There's plenty of opposition parties in Russia, for example. They're just all controlled. They use intentional gaffs to throw the election to the "correct" winner. If they start getting too uppity and stop following orders, they get banned from running on some technicality.
Navalny is what happens when even that doesn't work, but he was very much the exception.
Excuse me sir, may I interest you in Gripen? Cold weather tested, fascist free, and oh so stylish. Book your test flight today!
Was at the one in Bucharest. Was a little disappointing tbh. Was just a photo op with extra steps. Organizers maneuvered the crowd into the formation they wanted for the photo, took the photo, then wished everyone a good night and wandered off.
I swear, YT comments seem to be 60% bots, 20% people who have to be reminded to breathe, 10% trolls.
Of course, 110% of all statistics on the internet are pulled out of someone's ass.
Every neighbour of theirs has a score to settle. Russia has never been a good neighbour to any of us.
Of course, black people had no role in the war over their status as free people...
None of that text matters anymore. Laws are only as good as the enforcement of them. When ICE can strip a green card holder of their right to be in the country and deport unilaterally with no legal accountability for the crime of supporting a cause they don't like, free speech is over.
Hello there fellow Romanian!
100% agree on all points, and would like to add for anyone else reading this that there's another part to this which just isn't covered in international news: Georgescu is a loud and proud member of the neo-Legionary movement (Romanian fascists). His friends run summer camps for kids where you can learn how to handle a rifle, Codreanu (basically Romania's Hitler) was an amazing guy who fought for Romania, and Brussels is run by a shadowy cabal of Jews. Close allies of his (ex-mercenaries) were arrested for travelling with weapons with intent to intimidate journalists and politicians.
International news has correctly pointed out that he's a wacky conspiracy theorist, but not that for some reason.
Also, I'm very happy Toni Grebla got fired. I'm mildly disappointed it wasn't out of a cannon though. it's his fault Georgescu was allowed to run in the first place.
It's frankly incredible just how devoted the US Democratic party is to losing. They're so ridiculously ineffectual.
I know someone who got had by a spearfishing call. They knew all the details about his phone contract, sounded 100% legit. The scammer got thousands of dollars in prepaid SIM cards from his account.
After the police investigation, turned out that the scammer was actually a former employee of the phone company who downloaded a copy of the customer list when he got fired.
The EU has multiple "second class" membership options. Multiple non-EU countries are in Schengen, even more have no visa requirements.
Multiple countries have trade deals with the EU, including Canada (as soon as CETA gets fully completed).
I enjoy the "Canada can into EU?" memes, they're fun. It's also really nice that in this period of insanity we can help each other.
That said, yeah. A trade agreement that drops basically all friction, bilateral visa agreements that make travel and business easier & cooperation on military purchases would be the ideal scenario. There's a ton of things the EU and Canada can help each other with without Canada becoming a member.
This is assuming that they don't just turn off federation when they enshittify. They just need to claim it costs them money for a feature that nobody uses, would be trivial.
A federation that is only federated in theory is not federated.
There is strong legal backing to this. Romania bars anyone with ties to or rhetoric similar to the Iron Guard (Romanian fascists) from running. Georgescu has strong ties to them, and he's not even the only politician barred from running due to this for this election (Sosoaca).
What is also obvious to anybody with a minimally functional brain is that Russia would invade if they thought they could. Therefore ramping up defence is a good idea to dissuade Russia from thinking it's a good idea. Even with that deterrence, those not covered by this (Moldova, Georgia, as mentioned) are still vulnerable.
It is a reasonable point that there needs to be a balance, as throwing the entire economy into the military by pulling societal investment will fan anti-EU pro-Russian sentiment, so a balance needs to be struck. From the tone, I doubt you're the right person to discuss the nuance though.
I wonder what the mental gymnastics will be if/when Russia invades non-NATO countries like Moldova and Georgia.
I don't like referring to people fighting for their culture, society, family and future as a "crumple zone".
Absolutely. People need to be organizing IRL. Data on the wire is all well and good, but to really slow the gears of fascism you need to be working hand in hand with your neighbours, colleagues, family, and anybody else on board in your local area.
Even if you're in a trump-supporting neighbourhood, talk to people. You might be surprised by people disappointed in the massive drop in QoL.