International Events Next-

[Zorral]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/25/henry-kissinger-100-strategic-genius-or-damaging-diplomacy-held-back-africa

What Kissinger wrought.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/25/kissinger-at-100-the-bloody-dreadful-filthy-angolan-civil-war-in-pictures

Quote

.... Olmos’s pictures depict the consequences of a conflict that Henry Kissinger’s clumsy intervention exacerbated: towns and cities in which almost every visible wall on every surviving building was marked by violence, the grasslands littered with broken equipment, grinding poverty and people mutilated by mines. ....

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Zorral

[jasicarose75]

On 5/25/2023 at 7:05 PM, Zorral said:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/25/henry-kissinger-100-strategic-genius-or-damaging-diplomacy-held-back-africa

What Kissinger wrought.
Not bad information in my opinion. The opinion of all people must be taken into account. I sometimes even study http://essaypapers.reviews/, where people express their thoughts. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with it. But in my spare time, I enjoy it.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/25/kissinger-at-100-the-bloody-dreadful-filthy-angolan-civil-war-in-pictures

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by jasicarose75

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I’m a tad surprised no one has mentioned the fighting between Iran and Taliban controlled Afghanistan.  Per this article it is largely about water rights and the Taliban damning a river that flows out of Afghanistan into southeastern Iran.

How much of this comes because of Russia’s giant shit on international norms regarding resolution of international disputes between Nation-States?

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/5/27/clash-on-iran-afghan-border-kills-at-least-three

[A Horse Named Stranger]

On 5/28/2023 at 10:03 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I’m a tad surprised no one has mentioned the fighting between Iran and Taliban controlled Afghanistan.  Per this article it is largely about water rights and the Taliban damning a river that flows out of Afghanistan into southeastern Iran.

How much of this comes because of Russia’s giant shit on international norms regarding resolution of international disputes between Nation-States?

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/5/27/clash-on-iran-afghan-border-kills-at-least-three

Iran-Afghanistan relations are complicated. There's ofc this secretarian aspect (Taliban being hardcore Sunni and Iran being Shia). Iran was actually in favour of the US invasion of Afghanistan iirc. So they were looking at the second coming of the Taliban rather worriedly. That water issue is also rather old. Water becoming an ever more valuable resource. You can have your pick of what's driving this. I don't think the Taliban care too much about Russia. I'd be more concerned, how they'd react, if Russia offered a deal to buy military equipment the US left behind, when they pulled out of Afghanistan. quick reminder

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by A Horse Named Stranger

[Zorral]

Erdogan gets 5 more years.

Local elections in Spain go conservative.  Good Grief, Spain, everything is going so well for you, guess you feel obliged to eff it up!

[TheLastWolf]

Modi opens new parliament amid protesters being detained.

The cost (middle o the pandemic ahem) being unnecessary is immaterial when you think about how it defaced and sc(v)andalized the capital which is already choked and could do with every square inch of green space.  And nice touch to inaugurate it on the birth anniversary of the country's first terrorist and the man behind Gandhi's assassination and not invite the token minority president. 

Spoiler

If you don't see me again for a long time, you'll know what happened 

Someone has to tell these illiterate twats that these buildings are part of art and heritage no matter the colonial architecture past and not just 'old'. But then their brand of 'new' Hindutva nationalism will be affected. I mean it had like more men in ochre robes than a temple consecration ever would!

And that sceptre has no historical backingup of claims such as presented to Nehru by Mountbatten (scoff, really?), just out to gather brownie points from the dumb majority (like any country with a rightist history). Ancient and medieval Emperors, monarchs and kings did use it (not the exact sceptre but variousother ones). As a hypocritical symbol of 'justice'. Not for the slaves they bought back from conquests to build their grand monuments ( no one eager to brand them 'old') oh no.

As for the protests, twas Olympic medal winning wrestlers against inaction on sexual abuse allegations. Evicted by force. While MPs and MLAs with case files larger than the Mahabharata and the Ramayana put together are guests of 'honour'. 

Make no mistake, India is growing and developing financially and whatnot in intl geopolitics but intellectually regressing into bunches of refined barbarians. Much like a European country with a godlike leader roughly a century ago. Except that sceptre had an eagle.

Edited May 29, 2023 by TheLastWolf

[Mentat]

14 hours ago, Zorral said:

Local elections in Spain go conservative.  Good Grief, Spain, everything is going so well for you, guess you feel obliged to eff it up!

It's been a devastating defeat for the left wing parties I support. Podemos, specially, has been obliterated from local and regional politics, losing more than half its representatives. PSOE's lost most of the cities and regions it controlled, and its traditional stronghold of Andalucia has almost completely deserted it.

As a consequence of these dire results, the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has summoned general elections to be held on the 23rd of July (they weren't supposed to be held until December). It's hard to fathom his reasons, but I suspect minimizing the representation of far left parties like Podemos or the nascent Sumar, that are his allies in the current government but political rivals when it comes to the left-wing vote, might be a part of it.

[TheLastWolf]

12 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Modi opens new parliament amid protesters being detained.

The cost (middle o the pandemic ahem) being unnecessary is immaterial when you think about how it defaced and sc(v)andalized the capital which is already choked and could do with every square inch of green space.  And nice touch to inaugurate it on the birth anniversary of the country's first terrorist and the man behind Gandhi's assassination and not invite the token minority president. 

  Reveal hidden contents

If you don't see me again for a long time, you'll know what happened 

Someone has to tell these illiterate twats that these buildings are part of art and heritage no matter the colonial architecture past and not just 'old'. But then their brand of 'new' Hindutva nationalism will be affected. I mean it had like more men in ochre robes than a temple consecration ever would!

