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fatherboxx)
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 Trump isn't even elected yet and he has finally startled awake our politicians. Just some highlights from the German media (phoneposting, so no sources until I'm back from work):-Scholz is screaming for more Ukrainian aid louder then before. -The current plan was to use a "Sondervermögen" of 100 billion Euro to rearm the Bundeswehr until 2027, when all the money would be spent, and quietly hoping the war would be over by then That's not enough anymore: To keep both Bundeswehr rearming and Ukrainian aid rolling, there's now a massive row between parts of the government and parts of the government and the German opposition: Everyone is willing to give more money, but they're disagreeing about the source: Some want to steal from the poors, others want more debt. -There's now a discussion about a joint European nuclear defense force, and to make sure it's not just French bombs and maybe the UK pitching in, there's now rumours we might end up buying the US-bombs still in storage in Germany, to start our own stockpile The way things are going now, it feels like in Trump's future war with China, we might join on the other side, thanks to the Ukrainian war driving us apart. Edit: I walked past a little shrine/monument to Navalny yesterday, here in my German city. Seeing messages like PUTIN IS THE KILLER right here at home felt weird. I wanted to go back today to take a picture, but someone already dismantled it over night, leaving only little bits and pieces of flowers. Man, now I'm depressed Libluini fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Feb 20, 2024 |
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Feb 20, 2024 09:50
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Libluini posted:-Scholz is screaming for more Ukrainian aid louder then before. And yet he's withholding the Taurus?
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Feb 20, 2024 09:53
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Libluini posted:-The current plan was to use a "Sondervermögen" of 100 billion Euro to rearm the Bundeswehr until 2027, when all the money would be spent, and quietly hoping the war would be over by then Do you think it's likely that the German constitution might be changed in such a way that more debt is permitted? That restriction is pretty weird. If that isn't changed, how would Ukraine aid be financed? This seems like a major issue here I don't quite understand Scholtz screaming that much more must be done, while seemingly not doing much more. I guess he doesn't have enough support to consider changing the constitution... or is it something else? About the missiles for example, he could probably order a bunch of those to be given to Ukraine, but I imagine Germany will then want to replace them asap by buying/making new ones, which would then cost money, which will have to arranged first, and perhaps gutting public services even more is somehow unpalatable even to neoliberals now? And/or the constitutional issue?
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Feb 20, 2024 10:06
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spankmeister posted:And yet he's withholding the Taurus? After what I read yesterday, a possible answer could be "because they can carry nuclear warheads", something the Russians would throw another fit over. For the same reason, we may need as many of them as possible, considering we don't have any silos or ICBMs, and certainly not the money or the political will to just poo poo them out
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Feb 20, 2024 10:19
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jaete posted:Do you think it's likely that the German constitution might be changed in such a way that more debt is permitted? That restriction is pretty weird. If that isn't changed, how would Ukraine aid be financed? This seems like a major issue here Not a chance, the conservatives love their debt brake too much. It's increasingly likely we'll just do a US and cut wildly into our social net. This would synergize neatly with the Bundeswehr's need for warm bodies, as it would create a lot of poor people with no perspectives
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Feb 20, 2024 10:23
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Yeah, here in Germany I also think that lots of people suffer from the brain rot of thinking that governments should be run like a household and that national debt is a terrible sin. The Schuldenbremse is bizarrely popular, even though it is on track to cripple the economy over the next decade, and there is no chance that it will be repealed any time soon.
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Feb 20, 2024 10:27
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jaete posted:Do you think it's likely that the German constitution might be changed in such a way that more debt is permitted? That restriction is pretty weird. If that isn't changed, how would Ukraine aid be financed? This seems like a major issue here Absolutely not. The conservatives put that into the consitution for a reason, and it's working as intended. Russia could be marching against Berlin and they would still scream about how the state would just have to cut social benefits (but not pensions, don't you dare touch those) to finance arms. Considering their meeting with DeSantis and the general tone of utmost obstructionism, the one-time Sondervermögen is going to remain a one-time thing too. Now foreign policy goals are also a thing they can use to strangle the poor.
