake.

The sort of mistake anyone could make.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

roughbarked said:

Let’s just leave it there.

Yes, no point in going on and on about it.

In my defense it was a genuine mistake.

As I tried to infer, Just drop it. Stop dangling it my face.
I could get angry, you know..

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Yes, no point in going on and on about it.

In my defense it was a genuine mistake.

The sort of mistake anyone could make.

It’s not as if I made it on Facebook or Twitter, just a backwater science forum, but still.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

In my defense it was a genuine mistake.

The sort of mistake anyone could make.

It’s not as if I made it on Facebook or Twitter, just a backwater science forum, but still.

Don’t worry, It’s not worth a selfie.

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Yes, no point in going on and on about it.

In my defense it was a genuine mistake.

As I tried to infer, Just drop it. Stop dangling it my face.
I could get angry, you know..

Yes it’s best to just drop it.

Peak Warming Man said:

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

In my defense it was a genuine mistake.

As I tried to infer, Just drop it. Stop dangling it my face.
I could get angry, you know..

Yes it’s best to just drop it.

And there is no point in crying over spilt milk, the mistake’s been made.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

roughbarked said:

As I tried to infer, Just drop it. Stop dangling it my face.
I could get angry, you know..

Yes it’s best to just drop it.

And there is no point in crying over spilt milk, the mistake’s been made.

I’d rate it as venial sin rather than a mortal sin.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Yes it’s best to just drop it.

And there is no point in crying over spilt milk, the mistake’s been made.

I’d rate it as venial sin rather than a mortal sin.

It certainly wasn’t of any great consequence, so we’ll leave at that.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Yes it’s best to just drop it.

And there is no point in crying over spilt milk, the mistake’s been made.

I’d rate it as venial sin rather than a mortal sin.

I’ve dropped all that Catholic bullshit since the moment I left their child raping institutions.
However, I did pause to knock a priest to the floor with a wild swinging right hook.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

And there is no point in crying over spilt milk, the mistake’s been made.

I’d rate it as venial sin rather than a mortal sin.

It certainly wasn’t of any great consequence, so we’ll leave at that.

Having said that it certainly needed clarification.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I’d rate it as venial sin rather than a mortal sin.

It certainly wasn’t of any great consequence, so we’ll leave at that.

Having said that it certainly needed clarification.

Here you are, going on again,
Didn’t you get the ppoint or somethin’?

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

It certainly wasn’t of any great consequence, so we’ll leave at that.

Having said that it certainly needed clarification.

Here you are, going on again,
Didn’t you get the ppoint or somethin’?

You’re right and a point well made.

Peak Warming Man said:

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Having said that it certainly needed clarification.

Here you are, going on again,
Didn’t you get the ppoint or somethin’?

You’re right and a point well made.

And I want closure on the matter just like you do because it’s way off topic.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

roughbarked said:

Here you are, going on again,
Didn’t you get the ppoint or somethin’?

You’re right and a point well made.

And I want closure on the matter just like you do because it’s way off topic.

Twiddle twaddle, it is all in your bubble.

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You’re right and a point well made.

And I want closure on the matter just like you do because it’s way off topic.

Twiddle twaddle, it is all in your bubble.

Good, let’s hear no more of it.

I see that,while it wasvery close, the Moldovans managed to take the Russians’ money, and still disappoint them:

ABC News:

How Dare Dirty ASIANS Organise Their Own Order

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-22/india-and-china-reach-border-deal/104500518

They Should Respect The Order Imposed On Them

SCIENCE said:

How Dare Dirty ASIANS Organise Their Own Order

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-22/india-and-china-reach-border-deal/104500518

They Should Respect The Order Imposed On Them

There isn’t a lot of good news so I’ll take this as a win

fucking hell

SCIENCE said:

fucking hell

Things are getting nasty.

I only just learned that Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth in 2022. They are very much members of La Francophonie and do not have a historical connection to Britain.

The final details of the 2026 Glasgow games have been announced. It is be mainly funded by 100 million pounds from Commonwealth Games Australia, compensation for the late cancellation by Victoria. There will also be a some 50 million pounds from commercial sponsors, and no money from the UK or Scottish governments.

10 sports, 4 venues, no Olympic village, no new facilities.

The venues:

Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Dalmarnock

Tollcross International Swimming Centre

Scotstoun Stadium

Scottish Event Campus on Exhibition Way

——

The ten sports

Swimming Athletics 3×3 basketball Boxing Track cycling Artistic gymnastics Judo Lawn bowls Netball Weightlifting

Some of the dropped sports are rugby sevens, hockey, badminton, triathlon, Twenty20 cricket, squash, diving, table tennis, beach volleyball, road cycling, mountain bike racing, marathon, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Bit surprised about diving. Glad netball is there given that it is one of the sports that’s not at the Olympics.

dv said:

I only just learned that Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth in 2022. They are very much members of La Francophonie and do not have a historical connection to Britain.

The final details of the 2026 Glasgow games have been announced. It is be mainly funded by 100 million pounds from Commonwealth Games Australia, compensation for the late cancellation by Victoria. There will also be a some 50 million pounds from commercial sponsors, and no money from the UK or Scottish governments.

10 sports, 4 venues, no Olympic village, no new facilities.

The venues:

Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Dalmarnock

Tollcross International Swimming Centre

Scotstoun Stadium

Scottish Event Campus on Exhibition Way

——

The ten sports

Swimming Athletics 3×3 basketball Boxing Track cycling Artistic gymnastics Judo Lawn bowls Netball Weightlifting

Some of the dropped sports are rugby sevens, hockey, badminton, triathlon, Twenty20 cricket, squash, diving, table tennis, beach volleyball, road cycling, mountain bike racing, marathon, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Bit surprised about diving. Glad netball is there given that it is one of the sports that’s not at the Olympics.

NOT RHYTHMIC GYMNASTIC

dv said:

I only just learned that Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth in 2022. They are very much members of La Francophonie and do not have a historical connection to Britain.

The final details of the 2026 Glasgow games have been announced. It is be mainly funded by 100 million pounds from Commonwealth Games Australia, compensation for the late cancellation by Victoria. There will also be a some 50 million pounds from commercial sponsors, and no money from the UK or Scottish governments.

10 sports, 4 venues, no Olympic village, no new facilities.

The venues:

Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Dalmarnock

Tollcross International Swimming Centre

Scotstoun Stadium

Scottish Event Campus on Exhibition Way

——

The ten sports

Swimming Athletics 3×3 basketball Boxing Track cycling Artistic gymnastics Judo Lawn bowls Netball Weightlifting

Some of the dropped sports are rugby sevens, hockey, badminton, triathlon, Twenty20 cricket, squash, diving, table tennis, beach volleyball, road cycling, mountain bike racing, marathon, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Bit surprised about diving. Glad netball is there given that it is one of the sports that’s not at the Olympics.

IIRC, Rwanda is also member of the Commonwealth.

Michael V said:

dv said:

I only just learned that Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth in 2022. They are very much members of La Francophonie and do not have a historical connection to Britain.

The final details of the 2026 Glasgow games have been announced. It is be mainly funded by 100 million pounds from Commonwealth Games Australia, compensation for the late cancellation by Victoria. There will also be a some 50 million pounds from commercial sponsors, and no money from the UK or Scottish governments.

10 sports, 4 venues, no Olympic village, no new facilities.

The venues:

Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Dalmarnock

Tollcross International Swimming Centre

Scotstoun Stadium

Scottish Event Campus on Exhibition Way

——

The ten sports

Swimming Athletics 3×3 basketball Boxing Track cycling Artistic gymnastics Judo Lawn bowls Netball Weightlifting

Some of the dropped sports are rugby sevens, hockey, badminton, triathlon, Twenty20 cricket, squash, diving, table tennis, beach volleyball, road cycling, mountain bike racing, marathon, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Bit surprised about diving. Glad netball is there given that it is one of the sports that’s not at the Olympics.

IIRC, Rwanda is also member of the Commonwealth.

Given that England once controlled much of France, maybe France should join.

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

I only just learned that Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth in 2022. They are very much members of La Francophonie and do not have a historical connection to Britain.

The final details of the 2026 Glasgow games have been announced. It is be mainly funded by 100 million pounds from Commonwealth Games Australia, compensation for the late cancellation by Victoria. There will also be a some 50 million pounds from commercial sponsors, and no money from the UK or Scottish governments.

10 sports, 4 venues, no Olympic village, no new facilities.

The venues:

Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Dalmarnock

Tollcross International Swimming Centre

Scotstoun Stadium

Scottish Event Campus on Exhibition Way

——

The ten sports

Swimming Athletics 3×3 basketball Boxing Track cycling Artistic gymnastics Judo Lawn bowls Netball Weightlifting

Some of the dropped sports are rugby sevens, hockey, badminton, triathlon, Twenty20 cricket, squash, diving, table tennis, beach volleyball, road cycling, mountain bike racing, marathon, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Bit surprised about diving. Glad netball is there given that it is one of the sports that’s not at the Olympics.

IIRC, Rwanda is also member of the Commonwealth.

Given that England once controlled much of France, maybe France should join.

What a notion!

You’re definitely an ideas man.

Angela who? Merkel’s legacy looks increasingly terrible
16 years of no reforms are taking a toll on Germany and Europe

Oct 24th 2024

Two women have thoroughly dominated the politics of their respective northern European countries in living memory. Beyond their gender, Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher are often lumped together as centre-right stalwarts with a knack for political survival. They governed very differently—one menacingly wielding her handbag, the other patiently cajoling coalition partners—but for so long that by the time they stepped down even teenagers could not recall anyone else having been in charge. But their legacies look more different still. Though Thatcher was forced out by her own party in 1990 as her poll numbers slid, she has since topped a poll of Britain’s best post-war leaders; Sir Keir Starmer, the current prime minister, last month faced brickbats for merely moving the portrait of his predecessor-but-eight to a different part of Downing Street. Mrs Merkel opted to retire after four terms, still so popular that both her party’s candidate and the opposition fellow (now in office) tried to claim her mantle. Yet every month that goes by brings a reminder of how her reign propelled Germany into the mire.

The Iron Frau’s legacy will come into focus on November 26th as she releases her 736-page memoirs. What would once have been a lap of honour (along with a few obligatory digs at former political foes) will need to adopt a rather more defensive tone instead. Just about every big decision taken by Mrs Merkel now seems to have resulted in Germany—and often the entire European Union—ending up worse off. Geopolitically she left the country with a now-famous trifecta of dangerous dependencies: unable to defend itself without America, struggling to grow without exporting to China, relying on Russian gas to keep its industry going. The report card on the economy is if anything more damning: 16 years of muddling through with no reforms has left Germany once again the economic sick man of Europe.

What went wrong? “Vladimir Putin” is one pithy answer. The Russian president’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 showed that Germany’s ill-preparedness was not just a theoretical pitfall. Mrs Merkel had cultivated Mr Putin, speaking to him regularly (that they spoke each other’s languages helped). She will no doubt repeat in her memoirs that she never really trusted him, then remind the world of how she led the movement to impose sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Even the sleepiest reviewer, however, will wonder why German defence spending stayed at a measly 1.3% or so of GDP throughout her time in office. Worse, why did she allow Russian gas to make up an ever-bigger slice of German consumption—even allowing a new pipeline from Russia to be built after 2014? Beyond being iffy for the planet, Mrs Merkel’s impetuous call to turn off Germany’s remaining nuclear power plants after the Fukushima meltdown in 2011 left the country even more hooked on Russia. But why question German ways when the place seemed to be running like a well-oiled machine? China soaked up its exports, glad to face few questions over human rights, while Germany failed to worry about getting hooked on another autocratic regime.

Much of the book will doubtless deal with her time attending—in practice all but running—EU summits. By Charlemagne’s calculations she sat through over 100 of them, spending as many hours in windowless Brussels meeting rooms as the average German works in an entire year. And for what? It was here that the cruel-but-deserved new verb Merkeln (to put off big decisions for as long as possible) really came into its own. Whatever immediate crisis was handled was for the most part dealt with sensibly, if not always from Greece’s perspective, though often only after having been made worse by months of inaction. Yet the focus on putting out fires meant nobody focused enough on the future. Yes, the EU was kept in one piece (minus Britain). But in what shape?

Three big pitfalls have become obvious. The EU has been made more fragile by the democratic backsliding of some of its members, most notably Hungary. Mrs Merkel deserves lots of blame here, as she shielded its budding autocrat Viktor Orban from criticism for reasons of lazy convenience (Hungary is tied in to German industrial supply chains). The second is how Europe turned out to be on the economic slow track. A recent report by Mario Draghi, a former prime minister of Italy, excoriated European economic policymaking, pointing out how far the continent had fallen behind America. Finally, her kindness towards migrants, all but inviting over a million Syrians and others to Germany in 2015, while laudable, led to a political backlash that has helped fuel the rise of the hard right in Germany and elsewhere.

This lady’s not for reforms
There is an irony in how things turned out. Germany nagged southern Europeans into austerity, but now its own pfennig-pinching ways look misguided. A constitutional amendment limiting budget deficits, dating from Mrs Merkel’s time in 2009, has resulted in chronic underinvestment in public services. Spending that could have been done at 0% interest might have made Germany fit for the 21st century. Instead, bridges are literally collapsing and the train system is kaput due to previous neglect.

Those wondering how Europe ended up in its current pickle will rightly look to Mrs Merkel’s stint in charge. But Germans might use the launch of her memoirs to do their own soul-searching. They are the ones who voted time and again to put off reforms of the sort undertaken in the early 2000s by Mrs Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schröder (though the less said about his legacy after leaving office, as a well-paid pal of Mr Putin’s, the better). For Mrs Merkel’s part, she led Germany as if in a make-believe world, letting it enjoy an extended geopolitical and economic nap from which it still needs to wake up.

https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/10/24/angela-who-merkels-legacy-looks-increasingly-terrible?

