|
After considering it for a while I thought this thread was the best place to post in. Apologies if its the wrong thread. Baltic goons, how is the Finnish accession to NATO perceived? What about Sweden? I have understood that people there have been about just as queasy about the war in Ukraine as we have across the pond here. Are people relieved? Or, is the prospect of a Russian invasion absurd enough that people don't really care much?
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 15:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 02:06 |
|
|
I think both are extremely well liked here, and so this has since the start been “took them a while” in Latvia at least, i.e., uncontroversial good news.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 16:06
|
|
|
It's big on Bornholm
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 16:35
|
|
|
Sweden and Finland are seen as such an integral part of the EU and the western order i think it's seen more of a formality as in "huh they weren't in before?". There's some excitement in turning the Baltic into an internal sea and locking down kaliningrad Orban and Erdogan are seen as dicks meddling in the common good Chances of Russian invasion are not seen as negligible, the past few years russian agents were arrested collecting lists of "public enemies" so there were deff preparations for NATO countries being made after Ukraine
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 16:45
|
|
|
Polish national rail decided to suck the pis dick dry and, for the glorious occasion of the 18th anniversary of the death of the greatest pedophile enabler in recent history, AIDS promoter and protector of rape induced embryos, they are giving every passenger of intercity trains in Poland a literal creampie (ok, cream something, but the creampie joke is established here already so whatever). Papa John enjoyed his creampies as a wee lad under the protectorate of sex pest cardinal Sapieha, and so now we are forced to as well. There is an official statement warning the passengers that they are going to get creampied during their journey, being announced through the loudspeakers of our pedolino trains today. Curiously, the blessed communique is only spoken in Polish.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 11:06
|
|
|
Polish friends, you wish it was a fantasy of a diseased brain.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 11:09
|
|
|
There’s the papal march in Warsaw today, too.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 12:49
|
|
|
All over Poland (except the territory previously under rule of The Teutonic Order)
Anne Frank Funk fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Apr 2, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 12:54
|
|
|
Feeling I’m actively becoming stupider by internalising this knowledge 
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 13:09
|
|
|
The autumn elections will be "fun" Someone has decorated JP2 statue in Łódź 
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 15:38
|
|
|
cinci zoo sniper posted:Feeling I’m actively becoming stupider by internalising this knowledge A few more news like that and you too can live in Poland.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 22:12
|
|
|
Anne Frank Funk posted:All over Poland (except the territory previously under rule of The Teutonic Order) Wait, there was nothing in Gdansk? cinci zoo sniper posted:Feeling I’m actively becoming stupider by internalising this knowledge However, there was another piece of news that might be used as election material - the Vistula Split Canal/Dugout/Whatamacallit. I know that there has been a big increase in budget allocation (like an extra 1,5mil PLN) to deepen the canal route to Elbląg so it can finally receive some actual freight ships. I expect PiS to fully flaunt the "We told you so  " angle on this, as by sheer loving luck, it is the only thing that allows ship movement to Elbląg and Frombork (although, there is not much significant ship movement there yet) that lets ships bypass Russian territorial waters. loving coincidences man. Everyone was saying that it was stupid (like Gdańsk and Gdynia are right there) and needlesly expensive (plus their finance plan of "we're sure to find loads of valuable amber there" was bonkers to begin with) but just because Russia decided to rock the boat, this might be just ever so slightly justifiable.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 23:46
|
|
|
Hungary.txt https://twitter.com/USAmbHungary/status/1642898102544629762?s=20
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2023 21:30
|
|
|
decided to check in with some opinion columnsquote:Nenoliedzami Rietumeiropas bēdīgā pieredze ar destruktīvām, neeiropeiskas kultūras pārstāvju izpausmēm XXI gadsimta otrajā desmitgadē un Baltijas valstu, it īpaši Latvijas, nepieciešamība vēl vairāk nekā 30 gadus pēc neatkarības atgūšanas auklēties ar latviešu valodu neapguvušiem PSRS laika migrantiem neļauj ideālistiski raudzīties uz darba tirgus plašu atvēršanu visiem, kuri grib ierasties ES.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2023 14:51
|
|
|
Latvia's just re-introduced conscription after over 15 years of contract-only army. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-05/latvia-reintroduces-draft-in-response-to-russia-s-war-on-ukraine#xj4y7vzkg Is this measure popular with Latvians right now?
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 15:35
|
|
|
Paladinus posted:Latvia's just re-introduced conscription after over 15 years of contract-only army. I think the room temperature is “we should be doing this, but we should also get non-idiots to run it, preferably”.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 16:45
|
|
|
cinci zoo sniper posted:I think the room temperature is “we should be doing this, but we should also get non-idiots to run it, preferably”. Is this one of those 'the rich and connected can get their kids out of conscription/get the cushy jobs but everyone else is hosed' or is it 'I don't care if your kid has MS in a wheelchair he can peel potatoes or push a button' type conscriptions?