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Feb 20, 2024 10:30
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I apologize for the U.S.-centric examples but that's what I know the best. There's some pretty disturbing parallels I'm seeing, at a surface level anyway, between Ukraine and Russia and WW2 Japan and United States. Similar to the American Civil War, Union vs Confederate. Taking manufacturing from the equation, the "quantitative" factor when applied to manpower that Russia has over Ukraine is going to be the hardest to overcome. The Ukrainians currently have enjoyed an edge in experience over the Russians after destroying established and veteran formations at the start of the conflict. As time and continuing conscription goes on, Russia can rotate the earlier waves of surviving conscripts back to act as cadre and pass their experience on. This potential to rest and reconstitute formations, something Ukraine has less ability to do, is a similar to the example armies I mentioned. As the gap in experience grows, Russia's performance on the battlefield will gradually improve as soldiers are more likely to survive longer. The analogy breaks down when considering international aid, effects of sanctions, and effects of political leadership on the war but even with those factored in, more experienced troops in greater quantity growing at a faster rate than Ukraine is an issue that will continue to get worse for Ukraine. Ukraine's partners may come thru with the material needed, Russia may finally hit rock bottom for equipping new units, or Russian leadership may continue to feed all their experienced troops into the grinder. All of those are major factors, but at the basic level soldier-quality will be decisive. And currently, I don't see a pretty picture being painted.
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Feb 20, 2024 11:37
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Libluini posted:Edit: I walked past a little shrine/monument to Navalny yesterday, here in my German city. Seeing messages like PUTIN IS THE KILLER right here at home felt weird. I wanted to go back today to take a picture, but someone already dismantled it over night, leaving only little bits and pieces of flowers. Is that a controversial statement in Germany?
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Feb 20, 2024 13:24
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Scratch Monkey posted:Is that a controversial statement in Germany? We recently had a case where a supermarket had to apologize for an anti-nazi advertisement 
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Feb 20, 2024 13:29
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 https://hightimes.com/news/ukraine-introduces-medical-pot-to-aid-in-healing-trauma-of-conflict-with-russia/ quote:Approximately one month after the legislative progress was freed up, on Wednesday, President Zelensky granted his final endorsement to the bill after the failed attempt to overturn the reform. The legislation is slated to become effective within six months from its official publication date. During this interim period, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, along with the Ministry of Health, is responsible for formulating the regulations for the program. hell yeah 
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Feb 20, 2024 18:54
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Did a trawl of news/sources for some of things I posted earlier about : More money for defense, but what poor bastards should Germany steal from to finance this? German government wants more weapons for Ukraine -but no Taurus Showdown in the Taurus-Constellation After Munich, the pressure on Scholz grows to let the Taurus cruise-missiles through. The opposition has again, put forward a motion to allow Taurus-deliveries to Ukraine. The government again plans to vote it down, because politics. But the lines are crumbling: The defense speaker for the tiny, tiny FDP has announced she'll vote against the government she is a part of. If enough people vote against party lines, Scholz will see a big defeat in parliament, but this humiliation will be a big victory for Ukraine. Or the government holds the line and Ukraine "just" gets the normal aid planned, who knows at this point? The vote is on Thursday, and people from two of the three government parties have made noises about being willing to vote yes, while the chancellor's own party holds firm. Will the center-left SPD vote no together with the Nazi-parties, while the rest of the government votes yes together with the conservative opposition? The answer may surprise you!
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Feb 20, 2024 19:10
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LifeSunDeath posted:
"Why die for Danzig when you can get high for Danzig, man?" Don't think about that too hard, it's just something that popped into my head when I read the article.
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Feb 20, 2024 19:18
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LifeSunDeath posted:
In Russia they just used medical krokodil.
