It takes very little effort to find an article from Western state propaganda decrying Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas as authoritarian and rife with human rights abuses. This is the natural reaction the US has to any successful liberation movement. This fairly long report from Jason Cohen, a socialist who travelled to Nicaragua one week ago, should quell any suspicions.
He describes a country with high political consciousness among the masses, who are working to construct critical infrastructure for the country and their communities. There is a virtual education system that is free across the entire nation, which serves the dual goal of democratizing education and ensuring that those in rural areas or without much free time for university can still achieve degrees and a quality education; and these classes cover technical skills in the production of infrastructure and agriculture, but also political and ideological education in order to counter the fascist propaganda produced by imperialist nations abroad.
While Nicaragua is deeply invested in its nationality and national figures who led to their socialist revolution, such as Sandino, they are also immensely proud of their indigneous history, recognizing it as also part of their anti-colonial history which continues to the present day. Additionally, they honour the struggles of other nations on the continent, such as the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, as well as Castro in Cuba and Allende in Chile. Countries around the world are also celebrated and admired, such as Burkina Faso; during the Reagan administration, Nicaragua and Burkina Faso were comrades in arms, and now Traore is continuing the legacy of Sankara's anti-imperialism in the present. Perhaps most relevant today is their dedication towards Palestine, involving the creation of the Parque Palestina (shown in the post image), in which the Palestinian flag flies alongside the flag of Nicaragua. In July, Leila Khaled of the PFLP gave a speech in Nicaragua, in which the solidarity of the two nations was highlighted.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Nicaragua! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2025.
The amendment seeks to extend the Caesar Act for an additional four years and incorporates several proposals submitted by the anti-Syrian government group, the "American Coalition for Syria." These proposals include:
An anti-normalization law with Damascus
Funding for "stabilization support" in northwest Syria
Funding for the "White Helmets" organization
Permanent humanitarian exemptions for food and medicine from sanctions regulations.
Euros lowered interest rates, amerikkka could style on them by not lowering them for 3 months and dropping euro into abyss of parity to dollar via carry trade
Lokomotiv trounced Red Star 6-2 holding a comfortable lead throughout the game! Lokomotiv has won all 4 games they've played this season so far, let's keep that up!
Lokomotiv next plays Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk this Saturday at 5pm Moscow Standard Time
China is beating America in the nuclear-energy race
They have pioneered a new generation of reactor
China connected its first civilian reactor to the grid in 1991, some three decades after America had done the same. Now, though, China is ten to 15 years ahead of America in deploying fourth-generation nuclear technology, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think-tank in Washington. China is also building conventional reactors far more quickly. Of the 60 or so plants under construction globally, 45% are in China.
Two Fulton County judges disqualified independent candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz from Georgia’s presidential ballot Wednesday, rulings that narrow voters’ choices one month before early voting begins.
But it already may be too late to remove their names from ballots. Notices would be posted in polling places warning voters that West and De la Cruz have been disqualified and that votes for them wouldn’t be counted.
Full text, since the Archive is taking forever
Two Fulton County judges disqualified independent candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz from Georgia’s presidential ballot Wednesday, rulings that narrow voters’ choices one month before early voting begins.
But it already may be too late to remove their names from ballots. Notices would be posted in polling places warning voters that West and De la Cruz have been disqualified and that votes for them wouldn’t be counted.
More than 110 of Georgia’s 159 counties already have printed ballots with the minor candidates’ names.
“It would be extremely difficult to reprint ballot(s) and remove Dr. West as an option before the election,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox Jr. wrote in his decision. “This court finds that there is insufficient time to strike the candidate’s name or reprint the ballots.”
Meanwhile, a separate ruling by Cox kept Green Party candidate Jill Stein as a qualified candidate under a new state law that allows third-party candidates if they’re also on the ballot in at least 20 other states.
The bottom line for Georgia voters is there now are four candidates remaining in the race: Democrat Kamala Harris, Libertarian Chase Oliver, Stein and Republican Donald Trump.
The judges reversed decisions by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who had sought to include West and De la Cruz among presidential candidates. Raffensperger had added them to the ballot last month, overruling a recommendation of an administrative law judge.
“Partisan activists are attempting to tilt the scales of this election, and I believe that is wrong,” Raffensperger said Thursday. “The law is clear, and these qualified candidates have a right to be on Georgia’s ballot, and I will fight for voters’ rights every day to choose the candidate for whom they want to elect.”
Raffensperger is a Republican, and his attempt to add liberal presidential candidates such as West and De la Cruz would give voters an option to pick them instead of Harris.
The two judges found both independent candidates failed to follow state laws to appear on the ballot.
Independent candidates must gather more than 7,500 signatures to qualify — both candidates did so — but state law requires those signatures to be submitted in the name of at least one of their 16 potential Georgia electors to the Electoral College. None of their presidential electors met that requirement, the judges ruled.
But that does not mean the legal battle is over, as both cases could be appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia. Court disputes over independent candidates potentially could continue all the way until Election Day.
“We believe this ruling defies logic and expect it will be overturned on appeal,” said Edwin DeJesus, who is with the West campaign. “The conclusion reached is frankly ludicrous. The campaign remains optimistic about the end result we will achieve.”
Estevan Hernandez, co-chair of De la Cruz’s campaign in Georgia, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that the campaign plans to appeal. “This is the result of an effort by the Democratic Party to sabotage democratic rights of Georgia voters at the very moment that they say that the 2024 election is about democracy itself,” Hernandez said in a statement. “This is an example of extreme hypocrisy by the Democratic Party establishment.”
The Democratic Party of Georgia didn’t immediately comment Thursday.
The Democrat-backed legal challenges are part of a national strategy to block independent and third-party candidates from potentially siphoning votes away from Harris, which could make the difference in a close race between Harris and Trump.
Last month, Raffensperger overruled a Georgia administrative law judge and sought a presidential ballot with six names: Harris, Trump, Oliver, West, Stein and De la Cruz, the candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation who sought to qualify in Georgia as an independent.
Georgia voters will not see independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot after he withdrew from the race and endorsed Trump.
Joe Biden beat Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes in Georgia’s 2020 general election. In what’s expected to be another close race between Harris and Trump, every vote could matter.
more than 68,000 public employees in Florida have lost their union representation - NOT because they voted to get rid of their unions, but because their union had low membership and didn't petition for a recertification election.
From here CW: some lesser evilism. But also some good lines:
There is a song… what’s it called? “Which Side Are You On.” Yeah. Look it up. It is not called “Watch Us Build a Coalition With Moderate Elements of the Coal Industry Who Are More Reasonable Than Sheriff J.H. Blair.”
@sexywheat@hexbear.net Here's why the Zionist entity has been doing polio vaccinations in Gaza:
Although polio has been eradicated in most developed nations, Israel has particular reason to be concerned about the disease. The country has at least 175,000 vulnerable children—the offspring of the ultra-Orthodox, or haredim, who are notorious for their opposition to vaccinations.
