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gently caress off Batman posted:It's Scotland op, not Serbia. Serbia isn't yet a member of the African Union. I always get my Baltics confused
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Jul 6, 2020 14:22
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Junior G-man posted:So apparently the EC President was campaigning on behalf of the EPP candidate in Serbia. Not that anyone here in Vanuatu even noticed that.
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Jul 6, 2020 14:58
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i say swears online posted:I always get my Baltics confused Telling the steppe-countries apart can be a challenge, yes.
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Jul 6, 2020 22:53
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I don't know where to put this, but it's pretty loving amazing. So, Novo Banco, a bank that was created once BES was dissolved in Portugal, has the "good" assets from that bank - the good loans etc. It was sold to Lone Star funds, and the guy chosen to lead it (Byron Haines) came from another fund called Cerberus. Now, Novo Banco has been a headache for the Portugal taxpayer. Every year it has billions in losses, and in the sales contract basically any losses have to be compensated by the taxpayer's money for some reason (lmfao). Apparently a whistleblower has send a complaint to the EU authority that Novo Banco has at one point sold 300 million in assets that the bank had with a 70% discount to.. Cerberus. So Lone Star is effectively pillaging and looting everything in the bank, probably to leave the carcass in a few years, while on the other side the taxpayer money goes in. Just loving incredible stuff guys, capitalism at its best. No one will ever be arrested for this. No one will pay for any of it. But the social destruction of Portugal by other empires is pretty ironic. https://www.publico.pt/2020/07/08/economia/noticia/novo-banco-vendeu-activos-70-desconto-fundo-chairman-ligado-1923514
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Jul 8, 2020 08:37
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Pretty sure Lone Star is supposed to be a security company in the cyberpunk dystopia, not another dumb hedge fund or whatever. These assholes can't even get the basics right.
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Jul 8, 2020 11:48
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Orange Devil posted:Pretty sure Lone Star is supposed to be a security company in the cyberpunk dystopia, not another dumb hedge fund or whatever. These assholes can't even get the basics right. in this cyberpunk dystopia it's hedge funds all the way down, baby
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Jul 8, 2020 11:49
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Imagine having a bank which has a contract that its losses are covered by the taxpayer. Would you: A) Make loads of wildly risky loans, sell off the successful ones to a fully private entity (at a discount, while putting the kickbacks directly into your own pockets) while billing the taxpayer for the inevitable trash fires that remain on the books or B) Knowingly buy bad loans from other banks at a premium, knowing you can turn them into more money at the taxpayers expense The correct answer of course is por que não os dois.
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Jul 8, 2020 11:56
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yeah this modern trend of just transferring public money to besuited vampires really sucks!!!!!
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Jul 8, 2020 12:01
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V. Illych L. posted:yeah this modern trend of just transferring public money to besuited vampires really sucks!!!!! Oooh look, a racist, Russian nazibrexiteer that wants refugees and children not protected by the EU, I see!
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Jul 8, 2020 12:32
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If we support the banks with public money does that mean the wealth that's available to the banks is considered a public good and can be used to subsidize public works and give everyone a guaranteed income? Or am I being silly?
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Jul 8, 2020 13:18
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Very silly.
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Jul 8, 2020 13:22
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An insane mind posted:If we support the banks with public money does that mean the wealth that's available to the banks is considered a public good and can be used to subsidize public works and give everyone a guaranteed income? Or am I being silly? Nah. The money given to a bank is called a capital injection to propel investments the banks make forward.
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Jul 8, 2020 15:42
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Bloomberg - EU Powers Suffer Shock Defeat as Irish Take Key Finance Job posted:The euro region’s smallest nations staged an uprising to put one of their own in charge of finance ministers’ meetings and strike a blow against the bloc’s major powers. The major economies can try, and may often, set the agenda but structurally it's only possible by broad consent.
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Jul 10, 2020 11:10
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Owling Howl posted:The major economies can try, and may often, set the agenda but structurally it's only possible by broad consent. Lol this reads like a complete shitheel who's good at public relations.no wonder Bloomberg wrote this glowing profile. "Hard and fair tax reform but nations can still be tax havens" gently caress offfff
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Jul 10, 2020 11:35
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I had similar concerns so I asked an Irish mate for feedback and he linked me to an article from the irish times, which just quotes the bloomberg article in its entirety
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Jul 10, 2020 11:51
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So let me get this guy's position straight: he is there to safeguard the right of Ireland to be a tax haven, while getting the larger economies to pay for Irish debt.