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Feb 20, 2024 19:20
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Tamba posted:We recently had a case where a supermarket had to apologize for an anti-nazi advertisement Somewhere Ribbentrop's ashes begin to coalesce and reform into a human shape...
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Feb 20, 2024 19:58
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NYT reports Russia might have taken up to a thousand POWs at Avdiivka. Sounds grim and, well, unsustainable.
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Feb 21, 2024 00:01
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This war has been deemed "unsustainable" for Russia since it began. And yet....
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Feb 21, 2024 01:43
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So has Russia, tbh
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Feb 21, 2024 01:48
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To be fair, it is. Russia is very much dipping into non-renewable resources in order to prosecute it. It's just they're irrational in the cost (or Putin is wrapped up in history and operating on a multicentury time scale). They're able to do as much because they're blowing through very limited demographics and cold war stockpiles of equipment.
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Feb 21, 2024 01:50
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Cpt_Obvious posted:This war has been deemed "unsustainable" for Russia since it began. What exactly does "sustainable" mean to you?
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Feb 21, 2024 02:01
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Cpt_Obvious posted:This war has been deemed "unsustainable" for Russia since it began. Kind of ironic, considering you stated it's an impossible "war" (i.e. attempted genocide) for Ukraine to "win" (i.e. survive) early on: Cpt_Obvious posted:Oh,wonderful, the Ukraine is telling their civilians to die for a war they can't possibly loving win. Goddamnit. And yet.... (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2024 02:07
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d64 posted:NYT reports Russia might have taken up to a thousand POWs at Avdiivka. Sounds grim and, well, unsustainable. Source? I've seen one report that the Ukrainians had to leave 300s behind, but in former Soviet-bloc militaries, code 200s are KIA and 300s are wounded. So if you see exactly 300, it's not a quantity.
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Feb 21, 2024 02:14
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mllaneza posted:Source? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/us/politics/ukraine-prisoners-avdiivka-russia.html Estimates of how many Ukrainians were captured or missing vary, and a precise count may not be possible until Ukraine solidifies new defensive lines outside the city. But two soldiers with knowledge of Ukraine’s retreat estimated that 850 to 1,000 soldiers appear to have been captured or are unaccounted for. The Western officials said that range seemed accurate.
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Feb 21, 2024 02:24
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OctaMurk posted:https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/us/politics/ukraine-prisoners-avdiivka-russia.html Ouch, that is bad. Here's hoping for productive prisoner exchanges.
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Feb 21, 2024 02:34
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Kalit posted:Kind of ironic, considering you stated it's an impossible "war" (i.e. attempted genocide) for Ukraine to "win" (i.e. survive) early on: I just visited that quote in whatever the gently caress thread that was talking about the start of the war and... What vile, sociopathic poo poo was written there. Ukrainian government buildings that were destroyed being called "rat dens," pretending as if Ukrainian people didn't themselves have the will to fight and that this was all a Western plot as if Ukrainians don't even exist. Imagine flipping that around and calling Palestinians such things or pretending that their will is just Iran's will. Just vile. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2024 03:53
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Kalit posted:Kind of ironic, considering you stated it's an impossible "war" (i.e. attempted genocide) for Ukraine to "win" (i.e. survive) early on: You're not supposed to bring up outside posts that prove its impossible to take someone's presence in the discussion seriously, it's against the rules and a really bad look Instead!! i recommend sourcing in-house! Cpt_Obvious posted:Nazis Against Territories for Others (NATO) is at it again:
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Feb 21, 2024 05:20
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Staluigi posted:You're not supposed to bring up outside posts that prove its impossible to take someone's presence in the discussion seriously, it's against the rules and a really bad look Right?! TBH, I stopped taking the rules seriously when I was probated for trying to respond in good faith to someone who was literally comparing Joe Biden to Hitler. After that, I finally got sick of Koos' bullshit.
