Eastern Europe: Olivier's sphere of influence

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a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Brown Moses posted:

There's a live blog here
http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/p...s.d?id=47188319

Lots of talk about Nazis etc, whats the actual story?

March 16. The annual controversy concerning the Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires. It's a fairly polarizing event and for a good reason. The controversy is caused by the legionnaires having been part of the foreign Waffen-SS, while the widely accepted view is that they were forcibly conscripted and were recognized as such by the Nuremberg tribunal. As you can imagine, the event is especially disliked by WWII vets who fought on the Soviet side and their descendants. That 'occupation vs. liberation' juxtaposition is one of the reasons why nationalists of both flavours are especially concerned about this.

kalstrams posted:

This is almost too good to be true. Quick translation would be him being a giant prick during the commemoration of Latvian Legion,, trying to incite and provoke the attendees, and to otherwise disrupt the event. Eventually got into problems with security officers, they summoned police, whom then he did also resist. He is being held by police now on the grounds of aggressive public behaviour and resisting the law enforcement officials, may get a fine and/or an administrative protocol (think of probation).

I'm skeptical and am pretty sure he was going for that to create a photo-op for his documentary, RT or internal consumption within Russia. The arrest will be spun to strengthen whatever case he's making and this will not be the last we see of it.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2016 12:06

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 05:18

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I logged on to drop this article, which is a pretty good taxonomy of the various shades and stripes of the far right in Latvia, but all the PiS chat made me curious as to how their natalism politics work out. Some of them get mentioned by Facebook crazies - such as generous child benefits for second/third children, etc.

Any delicious failure stories there yet?

# ¿ Apr 1, 2016 16:09

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

So, Riga's municipal policy is running a program where you can report crimes with a mobile app, attaching pictures and stuff, and follow through on their proceedings. Say, you see, someone parked over two spots for disabled, or on the lawn, you snap - send it - and get told if the violator with fined or something.

Turns out our brave municipal police of Riga really hates working, fining people in particular, so they have been mad about this unknown "law maniac" for a while, which turns out to be a young father who just cares about walkways and parks being safe and clean from cars and such.

Long story short, apparently the municipal police has begun to attach his full name to each fine they place, on a separate slip of paper. In the latest turn of events, this dude was visited by an angry person to "discuss" the report of their violation. This person did get, in a sealed police envelope with crime protocol, a note to go and seek out "the snitch" for retribution.

It is pretty hosed up and entirely unsurprising, as are many things in this country, but the way I understood it, there is only one known instance of a note with the whistle-blower's name.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 20:39

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Cat Mattress posted:

Did it really happen, or is it just a rumor spread to discourage snitching and make that mobile app a failure?

I saw the tweet with a picture of the parking ticket and the accompanying note. "You were reported by a guy named X. Look him up, say thanks" or something to that effect. The guy who tweeted it seemed legit. And legit concerned about his safety, although the enclosed parking ticket, with the licence plate of the offending vehicle being clearly visible, suggested that there hadn't been actual violence.

cinci zoo sniper posted:

I imagine that given the ingrained "snitches get stitches" mentality majority of us did acquire growing up, there can't be all that many dutiful citizens actively reporting.

Best way to disperse a crowd of rubberneckers? Bring out a notepad and loudly ask for witnesses.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 21:01

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Topical phoneposting (so no copypaste) on names in Latvian:

https://deepbaltic.com/2016/09/23/why-you-will-almost-definitely-have-to-change-your-name-when-speaking-latvian/

# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 14:50

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

We had planned to move abroad in mid-January. In the light of this morning's mental equivalent of an ice bucket challenge, I will see if I can push this earlier, to right after New Years.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2016 07:01

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Kopijeger posted:

Shouldn't that be something like coffee with vodka? A similar drink is already popular in Scandinavia.

Coffee with cognac or Armenian brandy labelled as cognac gets mentioned quite often as a status symbol cocktail in books from the latter half of the Soviet period. That might work.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2016 07:31

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

jonnypeh posted:

Estonia also getting sugar tax and car registration tax (which applies every time the car gets a new owner in the registry, that also means used cars).

Can you please elaborate on the car registration tax? Social media in Latvia is routinely overran by self-employed people and micro/small business owners, etc who keep pointing to the favorable tax regime of Estonia as being extremely small business friendly and use that to oppose even reasonable (not that those are very common) attempts to change the tax code. Car registration and road taxes is one of the most commonly brought up examples.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2016 11:41

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I am not sure that is the case, really. They are moving out of the flat income tax pit and apparently, whatever it is they do with their education policy is paying off, as Estonia boasts really good PISA scores. And, for whatever that's worth, I can see Estonian companies in my industry being noticeably more together and in line with Nordic/Western European thinking, than their Latvian or Lithuanian counterparts.

On the other hand, they seem to be riding the tech startup cargo cult really hard. So win some, lose some?

# ¿ Dec 11, 2016 15:18

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Which of the French presidential candidates, if any, is least bad for Eastern Europe? Or are they all against sanctions and their actual differences are in other policy areas?

a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Feb 1, 2017

# ¿ Feb 1, 2017 22:43

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

What's up in Belarus this weekend? According to Twitter, there's some meetings and gatherings in the larger cities and from a quick skim of the tweets I've seen, it seems like peaceful anti-government protests. Not huge, but still interesting.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2017 12:11

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

This is a funny piece of news:

https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/baltic-translations-for-fox-tv-undergo-russian-censorship.a275385/ posted:

Baltic translations for Fox TV undergo Russian censorship

The original content of Fox TV channel is translated for Baltic audiences along guidelines that have been developed in Russia and require glossing over certain topics seen as sensitive by Russian censors.