Because the haredim comprise 17 percent of Israel’s Jews and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs their support to remain in power, his government has exempted hundreds of thousands of haredim from Israel’s immunization program against polio as well as measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis and HPV, influenza, and COVID-19—despite the threat to domestic and global health from these vaccine-preventable diseases.
How detached is the UN at its headquarters or its offices in the Global North from its agencies in the field like UNRWA? I find it unbelievable that Israel keeps killing UN staff in these bombings on Palestinians and somehow UN staff aren't revolting. I know the UN is exactly as toothed as its veto countries want it to be, but if my coworkers kept getting killed by my boss I don't think I'd be sitting on my hands
Taking a short break from german news to bring UK news, apparently you gotta pay 11 quid next year to get a permit to enter the country. I'm sure this will not have any influence on the UKs tourism sector.
I mean really 11£? Like I know that someone in the government looked at the yearly numbers and thought they could raise like millions but it seems like a hurdle that will make people less likely to go to TERF island if they can't help it.
As the commentary on NC said, this is bad. Chinese banks have finally succumbed to US secondary sanctions and have massively disrupted import flows into Russia. Barter, or crypto, or gold, are all highly inefficient mechanisms to get around the fundamental problems underlying the secondary sanctions imposed on businesses trading with Russia.
Russia got too comfortable with the mild sanctions effect in the first two years that they actually believed they can rely on China forever. They are now paying the price.
Of course, Russia is in a unique position (energy/food secure, low external debt) to overcome this - through war communism. In fact, you can even say that Russia is probably the only country in the world that has the conditions and the capacity to fully resist Western imperialist sanctions, but that requires mobilization economy (war communism) and many people aren’t going to like it.
So, they can choose to wait for the sanctions to get bad enough that people would rather flee the country, or mobilize the economy immediately which will also scare off enough people to flee the country. In either case, Russia’s demographic crisis just got so much worse.
And because the libs won’t actually mobilize the economy, the US has practically won the financial war on the European front. All it takes is for Ukraine to sacrifice itself. Next stop - China.
Serious doubts have been raised about the promise of Denmark's succdem-led right-wing regime to open a "100% green" domestic flight route by 2025. So writes government broadcaster DR.
The plans were announced by Denmark's leader Mette Frederiksen in her new years' address in 2022 where it was claimed that the "100% green" domestic flight route would be an achievement not only for Denmark but for the entire world. As of now commercial flights are only allowed to use 50% so-called "Sustainable Aviation Fuel". The rest is still traditional fossil fuels.
The use of hydrocarbons is being criticised for greenwashing by among others the two moderate pro-democracy parties SF and the Red-Greens who claim they had expected the "100% green" flights to use electricity-based solutions powered by sustainable wind power rather than just "importing spent frying oil from China" to fuel the planes when they first made the agreement.
Thus far the state has spent USD 118 million on the "100% green" domestic flight route.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that Russia’s partnership with China is not aimed at any third country, but the two countries could “combine” to respond to threats from the US.
“I would like to remind you that Moscow and Beijing will respond to ‘double containment’ by the United States with ‘double counteraction,'” Zakharova said when asked about US plans to deploy a Typhon missile system to Japan for several months, according to Reuters.
The Typhon is a new missile system developed by the US that would have been banned under the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a treaty between the US and Russia that the Trump administration tore up in 2019. The INF prohibited land-based missile systems with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles.
The Typhon can fire nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of over 1,000 miles. The US recently deployed a Typhon system to the Philippines and is planning on sending missile systems to Germany by 2026, which Russia views as a major threat.
“It is clear that both Russia and China will react to the emergence of additional and very significant missile threats, and their reaction will be far from being political, which has also been repeatedly confirmed by the two countries,” Zakharova said.
Zakharova’s comments come amid large-scale Russian naval drills that the Russian military said involve over 90,000 personnel, 400 warships and submarines, and 120 aircraft. China is participating in the Pacific portion of the drill with three Chinese ships and 15 planes.
Russia and China have increased their military cooperation in recent years directly in response to he similar pressure the two countries have been facing from the US and its allies. Zakharova insisted the relationship is defensive in nature.
“Our relations are not directed against third countries… and double counteraction does not contradict this. This is a defensive position, this is not an initiative to target other countries,” she told Reuters. “But if an aggressive policy of attack is being implemented against us from one center, why don’t we combine our potential and give an appropriate rebuff?”
Last fall Norwegian police had a "preventative conversation" with Marius Borg Høiby, the 27 year old cocaine-loving stepson of the aging king's hand-picked successor, crown prince Haakon. So reports Norwegian government broadcaster NRK.
Norwegian police uses conversations like these as a preventative measure against individuals who are at risk of ending in crime. The conversations are meant to convince individuals to change their ways before it is too late.
The conversation doesn't seem to have helped in Høiby's case. The popularity of Norway's monarchy has taken a skydive recently, in large part due to the Høiby's behaviour. Last month Høiby was arrested by Norwegian police and he has now been charged with assault, vandalism, theft and stalking following a cocaine and booze-fueled rampage in a woman's apartment. He has since received a restraining order against the woman. Two other ex-partners of Høiby has since come forward and reported abusive behaviour to the police.
The expansion of NATO into Sweden and Finland, as well as increased paranoia in the west following the Ukraine war, has prompted the Nordic countries to step up their military collaboration. So reports Danish government broadcaster DR.
Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland has already agreed on going together to purchase new military uniforms. The move seems mostly motivated by economic factors as the four western statelets will get a better price by placing a larger order together, even though the uniforms will be in differen camouflage patterns for each nation.
The four airforces are also collaborating more closely and although nothing has been decided yet, top military leaders are openly talking about constructing a shared operational headquarters for the four Nordic countries in Norway.
Quantum computing is pretty much vaporware at this point, right? Kamala says we need to keep up our investments in QC and AI to beat China, but as far as I know, QC has some serious fundamental barriers that we are not able to overcome right now, which prevents the technology from even being used for the things people want it to be used for. So what are we competing for?
I was reading IBM's roadmap for QC development and it could honestly be the RDI Star Citizen promises with how out of sight and reliant they are on the technology improving at an unrealistic pace.
Maybe I'm cynical and have an outside perspective but quantum computing is starting to look like one of those dead ends that everyone looks back on and feels a little embarrassed by the whole thing. Like economics, but for the computer sciences.
I am indeed happy to hear Fujimori died. But at the same time, I can't stop thinking he died at like 86 after fulfilling all his goals, the damage he has done is far too great and he escaped proper justice (Execution, because monsters like him don't deserve to live). Same goes for other ghouls like Bush (father), Rumsfeld, Kissinger and the fucking Queen. They all died, yes, and we should celebrate. But they died comfortably after doing their jobs. They might be gone, but the structures that took them to power and allowed them to do what they did are still around, they have not been dismantled. Hitler died, but nazism lived on.