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Feb 21, 2024 05:33
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Kalit posted:Kind of ironic, considering you stated it's an impossible "war" (i.e. attempted genocide) for Ukraine to "win" (i.e. survive) early on: Could you clarify your argument, like, state it in different words? Having a hard time interpreting it in the context of the thread.
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Feb 21, 2024 05:36
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Kalit posted:Right?! i am actually quite appreciative of the rules and the work that's tried to keep this place sane, in a lot of ways even if i am far FAR too dumb to stop myself from tripping over the obvious red lines
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Feb 21, 2024 05:41
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mawarannahr posted:Could you clarify your argument, like, state it in different words? Having a hard time interpreting it in the context of the thread. I thought it was obvious, but I'll try to explain it even more. Cpt_Obvious seemed to be complaining about people who stated Russia would not be able to sustain a long term war. Which, so far due to other countries not going on the offensive directly against Russia, they have. However, at the start of this invasion to try to destroy Ukraine, Cpt_Obvious seemed to think that Ukraine would be easily taken over by Russia. But that's far from the truth. Hence, why I called it ironic.
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Feb 21, 2024 05:42
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Kalit posted:I thought it was obvious, but I'll try to explain it even more. Cpt_Obvious seemed to be complaining about people who stated Russia would not be able to sustain a long term war. Which, so far due to other countries not going on the offensive directly against Russia, they have. That makes a little more sense, I guess. Thanks 
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Feb 21, 2024 05:43
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mllaneza posted:Source? I have seen nothing about thousands, but it seems some sort of deal was struck when the Ukrainians pulled out of Avdiivka in regards to the Russians taking care of the wounded and sending back the dead. It was mentioned when the videos of Russians executing surrendering soldiers in that area emerged.
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Feb 21, 2024 05:57
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Once seemingly endless source of doomposting has left us, rest in piss you insane poster to the end https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1760210203503423862?t=mZo6HL-_TdQ3_r3uHvDkkA&s=19
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Feb 21, 2024 11:23
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Hmm, critical of Russia and suicide. I would have no problem believing they committed suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head twice then jumping out a window. Wouldn't be the first time.
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Feb 21, 2024 13:35
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It's one of those where the guy was obviously super depressed and suicides among soldiers are not exactly rare, but the timing is just too suspicious. If I were Strelkov, I'd be really careful around fatty foods and inexplicably tied nooses in my cell.
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Feb 21, 2024 13:45
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It does seem like Putin and those around him, are ramping up on getting rid of any and all decent lately.
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Feb 21, 2024 14:10
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Dick Ripple posted:It does seem like Putin and those around him, are ramping up on getting rid of any and all decent lately. Dissent too
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Feb 21, 2024 14:11
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Failed Imagineer posted:Dissent too If you don't stop dissenting, you will be made to descent (from the fifth story window).
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Feb 21, 2024 14:57
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bird food bathtub posted:Hmm, critical of Russia and suicide. To be very clear, he wasn't critical of the war or Russia in general. He was very pro-imperialism and pro-genocide. He was just occasionally critical of the specific way the war was being conducted.
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Feb 21, 2024 16:46
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Dick Ripple posted:I have seen nothing about thousands, but it seems some sort of deal was struck when the Ukrainians pulled out of Avdiivka in regards to the Russians taking care of the wounded and sending back the dead. It was mentioned when the videos of Russians executing surrendering soldiers in that area emerged. This appears to be a misconception. I followed the source in the Kyiv Independent article I read which made this claim and what it said was that there is video of a soldier being captured and that there is video of that same soldier dead, not that there is video of executions. It's possible there is another source for this but as far as I can tell this is it. quote:https://www.slidstvo.info/warnews/ridni-vpiznaly-tila-biytsiv-iakykh-rosiiany-vzialy-v-polon-v-avdiivtsi/
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Feb 21, 2024 19:11
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