Witty Rejoinder said:

Angela who? Merkel’s legacy looks increasingly terrible
16 years of no reforms are taking a toll on Germany and Europe

Oct 24th 2024

Two women have thoroughly dominated the politics of their respective northern European countries in living memory. Beyond their gender, Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher are often lumped together as centre-right stalwarts with a knack for political survival.

They were both chemists.

ABC News:

Now do Twitter, Vlad.

Communists Take Over Botswana

Mr Boko, who has not yet spoken publicly since the result, had campaigned on issues such as raising the minimum wage and increasing social grants.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-01/botswana-election-ends-ruling-party-58-years-in-power/104551974

¿¿¿

thank fuck for the international rules based order

in our defense we cross checked and included more information

This Is Going To End Well

• A bombing in Pakistan’s western Balochistan province has killed seven people, including five children and a police officer.
• The attack was targeting a polio vaccination team, according to a senior police officer.
• There are rising cases of polio in Pakistan, and vaccination teams are often targeted by militants who are waging a campaign against security forces.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-01/pakistan-bombing-kills-seven-people-including-children/104552120

SCIENCE and research

https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1852804642549252363

Countries Recognise They Have A Choice And They Have Better Choices

Indonesia is seeking to boost ties with Moscow and other BRICS nations and has applied for membership of the group.

SCIENCE said:

Countries Recognise They Have A Choice And They Have Better Choices

Indonesia is seeking to boost ties with Moscow and other BRICS nations and has applied for membership of the group.

I was wondering about how Australia will treat our Pacific neighbours whom we would like to use as a buffer against China.

Full on use them and sweeten the deal with foreign aid type bribes

SCIENCE said:

Countries Recognise They Have A Choice And They Have Better Choices

Indonesia is seeking to boost ties with Moscow and other BRICS nations and has applied for membership of the group.

BRICS was created by Goldman Sachs as an analytical grouping of emerging market countries that experienced strong economic growth and were poised to dominate the world economy by 2050. These countries now operate as an informal organization that seeks to further economic ties with each other.

Cymek said:

SCIENCE said:

Countries Recognise They Have A Choice And They Have Better Choices

Indonesia is seeking to boost ties with Moscow and other BRICS nations and has applied for membership of the group.

I was wondering about how Australia will treat our Pacific neighbours whom we would like to use as a buffer against China.

Full on use them and sweeten the deal with foreign aid type bribes

We suppose the good news is this, CHINA claims to fix the global warming problem then they have to deal with ongoing costs to pour honey on Pacific Islands but for us good guys here in Australia the cost of bribes and artificial sweetener should only last a few years before it’s all underwater anyway, that’s what the nuclear submarines are for we suppose.

Peak Warming Man said:

SCIENCE said:

Countries Recognise They Have A Choice And They Have Better Choices

Indonesia is seeking to boost ties with Moscow and other BRICS nations and has applied for membership of the group.

BRICS was created by Goldman Sachs as an analytical grouping of emerging market countries that experienced strong economic growth and were poised to dominate the world economy by 2050. These countries now operate as an informal organization that seeks to further economic ties with each other.

so yet another world domination scheme not so secretly headed by theocratic Israeli fundamentalist terrorists

Peak Warming Man said:

SCIENCE said:

Countries Recognise They Have A Choice And They Have Better Choices

Indonesia is seeking to boost ties with Moscow and other BRICS nations and has applied for membership of the group.

BRICS was created by Goldman Sachs as an analytical grouping of emerging market countries that experienced strong economic growth and were poised to dominate the world economy by 2050. These countries now operate as an informal organization that seeks to further economic ties with each other.

Not sure the I and C should be hitching their wagons to R’s star at this point

Germany in political disarray after ruling coalition collapses hours after US election

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/germany-facing-snap-election-as-scholz-coalition-crumbles/104571332

Witty Rejoinder said:

Germany in political disarray after ruling coalition collapses hours after US election

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/germany-facing-snap-election-as-scholz-coalition-crumbles/104571332

Who shook the butterfly.

It wasn’t me.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Germany in political disarray after ruling coalition collapses hours after US election

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/germany-facing-snap-election-as-scholz-coalition-crumbles/104571332

Who shook the butterfly.

It wasn’t me.

Germany in political disarray after butterfly found dead after being walked on.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Germany in political disarray after ruling coalition collapses hours after US election

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/germany-facing-snap-election-as-scholz-coalition-crumbles/104571332

Who shook the butterfly.

It wasn’t me.

Germany in political disarray after butterfly found dead after being walked on.

ah well it was promised that DPRNA machinations wouldn’t have any effect outside DPRNA prime borders so this is just journalistic lies and spurious connection drawing

I mean if Washington is proPutin then Germany should get Merkel back in so the alliance is united.

SCIENCE said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Germany in political disarray after ruling coalition collapses hours after US election

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/germany-facing-snap-election-as-scholz-coalition-crumbles/104571332

Who shook the butterfly.

It wasn’t me.

Germany in political disarray after butterfly found dead after being walked on.

ah well it was promised that DPRNA machinations wouldn’t have any effect outside DPRNA prime borders so this is just journalistic lies and spurious connection drawing

LOL

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-uk-starmer-germany-government-collapse-b2643050.html

Sir Keir Starmer‘s hopes of restoring the relationship between Britain and the European Union after Brexit have taken a knock after the collapse of key ally’s government– just hours after Donald Trump secured a second presidential term. Europe’s largest economy Germany is now reeling after the ruling coalition fell in the wake of Olaf Scholz’s decision to sack his finance minister. Sir Keir had developed a close working relation with the German chancellor since his election victory and just last week, the prime minister secured the first major success of his plans for a Brexit reset with a landmark defence deal between the two countries.

Warning the result was a dark day for mankind, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said that stronger trade and defence cooperation across Europe would “help protect ourselves from the damage Trump will do” now the world’s largest economy and its most powerful military “will be led by a dangerous, destructive demagogue”. Peter Altmaier, former chief of staff to Angela Merkel, also told the BBC Today programme that UK/ French co-operation “will have to be reinforced and enhanced” in the wake of Trump’s election and the collapse of the Germany government.

Give That Guy A Nobel Peace Prize For Inspiring Greater Euroadjacent Cooperation

Not All Just The USSA

SCIENCE said:

Not All Just The USSA

I’d have her as a religious refugee in my new country

party_pants said:

SCIENCE said:

Not All Just The USSA

I’d have her as a religious refugee in my new country

I’ll back you on that.

This Looks Promising

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/brazils-top-court-evacuated-deadly-explosions-ahead-g20-rcna180082

can someone assassinate the archduke while they’re at it, the tinder is dry

rigged

The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a two-thirds majority in the country’s parliamentary election. The party won 159 of the 225 seats, the Elections Commission said, two months after Mr Dissanayake’s presidential win was announced in September.

New Zealanders are marching, performing haka to protest divisive bill
The Treaty Principles Bill seeks to revise New Zealand’s foundational agreement with Maori people and is hugely unpopular, with even the prime minister deriding it.

By Michael E. Miller

November 15, 2024 at 4:42 a.m. EST
More than 10,000 New Zealanders on Friday joined a 660-mile protest march heading toward Parliament in Wellington, amid growing opposition to proposed legislation that would strip Maori people of special rights accorded to them under an 1840 treaty.

People joined on foot and horseback as the march, or hikoi, made its way through the central North Island city of Rotorua on Friday. It is due to arrive in the capital Tuesday.

The protests erupted into Parliament’s debating chamber Thursday when Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, a 22-year-old lawmaker for Te Pati Maori, or the Maori Party, was asked to state how her party was voting on the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, which seeks to reinterpret New Zealand’s foundational agreement between the British Crown and the Maori people.

Maipi-Clarke used the opportunity to perform a haka, or war dance. She tore up a copy of the bill in front of its author, as members of Parliament (MPs) from the Maori, Green and Labour parties, and people in the public gallery, joined in the haka.

The bill is deeply unpopular, even among members of the ruling conservative coalition. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who allowed the bill to go to its first reading Thursday, has called it “simplistic” and said he does not support it. More than 40 of the country’s most senior lawyers wrote an open letter to Luxon this week, urging him to ditch the bill.

Its proponents from the libertarian ACT party say it would ensure all New Zealanders are equal, but Maori people — who make up about 17 percent of New Zealand’s population — argue it would undercut their rights by redefining the treaty they struck with the British crown nearly 200 years ago.

Maipi-Clarke was reprimanded and suspended from Parliament for 24 hours, while a senior Labour MP was ejected from the House after calling the bill’s author a “liar” and refusing to apologize for it.

The haka is a type of ceremonial dance that is central to Maori cultural identity. Traditionally performed by warriors on the battlefield or to welcome another tribe, the haka has become recognized worldwide in recent years because of New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, whose players perform the Ka Mate haka before each match.

With its dramatic facial expressions and body movements, the haka can be a fearsome spectacle. But it is also performed as an act of solidarity. Students performed the haka in honor of the victims of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, and mourners performed it earlier this year at the funeral procession for New Zealand’s Maori king.

Thursday’s haka had another meaning, explained Margaret Mutu, professor of Maori studies at the University of Auckland.

“In the Maori world … if somebody becomes very offensive it is standard practice to do a haka to them in order to demonstrate that they have grossly offended and hurt us,” said Mutu, who is the head of the Ngati Kahu iwi, or tribe.

“When I saw the haka, I thought, ‘Yes, that is completely how we would do things,’” she said.

Thursday was not the first time that Maipi-Clarke has led a haka in Parliament, nor the first time she has been in the political spotlight.

Maipi-Clarke is the second youngest member of Parliament on record, and the youngest to be elected in 170 years. A descendant of Maori activists, she was approached by Te Pati Maori, the Maori Party, to run for office after delivering a speech outside Parliament in 2022. During the campaign, her home was repeatedly targeted in what her party called politically motivated attacks.

“To the people who ram-raided my house, who came into my house and threatened me, to the people who came and vandalized my fence: Don’t be scared,” Maipi-Clarke said at the time.

“The kohanga reo generation are here,” she continued, referring to young Maori people who went through full-immersion Maori preschool education. “And we have a huge movement and a huge wave of us coming through. I am not scared.”

Maipi-Clarke unseated incumbent Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta, who was the first Maori woman to serve as New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister. During her maiden speech in Parliament, Maipi-Clarke performed a different haka, E Ko Te Tui, about Maori political representation.

The Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand’s foundational document. It was signed in 1840 by a representative of the British crown and 500 Maori chiefs. In exchange for ceding governance to the British, the treaty promised tribes broad rights to retain their lands and protect their interests.

But Mutu said New Zealand had long failed to live up to the promises of the treaty, with Maori losing rights to vast tracts of land — leading to a cascade of negative outcomes, including overrepresentation in prisons and poverty statistics. In the 1970s, Mutu was part of a protest movement seeking to reclaim those promises. In 1975, she and thousands of others were part of the first hikoi, or protest march, to Parliament.

The march drew international attention and led Parliament to pass the Treaty of Waitangi Act, which created a tribunal that has heard almost 4,000 claims. Mutu called the tribunal “a safety valve for Maori” that has provided an official record of atrocities committed under colonization.

Over time, Parliament and the courts have come to see the treaty as promising Maori significant decision-making powers and special protections.

The Treaty Principles Bill is the brainchild of David Seymour, the leader of the populist right-wing ACT Party, one of three parties that form an uneasy conservative coalition government. As part of the coalition agreement, Luxon agreed to allow the bill to go to a first reading, a move that even members of his own party have decried because Luxon does not support the bill.

Because the Treaty of Waitangi does not list specific principles, Seymour claims the ambiguity has led to liberal interpretations — including the 1975 law — that effectively favor Maori people over other New Zealanders.

“It is time for the body that posed that question in 1975 to say what those principles are,” Seymour said when introducing the legislation on Thursday. “The purpose of this bill is to break this Parliament’s 49-year silence, to define the principles in law so it’s crystal clear what the treaty means to modern New Zealanders.”

While the bill would not rewrite the treaty itself, it would essentially extend it equally to all New Zealanders, which critics say would effectively render the treaty worthless. The bill also would require a referendum, which opponents say would be divisive.

But some doubt whether the bill would be effective. Dean Knight, law professor at Victoria University of Wellington, told Radio New Zealand that the bill was “so ugly and misconceived that it won’t work.”

Luxon’s coalition government is often accused of being “anti-Maori” and has said it wants to end “race-based” policies and minimize Maori language in the public service. It quickly scrapped a Maori health agency.

Seymour says the bill is not racist since it merely expands treaty rights to all New Zealanders.

“Seeing the Treaty as a ‘partnership between races,’ as the Court of Appeal once said, does not work as a constitutional foundation for a country,” he said Thursday. “The lawyers will defend their logic to the hilt, but there is one question they cannot answer: where in the world is it a good idea to give citizens different rights based on ancestry? Where in the world has that approach been a success?”

But critics say the bill effectively would reduce Maori rights.

“If those principles are redefined — and significantly weakened — will be fewer legal mechanisms for Maori to have their rights recognized,” Carwyn Jones, a Maori legal expert, told the Guardian.

Mutu said strict equality before the law ignores historical discrimination against Maori.

“It denies the fact that the statistical reality of Maori is that we are way behind the rest of the population because we have been colonized, we’ve had everything taken off us,” she said. “If you have equality before the law, that means that Maori people will always remain where we are as second-class citizens.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/15/new-zealand-maori-haka-treaty-waitangi-principles-bill/?

SCIENCE said:

rigged

The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a two-thirds majority in the country’s parliamentary election. The party won 159 of the 225 seats, the Elections Commission said, two months after Mr Dissanayake’s presidential win was announced in September.