Once we do just that, only then we can say proper justice has been delivered.
Still , but we must also remind ourselves that we have a lot of work to do.
The Electronic Intifada just received a 7 day ban for violating YouTube’s “community guidelines”. They were not able to do their weekly livestream today.
WaPo must be utterly perplexed that a high-ranking official fucks up and instead of receiving no negative consequences and then being promoted to Chief Organ Harvester at the IMF, the guy is actually removed from his position and access to power.
Qin Gang got involved in, and proceeded to try and hide, an extramarital affair with a reporter, which is a potential liability for state security. I've seen rumors in articles that the reporter had Western intelligence connections but nothing I can substantiate.
Peru's former dictator, Alberto Fujimori, died on Wednesday afternoon in Lima. Fujimori died in freedom, after receiving a questionable presidential pardon, and with millions of soles in debt in civil reparations, which were never paid to the victims of his crimes. He did not beat cancer
I guess Fujimori is not going to make it to his court hearing today. And he really did hate Keiko enough, that he prefered to die rather than be with her. lol.
Joe Biden wears a cap in support of Donald Trump during an event; the White House says the president wore the cap as a gesture of unity between the parties in defense of the country. Donald Trump's campaign shared the photo and thanked the Democrat for his “support”.
Is there a collection anywhere of every anti-democratic lawsuit by the “Democratic” Party to keep third-parties off the ballot? At least going back to like 2016 anyway, because I’m sure they’ve been doing it longer than that.
It seems like they’ve done it every election in every important state or district in the past few elections so an aggregate would provide an interesting view.
Russia didn't take the bait and pull troops from the Donbas, just took a few weeks to organise troops from other places and form an orderly counteroffensive.
Not sure how real this is but it's going around some groups. Apparently Chongqing did rain seeding to break a 13 day heatwave. People claim the result was unexpected crazy storms but authorities deny a link between the two.
Lula's government intends to confiscate land from arsonists, says Marina Silva.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government is studying legal means to confiscate land from perpetrators of forest fires in the country, the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, said on Wednesday.
According to the minister, the studies are inspired by the law that allows confiscation against owners who exploit labor analogous to slavery on their land.
Marina did not give a deadline for the conclusion of these studies, nor did she say when a proposal along these lines might be ready, but she defended the need to toughen up the laws that provide for punishments for perpetrators of arson. Currently, she said, the maximum sentence is five years in prison.
“This year and last year there was a 60% drop in deforestation over the two years, but criminals, knowing that the forest is losing moisture and making an alliance with climate change, set fire to the forest in order to destroy the forest without having to clear it,” he said.
So apparently chuds stormed the Mexican senate, the question is whether the new president acts like Biden and wastes an opportunity or acts like Lula and uses this as an excuse to purge some federal agencies.
On this day 23 years ago, New York City was rocked by two explosions some eyewitnesses alleged to be passenger planes mysteriously colliding with the World Trade Center.
Nearly 3 thousand people died according to figures by the former Bush-run Department of Health.
When pressed for comment, a spokesperson for Al-Qaeda said they were conducting an internal investigation to determine the circumstances behind the event. The spokesperson added that the collision may have been caused by a technical malfunction.
Final conclusions are pending.
Fact: The average cruising altitude of a passenger airplane is roughly 35,000 feet. The World Trade Center measured only 1,368 feet.
Aviation experts question the accuracy of accounts by purported eyewitnesses.
Dresden's Carolabrücke Collapse: A Stark Reminder of Government Neglect Under Scholz's Regime
Dresden has been plunged into turmoil as the Carolabrücke, the city’s most vital bridge connecting its northern and southern halves, collapsed during the night. This shocking event has not only severed a critical transport link but has also laid bare the weaknesses in Germany’s infrastructure management under the current regime led by the authoritarian leader Olaf "Nr 2" Scholz.
The Carolabrücke was more than just a bridge; it was a key symbol of Dresden’s unity and economic vitality. Its sudden collapse is seen by many germany watchers as emblematic of broader issues plaguing Germany's economy and leadership, widespread recession, corruption and instability. The Scholz regime, already facing criticism for its handling of various international issues, now finds itself under intensified scrutiny as citizens question how such a crucial structure could be allowed to deteriorate to the point of failure.
As the nation looks on, Chancellor Scholz and his government are facing mounting pressure to not only provide answers but also to take swift and decisive action. From the Bundestag only one thing can be heard "Es wird sich grundsätzlich nichts ändern" (Nothing will fundementally change). Several NGOs one of them Germany Watch lead by renowned Dr. 艾德里安 曾兹 has issued warnings that a human catastrophe is imminent if the world community does not act now.
Reporting from an underground bunker in srfland I'm Notceps back to the studio.
Russias Kursk Counter ?Counter? offensive is progressing well , apperently they are currently pushing into this river sourrounded in the Centre very succesfully.
Two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center? Wow. I didn't know that, you're telling me for the first time. They led an amazing life. What else can you say? They were amazing buildings which led an amazing life. I'm actually sad to hear that. Thank you very much.
Went onto Reddit out of curiosity and saw a comment comparing Tim Walz to Henry Wallace. Somebody gave a good response on his flaws and a liberal responded with. “I’m not reading all that lil bro” and I logged out.
American libs seem to like using illiteracy as some kind of smug one-liner
I"m glad I put myself in a booze / food coma before the debates. Sounds like it went exactly as expected with the two trying to out each other.
....and I wake up to 3 more money demands from blue MAGA. More numbers to block...after I harass them at an inconvenient hour of the night of course, or convenient hour in Moscow.
#Slaps Top of Daily Puzzle Game "You can Fit so Many Death to Israel in this Bad Boy" #920 4/6
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Looks like it's 9-11 and it makes me wonder how much better would the world be if America fucked off. Imagine every right wing dip shit in almost every country in the world not having the backing of the world most powerful country.
the debate, especially the parting words, was a fantastic demonstration of the two ways that the American political class as well as citizenry is responding to its decaying empire:
denying it as hard as possible and demanding that people disbelieve their lying eyes; everything is fine and if it's not fine, it was because of Trump
admitting to it but flailing around trying to blame everybody but themselves; everything is bad but if we oppress powerless minorities hard enough, things will get better
Watching the debate just ended up reinforcing my belief that Kamala Harris has serious issues with her rhetoric on non white/POC men. Literally everytime she brought them up implicitly in the debate, she associated them with making and selling fentanyl and other drugs, brought up the fake Hamas sexual assault myths, and bragged about her job locking these people up and working on the border. Just despicable.
Looks like $300 million annually will be given to the state department for anti-China propaganda. This probably means more working with NGO’s to create China bad narratives, especially with BRI.
I can already tell which countries are more likely to fall for it than others.