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Jul 10, 2020 12:20
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Irish person here - Pascal's not terrible but hes in no way good either. Hes intelligent, likable, and competent. But ideologically hes also an entirely milquetoast centre-right jerk. So basically he won't gently caress anything up terribly, he'll get along with everyone, and he'll talk a good talk/have good PR about things. But hes also just going to completely defend the status quo.
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Jul 10, 2020 12:26
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"The candidate supported by the big powers, who lost, was the candidate of big economic stimulus" sounds like ultrabullshit to me.
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Jul 10, 2020 12:55
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Dawncloack posted:"The candidate supported by the big powers, who lost, was the candidate of big economic stimulus" sounds like ultrabullshit to me. Germany and France just wanted to give money away to everyone else but they wouldn’t take it!
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Jul 10, 2020 14:13
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Blut posted:Irish person here - Pascal's not terrible but hes in no way good either. Hes intelligent, likable, and competent. But ideologically hes also an entirely milquetoast centre-right jerk. O'Donoghue's likability only extends as far as his colleagues. On the ground he is not liked and as minister for finance he continued to push austerity. Nothing will change.
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Jul 10, 2020 15:18
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Skull Servant posted:O'Donoghue's likability only extends as far as his colleagues. On the ground he is not liked and as minister for finance he continued to push austerity. He got the second highest % of first preference votes in his constituency that elects 4 candidates in the last two elections, and topped the poll there in his the election before those. All the while being a centre-right, pro-rich people politician but representing a largely working class constituency. A constituency that regularly in the past had no Fine Gael (his party, for non-Irish readers) TDs (MPs) at all. I don't agree with his views at all either but its quite factually incorrect to argue hes not liked. He definitely over-performs in terms of vote getting. Anecdotally according to any (non-FG) civil service people I know who've worked with him hes also very likable in a professional setting apparently. Much more-so than some of his party colleagues.
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Jul 10, 2020 15:50
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Im not doubting you Blut, but this is pretty funny: the dude was elected with 13% of the vote, or a whoping 6k votes in is favour,2k of which was from ranked choice? I love ireland.
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Jul 10, 2020 16:43
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Blut posted:He got the second highest % of first preference votes in his constituency that elects 4 candidates in the last two elections, and topped the poll there in his the election before those. All the while being a centre-right, pro-rich people politician but representing a largely working class constituency. A constituency that regularly in the past had no Fine Gael (his party, for non-Irish readers) TDs (MPs) at all. I don't agree with his views at all either but its quite factually incorrect to argue hes not liked. He definitely over-performs in terms of vote getting. I would hardly say getting in on the 9th count while being a very high profile minister shows his popularity, even amongst his constituents. Also what are you talking about with regards to Dublin Central? FG have held seats there nearly constantly since 1981. The three elections they failed to get a seat there were elections where FG had significant losses across the country. In certain years they held half the seats available in the constituency.
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Jul 10, 2020 20:51
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Skull Servant posted:I would hardly say getting in on the 9th count while being a very high profile minister shows his popularity, even amongst his constituents. Also what are you talking about with regards to Dublin Central? FG have held seats there nearly constantly since 1981. The three elections they failed to get a seat there were elections where FG had significant losses across the country. In certain years they held half the seats available in the constituency. In the last 20 years from 2002-2011 there were no FG seats in the constituency. Which included the 2007 election, when FG won a higher % of votes nationally than in either 2016 or 2020 - both elections in which, in contrast, O'Donohue got elected easily. And their candidate in 1992 only scraped in on the last count. Pre 1990 it was safer FG territory, but back then support for both Fianna Fail &FG was so high almost every constituency had a safe seat for both of them. Since the party system has been fracturing more in the last 30~ years it hasn't been a safe FG seat by any metric. Again, you mightn't like him, but if Mary Lou (the Sinn Fein party leader for non-Irish readers, one of the 3 highest profile politicians in the country) wasn't his constituency rival Pascal would be topping the poll in his constituency. You cant claim "on the ground he is not liked" when hes spent a decade repeatedly getting easily elected in a constituency that a different FG candidate would struggle in, that these days isn't their territory at all.
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Jul 11, 2020 14:01
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The European General Court has ruled that Ireland does not need to reclaim 13 billion euros in tax breaks from Apple. The European Commission saw this tax ruling with Apple as illegal state aid but unfortunately the court disagrees.