Did someone say ‘Marxist-leaning’?

I hope that some people in Colombo are familiar with the name ‘Allende’.

oooh

oooh

maybe Israel poisoned him

Chinese President Xi Jinping has snubbed meetings with world leaders despite travelling to South America for the two-day talks among Pacific-rim nations. It remains unclear why Mr Xi has failed to attend public and closed-door meetings with APEC leaders in Lima, Peru, just a day after opening a new Chinese-operated megaport north of the capital. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters he was unsure why Mr Xi did not attend the leaders’ meeting, in which he informally caught up with outgoing US President Joe Biden.

¡

captain_spalding said:

SCIENCE said:

rigged

The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a two-thirds majority in the country’s parliamentary election. The party won 159 of the 225 seats, the Elections Commission said, two months after Mr Dissanayake’s presidential win was announced in September.

Did someone say ‘Marxist-leaning’?

I hope that some people in Colombo are familiar with the name ‘Allende’.

fucking USSA and their malicious violent foreign interference regime change activism in the name of freedom

SCIENCE said:

captain_spalding said:

SCIENCE said:

rigged

The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a two-thirds majority in the country’s parliamentary election. The party won 159 of the 225 seats, the Elections Commission said, two months after Mr Dissanayake’s presidential win was announced in September.

Did someone say ‘Marxist-leaning’?

I hope that some people in Colombo are familiar with the name ‘Allende’.

fucking USSA and their malicious violent foreign interference regime change activism in the name of freedom

You sound troubled my son.

Peak Warming Man said:

SCIENCE said:

captain_spalding said:

Did someone say ‘Marxist-leaning’?

I hope that some people in Colombo are familiar with the name ‘Allende’.

fucking USSA and their malicious violent foreign interference regime change activism in the name of freedom

You sound troubled my son.

shrug what happens in the USSA stays in the USSA they totally don’t export terrorism and sociopathy to the rest of the world shrug

especially not Australia, no there’s no USSA interference in Australia oh no

SCIENCE said:

oooh

oooh

maybe Israel poisoned him

Chinese President Xi Jinping has snubbed meetings with world leaders despite travelling to South America for the two-day talks among Pacific-rim nations. It remains unclear why Mr Xi has failed to attend public and closed-door meetings with APEC leaders in Lima, Peru, just a day after opening a new Chinese-operated megaport north of the capital. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters he was unsure why Mr Xi did not attend the leaders’ meeting, in which he informally caught up with outgoing US President Joe Biden.

¡

Seems odd that he’d go to all the trouble of being there but not speak to anyone.

There was a lot of incentive for this coalition to hold as the next coalition is not likely to include any of these three parties (Social Democrats, Greens, and the neolib FDP.

There will be fresh elections by March.
The CDU is doing well in the polls and I expect them to form government but they won’t have a majority and will need coalition partners. The current leader, Merz, is one of the most conservative leaders the party has had this century: disdainful of environmental protection, in favour of sealed borders. In part this move by the CDU is in response to gains made by the far right, and they’ll be hoping to recapture some of that territory.

A CDU/SocDem alliance might be hard to manage at present and so I would think that CDU/FDP coalition is more likely. The CDU has ruled out a coalition with the far right parties.

On the bright side Merz is more unreservedly in favour of maximum military aid for Ukraine that Scholtz is, and Lord knows they are going to need that next year.

SCIENCE said:

sarahs mum said:

so uh what’s the story here are there going to be some new sexual assault arrests happening shortly

ah we see

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-20/norwegian-crown-princess-s-son-arrested-for-rape/104622558

At least 38 people have been killed and several others have been injured after gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in a tribal area in north-western Pakistan. The attacks targeted two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling in Kurram, said Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official.

SCIENCE said:

At least 38 people have been killed and several others have been injured after gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in a tribal area in north-western Pakistan. The attacks targeted two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling in Kurram, said Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official.

Imagine all the people living a life of peace

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

At least 38 people have been killed and several others have been injured after gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in a tribal area in north-western Pakistan. The attacks targeted two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling in Kurram, said Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official.

Imagine all the people living a life of peace

and no religion too

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

At least 38 people have been killed and several others have been injured after gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in a tribal area in north-western Pakistan. The attacks targeted two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling in Kurram, said Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official.

Imagine all the people living a life of peace

and no religion too

Religion is divisive. Causing much hatred and manslaughter. Should have been outlawed rather than making it culturally sensitive.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Imagine all the people living a life of peace

and no religion too

Religion is divisive. Causing much hatred and manslaughter. Should have been outlawed rather than making it culturally sensitive.

well aren’t we state atheist fankids then eh

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

and no religion too

Religion is divisive. Causing much hatred and manslaughter. Should have been outlawed rather than making it culturally sensitive.

well aren’t we state atheist fankids then eh

Not taking any sides on the issue. Atheism does not guarrantee non-violence.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Religion is divisive. Causing much hatred and manslaughter. Should have been outlawed rather than making it culturally sensitive.

well aren’t we state atheist fankids then eh

Not taking any sides on the issue. Atheism does not guarrantee non-violence.

…but it eliminates a lot of pretexts for arguments that can descend into violence.

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

well aren’t we state atheist fankids then eh

Not taking any sides on the issue. Atheism does not guarrantee non-violence.

…but it eliminates a lot of pretexts for arguments that can descend into violence.

assuredly.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Religion is divisive. Causing much hatred and manslaughter. Should have been outlawed rather than making it culturally sensitive.

well aren’t we state atheist fankids then eh

Not taking any sides on the issue. Atheism does not guarrantee non-violence.

so we should start a religion that worships peace

roughbarked said:

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

Not taking any sides on the issue. Atheism does not guarrantee non-violence.

…but it eliminates a lot of pretexts for arguments that can descend into violence.

assuredly.

^

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

well aren’t we state atheist fankids then eh

Not taking any sides on the issue. Atheism does not guarrantee non-violence.

so we should start a religion that worships peace

We need something more encompassing the whole rather than segregating by religion race colour etc.

Once dominant, Germany is now desperate
As an election looms its business model is breaking down

Nov 20th 2024|BERLIN AND HANOVER

THE FINANCE ministry of the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, home to giants like Bosch, Mercedes and zf Friedrichshafen, is not a bad spot from which to probe Germany’s anxieties. The country is gripped by fears of deindustrialisation as it heads into an election that seems certain to throw its chancellor, Olaf Scholz, out of his job if his party does not dump him first. That ministry’s occupant, Danyal Bayaz, frets that Germany has squandered the “globalisation dividend” of the past 15 years, underfunding the public realm in an era of low interest rates. Now, facing an energy squeeze, growing competition from China and the prospect of Donald Trump’s America slapping 10-20% tariffs on imports, the country’s business model, fears the minister, is “collapsing”.

Mr Bayaz laments Germany’s inability to get to grips with new tech, despite its strengths in basic research and engineering. He notes that Germany’s last successful big startup was sap, a software firm, founded just as an intensely sideburned Franz Beckenbauer led the West German football team to victory in the 1972 European championships. Germany has over 60 times as many people as Estonia, but only 15 times as many “unicorns” (privately owned startups worth over $1bn).

It is a familiar litany. German industry, especially its small and medium-sized Mittelstand firms, has focused on incremental innovation, leaving it unprepared for technological shocks like the advent of electric vehicles. Cosy links between business, banks and politicians bred complacency and resistance to reform. Dogmatic adherence to fiscal rules led to rusting bridges, decaying schools and delayed trains. Growth in foreign markets fattened Deutschland ag’s profits (and treasury revenues) for a while, but that export-led model left Germany exposed when the winds of globalisation turned chill.

Now Germany, which last year replaced Japan as the world’s third-largest economy, is reaping the harvest. It is difficult to discern any net growth in real gdp since before the pandemic. Forecasts are little better, and do not account for the risks of a Trumpian trade war. Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, is mooting the first factory closures in its 87-year history; up to 30,000 jobs could be lost. Unemployment is ticking up, albeit from a low base.

High energy prices, especially after Germany had to divest from Russian gas following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, are a common grumble among firms in a country where manufacturing still accounts for 20% of gross value added. That remains almost twice the figure for France, even though industrial production peaked in 2018 and has since sagged more quickly than elsewhere in the eu (see chart 1), especially in energy-intensive sectors such as steelmaking. Order books are down, and planned investments have been postponed or shifted abroad. The ceo of Thyssenkrupp, a lossmaking steelmaker, has said Germany is “in the midst of deindustrialisation”. Even retailers have been hit. After Russia’s invasion Raoul Rossmann, who runs a pharmacy chain headquartered near Hanover that bears his family name, toured its branches to work out how to save on energy bills.

Other laments include a lack of skilled workers as Germany ages, and layers of red tape, much of it emanating from Brussels, that the Ifo Institute in Munich reckons cost the economy €146bn ($154bn) a year. One crucial development, according to Sander Tordoir of the Centre for European Reform (cer), a think-tank, is the changing relationship with China. In the 2000s and 2010s Germany was perfectly placed to satisfy Chinese appetites for its cars, chemicals and precision-engineered widgets: goods exports to China rose by 34% between 2015 and 2020, even as those to other countries fell. As recently as 2020 China was a net importer of cars, but last year it became the world’s largest exporter. Chinese firms are morphing from customers to competitors, coming to eat the lunch not only of the German auto industry but also of the Mittelstand. “The car story is emblematic, but it’s also about machines and chemicals,” says Mr Tordoir.

As Clemens Fuest of Ifo notes, China now accounts for just 6% of total German exports, around the same share as the neighbouring Netherlands. But the China story is not just about export dependence. In a forthcoming paper for the cer, Mr Tordoir and Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think-tank, describe how the “second China shock” could worsen Germany’s industrial woes. China’s domestic market cannot soak up the excess production of its state-subsidised manufacturers, and as they seek customers abroad the country’s trade surplus has exploded. This presents difficulties for German firms at home and in markets abroad. “China’s state-directed markets could provide irrational levels of financing for Chinese investment in new capacity for longer than swathes of German manufacturing can remain solvent,” write the pair.

As German exports to China have declined, America has partly stepped into the breach (see chart 2). Some firms have been able to exploit opportunities opened by America’s decoupling from Chinese tech; others have grown fat on the subsidy bonanza triggered by the Inflation Reduction Act. But Mr Trump threatens all that. Not only do tariffs loom—the Bundesbank thinks they could lop a percentage point off German gdp—but new American restrictions could hit German manufacturers that use Chinese inputs. They will also accelerate Chinese exporters’ hunt for alternative markets, including Europe.

German industry is split on China, notes a diplomat: although many Mittelstand companies, especially machinery firms, back the policy of “de-risking”, carmakers and conglomerates like basf are doubling down. Volkswagen and bmw are planning big new investments in Chinese production, as are car-parts firms like Continental. Lobbying by the car sector helped ensure Germany was one of only five countries to vote against eu tariffs on Chinese ev imports in October. Inside Germany’s government there are tensions between diplomats and spooks, who want to punish China with trade restrictions for propping up Russia’s military effort, and industry-minded types who fear that is a measure low-growth Germany cannot afford.

Ending the fetish
The deindustrialisation story can be more complicated than it looks. Losing manufacturing jobs cuts into Germany’s already sagging productivity. But gross value added in manufacturing has remained stable even as production has slumped. Some German manufacturers, in other words, may be making more valuable stuff while selling less of it. This “quality over quantity”, as Deutsche Bank puts it, suggests a future for German firms in high-end tech, including fancy cars. Germany retains an edge in green technology, including wind turbines and electrolysers.

But this can hardly compensate for losses elsewhere. Germany must get over its “industry fetish”, reckons Moritz Schularick of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Energy-intensive industries have not grown for two decades. The car sector has been shedding jobs for six years, and a reversal seems unlikely. “For years they had this belief that ‘We are the best’, and suddenly it’s over,” says an eu official.

Deep structural forces are driving changes to Germany’s industrial model. Convincing Germans that there is an alternative to being an Exportweltmeister is the work of years, not months. Even compensating for declining trade elsewhere is a marathon: despite Germany’s best efforts the eu’s free-trade negotiations with Mercosur, a big South American trading bloc, have dragged on for 25 years. (France, among others, remains opposed.)

For some, a handier tool for juicing the economy would be to reform another piece of the German model that no longer seems fit for purpose: the debt brake, a peculiarity of the constitution that limits the federal government’s annual structural budget deficit to 0.35% of output. The debt brake is an artefact of a bygone age, says Max Krahé of Dezernat Zukunft, a Berlin-based research outfit, when Germany relied on other countries running deficits to stoke its economy. In a world where globalisation has stalled, that model no longer works.

Meanwhile Germany’s public-investment requirements—one widely cited estimate puts them at €600bn over ten years—have become too big to ignore (see chart 3). Moreover, fresh funds will have to be found for defence. This year Germany at last reached the nato target of 2% of gdp, but only thanks to a special fund that will soon expire. Even more is likely to be needed to appease the new Trump administration.

For these reasons, there is a growing sense that the next coalition, probably led by Friedrich Merz, leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats, will be open to a modest reform of the debt brake. (Germany will hold an election in February, following the collapse of the three-party coalition this month.) If so, says Mr Tordoir, an investment boom could help compensate for export losses in the short term; done well, investments in education, where Germany lags its peers, and infrastructure could lift Germany’s long-term growth rate. There are plenty of ideas for reform around, including raising the permitted deficit (or replacing it with broader guidelines), exempting public investment from borrowing limits, or establishing off-books funds for infrastructure or defence.

Yet as changes to the constitution, all these would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament. And there is every chance that spoiler parties on the extremes might command a one-third blocking minority in the Bundestag after the next election. The governing Social Democrats have therefore asked Mr Merz to consider lending his support to reform now, as that would give pro-reform parties the numbers they need. He has so far refused.