One burning bin and they have $10 m worth of kitted out piggies and helicopters out in response. Biggest police response to planned protests since the 2000 World Economic Forum
Ukraine's fatal F-16 crash should scare Russia and China
First, with F-16s, Ukraine’s air force is becoming more aggressive and capable. Mes praised the F-16’s sophisticated avionics in an interview last November. "[The] F-16 is very maneuverable. It encourages you to pilot in an aggressive style,"
A week or so ago I told my comrades here that my University was holding democratic elections. The process lasted for the entire week and was pretty heated up, the incumbent peronists were seeking to hold their positions of power while the Trots got along together and challenged them went each one by themselves, divided their votes and lost. Out of six lists presented, three were ideologically aligned with Trotskyism.
Will they learn from their mistakes? No, of course they wont. Now I will have to suffer two more years of pure peronist sellouts. Great.
Demonstrators entered the Mexican Senate to protest against the judicial reform bill, which changes the entire concept of the judiciary in Mexico. The session was suspended indefinitely until further notice.
Here we see an example of how ostensibly "pro-Resistance" or "Pro-Russian" media is weaponized in service of imperialism.
The narrative has been escalating that Iran is sending IRBM's to Russia and today it came to a climax where a whole host of new sanctions have been implemented, including the banning of flights to Iran from France Germany and UK.
Whether they have sent them or not is irrelevant. The Iranian FM has categorically denied sending missiles to Russia and all the reports otherwise are coming from western outlets. The only report I could find of the Iranian parliamentarian "confirming" it is from a website called "Iran Watch."
Despite the official denial, almost all media is parroting the lines about Iranian missiles which then justifies the genocidal sanctions.
President Lula da Silva will send Congress a Provisional Measure creating the Climate Emergency, Lula says fires are caused by 'people who want to destroy this country' According to the president, fires not only destroy the environment, but also compromise the population's health and quality of life.
The aim is to speed up public policies to deal with climate extremes. A Climate Authority and a scientific technical committee will be set up to support the government's actions.
I'm sure that in Brazil the President can sign these Provisional Measures that come into force immediately, as long as they are not unconstitutional, and Congress has 30 days to analyze and decide whether to maintain or veto the Provisional Measure. And even if the congress veto it, the Supreme Court can force the executive and congress to accept it.
BRASILIA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Chinese troops will take part for the first time in Brazil's annual military exercises this week that also include U.S. forces, the Brazilian Navy said on Tuesday.
Pentagon spokesperson Major Pete Nguyen said, however, U.S. and Chinese forces would not be training together at the Brazil's "Operation Formosa" exercises.
"While the PRC are also present at the exercise, U.S. troops are not training alongside or with the PRC," Nguyen said. The PRC, or People's Republic of China, is the country's official name.
China sent observers last year to the Operation Formosa exercises, but will have troops on the ground this year, the Brazilian Navy, which coordinates the drills, said in a statement. U.S. troops participated as well in 2023.
"In Operation Formosa 2024 we have for the first time the participation of portions of troops made up of both friendly nations," the Navy said of the two superpowers present this year. It did not detail the size of their contingents.
The Brazilian military will deploy 3,000 troops in the three-day exercises starting on Wednesday, and they will train using aircraft, tanks, armored and amphibious vehicles, artillery and missile and rocket launchers, it said.
The exercises, which use live ammunition, take place outside the town on Formosa, located 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Brazil's capital Brasilia.
Invited military personnel participate in workshops to exchange experiences, the Navy said, and observers from eight countries will attend the exercises, including Argentina, France, Italy, Pakistan and South Africa.
The Pentagon's Nguyen said U.S. Marines were only at Formosa to train with their Brazilian partners. "By working side-by-side with our Brazilian counterparts, we are enhancing our collective ability to respond to regional security challenges," he said.
In a meeting held in May, the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers agreed to continue negotiations on outstanding issues. On Monday, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev agreed to continue peace talks with Armenia in Kazakhstan, which hosted a meeting of the foreign ministers of both republics in May.
“The proposal to hold negotiations between Baku and Yerevan in Astana is acceptable to Azerbaijan,” the Azerbaijani presidency said in a statement released at the end of a telephone conversation between Aliyev and Kazakhstan’s President Kasim-Yomart Tokayev.
During the May meeting, the Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers noted the differences that the parties still have in reaching a peace treaty, but agreed to continue negotiations on outstanding issues.
Recently, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that he had proposed to Azerbaijan to sign the points that have already been agreed upon in the peace treaty between the two countries and to continue negotiations on those that have not been agreed upon. According to Azerbaijan, the text of the peace treaty has been agreed upon by the parties between 80 and 90 percent.
A total of 144 drones have been destroyed or intercepted during a large-scale Ukrainian attack on Russian territory overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
Incoming plane-type UAVs were shot down over nine Russian regions, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
“During an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using unmanned aerial vehicles,” Russian air defenses eliminated 72 drones above Bryansk Region, 20 above Moscow Region, 14 above Kursk Region, and 13 above Tula Region, the ministry stated.
Elsewhere, eight drones were destroyed in Belgorod Region, seven in Kaluga Region, five in Voronezh Region, four in Lipetsk Region and one in Orel Region, it added.
In the city of Ramenskoye outside Moscow, at least two apartment blocks were hit during the Ukrainian raid, according to the regional governor, Andrey Vorobyev.
In Kursk news, several mappers are reporting that Russia's 155th Marine infantry division are now pushing Ukraine back significantly, having recaptured about 10% of the incursion in a single day.
I dipped a toe in the lib blogosphere recently just to see how the election coverage was looking from their perspective, and it's amazing how orthogonal their news is to ours. Daily Kos has regular feature called "Russian Stuff Blowing Up" and tons of Ukraine war coverage but is essentially silent on Palestine. There's a single recent, highly detailed diary that goes into Israel's role in the October 7th casualties and is highly critical of America and Israel, and it has less than a tenth of the engagement as "Russian Stuff Blowing Up," where they're busy cheering on the possibility of a Ukrainian strike on Iran. The rest of the front page diaries are about Trump or the election (front page right now: Trump, DeSantis, Trump, Trump, political cartoon about Trump).
I've spent about 8 years at this point drifting more and more leftwards after watching the fallout from the election and results (or lack thereof) of the marches and protests that happened immediately afterward, and it's a little disorienting to see people I would've mostly agreed with inhabiting an alien world and speaking a totally different language. The comments sections suggest that there's several people there who might be reachable but it seems like the majority is pretty much what you'd expect from an r/politics thread.
On Saturday night, FM Yvan Gil confirmed that Edmundo Gonzalez left Venezuelan territory of his own accord.
On Sunday, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez reiterated that Venezuela held talks with Spain regarding the departure of far-right former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, while the Spanish government denies any political negotiation between the two nations.