And that sceptre has no historical backingup of claims such as presented to Nehru by Mountbatten (scoff, really?), just out to gather brownie points from the dumb majority (like any country with a rightist history). Ancient and medieval Emperors, monarchs and kings did use it (not the exact sceptre but variousother ones). As a hypocritical symbol of 'justice'. Not for the slaves they bought back from conquests to build their grand monuments ( no one eager to brand them 'old') oh no.

As for the protests, twas Olympic medal winning wrestlers against inaction on sexual abuse allegations. Evicted by force. While MPs and MLAs with case files larger than the Mahabharata and the Ramayana put together are guests of 'honour'. 

Make no mistake, India is growing and developing financially and whatnot in intl geopolitics but intellectually regressing into bunches of refined barbarians. Much like a European country with a godlike leader roughly a century ago. Except that sceptre had an eagle.

End of a century, damaging war, long time party in power toppled, fascist hyper nationalism propagation, projecting a godlike leader, minority persecution erosion of democratic values with the full support of the majority (ahem of _by_ for the people) and suppression of media all the while progressing in a developmental POV unsustainably, bickering over symbols...

My generation (particularly vulnerable when the norm is intolerant wokeness) has been fed toxicity periodically in the form of meme culture and thus desensitized and normalized such things as rationalizing the holocaust

Call me crazy but history repeating itself in a different continent century later. I'll have a front row seat with popcorn to another form of holocaust.

And that Telegu Skinhead right into the White House

Edited May 30, 2023 by TheLastWolf

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Make no mistake, India is growing and developing financially and whatnot in intl geopolitics but intellectually regressing into bunches of refined barbarians.

In our household we call it the crapification of everything -- it's done to our city, and our country, and lordessa, our entertainments and comes right out of our politics.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I thought the Vucic regime was under pressure from serious protests in Belgrade?  Is this Vucic’s parry and riposte to the protests?  Arm protesters and have them attack NATO Peacekeepers?

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

More…

 

[The Anti-Targ]

Elon Musk visiting China is curious. Being good buds with China will not please the US nationalists (on the right and left), many of whom seem to love his freedom of speechiness. It's definitely in his and Tesla's interests to keep China happy as both a supplier to Tesla and a market for its cars, power walls, and possibly grid storage.

[Impmk2]

3 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

many of whom seem to love his freedom of speechiness. 

What freedom of speechiness?

Twitter is complying with requests for censorship far more often under Musk than it's previous management. 

 

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, Impmk2 said:

What freedom of speechiness?

Twitter is complying with requests for censorship far more often under Musk than it's previous management. 

 

Freedom of speechiness is like truthiness. Do you stand for truthiness?

 

[TheLastWolf]

Multiple train collision/derailment leaves 300 dead a thousand injured,toll rising in Odisha, India.

The sheer negligence...smfh

[Zorral]

Le Pen’s far right served as mouthpiece for the Kremlin, says French parliamentary report
Dogged by accusations of proximity to the Kremlin, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party had hoped to clear its name by setting up a parliamentary inquiry to investigate foreign interference in French politics. But a draft report on the committee’s findings, which was leaked to the press this week, shows the move backfired spectacularly, finding instead that Le Pen’s policy stances sometimes echo the “official language of Putin’s regime”.

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20230603-le-pen-s-far-right-served-as-mouthpiece-for-the-kremlin-says-french-parliamentary-report

 

[The Anti-Targ]

So, did Le Pen expect to be able to corrupt the inquiry so that it found no connection or that a connection could be attributed to other parties, or was she completely clueless as to the political influences her party was under? Incompetence, or ignorance or a lot of both.

[Rippounet]

4 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

So, did Le Pen expect to be able to corrupt the inquiry so that it found no connection or that a connection could be attributed to other parties, or was she completely clueless as to the political influences her party was under?

I reckon she expected the governement's party would keep playing nice with hers because it doesn't have a parliamentary majority. In order to get anything voted in Parliament, Macron needed to court both the "traditional" right and the far-right. However, by opposing his pension reform plan, the far-right not only became useless to the government, but also gained too much popularity for Macron to stomach.
Flirting with Le Pen was always crazy, but Macron will now have to rely on the traditional right, which could very well decide to betray him if it senses opportunity. The government barely survived the last no-confidence vote, I wouldn't bet on it surviving another one.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm afraid it doesn't matter that much. The gist of the report being leaked means it probably contains nothing of substance (i.e. proof of criminal dealings that could prevent Le Pen from running). As for popular opinion, proximity with Moscow isn't that much of a liability when people are beyond furious about the pension reform, inflation, or the collapse of the healthcare system. If things get to the point where we have early legislative elections, Le Pen is just as likely to end up prime minister as she is to end up president in 2027 ; at this point any further political shenanigans will only speed things up.

[TheLastWolf]

Sweden allows Quran burning anti-immigrant protests in front of mosques on Bakrid jeopardizing NATO entry and Turkey ties

Since when did xenophobes fall under the umbrella of democratic rights. Far right taken extreme.

So that the turbaned are provoked into killing innocent taxpayers in acts of terrorism thus justifying their incursions in the middle east whilst the warmongers earn billions

[Zorral]

Lots of neo nazis in Sweden and equivalent in its government, that's why.

1 minute ago, TheLastWolf said:

Since when did xenophobes fall under the umbrella of democratic rights. Far right taken extreme.