Thorsten Benner, who runs Berlin’s Global Public Policy Institute, says Germany has swung from the “facile optimism” of the Angela Merkel years to a “gloom trap” in which dysfunctional politics, the constraints of the debt brake, overbureaucratisation and public distrust reinforce one another. He hopes the next government can act as a “circuit-breaker”.

That does not seem implausible. So despondent has the mood become that, in contrast even to six months ago, there is a growing sense that deep-seated change is unavoidable. That will form the backdrop to the next coalition agreement, which may see a “grand bargain” in which Mr Merz accepts debt-brake tweaks if his partners agree to tax cuts or welfare reform. But there would be a grim irony to parliamentary arithmetic thwarting change just as the stars align for it.

https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/11/20/once-dominant-germany-is-now-desperate?

Germany’s heavy industry is reliant upon cheap energy. it used to come from Russia, now they are looking elsewhere for it. But it is hard to replace on such a scale. Hence the German economy is stagnant and there is not much they can do about it so long as Putin remains in charge of Russia. Germany desperately needs for Russia to lose the war and for a new regime to take power. The new regime doesn’t need to be democratic or progressive or anything like that, they just need to be non-aggressive and willing to export gas and oil.

Some observations from Lee Kuan Yew from the 1990s and early 2000s. Interesting when viewed against what is happening in the world today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6WCtJrUEOo
link

16 minutes.

party_pants said:

Some observations from Lee Kuan Yew from the 1990s and early 2000s. Interesting when viewed against what is happening in the world today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6WCtJrUEOo
link

16 minutes.

sounds almost as if governance and popularity aren’t the same thing, bizarre

Keir Starmer played the China card in Rio – and sent a message to a hawkish Donald Trump

Simon Tisdall
The PM and other western leaders are cosying up to Beijing. If the president-elect imposes punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, he will give Xi the upper hand

Sun 24 Nov 2024 04.00 AEDT

Both were lawyers before they became politicians, but that’s where the similarities between Keir Starmer and Richard Nixon end. The former US president resigned in disgrace at the height of the Watergate corruption scandal exactly 50 years ago. Britain’s prime minister may have been unwise to accept free tickets from Arsenal FC – but he’s not in Nixon’s league.

Except, perhaps, was there just a touch of Tricky Dicky about Starmer’s meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping, at last week’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro? Watergate aside, Nixon is famous for his groundbreaking 1972 visit to Beijing, which opened the way to normalised relations between the US and Red China.

Nixon’s surprise démarche had another purpose: to show the Soviet Union, America’s cold war adversary, that the US and China could act in alliance against Moscow, which broke with Beijing in 1961. Nixon’s move, known as “playing the China card”, had significant geopolitical consequences. Starmer, dealt a weaker hand, had no aces up his sleeve.

All the same, the prime minister’s eagerness to reset what, under previous governments, became a very rocky relationship was striking. Starmer said he sought “consistent, durable, respectful, predictable” ties. “A strong relationship is important for both of our countries and for the broader international community,” he said.

It was a pointed statement. Doubtless Starmer was thinking primarily about boosting UK trade, investment and growth. But were his words also designed, Nixon-style, to send a message to a third party – namely, Donald Trump?

The US president-elect is a vociferous foe of China, which he believes threatens American global hegemony. He plans to impose sweeping, punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, re-igniting the trade war he began in his first term. Conservative backers, such as commentator Ionut Popescu, egg him on. Containment of China must be “the driving principle of US foreign policy in the new cold war”, Popescu wrote.

Leading China hawks are being offered senior positions in the new administration, which takes office on 20 January. They include Marco Rubio as secretary of state. As a senator, Rubio railed against human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the suppression of Hong Kong’s democracy – dramatised by last week’s jailings of activists and the show trial of British media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai. Rubio reviles “the wealth and corrupt activities of the leadership of the Chinese Communist party”.

Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth, a rightwing TV personality, as defence secretary, and Michael Waltz, a fierce defender of Taiwan’s independence, as national security adviser, reinforces a strong anti-China bias. These men constitute what the New York Times calls “a new class of cold warrior, guns pointed at China”. And, like Trump, they will be unimpressed by Starmer’s cosying up to Xi.

Starmer surely knows that, which makes his repositioning all the more interesting. Many in Britain, Labour and Tories, share American concerns. A House of Commons Library briefing in July traced a “sharp deterioration” in China ties in recent years, pointing in particular to Beijing’s “expansive” foreign policy and cyber-attacks and espionage in the UK. It noted Britain formally deems China a “systemic competitor” and “the greatest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security”.

Speaking in Rio, Xi was adamant that his stance on Taiwan, democracy and other core issues would not change. But he also offered reassurance with a smiley face, stressing that he sought “stable, healthy and sustainable” relations with the west – words that, like Starmer’s, may have been partly aimed at Trump.

Very deep differences remain. But Chinese and UK geostrategic interests may actually be converging in the face of Trump’s prospectively disruptive, costly, dangerous return. Climate change and post-pandemic health are two key areas of cooperation. Ongoing confrontation between the world’s top two economic and military powers would not be to Britain’s advantage. If Trump, the disquieting American, cannot be befriended and influenced, perhaps Xi can?

Other countries are making similar calculations. Germany, with its huge Chinese exports, wants to keep things friendly. The EU prefers “de-risking” to open, Trump-like ruptures, though it is divided and inconsistent. Hungary and Greece hold China close, Lithuania feuds. Europe as a whole would suffer greatly in any US-initiated global tariff war.

Emmanuel Macron was another leader making nice with Xi in Rio. France’s president raised China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, then claimed, mysteriously, to have achieved a “convergence of views”. Distancing himself from Trump, Macron said France would continue to promote European strategic autonomy, “precisely to be able to talk with China in complete independence”.

Not to be left out, Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, set aside thorny bilateral disputes and, like Starmer, shook hands with Xi on a new start. Australia, too, valued steady “calibrated” ties. Trade was flourishing again, Albanese said. “Dialogue is critical, and we’ve made encouraging progress.” Jolly Xi hugged him right back (figuratively speaking).

All this must be music to Xi’s ears. He has long dreamed of China supplanting the US as the 21st century’s foremost superpower. Beset by economic problems and a “wolf warrior diplomacy” backlash, he has launched a foreign charm offensive. Last month, he patched up a festering Himalayan border dispute with India, an old rival wooed by the US.

Trump’s victory was initially assessed as bad news for China. It may be the exact opposite. He’s unpredictable. His views change. But if “America first” means putting everyone else last, if Trump’s isolationism, aggressive nationalism and trade war threats end up screwing America’s allies, then those allies, including Starmer, may ultimately swallow their misgivings and look elsewhere for reliable friends – if only to achieve some balance. If Xi’s dream of dominance comes true, he will know who to thank. Donald Trump: Making China Great Again.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/23/keir-starmer-played-china-card-in-rio-and-sent-message-to-a-hawkish-donald-trump?

roughbarked said:

A Malaysian court has ordered the country’s government to return 172 rainbow-coloured watches it seized from watchmaker Swatch last year.

The government said it took the timepieces from the Swiss company because they featured “LGBT elements” – homosexuality is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia and punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

However, a court ruled the government did not have a warrant to confiscate the items and a law prohibiting their sale was only passed later, making the seizure unlawful.

thank fuck it only ever rains when the sun don’t shine there, to mix and macerate and masticate and debate mathematically an euphemistic metaphor

If you haven’t come across David Van Reybrouck, a Belgian author, cultural historian and archaeologist, I’d recommend you look him up and take a look at his writings on democracy. Here’s a post of his from 7th November which absolutely nails the situation in which we currently find ourselves; it’s a long read but well worth it.
Written by David van Reybrouck:

Fascism begins with the desire for a fresh start, a radical break

(Written yesterday afternoon at the request of De Standaard, despite great fatigue and noise on board.)

I am on a cargo ship on the North Sea. This morning I woke up at half past five when the engines were finally allowed to go full throttle past Vlissingen. The roar from the underbelly of the ship had nothing to do with the leisurely lapping on the Western Scheldt of the past few hours. On my mobile phone I saw that I still had reception. The news sites that I clicked on confirmed what I had feared for several weeks and expressed on Facebook yesterday. Nevertheless, it was a rude awakening in the bare cabin for the second time.

Trump’s re-election did not come out of the blue and fits into a trend that we have seen everywhere in recent years, the return of a resentful, masculine, autocratic, populist and simplistic political culture. The narcissistic bully as a leader. Resentment as the engine of personal ambition and social project. Anger as a value. Shamelessness as a virtue. Stupidity as pride.

Anyone who thinks that the victory of Trumpism can be attributed solely to that one, strange figure of Donald Trump in that one, strange country called America, is mistaken. That same Trump would not have stood a chance in the sixties or seventies, really zero, not even with the American voter. But today, Trumpian types are achieving success in many modern democracies. This is partly because they copy his style and recipes, but mainly because a fertile breeding ground for this kind of rhetoric and ideology has grown everywhere in recent decades. The unimaginable of last night is completely predictable if you look at the plate tectonics of history.

As completely different as they were, the communism and fascism that rose in Europe in the interbellum period offered an answer to the disastrous failure of parliamentary democracy. Communists saw elected parliaments as bourgeois institutions from the late nineteenth century that only defended the interests of the upper middle class and the aristocracy, with all the exploitation that entailed. Only the dictatorship of the proletariat could rectify that. Fascists saw parliaments as dull, lame talk shops for endlessly bickering parties that were miles away from the vital life force and healthy will of the people. But instead of a bottom-up alternative of workers’ councils and farmers’ collective farms, they opted for the top-down model in which the highest leader had to represent the embodiment of the true people. We know the consequences.

After the Second World War, the West abandoned the communist and fascist experiment and decided to return to the old parliamentarism, but with one important difference: free enterprise had to be restricted much more than had been the case in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The era of ‘democratic capitalism’ was born, that difficult compromise between the will of the people and free enterprise, between the masses and the cash register. Every few years, the people were allowed to appoint their representatives through universal suffrage in free and fair elections. Entrepreneurs in turn retained the freedom to do business, but were obliged to consult regularly with delegations of their employees. Socio-economic consultation was born. Wild capitalism was restricted. From then on, the cash register had to take the masses into account to some extent. And through income taxes, the state ensured a reasonable redistribution of wealth. The strongest shoulders bore the heaviest burdens, the weakest shoulders were given a push in the back.

Things went well for thirty years. The Trente Glorieuses, the period from roughly 1945 to 1975, brought wealth, prosperity and progress, not only for the top of society, but also and especially for the bottom. My grandparents’ generation had opportunities that their parents never had: a better salary, a modest house, weekends, holidays, health care, pensions and above all a better future for their children. Everyone improved.

That optimism came to an end when several economists claimed that the promise of democratic capitalism—together forward!—could be realized much more cheaply if the market took over a lot of government tasks. Should railways, postal services, telephone companies, nursing homes, hospitals, health insurance, banks and airlines all remain in the hands of the state? Many governments were interested. The oil crisis of the late 1970s forced them to look for less expensive alternatives. Neoliberalism began with the promise of the same quality for less money, but fundamentally changed the relationships: if the market had been guided by the state for thirty years, then from the 1980s and 1990s onwards the state increasingly guided by the market. The cash register had more say than the masses. Public services were cut back while many prices rose. And while the turnover at the cash register continued to grow year after year, the purchasing power of the masses did not increase significantly. The result: inequality that has been growing for thirty years. The promise of democratic capitalism had become an illusion.

The success of Trumpism in the West is based on this long-term development. Since the 1990s, fewer and fewer people have been reaping the benefits of progress. The attacks of 2001 and the banking crisis of 2007 created new enemies at the top and bottom of the social ladder: migrants, managers and ministers. The asylum crisis of 2015 added fuel to the fire: those at the bottom now also received all the support from those at the top, it was said. The climate youth of 2019 were apparently also too young, too rich, too smart, too female and too angry to be allowed to lecture others—that they did not dare to get steak, petrol and Benidorm! Since 2020, the floodgates have completely opened. The rapid accumulation of major crises—corona, Ukraine, energy crisis, inflation, Middle East, floods and forest fires—makes a return to post-war normality completely impossible. And for more and more people, completely undesirable.

Study after study has shown that enthusiasm for democracy is disappearing everywhere in the West. Confidence has been eroding for fifteen years. This is both dramatic and unsurprising: when democracy can no longer deliver on its promise of collective progress, people will seek refuge elsewhere. When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register, it is no surprise that more and more people are dropping out. Whoever reduces citizens to voters gets grumpy consumers. Our societies are deeply divided between people who still think that they are being listened to to some extent and people who have given up that hope altogether, until a tempting alternative comes along. As the latter group grows, democracy slowly dies. A good friend who is a journalist texted me last week that she was starting to lean towards fatalism: “I can hardly contain it anymore. If you vote for a fascist despite everything that is known, then you also have the right to fascism.” I fear that it is much worse. Apparently many people just feel like it. Fascism does not start out of ignorance of the consequences, but out of a desire for a radical break, a fresh start, a clean sweep. Apparently many feel so cheated by the current system that the prospect of a completely brutal alternative, however much it is made up of lies and empty promises, however much it comes from a convicted criminal who embodies the neoliberal betrayal of democratic capitalism, seems tempting and celebratory.

Just like in 1933.

Bogsnorkler said:

If you haven’t come across David Van Reybrouck, a Belgian author, cultural historian and archaeologist, I’d recommend you look him up and take a look at his writings on democracy. Here’s a post of his from 7th November which absolutely nails the situation in which we currently find ourselves; it’s a long read but well worth it.
Written by David van Reybrouck:

Fascism begins with the desire for a fresh start, a radical break

(Written yesterday afternoon at the request of De Standaard, despite great fatigue and noise on board.)