“Extensive discussions and contacts took place to operationalize the departure of the opposition figure Gonzalez from the country, with the full guarantees provided by a safe-conduct agreement between both governments,” Rodriguez stated on her Telegram channel.
She was responding to statements made by Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, who did not deny that conversations on the matter occurred but rejected the idea of negotiations involving reciprocal agreements. He insisted that the asylum and transfer to Madrid were requested personally by Gonzalez.
“There has been no political negotiation of any kind between the Spanish government and the Venezuelan government… The Spanish government did not offer any reciprocal concession to facilitate the departure of Edmundo Gonzalez,” Albares said.
In response, the Venezuelan vice president asserted that it is “a communicational fact” that an aircraft of the Spanish Air Force transported Gonzalez, following authorization from Venezuela’s aviation authorities.
Rodriguez, who called the Spanish minister’s statement “false,” emphasized that Venezuela and Spain maintained the “relevant contacts” and, in adherence to international law, the Bolivarian government granted Gonzalez the safe-conduct.
On Saturday night, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil confirmed that Edmundo Gonzalez left Venezuelan territory of his own accord, headed to Spain, after receiving a safe-conduct from the Bolivarian government.
The following day, Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab also confirmed Gonzalez’s departure and stated that his office respects the decision made by the administration of President Nicolas Maduro.
During a broadcast of the TV program Con Maduro+, the Venezuelan head of state said he respects the decision of the far right-wing opposition former presidential candidate of request asylum in Spain.
President Maduro also pointed out that “Here (Venezuela), hatred, violence, division and persecution of people for their ideas, ways of thinking and being cannot proliferate.”
Maduro asked the opposition forces that ignored the Nation’s institutions to respect the rules of the game and accept the election results as well: “We have played fair and we have won.”
In this regard, he pointed out that Venezuela has to make severe anti-fascist laws and exalted the first World Congress against fascism to be held in the country on 10 and 11 September.
The head of state also highlighted the National Assambley’s anti-fascist law legislative discussions. “This new law is a way to block any form of this political expression in our national territory,” said the president.
The way western media are covering US relations to the illegal zionist entity is insane. Here are some examples of headlines from Danish government broadcaster DR:
September 10th: America demands changes after "Israel"'s army admits they probably killed activist
August 16th: Biden: We will meet next week with the purpose of making an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza
August 15th: The White House confirms negotiations in Qatar: 'A promising start'
August 2nd: Biden: The killing of Hamas leader doesn't exactly help the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza
July 26th: Harris after meeting Netanyahu: 'What it's happening in Gaza is heartbreaking'
Western propaganda is making the US sound like a well-meaning humanitarian institution doing their gosh-darned best to stop the violence but those exotic middle easterners are just too unruly. The direct culpability of the US is only reported as something fringe activists are saying, if it is reported at all.
If your only knowledge about the genocide, occupation and apartheid in Palestine comes from sources like this, you are being profoundly disinformed about the situation. Not knowing anything at all would makes you less ignorant than what you get from reporting like this.
What are our thoughts of this video and its anarchist take on the Palestinian situation? I enjoyed it and its perspective, but I’m curious what communists think about the anarchist tendencies found within.
Today @ 9 PM EST, I will be playing the Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris Debate at the link above. I played the Biden v Trump debate on the same channel. For the Biden v Trump debate, we had around 200 hexbear users in the chat. Before/after the debate, I will play news and commentary related to the debate. The video feed will be streamed from youtube.
I am choosing to not watch the debate on /c/movies because of their usage of peertube (tankietube). Before the debate they are playing Sopranos from peertube. Using peertube exposes your IP address to other users which is why their thread mentions using a VPN. Peertube will not be allowed in the channel that I linked.
I was listening to CII Radio and Salaamedia on Monday. A guest speaker on the live radio mentioned the massacres are quite literally done just for fun (their words, not mine) and there has not been any clear objective than just wanton extermination. The rhetoric has also become much more bloodthirsty as well as self-sustaining, with the violence itself a catalyst. It was already bad enough a decade ago, but now it's much more directly hostile and slowly becoming more materially violent. Salaamedia even noted that in response to a journalist who escaped to South Africa and gave an interview on Newzroom Afrika, pro-"israeli" individuals were already screaming for her death because hostages. Even preschool aged children who were evacuated to South Africa for ICU are the targets of this violent sentiment.
It was even noted that if the South African government does not take any meaningful action against "israel", the Apartheid violence could slowly become normalized yet again. There is also the possibility of terrorism or targeted attacks against South African heads of state, and though while marginal at the moment, the chance isn't zero. Could there be an upsurge of anti-South African sentiment if say, the Diaper forces assault Ramallah, storm the South African embassy and destroy the Nelson Mandela Square to "send a message"?
The ICC/ICJ is still "on the fence" whether trapping over 2 million people into an area only slightly larger than municipal Johannesburg, starving them, destroying all infrastructure and services, further squeezing them into a critical mass of density, etc. constitutes a genocide. Likely because South Africa already questions the courts' legitimacy almost a decade ago and they're afraid to let it slip in their own words.
("Municipal Johannesburg" referring to the city and it's surrounding large/dense neighbourhoods, disregarding cities such as Soweto and Ekurhuleni that comprise the megacity as a whole. The municipality is almost the size of the Gaza Strip, however 6 million people live in it.)
While there can be a number of causes of high inflation, almost all hyperinflations have been caused by government budget deficits financed by currency creation. Peter Bernholz analysed 29 hyperinflations (following Cagan's definition) and concludes that at least 25 of them have been caused in this way. A necessary condition for hyperinflation is the use of paper money instead of gold or silver coins. Most hyperinflations in history, with some exceptions, such as the French hyperinflation of 1789–1796, occurred after the use of fiat currency became widespread in the late 19th century. The French hyperinflation took place after the introduction of a non-convertible paper currency, the assignat.
🔻 The zionist army admits to the serious wounding of an officer in the central #Gaza Strip after a tunnel collapsed on top of an invading force, according to their report.
Yemen has shot down a second MQ-9 nazi "Reaper" drone in less than 72 hours. It is the ninth of these aircraft to be shot down since the start of Yemen's participation inbthr Al Aqsa Flood battle.
I've seen it, the videos coming out of Gaza of the huge crater made by the US-made bomb dropped on a refugee camp by the zionist genocidal entity. This, coupled with the very recent video of a palestinian emergency worker carrying the lifeless body of a young girl amid the rubble, whose head is completely cracked open and is later seen being filled with pieces of cloth just to give it some proper form for a proper humane burial... It's over, it's completely over. If the continued stream of horrific information that comes out from Gaza doesn't turn you into a radical anti-Zionist and anti-Genocide person, you're dead to me and to everyone else. There is no more room for doubters, either you're against this genocide or you fully embrace it and celebrate it. Large portions of the western world fall into the latter. Let us not forget about the decadent comprador regimes and royals who plague the Arab World, those like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia... whose lack of response directly aids the genocidal effort of "Israel".