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Jul 15, 2020 11:51
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u brexit ukip it posted:The European General Court has ruled that Ireland does not need to reclaim 13 billion euros in tax breaks from Apple. The European Commission saw this tax ruling with Apple as illegal state aid but unfortunately the court disagrees. A greased court no doubt. Giving pref treatment to apple and Google is a sticking it to china move.
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Jul 16, 2020 07:01
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The European General Court has just ruled that the US is too stupid to protect European user data, so Privacy Shield is dead. Bad news for Google, Facebook and Co. Edith: Ironically, this happened because someone sued Facebook Ireland over them sending user data to their mother corporation in the US. Libluini fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Jul 16, 2020 |
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Jul 16, 2020 09:13
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Libluini posted:The European General Court has just ruled that the US is too stupid to protect European user data, so Privacy Shield is dead. Still confused about the implications.
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Jul 16, 2020 09:26
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Libluini posted:The European General Court has just ruled that the US is too stupid to protect European user data, so Privacy Shield is dead. Privacy shield was a joke anyway when the US had the Patriot Act that enabled spying on all "foreigners".
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Jul 16, 2020 10:23
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No. 1 Callie Fan posted:Privacy shield was a joke anyway when the US had the Patriot Act that enabled spying on all "foreigners". The Patriot Act was part of the reasoning for the Court decision. Soon sending user data to the US will be illegal, if the EU and the US can't agree on a third deal to replace the two that now have failed in a row.
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Jul 16, 2020 10:52
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Well, sorry about those litany of failings Italy, we'll probably gently caress it up again next time
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Jul 16, 2020 12:00
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Antifa Poltergeist posted:Well, sorry about those litany of failings Italy, we'll probably gently caress it up again next time This article, imo, works very hard to pin the EU failures on overlooks, and the EC being just a week in, but doesnt do Italy the same favor.
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Jul 16, 2020 12:19
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I dunno, it reads as bureaus within the EU only with advisory capacity instead of real power, delayed by burocratic redtape (love the croatia bit), then when poo poo got real every country told everyone else to suck it. I mean lol "Meanwhile, the virus was continuing to quietly seed. On 30 January, two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for coronavirus. The Italian government immediately banned all flights to and from China and sought a meeting of EU health ministers to push for stricter entry screening measures across Europe. But the meeting took three weeks to organise. The Croatian government, responsible for convening it as holder of the rolling EU council presidency, had become embroiled in a financial scandal during which the prime minister, Andrej Plenković, had been forced to fire his health minister, Milan Kujundžić. By the time health ministers did finally meet on 13 February, pockets of cases were sprouting. The response to the coronavirus threat had been “prompt and effective” declared the new Croatian minister of health, chairing the council meeting." Or the italian representative missing a meeting because he didnt see a email. The article is people_caught_with_their_pants_down.txt
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Jul 16, 2020 12:30
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My fave is still the French health minister resigning in mid-February to run for mayor in Paris, replacing the former candidate of her party who dropped out after a bunch of dick pics he sent were leaked online. She crashed and burned, predictably.
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Jul 16, 2020 17:32
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My fave is how the mask came off (heh) and it became blindingly obvious that many politicians' only goal is full FYGM while performing any public service is a secondary goal for them at most.
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Jul 17, 2020 10:19
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I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!
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just so we maintain belgium's reputation as a ... unique political union, evidence # 151412:  quote:"Within the Flemish government there is a real awareness that the situation is serious", says political journalist Pieterjan De Smedt. "But a real interview was not possible: not with Jan Jambon nor with Wouter Beke, whom we would have liked to talk to about contact tracing. It is said that the virus is spreading rapidly among the population, and in fact contact tracing is not going well at all in Flanders". Just ... I'm just done with this kangaroo court. I can't even mock this poo poo anymore. It's all too exhausting double nine fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Jul 17, 2020 |
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Jul 17, 2020 21:07
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They just had to go and pick up some steamed hams.
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Jul 18, 2020 06:03
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Bart probably had to leave on vacation before we lock down again, as now that we're getting the daily numbers again instead of weekly averages it's obvious that we're heading into a second wave of covid-19.
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Jul 18, 2020 09:23
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They were clearly getting it on, and had to get out of there to avoid a scandal. It's happened before with Flemish politicians People say Belgium is boring, but we're actually the sensual Brazil of Europe, only with pudgy middle-aged people instead.
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Jul 18, 2020 13:40
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you can call us belgians many things, 'sensual' is NOT one of them.
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Jul 18, 2020 16:22
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