I am on a cargo ship on the North Sea. This morning I woke up at half past five when the engines were finally allowed to go full throttle past Vlissingen. The roar from the underbelly of the ship had nothing to do with the leisurely lapping on the Western Scheldt of the past few hours. On my mobile phone I saw that I still had reception. The news sites that I clicked on confirmed what I had feared for several weeks and expressed on Facebook yesterday. Nevertheless, it was a rude awakening in the bare cabin for the second time.

Trump’s re-election did not come out of the blue and fits into a trend that we have seen everywhere in recent years, the return of a resentful, masculine, autocratic, populist and simplistic political culture. The narcissistic bully as a leader. Resentment as the engine of personal ambition and social project. Anger as a value. Shamelessness as a virtue. Stupidity as pride.

Anyone who thinks that the victory of Trumpism can be attributed solely to that one, strange figure of Donald Trump in that one, strange country called America, is mistaken. That same Trump would not have stood a chance in the sixties or seventies, really zero, not even with the American voter. But today, Trumpian types are achieving success in many modern democracies. This is partly because they copy his style and recipes, but mainly because a fertile breeding ground for this kind of rhetoric and ideology has grown everywhere in recent decades. The unimaginable of last night is completely predictable if you look at the plate tectonics of history.

As completely different as they were, the communism and fascism that rose in Europe in the interbellum period offered an answer to the disastrous failure of parliamentary democracy. Communists saw elected parliaments as bourgeois institutions from the late nineteenth century that only defended the interests of the upper middle class and the aristocracy, with all the exploitation that entailed. Only the dictatorship of the proletariat could rectify that. Fascists saw parliaments as dull, lame talk shops for endlessly bickering parties that were miles away from the vital life force and healthy will of the people. But instead of a bottom-up alternative of workers’ councils and farmers’ collective farms, they opted for the top-down model in which the highest leader had to represent the embodiment of the true people. We know the consequences.

After the Second World War, the West abandoned the communist and fascist experiment and decided to return to the old parliamentarism, but with one important difference: free enterprise had to be restricted much more than had been the case in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The era of ‘democratic capitalism’ was born, that difficult compromise between the will of the people and free enterprise, between the masses and the cash register. Every few years, the people were allowed to appoint their representatives through universal suffrage in free and fair elections. Entrepreneurs in turn retained the freedom to do business, but were obliged to consult regularly with delegations of their employees. Socio-economic consultation was born. Wild capitalism was restricted. From then on, the cash register had to take the masses into account to some extent. And through income taxes, the state ensured a reasonable redistribution of wealth. The strongest shoulders bore the heaviest burdens, the weakest shoulders were given a push in the back.

Things went well for thirty years. The Trente Glorieuses, the period from roughly 1945 to 1975, brought wealth, prosperity and progress, not only for the top of society, but also and especially for the bottom. My grandparents’ generation had opportunities that their parents never had: a better salary, a modest house, weekends, holidays, health care, pensions and above all a better future for their children. Everyone improved.

That optimism came to an end when several economists claimed that the promise of democratic capitalism—together forward!—could be realized much more cheaply if the market took over a lot of government tasks. Should railways, postal services, telephone companies, nursing homes, hospitals, health insurance, banks and airlines all remain in the hands of the state? Many governments were interested. The oil crisis of the late 1970s forced them to look for less expensive alternatives. Neoliberalism began with the promise of the same quality for less money, but fundamentally changed the relationships: if the market had been guided by the state for thirty years, then from the 1980s and 1990s onwards the state increasingly guided by the market. The cash register had more say than the masses. Public services were cut back while many prices rose. And while the turnover at the cash register continued to grow year after year, the purchasing power of the masses did not increase significantly. The result: inequality that has been growing for thirty years. The promise of democratic capitalism had become an illusion.

The success of Trumpism in the West is based on this long-term development. Since the 1990s, fewer and fewer people have been reaping the benefits of progress. The attacks of 2001 and the banking crisis of 2007 created new enemies at the top and bottom of the social ladder: migrants, managers and ministers. The asylum crisis of 2015 added fuel to the fire: those at the bottom now also received all the support from those at the top, it was said. The climate youth of 2019 were apparently also too young, too rich, too smart, too female and too angry to be allowed to lecture others—that they did not dare to get steak, petrol and Benidorm! Since 2020, the floodgates have completely opened. The rapid accumulation of major crises—corona, Ukraine, energy crisis, inflation, Middle East, floods and forest fires—makes a return to post-war normality completely impossible. And for more and more people, completely undesirable.

Study after study has shown that enthusiasm for democracy is disappearing everywhere in the West. Confidence has been eroding for fifteen years. This is both dramatic and unsurprising: when democracy can no longer deliver on its promise of collective progress, people will seek refuge elsewhere. When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register, it is no surprise that more and more people are dropping out. Whoever reduces citizens to voters gets grumpy consumers. Our societies are deeply divided between people who still think that they are being listened to to some extent and people who have given up that hope altogether, until a tempting alternative comes along. As the latter group grows, democracy slowly dies. A good friend who is a journalist texted me last week that she was starting to lean towards fatalism: “I can hardly contain it anymore. If you vote for a fascist despite everything that is known, then you also have the right to fascism.” I fear that it is much worse. Apparently many people just feel like it. Fascism does not start out of ignorance of the consequences, but out of a desire for a radical break, a fresh start, a clean sweep. Apparently many feel so cheated by the current system that the prospect of a completely brutal alternative, however much it is made up of lies and empty promises, however much it comes from a convicted criminal who embodies the neoliberal betrayal of democratic capitalism, seems tempting and celebratory.

Just like in 1933.

Fair assessment.

>When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register

Trouble with this view is that voter turnout was even higher for this US election than the last one, and the majority voted for the billionaires.

Bubblecar said:

>When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register

Trouble with this view is that voter turnout was even higher for this US election than the last one, and the majority voted for the billionaires.

so if you pay voters to vote for your candidate then they will

Bubblecar said:

>When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register

Trouble with this view is that voter turnout was even higher for this US election than the last one, and the majority voted for the billionaires.

Though high, 2024 voter turnout was lower than 2020:

https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-voter-turnout-republicans-trump-harris-7ef18c115c8e1e76210820e0146bc3a5

Witty Rejoinder said:

Bubblecar said:

>When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register

Trouble with this view is that voter turnout was even higher for this US election than the last one, and the majority voted for the billionaires.

Though high, 2024 voter turnout was lower than 2020:

https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-voter-turnout-republicans-trump-harris-7ef18c115c8e1e76210820e0146bc3a5

plus the qualifier “meaningful” must be considered.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Bubblecar said:

>When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register

Trouble with this view is that voter turnout was even higher for this US election than the last one, and the majority voted for the billionaires.

Though high, 2024 voter turnout was lower than 2020:

https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-voter-turnout-republicans-trump-harris-7ef18c115c8e1e76210820e0146bc3a5

Ah, last I heard it was a few % higher this time.

Bogsnorkler said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Bubblecar said:

>When meaningful participation by the masses is repeatedly defeated by the silent power of the cash register

Trouble with this view is that voter turnout was even higher for this US election than the last one, and the majority voted for the billionaires.

Though high, 2024 voter turnout was lower than 2020:

https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-voter-turnout-republicans-trump-harris-7ef18c115c8e1e76210820e0146bc3a5

plus the qualifier “meaningful” must be considered.

¿ it’s not valid voting unless it’s Democrat voting ?

Syrian rebels have launched a surprise assault on Aleppo, the site of the 2016 battle which largely turned the country’s civil war in the government’s favour. A Syrian war monitor says the rebels set off two car bombs at the city’s western edge on Friday, with media reports later placing rebel forces well within the city centre.

Russia has called on the Syrian government to quickly “restore order” in the city, but it remains to be seen whether pro-Assad forces have been overrun or caught by surprise.

fuck CHINA and

yeah

“Syrian state TV reports that Assad regime has fallen in Aleppo.

Assad did not return to Syria & is still in Moscow.”

- Ateo Breaking

👏 Wonderful news! Let’s hope that this is Assad’s end.

👉 This is a strong blow to Russia.

———————————————————————

This sounds interesting.

Kingy said:

“Syrian state TV reports that Assad regime has fallen in Aleppo.

Assad did not return to Syria & is still in Moscow.”

- Ateo Breaking

👏 Wonderful news! Let’s hope that this is Assad’s end.

👉 This is a strong blow to Russia.

———————————————————————

This sounds interesting.

“Russia will lose its only ‘warm water’ port in the Mediterranean sea as rebels keep advancing.”

Kingy said:

“Syrian state TV reports that Assad regime has fallen in Aleppo.

Assad did not return to Syria & is still in Moscow.”

- Ateo Breaking

👏 Wonderful news! Let’s hope that this is Assad’s end.

👉 This is a strong blow to Russia.

———————————————————————

This sounds interesting.

Assad relied on military aid from Putin for years but that’s kind of dried up…

Kingy said:

Kingy said:

“Syrian state TV reports that Assad regime has fallen in Aleppo.

Assad did not return to Syria & is still in Moscow.”

- Ateo Breaking

👏 Wonderful news! Let’s hope that this is Assad’s end.

👉 This is a strong blow to Russia.

———————————————————————

This sounds interesting.

“Russia will lose its only ‘warm water’ port in the Mediterranean sea as rebels keep advancing.”

It’ll make life a lot more difficult for the Russian Navy.

With the Bosphorous Strait closed to them, the loss of their naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, their only repair and replenishment facility in the Med, would put a lot of additional strain on their operations.

The Russian navy has never been really crash-hot at replenishment at sea, and their ships tend to need a great deal more in the way of maintenance and running repairs than do their Western equivalents. They’re not noted for long endurance at sea.

With nowhere to go in the Med, ships would have to deploy from, and return to, Russian ports in the Baltic, putting additional strain on ships which may already be in poor operational order. And, it would mean that every deployment and return passes through the Strait of Gibraltar, as well as the well-surveilled Greenland-Iceland-UK gap.

The West would know pretty much everything about what the Russian navy is up to in the Mediterranean.

I left out mention of the English Channel, as the other route back to Russia.

Of course, any passage through that waterway would be very easily observed.

captain_spalding said:

I left out mention of the English Channel, as the other route back to Russia.

Of course, any passage through that waterway would be very easily observed.

Do they have any warm water ports left?

Or do they have to just knock off for the winter and hibernate?

First Officer: It’s cold today Captain
Captain: …….cold
Captain: and hard

Kingy said:

captain_spalding said:

I left out mention of the English Channel, as the other route back to Russia.

Of course, any passage through that waterway would be very easily observed.

Do they have any warm water ports left?

Or do they have to just knock off for the winter and hibernate?

Tartus is their only naval facility in the Mediterranean. They’ve had a presence there for about fifty years.

Turkey has closed the Bosphorous Strait to Russian naval vessels, so they can’t go to and from Sevastopol in the Black Sea.

Russian merchant ships may still call at other ports in the Med, but the Russian navy has nowhere to go, at least, nowhere that can offer any repair or resupply facilities.

There’s 4 or 5 places around Africa where the Russians are trying to put in naval facilities, but apart from that, they haven’t really got anything.

They might still get to visit Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, or Cuba (on a ‘social’ basis), but it’s not like the old days. No proper support installations for them there.

captain_spalding said:

There’s 4 or 5 places around Africa where the Russians are trying to put in naval facilities, but apart from that, they haven’t really got anything.

They might still get to visit Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, or Cuba (on a ‘social’ basis), but it’s not like the old days. No proper support installations for them there.

They are ursurping the French.

captain_spalding said:

I left out mention of the English Channel, as the other route back to Russia.

Of course, any passage through that waterway would be very easily observed.

It would be on the radio with the shipping report.

I mean … seems kind of weird to describe Latakia as a Russia wwp when it’s land supply lines to Syria are also intermittent.

dv said:

I mean … seems kind of weird to describe Latakia as a Russia wwp when it’s land supply lines to Syria are also intermittent.

There’s a good deal of Russian military air traffic between Russia and Syria. Just about enough to keep Tartus supplied with what it needs. I don’t think that they send very much overland.

Maybe they can advertise to Afghans Palestinians Sudanese as well¡

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-01/an-italian-town-wants-americans-to-buy-their-homes/104648682

Ah well guess the important thing is that populists are allowed to bully people’s republics¡

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-03/labor-senator-raff-ciccone-taiwan-china-commentary/104674544

“After a long day, there’s little doubt that walking through nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.
But according to proponents of “grounding”, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth instead.
Also known as “earthing”, grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the earth balances your electrical charge, helping fix inflammation, mood problems and lots more.”

It works well, particularly when the moon is in the seventh house.

Peak Warming Man said:

“After a long day, there’s little doubt that walking through nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.
But according to proponents of “grounding”, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth instead.
Also known as “earthing”, grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the earth balances your electrical charge, helping fix inflammation, mood problems and lots more.”

It works well, particularly when the moon is in the seventh house.

At first blush I thought, damn wrong thread, but it probably just fits in.

Peak Warming Man said:

“After a long day, there’s little doubt that walking through nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.
But according to proponents of “grounding”, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth instead.
Also known as “earthing”, grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the earth balances your electrical charge, helping fix inflammation, mood problems and lots more.”

It works well, particularly when the moon is in the seventh house.

Goes along with the eagle feathers etc. Latter-day hippies, hey.

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

“After a long day, there’s little doubt that walking through nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.
But according to proponents of “grounding”, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth instead.
Also known as “earthing”, grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the earth balances your electrical charge, helping fix inflammation, mood problems and lots more.”