There is no more discussion to be had, it cannot get any clearer than this, it is impossible. "Israel" has done everything they can to show the world their genocidal intentions, they're very open and shameless about it. Whoever doubts, at this stage, is supportive of genocide.
The Cradle - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the US will announce new sanctions on Iran for sending short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.
tangentially news related - america's worst magazine, the atlantic, has unveiled next month's cover. it amazes me that liberals have spent 8 fucking years now convincing themselves that trump is not widely beloved by the entire republican party and that he is instead dragging them along. he had like 90+% approval among republicans during his term! but these fancy lads from the ivies have surrounded themselves with the half-dozen remaining die hard romneyites in the country and believe that they represent the party, not the skidoo dealership heir who blew the family fortune on the iraqi dinar and has been in prison since january 6
This is one of the craters left behind where people were sleeping. They don't even know how many people were martyred because the physical destruction is so extreme.
I decided on whim to watch Iranian TV for a few minutes. I found a station IRINN and they were highlighting some drawings regarding Gaza. I missed screenshotting some of the better ones (because it’s live and I can’t go back) but I did manage to get this one, I quite like it:
Interesting thread about how "hidden tension is brewing beneath the normal relationship between Russia and Iran." No idea how true it is. The journalist is a former Press TV current Al Jazeera journalist. https://xcancel.com/fresh_sadegh/status/1833130811136041335
More interesting tidbit:
During Putin’s recent visit to Azerbaijan, FM Lavrov accused Armenia of posing an obstacle to the esaliahment of the #Zangezur corridor which would connect mainland Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan enclave in Armenia.
Per media, Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Kahmenei has openly told Russia’s Putin and Armenia’s Pashinian that the Tehran opposes the opening of the #Zangezur and they are aware of Tehran’s concerns. Iranian reformist media pundits accuse Russia of stabbing in Iran’s back.
Russia pursues its own interests reg. the Zangezur, so does Iran. Russia is seemingly alarmed with a reformist-led govt in Tehran and the return of the New Yorkers gang (Zarif &Co.). this as attacks against Russia in Iranian media increased since Pezeshkian’s election.
My son is already two months old, time just passes so quickly. This mf is growing fast on that breast milk diet. He's balding though, guess I'll take him to Turkey soon. On a different note, I'm going to need an archive of communist cartoons soon to start the training early.
Asian Qualifiers for the Great Satan World Cup in 2026 has started, with a great start for Iraq and surprisingly Palestine who drew with South Korea in Seoul. Iraq should make it in this group, while Palestine could possibly be in a decent position if they beat Jordan tomorrow. Iran won their first match, they'll make it for sure. North Korea sadly lost to Uzbekistan (we should a Central Asian COTW period btw), their chances look below average.
Ugledar is about to be encircled, very big news for us Ugledar haters. Very stupid town, but a marvel of Soviet engineering. Ukraine have mainly stopped the bleeding near Pokrovsk, but they're quickly losing ground in the Kurakhove sector and near Kupiansk. Important weeks incoming now before mud season.
Damn when will Iran stop edging, we need them to goon soon
My wife's sister is getting married in Iraq next month, very annoying timing because we can't travel yet with the lil kid. In her defence, the wedding was supposed to be like 7 months ago, but the groom's uncle suddenly died like a month before the wedding.
What is Israel even doing right now? They've been in Gaza for like 11 months now with barely anything tangible achieved, their internal situation is kinda complicated, Iran keeps edging them, the US fired like 50 missiles into Yemen and was like "bro I'm all out of ideas", peace negotiations keep getting wrecked by Satanyahu. What's the long-term goal here, I'm not sure that there's one.
The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement - the European Schengen zone - will start on Sept. 16 and initially last for six months, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday.
The government has also designed a scheme enabling authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders, Faeser said, without adding details on the controversial and legally fraught move.
The restrictions are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.
Support for the Norwegian monarchy has been plummeting recently, as highlighted by a new poll commissioned by Norwegian government broadcaster NRK.
According to the poll, only 62% of Norwegians still back the monarchy, a sharp drop from 73% in May this year. For context, in 2017, support sat at a solid 81%. The royal family's public image is taking a serious hit, largely due to the actions of two high-profile members: Marius Borg Høiby, the stepson of the future king, who has been charged with abusing a woman, and Princess Märtha-Louise, whose tacky spirituality grifts and highly commercialised wedding to a fellow non-white spirituality grifter have further damaged the monarchy's already fragile reputation.
Read more...
The Fuckboy Step-Prince
Marius Borg Høiby, 27, was arrested last month and charged with assault, vandalism, theft, and stalking after a coke-and-booze-fueled meltdown in the apartment of a woman he claims was his girlfriend. Her lawyer, however, denies that she was ever involved with him romantically. Following the arrest, a restraining order was issued against Høiby, prohibiting him from contacting her.
Ten days after his arrest, Høiby issued a public apology to the woman, claiming to have several mental health issues and promising to seek treatment for both his substance abuse and his supposed psychological problems. Unfortunately for him, two of his ex-partners have since come forward, telling of his drug use and violent behavior, which blows apart his narrative that this was just a one-time mistake.
To make matters worse for the royals, Crown Princess Mette-Marit (Høiby’s mother) reportedly called the victim to "discuss" the charges shortly after the arrest, prompting outrage over the royals potentially abusing their status to influence the legal process.
Though Høiby holds no royal title or official function, this isn’t his first scandal. Apart from a conviction for drug possession the step-prince has previously made headlines for referring to himself as "Prince of Norway" in a short-lived stint as a style editor for a British fashion magazine, and he's used the royal palace's address both to give to police when arrested for drug possession and as a marketing ploy to sell second-hand luxury goods online. When he’s not busy assaulting women, Høiby fills his time doing cocaine, posting videos of reckless driving and partying with celebrities, influencers, organized criminals and alt-right bloggers.
On top of it all, he’s faced criticism for using his connections to get a Norwegian diplomatic passport — despite having no diplomatic role — using it to dodge law enforcement while abroad.
Royal Grifters: The Angel Princess and the COVID Shaman
While Høiby self-destructs, Princess Märtha-Louise — daughter of King Harald — is also doing her bit to fan the flames of republican sentiment, with 69% of poll respondents saying she should lose her royal title.
Märtha-Louise recently married her long-time partner, Durek Verrett, a self-styled American "shaman" who caters to the spiritual needs of the rich and famous. By his own account Verrett had spiritual precognition of 9/11 but he decided not to warn anyone. Normally, royal weddings serve as an opportunity for monarchies to flex their influence and charm the public with elaborate pageantry, but not this time. For a start just by being black Verrett has pissed off Norway's nastiest elements, who would otherwise have been staunch monarchists.