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 17:22
|
|
|
Oracle posted:Is this one of those 'the rich and connected can get their kids out of conscription/get the cushy jobs but everyone else is hosed' or is it 'I don't care if your kid has MS in a wheelchair he can peel potatoes or push a button' type conscriptions? It's "we can't afford this because people don't trust us, which is why we're starting with volunteers primarily and targeting 1000/year conscripted, raising that to 7500/year by 2028 if we get enough budget". To give credit though, I think that the nation has enough collective trauma from Soviet-style conscription and people committing suicides in closets that there will be literal guillotines rolling out for hazing or corruption, which in turn should make this eventually latter. An important detail here would be that this is not "conscript army", this is "state defence service". You can complete your mandatory service by 1) serving in the armed forces, 2) serving in the national guard, 3) earning a MOS in a tertiary education setting, or 4) performing civil service at an involved ministry (defence, interior (border guard probably)). Armed forces is the priority (our military planners have settled on ~50k high readiness reserve as warranted by the war in Ukraine, which would necessitate standing army + conscripts of previous 5 years + probably some cops or border guard = 50k ppl), which is why army is the only option of these that's going to pay for your rent and your food. Armed forces also pay the highest monthly salary for the service - 300/month if you're not a volunteer (but don't conscientiously object, and get assigned), and 600/month if you volunteer to do your mandatory service there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 17:36
|
|
|
cinci zoo sniper posted:decided to check in with some opinion columns Nice NRA article, about on brand for them. Oh, it's not. Well, the Overton window has been moving a lot this year and Diena hasn't been the liberal paper since the buyout in 2010 and and ans I'm just kidding myself, am i not. Paladinus posted:Latvia's just re-introduced conscription after over 15 years of contract-only army. There was a small protest, about 2 people strong if Twitter is to be believed and one of them was being mildly mocked for his unkempt appearance. That said, my feeling is that the reception is a bit lukewarm. Taken with a shrug, in other words. I'm also going to slightly disagree with cinci on the collective dedovschina trauma. As far as I am aware, it took a lot of conscious effort from the brass to root out as part of NATO accession. /source: I had freshly dropped out of uni and seriously faced conscription back in early 2000s, which was an unfavourable prospect at the time edit: pic stolen from Mastodon 
a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Apr 5, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 18:12
|
|
|
a podcast for cats posted:Nice NRA article, about on brand for them.  @ the memere: Diena - I've recently picked them up, as I've been looking to slim down my Latvia RSS feed, and LSM is kind of getting a bit fat with random stuff I don't care to read. Not sure what Diena was like 5 or 10 years ago, but the overton window is getting in the way even in the daily stuff, like Le Scary Illegal Vaping Drugs poo poo they tried for a few articles, that paint it like teenagers are hitting korokodil vapes out there. Opinion stuff I threw into my RSS to try to figure out the editorial board a little bit and yeah, well, they're coming really loving loud and clear, what's there left to say really. re: Hazing - one of my dad's brothers has been a border guard (well, successful career officer) + doing various national guard stuff since the independence, and he has always had some really sharp words about how bad hazing problems were in our army. I was a few years away from finishing school when it got cancelled, and I remember rather vividly talk at that time already on whether if preparing to dodge is necessary, what would be the best way to dodge, and so on. Now, maybe this is complete hearsay - it is at least a partial one as that brother wasn't in the armed forces directly -- but at least my impression growing up has been that dedovschina caused a lot of problems before we joined NATO, and our accession process saw it solved "as usual".
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 18:41
|
|
|
cinci zoo sniper posted:re: Diena - I've recently picked them up, as I've been looking to slim down my Latvia RSS feed, and LSM is kind of getting a bit fat with random stuff I don't care to read. Not sure what Diena was like 5 or 10 years ago, but the overton window is getting in the way even in the daily stuff, like Le Scary Illegal Vaping Drugs poo poo they tried for a few articles, that paint it like teenagers are hitting korokodil vapes out there. Opinion stuff I threw into my RSS to try to figure out the editorial board a little bit and yeah, well, they're coming really loving loud and clear, what's there left to say really. Dienas oped stuff was bonkers even 10 years ago, I distinctly remember reading something that opened up with a short We Should Improve Society Somewhat paragraph that segued into ranting about bootstraps and migrants so hard it gave me whiplash.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 20:01
|
|
|
Rereading back the dedovschina exchange, I'm not even sure if we have a disagreement with a podcast for cats over it, as I'm suggesting it as a worse thing than what they allude to.Arzachel posted:Dienas oped stuff was bonkers even 10 years ago, I distinctly remember reading something that opened up with a short We Should Improve Society Somewhat paragraph that segued into ranting about bootstraps and migrants so hard it gave me whiplash.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 20:05
|
|
|