It works well, particularly when the moon is in the seventh house.

At first blush I thought, damn wrong thread, but it probably just fits in.

Yeah I get it. Earth, globe.

Peak Warming Man said:

“After a long day, there’s little doubt that walking through nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.
But according to proponents of “grounding”, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth instead.
Also known as “earthing”, grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the earth balances your electrical charge, helping fix inflammation, mood problems and lots more.”

It works well, particularly when the moon is in the seventh house.

This was recently discussed by Norman Swan on What’s That Rash.

Here is the full text of his conclusions.

“Bullshit”.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Peak Warming Man said:

“After a long day, there’s little doubt that walking through nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.
But according to proponents of “grounding”, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth instead.
Also known as “earthing”, grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the earth balances your electrical charge, helping fix inflammation, mood problems and lots more.”

It works well, particularly when the moon is in the seventh house.

This was recently discussed by Norman Swan on What’s That Rash.

Here is the full text of his conclusions.

“Bullshit”.

Oh How The Turntables

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170215-the-strange-victorian-fashion-of-self-electrification

Strike a light. 2034 WC is in Saudi.

Peak Warming Man said:

“After a long day, there’s little doubt that walking through nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.
But according to proponents of “grounding”, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth instead.
Also known as “earthing”, grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the earth balances your electrical charge, helping fix inflammation, mood problems and lots more.”

It works well, particularly when the moon is in the seventh house.

Wouldn’t that be the age of Aquarius?

um so

WTF is going on

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-04/south-korean-president-yoon-suk-yeol-declares-martial-law/104681360

SCIENCE said:

um so

WTF is going on

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-04/south-korean-president-yoon-suk-yeol-declares-martial-law/104681360

srslywtf

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol says he will lift martial law, after a parliamentary vote to block it.

Protesters outside South Korea’s parliament have been celebrating the swift end to martial law with chants of: “We won!” One demonstrator banged on a drum. South Korea’s won currency recovered somewhat after President Yoon Suk Yeol backed down. Cho Kuk, the head of a minor opposition party, met protesters outside parliament and said: “This isn’t over. He put all the people in shock.” He vowed to impeach Yoon by putting together votes from other parties.

oh so they were just currency manipulating

no wait

Carrington Clarke, who was previously the ABC’s East Asia correspondent based in Seoul, has spoken to News Breakfast about the situation in South Korea. He says President Yoon is highly unpopular and under significant pressure.

But the impact on the country’s democracy, and the reputational damage for President Yoon Suk Yeol, will likely be far more longstanding. The country is one of the great democracy success stories, emerging from years of military dictatorship after the Korean War. But a beleaguered and unpopular President Yoon decided to hark back to the years of authoritarianism.

Why? Despite citing the threat from North Korea, political observers believe it was an extreme step to break the political deadlock. He’s been unable to pass legislation through an opposition-controlled parliament, and he and his administration have faced multiple corruption allegations, including against his own wife for accepting a luxury Dior handbag.

well give the Real Man some credit, got more guts than Albanese, didn’t even dare to call for double disillusionment

oh wait they reckon it says something about the failing of so called democracy but actually it says they’re better than the best

President Yoon has made an extraordinary political gamble.

He knows that if he loses, history suggests his very freedom could be forfeited. Since the 1980s, four South Korean presidents have been jailed after leaving office. Another died by suicide while under investigation by prosecutors.

SCIENCE said:

SCIENCE said:

um so

WTF is going on

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-04/south-korean-president-yoon-suk-yeol-declares-martial-law/104681360

srslywtf

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol says he will lift martial law, after a parliamentary vote to block it.

Protesters outside South Korea’s parliament have been celebrating the swift end to martial law with chants of: “We won!” One demonstrator banged on a drum. South Korea’s won currency recovered somewhat after President Yoon Suk Yeol backed down. Cho Kuk, the head of a minor opposition party, met protesters outside parliament and said: “This isn’t over. He put all the people in shock.” He vowed to impeach Yoon by putting together votes from other parties.

oh so they were just currency manipulating

no wait

Carrington Clarke, who was previously the ABC’s East Asia correspondent based in Seoul, has spoken to News Breakfast about the situation in South Korea. He says President Yoon is highly unpopular and under significant pressure.

But the impact on the country’s democracy, and the reputational damage for President Yoon Suk Yeol, will likely be far more longstanding. The country is one of the great democracy success stories, emerging from years of military dictatorship after the Korean War. But a beleaguered and unpopular President Yoon decided to hark back to the years of authoritarianism.

Why? Despite citing the threat from North Korea, political observers believe it was an extreme step to break the political deadlock. He’s been unable to pass legislation through an opposition-controlled parliament, and he and his administration have faced multiple corruption allegations, including against his own wife for accepting a luxury Dior handbag.

well give the Real Man some credit, got more guts than Albanese, didn’t even dare to call for double disillusionment

oh wait they reckon it says something about the failing of so called democracy but actually it says they’re better than the best

President Yoon has made an extraordinary political gamble.

He knows that if he loses, history suggests his very freedom could be forfeited. Since the 1980s, four South Korean presidents have been jailed after leaving office. Another died by suicide while under investigation by prosecutors.

Must be difficult to find people who willingly give their lives for their country by nominating for president.

crazy shit, should have got their hands on one of those M34 instead

Heather Cox Richardson
50m ·
December 3, 2024 (Tuesday)

For an astonishing six hours today, South Korea underwent an attempted self-coup by its unpopular president, Yoon Suk Yeol, only to see the South Korean people force him to back down as they reasserted the strength of their democracy.

In an emergency address at nearly 11:00 last night local time, Yoon announced that he was declaring martial law in South Korea for the first time since 1980, when special forces under a military dictatorship attacked pro-democracy activists in the city of Gwangju, leaving about 200 people dead or missing. South Koreans ended military rule in their country in 1987, writing a new constitution that made South Korea a republic.

Yoon claimed he had to declare martial law because his political opponents were sympathizing with communist North Korea. It was a thin pretext.

A member of the conservative People’s Party, Yoon was elected to a five-year presidential term in 2022 after a misogynistic campaign fueled by young men who saw equal rights for women— whose average monthly wage is 67.7% of that a man, according to the BBC’s Laura Bicker—as reverse discrimination that is taking away their own rights and opportunities.

Before his election, Yoon had no experience in the National Assembly, and once he was in office, his popularity slid to record lows. In legislative elections held last April, voters crushed Yoon’s party, giving opposition parties 192 of 300 seats in the National Assembly. The legislature fought with Yoon over his budget and launched a number of corruption investigations into Yoon’s allies as well as his wife.

And so, Yoon declared martial law, bringing the media under his control and banning political activities, “false propaganda,” “gatherings that incite social unrest,” and strikes. Police officers formed a blockade around the National Assembly, and helicopters landed on the roof to prevent lawmakers from getting inside to overturn Yoon’s declaration.

The South Korean people reacted immediately. Reporting from Seoul, John Yoon of the New York Times recounted the story of a real estate agent who watched President Yoon’s speech, got in his car, and drove for an hour to get to the National Assembly. The man told journalist Yoon, “I thought, ‘The end has come,’ so I came out. The president of a country has exerted his power by force, and its people have come out to protest that. We have to remove him from power from this point on. He’s in a position where he has to come down.”

Editor of The Verge Sarah Jeong, who works out of the U.S. and does not cover South Korean politics, happened to be working in Seoul this week and was on site after a night of drinking, giving an informed and honest account of what she was seeing. “he crowd is a pretty even mix of young people and the older folks (mostly men) who would have been young during the dictatorship…. I heard tanks were here but I haven’t seen one yet. ld men swearing ‘how dare the military come here.‘”

Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post Tokyo/Seoul bureau chief, reported that the National Assembly managed to pull together a majority of its members—190 of 300—in about two and a half hours to participate in a unanimous vote to overturn Yoon’s emergency declaration of martial law. That vote included members of his own party.

Political commentator Adam Schwartz shared a video taken by the leader of South Korea’s Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, as he climbed over the wall of the National Assembly to vote against Yoon’s martial law declaration. Other videos showed people in the streets boosting legislators over the walls for the vote.

Yet another video showed South Korean soldiers trying to get into the National Assembly during the voting thwarted by people wielding a fire extinguisher and flashes from cameras.

While the law said Yoon had to abide by the legislators’ vote, it was not clear whether Yoon would do as the law required. About six hours after he had declared martial law, Yoon bowed to the National Assembly and the popular will and lifted his declaration.
Yoon has been widely condemned, and South Koreans from all parties, including his own, are calling for his resignation or impeachment. Raphael Rashid of The Guardian reported today that on the morning after the attempted coup, South Koreans are bewildered and sad. “For the older generation who fought on the streets against military dictatorships, martial law equals dictatorship, not 21st century Korea. The younger generation is embarrassed that he has ruined their country’s reputation. People are baffled.”

For the rest of the world, though, South Koreans’ immediate and aggressive response to a man trying to take away their democratic rights is an inspiration. Among other things, it illustrates that for all the claims that autocracy can react to events more quickly than democracy can, in fact autocrats are brittle. It is democracy that is determined and resilient.

The events in Seoul also cemented the shift in social media from X to Bluesky, where news was breaking faster than anywhere else, in a way that echoed what Twitter used to be. Since Twitter was a key site of democratic organizing until Elon Musk bought it and renamed it X, that shift is significant.

And finally, the events in South Korea emphasize that for all people often look to larger-than-life figures to define our nations, our history is in fact made up of regular people doing the best they can. Journalist Sarah Jeong found herself entirely unexpectedly in the middle of a coup and, recognizing that she was in a historic moment, snapped to work to do all she could to keep the rest of us informed. “I’m f*cking blasted and hanging out in the weirdest scene because history happened at a deeply inconvenient hour,” she wrote on Bluesky. “o it goes.”

When she finally went home, Jeong wrote: “I expensed my cab ride home. I’m tired so I put ‘korea coup’ down in the expense code field.”

well it’ll be interesting to see what comes next

also how do we know the opposition weren’t colluding with the north

well it’ll be interesting to see what comes next

also how do we know the opposition weren’t colluding with the north

another thing we don’t have any immediate obvious view of any links to USSA events on this so maybe it was all just coincidental but we’ll see

SCIENCE said:

another thing we don’t have any immediate obvious view of any links to USSA events on this so maybe it was all just coincidental but we’ll see

OK we take that back

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-05/french-parliament-votes-no-confidence-in-pm-michel-barnier/104686986

yes we know that there are more specific geographically delimited threads so we apologise

well that’s nice

Defence Chief Admiral David Johnston told the gathering that the military relationship between both nations remains close because of shared security challenges and values.

certainly want to share some of that

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-05/alleged-billion-dollar-russian-networks-exposed-investigation/104687738

Global investigation dismantles alleged billion-dollar money laundering scheme linked to rich Russians and cybercriminals.

> Now who’da guessed?

roughbarked said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-05/alleged-billion-dollar-russian-networks-exposed-investigation/104687738

Global investigation dismantles alleged billion-dollar money laundering scheme linked to rich Russians and cybercriminals.

> Now who’da guessed?

Good old Russia, its a organised crime syndicate with a semi fascist dictatorship leaning and if asked we are real communists

Democratic Party said members of parliament were on stand-by after receiving many reports of another martial law declaration, the Yonhap news agency reports.

The ruling party’s chief has called for the “swift suspension” of duties of beleaguered President Yoon Suk Yeol, claiming he ordered the arrest of prominent politicians during the controversial imposition of martial law this week. The comments by People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon suggest that his party will change its earlier opposition to the impeachment of Mr Yoon over the crisis.

SCIENCE said:

Democratic Party said members of parliament were on stand-by after receiving many reports of another martial law declaration, the Yonhap news agency reports.

The ruling party’s chief has called for the “swift suspension” of duties of beleaguered President Yoon Suk Yeol, claiming he ordered the arrest of prominent politicians during the controversial imposition of martial law this week. The comments by People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon suggest that his party will change its earlier opposition to the impeachment of Mr Yoon over the crisis.

No deaths by artillery fire though, poor show

Yoon Suk Yeol “Just because he did it, doesn’t mean I have to”

Cymek said:

SCIENCE said:

Democratic Party said members of parliament were on stand-by after receiving many reports of another martial law declaration, the Yonhap news agency reports.

The ruling party’s chief has called for the “swift suspension” of duties of beleaguered President Yoon Suk Yeol, claiming he ordered the arrest of prominent politicians during the controversial imposition of martial law this week. The comments by People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon suggest that his party will change its earlier opposition to the impeachment of Mr Yoon over the crisis.

No deaths by artillery fire though, poor show

Yoon Suk Yeol “Just because he did it, doesn’t mean I have to”

So Called Democracy Is Better Than So Called Communism Because They Have A More Inclusive And Woker Superhero

Part of me thinks Macron’s most prudent option is to appoint a National Rally politician PM and hope in the two years left of his presidency Le Pen and her allies go down in flames.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Part of me thinks Macron’s most prudent option is to appoint a National Rally politician PM and hope in the two years left of his presidency Le Pen and her allies go down in flames.

Tandem FUBAR with Trump’s regime?

wait if we just hand Ukraine over to Russia they’ll just walk in and realise after a few years that it was a mistake and bail out right

Witty Rejoinder said:

Part of me thinks Macron’s most prudent option is to appoint a National Rally politician PM and hope in the two years left of his presidency Le Pen and her allies go down in flames.

Computer says no

SCIENCE said:

wait if we just hand Ukraine over to Russia they’ll just walk in and realise after a few years that it was a mistake and bail out right

Absolutely.

Just look at what happened after WW2.

Russia exercised fearful control over all of eastern Europe, but only 45 years later, they saw the error of their ways.