But Verrett’s race isn’t the only controversy. The couple’s blatant commercialism has turned off much of the public who sees it as unworthy for the institution. In a break from tradition, they sold exclusive coverage of the wedding to a British tabloid, shunning Norway’s government broadcaster, NRK. While the king and royal family attended, they notably skipped the tabloid photoshoot.
Adding to the circus, Märtha-Louise promoted her clothing line at the wedding by setting up a stand for guests to purchase her merchandise. Leading up to the wedding, the labels of a bespoke brand of gin marketed by the couple was found to violate Norwegian alcohol advertising laws and had to be relabeled before the state alcohol monopoly would sell it.
NRK reports that King Harald is displeased, seeing the commercial nature of the wedding as a breach of his agreement with Märtha-Louise not to use her title for financial gain.
Not content to stop there, Märtha-Louise and her shaman husband are also working on a Netflix series, much to the annoyance of residents in the small village where it’s being filmed. Their prior ventures include Verrett selling "magic charms" to protect against COVID, and Märtha-Louise running a school offering courses on how to perform miracles and communicate with angels to people with more money than sense.
The monarchy recently removed the "Royal Family" section from its official website. The section had previously included biographies for both Märtha-Louise and Marius Borg Høiby. Instead, a new category titled "Other Royals" has appeared, with Høiby no longer receiving his own profile.
The challenge for the European Union is “existential,” Mario Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank, said on Monday in Brussels. If Europe cannot effectively compete and, in turn, provide its people with security and prosperity, he said, “it will have lost its reason for being.”
In two studies, experts reveal enormous deficits in the Bundeswehr's procurement and armaments system. There is a lack of money and speed, some scientists even speak of “state failure”.
“This offers no incentives for the arms industry because it is unclear how much money Germany wants to and can spend on defense after the 100 billion special fund expires,” said lead author and economist Guntram B. Wolff in a telephone conversation with the SZ. This is because defense companies that are thinking about building an additional factory have an investment horizon of ten years.
Give us more money!
Best part:
“At the current rate of procurement, it would take Germany up to almost 100 years to reach the military inventory of 20 years ago.” [...]
According to the scientists, Russia, on the other hand, would be able to provide the same quantities in a much shorter time. Moscow would need around half a year to produce the Bundeswehr's entire stock.
full article in German because archive.is no longer gets around SZ paywall
Brisante Studien zur Bundeswehr: Von wegen Zeitenwende
September 2024, 18:01 Uhr
In zwei Studien zeigen Experten enorme Defizite im Beschaffungs- und Rüstungswesen der Bundeswehr auf. Es mangele an Geld und Tempo, manche Wissenschaftler sprechen gar von „Staatsversagen“.
Von Sina-Maria Schweikle, Berlin
Am Dienstag beginnen die Haushaltsberatungen im Deutschen Bundestag. Dabei spielt der Verteidigungsetat eine zentrale Rolle. Seit dem 24. Februar 2022, dem Beginn des russischen Angriffs auf die Ukraine, herrscht Krieg in Europa. Drei Tage später postulierte Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz in seiner Regierungserklärung, die Aggression markiere eine „Zeitenwende in der Geschichte unseres Kontinents“. Es werde getan, was notwendig sei, um den Frieden in Europa zu sichern. Deutschland müsse deutlich mehr in die Sicherheit des Landes investieren, um Freiheit und Demokratie zu schützen. „Das Ziel ist eine leistungsfähige, hochmoderne, fortschrittliche Bundeswehr, die uns zuverlässig schützt“, sagte Scholz damals.
Zweieinhalb Jahre später scheint dieses Ziel in weite Ferne gerückt zu sein. Nach einer Bestandsaufnahme bilanzieren Verteidigungs- und Sicherheitsexperten in einer am Montag veröffentlichten Studie der SPD-nahen Denkfabrik Dezernat Zukunft: „Staatsversagen“. Daran dürften auch die geplanten 53 Milliarden Euro im Verteidigungsetat nichts ändern.
Die Ampelspitzen hatten sich im Juli darauf geeinigt, dass die Bundeswehr im kommenden Jahr deutlich weniger zusätzliches Geld bekommt als von Verteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius (SPD) gefordert. Ab 2025 soll der Wehretat von derzeit 52 Milliarden Euro nur leicht um rund 1,2 Milliarden Euro steigen. Ab 2028, wenn das 100-Milliarden-Sondervermögen aufgebraucht ist, soll der reguläre Wehretat dann aber 80 Milliarden Euro betragen, um die Nato-Vorgaben zu erfüllen.
„Mit dem Verteidigungsetat wird auch eine Lücke beschlossen.“
Sicherheitsexperten wie Christan Mölling von der Bertelsmann-Stiftung sehen diese Zahlen skeptisch. Er hat mit sieben weiteren Kolleginnen und Kollegen das Kapitel „Verteidigung“ in der Studie des Dezernats Zukunft verfasst und sagt im Gespräch mit der Süddeutschen Zeitung: „Mit dem Verteidigungsetat wird auch eine Lücke beschlossen: Wir wissen heute schon, dass für 2025 mehr als 53 Milliarden nötig wären. Bis 2030 fehlen rund 103 Milliarden Euro“, so Mölling.
Für ihre Studie haben die Expertinnen und Experten mit Politikern und Fachleuten gesprochen sowie öffentlich zugängliche Daten ausgewertet. Der deutsche Staat habe den Verfassungsauftrag, Streitkräfte zur Verteidigung zu befähigen, in den vergangenen Jahren nicht erfüllt, erfülle ihn heute nicht und könne ihn auch auf absehbare Zeit nicht erfüllen, heißt es in dem Bericht.
Für die militärische Verteidigungsfähigkeit müssten demnach in Deutschland kurz-, aber auch mittelfristig zusätzliche Finanzmittel aufgebracht werden. Ob die geplanten 80 Milliarden Euro ab 2028 für eine entsprechende Kehrtwende nicht ausreichen? Christian Mölling hat eher grundsätzliche Zweifel: „Ob es wirklich einen sprunghaften Anstieg um 30 Milliarden Euro im Jahr 2028 geben wird, steht in den Sternen.“
Den Rüstungsunternehmen fehlt das Vertrauen in die Haushaltsplanung
Eine Frage, die sich auch seine Kollegen vom Kieler Institut für Weltwirtschaft stellen. Dort haben Experten eine Studie mit dem Titel „Kriegstüchtig in Jahrzehnten: Europas und Deutschlands langsame Aufrüstung gegenüber Russland“ veröffentlicht. Wie Mölling und seine Kollegen haben auch die Kieler Wissenschaftler auf öffentlich zugängliche Daten zurückgegriffen. Und auch sie kritisieren die deutsche Haushaltsplanung. „Diese bietet keine Anreize für die Rüstungsindustrie, weil unklar ist, wie viel Geld Deutschland nach dem Auslaufen des 100-Milliarden-Sondervermögens für Verteidigung ausgeben will und kann“, sagte der Hauptautor und Ökonom Guntram B. Wolff in einem Telefonat mit der SZ. Denn Rüstungsunternehmen, die über den Bau einer zusätzlichen Fabrik nachdenken, hätten einen Investitionshorizont von zehn Jahren.