Could be. The takeover happened shortly after the GFC kicked off, IR.LV was founded by a bunch of Diena's editorial staff after they were forced out. They were the respectable, liberal, European broadsheet equivalent with actual editorial standards up until the GFC, iirc. Bootstraps rethoric easily fits the zeitgeist of the time, it wasn't until 2009-2010 that the economic reality of stratification+austerity became visibly ugly. Conscription chat - I graduated in 2001 and I don't think there was a single conscript in my year or the one prior, out of about 40-50 potentially eligible males per year. Everyone enrolled in some more or less reputable uni or college as a way out. edit: now, thinking about it, there was a brief period where Diena had a vox populi online section that allowed everyone and their tinfoil hat wearing dog publish thier own blog, possibly with a diena.lv subdomain. Link previews on Facebook and draugiem.lv would open a big rear end Diena logo. There was some fairly deranged stuff on there around the time the Istanbul convention debate started and they were still around at the time of the Crimea invasion. edit2: yes, it was pretty bad, but I feel our society is callous enough for it to come back if left unchecked/to it's own devices a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 5, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 20:37
|
|
|
a podcast for cats posted:but I feel our society is callous enough for it to come back if left unchecked/to it's own devices As for IR, maybe I should read one of their papers. Maybe because I bought one a few weeks ago specifically to compare it to Diena and LSM, and it's merrily lying next to my alarm clock.  Diena does look okay as far as fact-based reporting seems to be concerned in the couple of weeks that I've been running this experiment for, but I'm not particularly awestruck at swimming through Overton microaggressions every day.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2023 20:51
|
|
|
Hungarian Easter celebrations.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 20:12
|
|
|
with a rebel yell she QQd posted:Hungarian Easter celebrations. Gonna need the lore on Roman(ian)s here
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 20:20
|
|
|
There's snow in the baltics which is jesus' way of saying these lands are forsaken
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 20:20
|
|
|
Somaen posted:There's snow in the baltics which is jesus' way of saying these lands are forsaken Nah, snow becomes abnormal in the second half of May imo
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 20:21
|
|
|
The thermometer is around 8-12 plus degrees in most of Finland. Truly the temperature has risen!  (Still cold in the night and snow everywhere but could be worse)
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 20:37
|
|
|
cinci zoo sniper posted:Nah, snow becomes abnormal in the second half of May imo No words can begin to describe how much I detest the climate of this miserable corner of the world.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 20:55
|
|
|
Nenonen posted:The thermometer is around 8-12 plus degrees in most of Finland. Truly the temperature has risen! Meanwhile in Budapest the daily lowest max temperature record has been broken with the temp not rising above 2.8 C the other day. Which is about 10 degrees below the average at this time of year, but we will be back to regular programing starting Monday with 18-20 C maximums. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 21:06
|
|
|
Aumanor posted:No words can begin to describe how much I detest the climate of this miserable corner of the world. tbh my only gripe is how little direct sunlight we effectively see in winter, which i guess also is particularly annoying in recent years, as my apartment doesn't have floor to ceiling windows like my last office job did that said, i wouldn't have a strong counter to being stokcholmed on this either. i just tend to like the 15-20 c baltic weather for going about town with my daily business
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 21:11
|
|
|
cinci zoo sniper posted:Gonna need the lore on Roman(ian)s here I assume it's similar to the Žudije tradition in Croatia. Wikipedia posted:Žudije are the guardians of the tomb of Christ (In Croatian: čuvari Kristova groba) which is a predominantly Catholic tradition in the region of Dalmatia, Croatia. Their name is of Greco-Roman origin and most probably means a Jew. Žudije are usually consisted of 12 guardians led by commander which is called "Juda" as 13th member. Participants are generally dressed in Roman uniforms, but sometimes the clothing of sailors or various traditional costumes are chosen. It's funny how the folk mixed it all together. They are named after Jews, but they are Roman soldiers. Judas also became a Roman soldier. Clearly they are bad guys, but it's a great honor to be in the group and it's usually reserved only for young men born in that town/village. There's also competition between towns -- Our Žudije have a longer tradition than yours! -- Your Žudije are just a show for tourists! etc.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 22:59
|
|
|
Doctor Malaver posted:I assume it's similar to the Žudije tradition in Croatia. That is, well, very Balkan if anything 
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2023 23:01
|
|
|
Oh, didn't take the question seriously. Here it's not a tradition at all, some kindergarten just decided it will be a good experience for the children to replay the march of Jesus with the cross to the hill of Golgotha. The romans are there to make the experience more authentic for the children I guess. No reports if they flogged them or gave them crowns of thorns.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2023 09:20
|
|
|
The Romans raped Jesus, so let's hope it wasn't too authentic... *possibly, it was pretty standard part of torture of prisoners according to some historians
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2023 09:38
|
|
|
with a rebel yell she QQd posted:Oh, didn't take the question seriously. How many times did the children fall under the cross?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2023 09:55
|
|
|
with a rebel yell she QQd posted:Oh, didn't take the question seriously. Ah uh, well, Christ is risen indeed I guess
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2023 13:00
|
|
|
You know what else is risen? The lithium ion battery production in Poland. https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/04/06/poland-overtakes-us-to-have-worlds-second-largest-lithium-ion-battery-production-capacity/ Good news for those of us who invested in Eastern Poland.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2023 20:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 02:06 |
|
|
cinci zoo sniper posted:That is, well, very Balkan if anything Well the custom was imported a few hundred years ago from Italy. It didn't spread beyond Croatian coast, which was either a part of Italy or at least under strong Italian influence. So it's less  and more 
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2023 22:29
|
|