US Republicans have a ‘homoerotic obsession’ with Putin, says Johnson

By Michael Koziol
December 6, 2024 — 5.32pm

Former British prime minister Boris Johnson believes US president-elect Donald Trump will have “no choice” but to defend Ukraine when he takes office next month, despite many Republicans and Trump allies developing a “homoerotic obsession” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Johnson, one of the Western world’s most strident supporters of Ukraine’s efforts to resist Russia’s invasion, told a Sydney audience he had discussed Ukraine with Trump since the former president won the November 5 election.

“I don’t think Donald Trump is going to want act one, scene one of his next term in office to be blighted by a sense that America has been defeated, the West has been defeated, NATO has been humiliated and Putin has won,” Johnson said.

During the election campaign, Trump brazenly vowed he would end the war in one day, possibly before he took office, without giving further details. Under the Biden administration, many Republicans in Congress have sought to block further aid to Ukraine, and Trump’s isolationist tendencies have prompted many observers to conclude he may try to cut a deal that involves ceding territory to Putin’s Russia.

Johnson – who was British foreign minister during Trump’s first presidency and is known for his colourful turns of phrase – said the incoming president was managing a difficult situation in the Republican Party.

“There is quite a lot of people in the right wing of the Republicans who supported Donald Trump very passionately who have gone bonkers about Putin and who have developed a kind of weird homoerotic obsession with the guy,” Johnson said on Friday.

“They think he’s the stand-up manifestation of Christian family values,” Johnson said, citing ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who interviewed Putin earlier this year. “It’s all total nonsense.”

Johnson said based on his reading of the situation, “logically and politically” Trump would have no choice but to continue the US’ defence of Ukraine, but it was still a “work in progress”.

“I don’t think the president has any choice but to do what I think is in their natural instinct and that is to be strong and not to allow a sovereign European country – a beautiful, blameless European country, Ukraine – to be humiliated and destroyed.”

The former British leader was speaking at Doltone House in Sydney while promoting his political memoir, Unleashed. A Melbourne event that had been scheduled for Saturday was cancelled, with publicist Max Markson saying Johnson had to fly home a day earlier than planned.

Nonagenarian singer Kamahl performed both verses of the Australian national anthem at the event and three pieces of Boris Johnson-themed art were auctioned, including an enlarged copy of his book cover, which sold for $1200.

The former PM’s comments, made in a question-and-answer session with News Corp journalist Sharri Markson, came as Ukrainian officials met Vice President-elect J. D. Vance and members of Trump’s national security team in Washington.

Vance, who has been critical of assistance to Ukraine, and congressman Michael Waltz – Trump’s choice to be national security adviser – spoke with Andriy Yermak, the chief-of-staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The New York Times reported Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, was also present alongside an aide to retired Army Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s pick as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

Yermak also met Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser.

In Sydney, Johnson’s speech centred on his view that nations such as Australia and the UK should stop “sneering” at aspects of the US we may find distasteful, such as its gun culture or poor social safety net, while depending on its enormous military power for our collective security in an increasingly uncertain world.

Asked if he believed Trump would stick with the AUKUS defence pact between Australia, the UK and the US, particularly the supply of nuclear-powered submarines, Johnson said he had not discussed it with Trump but he could not see why the president-elect would back away.

“It’s a good deal for the United States,” Johnson said. “There’s a problem with the time it takes to make a Virginia-class submarine, and I think the US will definitely be wanting to look at that, but on the whole I think it’s a good thing.

“I’ve heard him attack plenty of other deals that the Democrats have done. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Republicans attack AUKUS. On the contrary, I think it has pretty bipartisan support.”

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/us-republicans-have-a-homoerotic-obsession-with-putin-says-johnson-20241206-p5kwh8.html

dv said:

Greta Thunberg on Gaza: “This has shown the true colours of the world”

As floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters prompted by the climate crisis continue to wreak havoc across the planet, environmentalists are condemning the inaction of world leaders. And with the world pushing closer to multiple climate tipping points, there is a dire need for real policy to help steer away from climate catastrophe.

So what’s behind the failure to address what scientists and environmentalists call an existential threat to our way of life on Earth? And with Donald Trump returning to power in Washington, are things about to get even worse?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill discusses the current climate crisis and what is to be expected in the coming years with renowned activist and environmentalist Greta Thunberg.

Her outspoken condemnation of Israel’s war on Gaza has also resulted in intense criticism. How do her fight for climate justice and her support for Gaza intersect?

link

sarahs mum said:

Greta Thunberg on Gaza: “This has shown the true colours of the world”

As floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters prompted by the climate crisis continue to wreak havoc across the planet, environmentalists are condemning the inaction of world leaders. And with the world pushing closer to multiple climate tipping points, there is a dire need for real policy to help steer away from climate catastrophe.

So what’s behind the failure to address what scientists and environmentalists call an existential threat to our way of life on Earth? And with Donald Trump returning to power in Washington, are things about to get even worse?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill discusses the current climate crisis and what is to be expected in the coming years with renowned activist and environmentalist Greta Thunberg.

Her outspoken condemnation of Israel’s war on Gaza has also resulted in intense criticism. How do her fight for climate justice and her support for Gaza intersect?

link

The world needs a lot more like her.

PermeateFree said:

sarahs mum said:

Greta Thunberg on Gaza: “This has shown the true colours of the world”

As floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters prompted by the climate crisis continue to wreak havoc across the planet, environmentalists are condemning the inaction of world leaders. And with the world pushing closer to multiple climate tipping points, there is a dire need for real policy to help steer away from climate catastrophe.

So what’s behind the failure to address what scientists and environmentalists call an existential threat to our way of life on Earth? And with Donald Trump returning to power in Washington, are things about to get even worse?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill discusses the current climate crisis and what is to be expected in the coming years with renowned activist and environmentalist Greta Thunberg.

Her outspoken condemnation of Israel’s war on Gaza has also resulted in intense criticism. How do her fight for climate justice and her support for Gaza intersect?

link

The world needs a lot more like her.

nods. they at least need to outnumber oil lobbyists.

sarahs mum said:

PermeateFree said:

sarahs mum said:

Greta Thunberg on Gaza: “This has shown the true colours of the world”

As floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters prompted by the climate crisis continue to wreak havoc across the planet, environmentalists are condemning the inaction of world leaders. And with the world pushing closer to multiple climate tipping points, there is a dire need for real policy to help steer away from climate catastrophe.

So what’s behind the failure to address what scientists and environmentalists call an existential threat to our way of life on Earth? And with Donald Trump returning to power in Washington, are things about to get even worse?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill discusses the current climate crisis and what is to be expected in the coming years with renowned activist and environmentalist Greta Thunberg.

Her outspoken condemnation of Israel’s war on Gaza has also resulted in intense criticism. How do her fight for climate justice and her support for Gaza intersect?

link

The world needs a lot more like her.

nods. they at least need to outnumber oil lobbyists.

The problem is that a lot of young people are being dragged off in a different direction. To my mind a lot more of them should be following Greta’s example.

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

PermeateFree said:

The world needs a lot more like her.

nods. they at least need to outnumber oil lobbyists.

The problem is that a lot of young people are being dragged off in a different direction. To my mind a lot more of them should be following Greta’s example.

the division does not help. between men owning women and gays are ungodly and pronouns are fucked and football andballarat neo nazis…there are a lot less people to get pissed off with the dying planet.

sarahs mum said:

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

nods. they at least need to outnumber oil lobbyists.

The problem is that a lot of young people are being dragged off in a different direction. To my mind a lot more of them should be following Greta’s example.

the division does not help. between men owning women and gays are ungodly and pronouns are fucked and football andballarat neo nazis…there are a lot less people to get pissed off with the dying planet.

Yes. Too many distractions but that’s why the problem got this far in the first place. Unfortunately, people just don’t seem to care.

What Greta is saying you must support the whole agenda, you can’t pick and choose, like support climate action and support Israel, that’s not on.
Being partially woke is like being partially unique.
You must encompass it all.

Peak Warming Man said:

What Greta is saying you must support the whole agenda, you can’t pick and choose, like support climate action and support Israel, that’s not on.
Being partially woke is like being partially unique.
You must encompass it all.

War anywhere is only contributing a whole lot more to the whole climate situation.
and it is distracting the minds and the funds required.

fuk kankel kulture

In Damascus, a statue of the father of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was torn down by a group of people while soldiers deserted their posts.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-08/syrian-capital-damascus-under-siege-assad-homs-hst/104698688

Romanian vote annulled after declassified documents showed Russian meddling

By Stephen McGrath
December 7, 2024 — 1.35pm

Bucharest, Romania: A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a co-ordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision – which is final – came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence that alleged Russia organised thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

The court, without naming Georgescu, said one of the 13 candidates in the November 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.

The intelligence files came from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In a televised statement, Iohannis said he was “deeply concerned” by their content. “Intelligence reports revealed that this candidate’s campaign was supported by a foreign state with interests contrary to Romania’s. These are serious issues,” he said.

The court in its published decision cited the illegal use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources of funding”. It said one candidate received “preferential treatment on social media platforms, which resulted in the distortion of voters’ expressed will”.

Georgescu criticised the verdict as an “officialised coup” and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the centre-right Save Romania Union party.

Despite being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner who was to face Lasconi in a run-off on Sunday. Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the run-off for Romania’s large diaspora, but had to be halted.

Many observers attributed Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 6 million likes and 541,000 followers. But some experts suspected his online following was artificially inflated, while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates.

The secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid €361,000 ($597,000) to other users to promote Georgescu content. Intelligence authorities said information they obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate his popularity.

Georgescu, when asked by the AP in an interview on Wednesday whether he believed the Chinese-owned TikTok posed a threat to democracy, defended social media platforms.

“The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media,” he said

“I have only one pact … with the Romanian people and God,” Georgescu said in a video statement. “We are no longer talking about fairness, but rather about a mockery that betrays the principles of democracy … It is time to show that we are a courageous people who know that the destiny and rights of the Romanian nation are in our hands.”

Lasconi also strongly condemned the court’s decision, saying it was “illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy” and that the second round should have gone forward.

“Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes,” she said.

“I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania,” she added.

Iohannis said he would remain in office until a new presidential election could be rerun from scratch. On December 1, one week after the first round of the presidential race, Romania also held a parliamentary election, which saw pro-Western parties win the most votes but also gains for far-right nationalists. Iohannis said that once the new government was formed, the date of the new presidential vote would be set.

Some 9.4 million people – about 52.5 per cent of eligible voters – had cast ballots in the first round in this European Union and NATO member country. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

Most surveys had predicted the top candidate would be Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats. They indicated that second place would be claimed by either Lasconi or the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, George Simion.

As the surprising results came in with Georgescu on top, and Lasconi narrowly beating Ciolacu, the political establishment plunged into turmoil.

The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which added to the myriad controversies that have engulfed a chaotic election cycle. Following a recount, the court then validated the first-round results on Monday.

Many observers have expressed concerns that annulling the vote could trigger civil unrest. The court said its decision was meant “to restore citizens’ trust in the democratic legitimacy of public authorities, in the legality and fairness of elections”.

Simion, of the far-right party, said the development was a “coup d’état in full swing” but urged people not to take to the streets. “We don’t let ourselves be provoked; this system has to fall democratically,” he said.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said the court’s decision amounted to a “crisis mode situation for Romanian democracy”.

“In light of the information about the external interference, the massive interference in elections, I think this was not normal but predictable because it’s not normal times at all. Romania is an uncharted territory,” he said. “The problem is here: do we have the institutions to manage such an interference in the future?”

Georgescu’s surprising success left many political observers wondering how most local surveys were so far off, putting him behind at least five other candidates before the vote.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/romanian-vote-annulled-after-declassified-documents-showed-russian-meddling-20241207-p5kwla.html

Witty Rejoinder said:

Romanian vote annulled after declassified documents showed Russian meddling

By Stephen McGrath
December 7, 2024 — 1.35pm

Bucharest, Romania: A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a co-ordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision – which is final – came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence that alleged Russia organised thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

The court, without naming Georgescu, said one of the 13 candidates in the November 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.

The intelligence files came from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In a televised statement, Iohannis said he was “deeply concerned” by their content. “Intelligence reports revealed that this candidate’s campaign was supported by a foreign state with interests contrary to Romania’s. These are serious issues,” he said.

The court in its published decision cited the illegal use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources of funding”. It said one candidate received “preferential treatment on social media platforms, which resulted in the distortion of voters’ expressed will”.

Georgescu criticised the verdict as an “officialised coup” and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the centre-right Save Romania Union party.

Despite being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner who was to face Lasconi in a run-off on Sunday. Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the run-off for Romania’s large diaspora, but had to be halted.

Many observers attributed Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 6 million likes and 541,000 followers. But some experts suspected his online following was artificially inflated, while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates.

The secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid €361,000 ($597,000) to other users to promote Georgescu content. Intelligence authorities said information they obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate his popularity.

Georgescu, when asked by the AP in an interview on Wednesday whether he believed the Chinese-owned TikTok posed a threat to democracy, defended social media platforms.

“The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media,” he said

“I have only one pact … with the Romanian people and God,” Georgescu said in a video statement. “We are no longer talking about fairness, but rather about a mockery that betrays the principles of democracy … It is time to show that we are a courageous people who know that the destiny and rights of the Romanian nation are in our hands.”

Lasconi also strongly condemned the court’s decision, saying it was “illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy” and that the second round should have gone forward.

“Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes,” she said.

“I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania,” she added.

Iohannis said he would remain in office until a new presidential election could be rerun from scratch. On December 1, one week after the first round of the presidential race, Romania also held a parliamentary election, which saw pro-Western parties win the most votes but also gains for far-right nationalists. Iohannis said that once the new government was formed, the date of the new presidential vote would be set.