Mit Sorge blicken er und seine Kollegen auf das Beschaffungswesen der Bundeswehr: „Um den militärischen Bestand von vor 20 Jahren zu erreichen, bräuchte Deutschland beim derzeitigen Beschaffungstempo bis zu knapp 100 Jahre.“ Die Bestände des Jahres 2004 könnten beispielsweise beim derzeitigen Beschaffungstempo bei Kampfflugzeugen in rund 15 Jahren, bei Kampfpanzern in rund 40 Jahren und bei Artillerie-Haubitzen erst in fast 100 Jahren wieder erreicht werden.
Russland hingegen, so die Wissenschaftler, wäre in der Lage, die gleichen Mengen in sehr viel kürzerer Zeit bereitzustellen. Um den Gesamtbestand der Bundeswehr zu produzieren, bräuchte Moskau etwa ein halbes Jahr. Seit dem Angriff auf die Ukraine habe Putin seine Produktionskapazitäten bei Panzern verdreifacht und bei der weitreichenden Flugabwehr verdoppelt. Deutschland hingegen habe erst ein Jahr nach Beginn des russischen Angriffskrieges begonnen, seine Verteidigungsausgaben zu erhöhen, kritisieren die Autoren. Ein „Weiter so“ wäre angesichts der russischen Aggression fahrlässig und unverantwortlich.
Wot if it was #blockcheney and it was about building blockage in aorta. (This is news as it describes trustless, auditable mechanism of the lich elimination)
There is a virtual education system that is free across the entire nation, which serves the dual goal of democratizing education and ensuring that those in rural areas or without much free time for university can still achieve degrees and a quality education
Sounds fake. Online education can be OK in some situations but a claim that you can do a whole degree worth or that it'll be high quality has been false every other time so why would it be true now?
If you are extremely busy then you are exhausted the rest of the time so it isn't trivial to just slowly plug away at an intellectual task.
It might be a fine project and people might benefit from it. but no reason to be so very credulous about the likely outcomes.
We've speculated a fair amount about the very measured approach of Iran to Israel - this negotiated pullout of iraq may be something that Iran is working on that they don't want to jeopardize through escalation. Getting the US out of Iraq would be positive for them for sure, especially if some form of sanctions relief was agreed on as well
I posted the following in the waning hours of last week's thread:
Mkb speculates that sanctions relief is a top priority for their government based on recent statements by khamenei
The salience is that the Axis of Resistance is not topping Iran’s foreign-policy priorities. That vector plausibly continues in the matrix but somewhere lower down, for sure. Make no mistake, what we are hearing from Tehran is about direct negotiations with the US as the number one priority as the means to get relief from western sanctions, which is an imperative for accelerating the economy and is the lodestar for Iran’s national policy. Iran’s neighbours are keenly watching. To be sure, the Middle East is on the cusp of change.
Funding for applied research, which receives roughly two-thirds of Russia’s federal research spending, will be hit hardest by the cuts, dropping from 458 billion rubles ($4.9 billion) this year to 362 billion in 2025 and 260 billion in 2026, according to a recent analysis by the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge of the Russian Higher School of Economics. Spending on basic research will remain essentially flat, falling slightly from 261 billion rubles to 235 billion in 2025, then increasing to 276 billion in 2026.
I have read taibbi piece in dropsite, dunno why comrade was unhappy, fairly typical of him musings on 90s russia.
Journalists aren't our ideological allies, the most you can hope they'll ask interesting questions coinciding with our interests, and be financed to pursue them.
Mexico and Nicaragua had had problems with nicaraguan migrants and México calling out the crack down on protests, but they have been mostly positive and nowdays both support each other in projects and the drama in ecuador
What are ten years of Ramelow compared to the appearance of Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia? The good woman did not limit herself to handing out ten-cent pieces to the needy and placing half-empty Coke Zero cans next to wastepaper baskets, no, she was observed carrying out activities that were considered degrading. She personally cared for sick people who sought help. In 1226, the German Landgravine had a hospital built below the Wartburg (Eisenach), where she cared for those who were most seriously ill. Whether lepers or cripples, she was simply close to the people.
And Bodo, the ex-Landgrave? What does he have to offer compared to the Thuringian Landgravine? Well, he is considered the "Twitter King" and the state leader who looked at his cell phone the most in the local state parliament. Did he read it? 26.4 percent of Thuringians did not vote. That's the same as in Saxony (25.6 percent). Taking non-voters into account, the traffic light parties together received 7.5 percent (Saxony: 9.4 percent). And because after ten long years of socialism (ahem) under Ramelow, the alternatives had been completely exhausted, they simply voted for the self-proclaimed "alternative." Sounds logical. At least for my father (89), who can't find any clothes, household goods or specialist doctors in his small Thuringian town. For him, the "Wessi Ramelow" is to blame, and then I have to hear my father's favorite joke again: "An Ostrogoth hits a resident of the Western Roman Empire. With a spear in the heart." Almost 35 years after the collapse, nothing is forgiven and nothing is forgotten there!
The mood in the green heart of Germany can also be sensed in the following statement by the venerable hikers on the Rennsteig: "Since we became West, there are hardly any echoes in the mountains." In other words, people have long been speechless. If we ignore Berlin, its suburbs and small areas like Leipzig or the crazy "state capitals," Germany and the Middle East are a completely torn, neglected, devastated country whose inhabitants look back on their lives with shame and try to somehow get by. You have to see these towns and villages! And the disinformation agencies MDR, NDR and RBB put a lot of effort into their borderline idiotic magic. The rest of the opinion-making is "regulated" by the market (newspapers, magazines) anyway, which means that East Germans, according to a study from 2021, only buy large German national daily newspapers in homeopathic doses (Süddeutsche Zeitung 2.5 percent of total circulation, FAZ 3.4 percent). Which is not surprising if you can't get your hands on a copy in which the only things you can read about East Germany are keywords like "right-wing radicalism," "Stasi," "doping," "democratic deficit," "GDR mismanagement," and "unjust regime."
East Germans are not concerned with the AfD, they are concerned with a deep-seated frustration, a helplessness, a lack of perspective. Fear is not a good advisor either. After almost 35 years, most people in the East have understood that the West is alien and hostile to them, from the very beginning, but it rules! At the same time, people are ashamed of having been so naive in 1990, of having messed things up themselves by throwing the fatherland into the jaws of a monster. Shame and rebellion, that is East Germany. But what unites us with West Germany is the lack of a socialist alternative.
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Nicaragua.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
spoiler
What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?