Some 9.4 million people – about 52.5 per cent of eligible voters – had cast ballots in the first round in this European Union and NATO member country. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

Most surveys had predicted the top candidate would be Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats. They indicated that second place would be claimed by either Lasconi or the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, George Simion.

As the surprising results came in with Georgescu on top, and Lasconi narrowly beating Ciolacu, the political establishment plunged into turmoil.

The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which added to the myriad controversies that have engulfed a chaotic election cycle. Following a recount, the court then validated the first-round results on Monday.

Many observers have expressed concerns that annulling the vote could trigger civil unrest. The court said its decision was meant “to restore citizens’ trust in the democratic legitimacy of public authorities, in the legality and fairness of elections”.

Simion, of the far-right party, said the development was a “coup d’état in full swing” but urged people not to take to the streets. “We don’t let ourselves be provoked; this system has to fall democratically,” he said.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said the court’s decision amounted to a “crisis mode situation for Romanian democracy”.

“In light of the information about the external interference, the massive interference in elections, I think this was not normal but predictable because it’s not normal times at all. Romania is an uncharted territory,” he said. “The problem is here: do we have the institutions to manage such an interference in the future?”

Georgescu’s surprising success left many political observers wondering how most local surveys were so far off, putting him behind at least five other candidates before the vote.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/romanian-vote-annulled-after-declassified-documents-showed-russian-meddling-20241207-p5kwla.html

Hopefully the people will eventually come up with the correct result.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Romanian vote annulled after declassified documents showed Russian meddling

By Stephen McGrath
December 7, 2024 — 1.35pm

Bucharest, Romania: A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a co-ordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision – which is final – came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence that alleged Russia organised thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

The court, without naming Georgescu, said one of the 13 candidates in the November 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.

The intelligence files came from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In a televised statement, Iohannis said he was “deeply concerned” by their content. “Intelligence reports revealed that this candidate’s campaign was supported by a foreign state with interests contrary to Romania’s. These are serious issues,” he said.

The court in its published decision cited the illegal use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources of funding”. It said one candidate received “preferential treatment on social media platforms, which resulted in the distortion of voters’ expressed will”.

Georgescu criticised the verdict as an “officialised coup” and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the centre-right Save Romania Union party.

Despite being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner who was to face Lasconi in a run-off on Sunday. Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the run-off for Romania’s large diaspora, but had to be halted.

Many observers attributed Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 6 million likes and 541,000 followers. But some experts suspected his online following was artificially inflated, while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates.

The secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid €361,000 ($597,000) to other users to promote Georgescu content. Intelligence authorities said information they obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate his popularity.

Georgescu, when asked by the AP in an interview on Wednesday whether he believed the Chinese-owned TikTok posed a threat to democracy, defended social media platforms.

“The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media,” he said

“I have only one pact … with the Romanian people and God,” Georgescu said in a video statement. “We are no longer talking about fairness, but rather about a mockery that betrays the principles of democracy … It is time to show that we are a courageous people who know that the destiny and rights of the Romanian nation are in our hands.”

Lasconi also strongly condemned the court’s decision, saying it was “illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy” and that the second round should have gone forward.

“Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes,” she said.

“I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania,” she added.

Iohannis said he would remain in office until a new presidential election could be rerun from scratch. On December 1, one week after the first round of the presidential race, Romania also held a parliamentary election, which saw pro-Western parties win the most votes but also gains for far-right nationalists. Iohannis said that once the new government was formed, the date of the new presidential vote would be set.

Some 9.4 million people – about 52.5 per cent of eligible voters – had cast ballots in the first round in this European Union and NATO member country. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

Most surveys had predicted the top candidate would be Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats. They indicated that second place would be claimed by either Lasconi or the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, George Simion.

As the surprising results came in with Georgescu on top, and Lasconi narrowly beating Ciolacu, the political establishment plunged into turmoil.

The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which added to the myriad controversies that have engulfed a chaotic election cycle. Following a recount, the court then validated the first-round results on Monday.

Many observers have expressed concerns that annulling the vote could trigger civil unrest. The court said its decision was meant “to restore citizens’ trust in the democratic legitimacy of public authorities, in the legality and fairness of elections”.

Simion, of the far-right party, said the development was a “coup d’état in full swing” but urged people not to take to the streets. “We don’t let ourselves be provoked; this system has to fall democratically,” he said.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said the court’s decision amounted to a “crisis mode situation for Romanian democracy”.

“In light of the information about the external interference, the massive interference in elections, I think this was not normal but predictable because it’s not normal times at all. Romania is an uncharted territory,” he said. “The problem is here: do we have the institutions to manage such an interference in the future?”

Georgescu’s surprising success left many political observers wondering how most local surveys were so far off, putting him behind at least five other candidates before the vote.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/romanian-vote-annulled-after-declassified-documents-showed-russian-meddling-20241207-p5kwla.html

Now re-do the US election without outside interference.

Peak Warming Man said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Romanian vote annulled after declassified documents showed Russian meddling

By Stephen McGrath
December 7, 2024 — 1.35pm

Bucharest, Romania: A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a co-ordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision – which is final – came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence that alleged Russia organised thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

The court, without naming Georgescu, said one of the 13 candidates in the November 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.

The intelligence files came from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In a televised statement, Iohannis said he was “deeply concerned” by their content. “Intelligence reports revealed that this candidate’s campaign was supported by a foreign state with interests contrary to Romania’s. These are serious issues,” he said.

The court in its published decision cited the illegal use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources of funding”. It said one candidate received “preferential treatment on social media platforms, which resulted in the distortion of voters’ expressed will”.

Georgescu criticised the verdict as an “officialised coup” and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the centre-right Save Romania Union party.

Despite being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner who was to face Lasconi in a run-off on Sunday. Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the run-off for Romania’s large diaspora, but had to be halted.

Many observers attributed Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 6 million likes and 541,000 followers. But some experts suspected his online following was artificially inflated, while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates.

The secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid €361,000 ($597,000) to other users to promote Georgescu content. Intelligence authorities said information they obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate his popularity.

Georgescu, when asked by the AP in an interview on Wednesday whether he believed the Chinese-owned TikTok posed a threat to democracy, defended social media platforms.

“The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media,” he said

“I have only one pact … with the Romanian people and God,” Georgescu said in a video statement. “We are no longer talking about fairness, but rather about a mockery that betrays the principles of democracy … It is time to show that we are a courageous people who know that the destiny and rights of the Romanian nation are in our hands.”

Lasconi also strongly condemned the court’s decision, saying it was “illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy” and that the second round should have gone forward.

“Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes,” she said.

“I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania,” she added.

Iohannis said he would remain in office until a new presidential election could be rerun from scratch. On December 1, one week after the first round of the presidential race, Romania also held a parliamentary election, which saw pro-Western parties win the most votes but also gains for far-right nationalists. Iohannis said that once the new government was formed, the date of the new presidential vote would be set.

Some 9.4 million people – about 52.5 per cent of eligible voters – had cast ballots in the first round in this European Union and NATO member country. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

Most surveys had predicted the top candidate would be Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats. They indicated that second place would be claimed by either Lasconi or the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, George Simion.

As the surprising results came in with Georgescu on top, and Lasconi narrowly beating Ciolacu, the political establishment plunged into turmoil.

The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which added to the myriad controversies that have engulfed a chaotic election cycle. Following a recount, the court then validated the first-round results on Monday.

Many observers have expressed concerns that annulling the vote could trigger civil unrest. The court said its decision was meant “to restore citizens’ trust in the democratic legitimacy of public authorities, in the legality and fairness of elections”.

Simion, of the far-right party, said the development was a “coup d’état in full swing” but urged people not to take to the streets. “We don’t let ourselves be provoked; this system has to fall democratically,” he said.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said the court’s decision amounted to a “crisis mode situation for Romanian democracy”.

“In light of the information about the external interference, the massive interference in elections, I think this was not normal but predictable because it’s not normal times at all. Romania is an uncharted territory,” he said. “The problem is here: do we have the institutions to manage such an interference in the future?”

Georgescu’s surprising success left many political observers wondering how most local surveys were so far off, putting him behind at least five other candidates before the vote.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/romanian-vote-annulled-after-declassified-documents-showed-russian-meddling-20241207-p5kwla.html

Hopefully the people will eventually come up with the correct result.

They’ll just have to do it again, and keep doing it again until they make the “correct” decision.

Kingy said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Romanian vote annulled after declassified documents showed Russian meddling

By Stephen McGrath
December 7, 2024 — 1.35pm

Bucharest, Romania: A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a co-ordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision – which is final – came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence that alleged Russia organised thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

The court, without naming Georgescu, said one of the 13 candidates in the November 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.

The intelligence files came from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In a televised statement, Iohannis said he was “deeply concerned” by their content. “Intelligence reports revealed that this candidate’s campaign was supported by a foreign state with interests contrary to Romania’s. These are serious issues,” he said.

The court in its published decision cited the illegal use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources of funding”. It said one candidate received “preferential treatment on social media platforms, which resulted in the distortion of voters’ expressed will”.

Georgescu criticised the verdict as an “officialised coup” and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the centre-right Save Romania Union party.

Despite being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner who was to face Lasconi in a run-off on Sunday. Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the run-off for Romania’s large diaspora, but had to be halted.

Many observers attributed Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 6 million likes and 541,000 followers. But some experts suspected his online following was artificially inflated, while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates.

The secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid €361,000 ($597,000) to other users to promote Georgescu content. Intelligence authorities said information they obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate his popularity.

Georgescu, when asked by the AP in an interview on Wednesday whether he believed the Chinese-owned TikTok posed a threat to democracy, defended social media platforms.

“The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media,” he said

“I have only one pact … with the Romanian people and God,” Georgescu said in a video statement. “We are no longer talking about fairness, but rather about a mockery that betrays the principles of democracy … It is time to show that we are a courageous people who know that the destiny and rights of the Romanian nation are in our hands.”

Lasconi also strongly condemned the court’s decision, saying it was “illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy” and that the second round should have gone forward.

“Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes,” she said.

“I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania,” she added.

Iohannis said he would remain in office until a new presidential election could be rerun from scratch. On December 1, one week after the first round of the presidential race, Romania also held a parliamentary election, which saw pro-Western parties win the most votes but also gains for far-right nationalists. Iohannis said that once the new government was formed, the date of the new presidential vote would be set.

Some 9.4 million people – about 52.5 per cent of eligible voters – had cast ballots in the first round in this European Union and NATO member country. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

Most surveys had predicted the top candidate would be Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats. They indicated that second place would be claimed by either Lasconi or the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, George Simion.

As the surprising results came in with Georgescu on top, and Lasconi narrowly beating Ciolacu, the political establishment plunged into turmoil.

The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which added to the myriad controversies that have engulfed a chaotic election cycle. Following a recount, the court then validated the first-round results on Monday.

Many observers have expressed concerns that annulling the vote could trigger civil unrest. The court said its decision was meant “to restore citizens’ trust in the democratic legitimacy of public authorities, in the legality and fairness of elections”.

Simion, of the far-right party, said the development was a “coup d’état in full swing” but urged people not to take to the streets. “We don’t let ourselves be provoked; this system has to fall democratically,” he said.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said the court’s decision amounted to a “crisis mode situation for Romanian democracy”.

“In light of the information about the external interference, the massive interference in elections, I think this was not normal but predictable because it’s not normal times at all. Romania is an uncharted territory,” he said. “The problem is here: do we have the institutions to manage such an interference in the future?”

Georgescu’s surprising success left many political observers wondering how most local surveys were so far off, putting him behind at least five other candidates before the vote.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/romanian-vote-annulled-after-declassified-documents-showed-russian-meddling-20241207-p5kwla.html

Now re-do the US election without outside interference.

until we realise that it’s genuinely what they want

¿ all ?

ABC global affairs editor John Lyons has offered some more analysis into exactly why the potential downfall of the Assad regime in Syria is so significant for global politics.

He has told the ABC News channel that the world’s major superpowers and Syria’s regional neighbours all have vested interests at stake in the future of the country.

“All the major powers have their own proxies inside Syria,” Mr Lyons said on the ABC News channel.

“The Israelis want to see the end of the Assad regime, the Americans want to see the end of the Assad regime, the Iranians want to see Assad survive, the Russians wants to see Assad survive, the Turks have their own agenda right on the border.

“Do they really want this other group, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is a jihadist group, taking over control?

“It looks like the Assad regime is falling. It looks like Russia is a big loser if it does fall.

“Hezbollah, which kept Assad in power in 2011, they aren’t there anymore. They can’t do that because they’ve taken a pounding from the Israelis.

“Add to all of the geopolitical crises you can think of, all of the superpowers in the region, put them onto each other — and that’s Syria blowing up.”

¿ all major powers ?

the world’s major superpowers and Syria’s regional neighbours all have vested interests at stake in the future of the country. “All the major powers have their own proxies inside Syria,” Mr Lyons said

LOL

all

ahahahahahahahahaha

Jusatin is saying that Assad has fled abroad and the regime has collapsed.

party_pants said:

Jusatin is saying that Assad has fled abroad and the regime has collapsed.

Poor PWM will be inconsolable.

party_pants said:

Jusatin is saying that Assad has fled abroad and the regime has collapsed.

I presume he will take refuge in the friendly nation of Florida

شاه مات

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

dv said:

party_pants said:

Jusatin is saying that Assad has fled abroad and the regime has collapsed.

I presume he will take refuge in the friendly nation of Florida

is assad dead?

Reports are that he has left by aeroplane to an unknown destination.

Russia?

alleged

Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia and have been granted asylum, according to Russian state media.