NEPLP spokesman Kalvis Gavars told LETA that Fox is a TV channel in Spain�s jurisdiction and its programs are rebroadcast in Latvia�s territory, which means that the translation issues have to be dealt with between the holder of the programs� rights and the translators, while the quality of the translations is outside the National Electronic Mass Media Council�s area of competence.

According to a letter to the translators of Fox programs which has been obtained by LETA, the translators have to follow Russian subtitling guidelines requiring glossing over or �softening content� concerning accidents, homosexual relationships, �anti-Russian propaganda�, narcotics, extremist activities and suicides.

For instance, the translators are instructed to �soften� all negative language about the Russian military and space program, policies of the Russian president and government, while positive texts about same-sex relationships have to be made more generalized so they could be attributed to relationships of any kind.

Authors of the letter admit that such an approach to translation cannot be consider good practice but that Fox content comes to the Baltic states through Russia which is why the subtitles have to be in line with the Russian law.

�Of course, such softening of language can be seen as controversial and may not be in line with the common practice, but it is required by law,� the letter to the translators says.

Sille Russ, Fox Marketing and PR Manager for the Baltics, could not be contacted for comment on the translation guidelines.

Igors Djacenko, the Latvian head of SDI Media subtitling company, said that the new guidelines do not require the translators to change or distort information but to �double check� their translation of texts concerning the aforementioned topics.

�In the process of their work, the translators focus their attention on sensitive topics, mark them and together with editors assess the definitions and terms,� Djacenko explained.

Anda Rozukalne, a media expert and associate professor at Riga Stradins University, said that Russia uses any channels and tools, including translation, to distort information wherever it can.

She admitted, however, that under the current regulation NEPLP is unable to reverse an intermediary�s requirements regarding the TV channel�s content.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2018 19:12

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I'll be a little bummed out if it turns out that this is an actual Russian hack rather than a local election day effort though.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 15:40

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

Par Alternatīvu, weird syndicalist/anti-fa bunch.

Dude.

P stands for Progresīvie, who campaigned on the "we're the real socialdemocrats/real greens" platform. It's real shame that they most likely haven't made it in, as Saskaņa is not exactly socialdemocratic in anything, but name.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 19:05

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

I'll be honest, I spent 5 minutes thinking what is Papal P and where. Don't even talk to me about platform of Progressīvie, I'm ready to vomit from it because a guy at my office is on their ballot and he's loud as gently caress about politics.

Ah, my bad. I missed the Papal bit and rushed to the defense of my vote. Yes, they (well we, don't dox pls) attract some preachy types.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 19:12

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

^ Agreed, although I'm not that familiar with neoliberalism to throw the label around (also the ZZS dirty underwear). Vienotība's story is really funny however and deserves either that or Операция "Буря в стакане". One thing I'll disagree on is Saskaņa being right wing socially, I am not aware of any meaningful grounds for that.

I think Jūlija Stepaņenko being on an anti-gay crusade to the extent where actual Nazis (Elita Veidemane and such) cheer her on could contribute there.

cinci zoo sniper posted:

Yeah I fully trust you have some adequate people there, but the one guy I know even sans politics can easily come off as quite preachy, so that + seeing blockchain committee on the website and becoming aware of some off-colour comments on immigration has left me with rather interesting opinion of the party and the platform. In general, I would probably vote them, but circumstances were the perfect storm of how not to compel me, a grumpy Latgalian.

Yeah. There's some internal drama around the blockchain group. Not sure what that's about.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 19:35

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I know they haven't counted Riga yet, but the results coming in are pretty :stonklol:

Tevery Best posted:

Par Alternativu has the best logo ever, it looks like it was stolen from a Paradox LP

Reminded me of this old SA thing a bit:

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 20:26

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

https://sv2018.cvk.lv/pub/ElectionResults

There's right wing and then there's KPV. I am not sure I really want to find out what their actual politics are.

edit: either way, the public broadcaster as we know it, will be toast

a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 6, 2018

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 20:29

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Arzachel posted:

How the gently caress doe KPV clear 5% much less 15%

Kolka Cool was a documentary

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 20:34

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

17) <OIK poo poo, Latvian internal economy stuff I don't know how to explain. If other Latvian goons want to chime in, they want to abolish OIK as one of the first things of 13th parliament, as they thing it is not legal.>

The way I understood it, OIK is a scheme that is intended to subsidize producers of renewable energy. The public distributor (think the public power company) buys energy from small and independent producers that produce energy using renewable sources or co-generation plants and passes a significant part of the cost onto the endusers, thus raising the energy prices for everyone.

Of course, it turned out that the scheme had been set up and managed incompetently and/or negligently for most of this decade. Permits had been given out to power plants that didn't produce electricity, to plants that did not meet the criteria, etc. Lots of money was apparently wasted on bogus contracts and all of that was made worse by the fact that a couple hundred millions were spent on this during the worst periods of austerity while social services were being cut. It's a big talking point.

Scaramouche posted:

Wow I saw all the posts and came in here for more Russian spy tomfoolery but actually learned Real Info about Latvia instead. Thanks guys that was interesting

Hard to tell if you're being sarcastic or not. In either case, see the Q&A for the For Alternative party (the kooks with the strange logo discussed earlier) below:

https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/election/10-questions-to-for-an-alternative.a294293/

# ¿ Oct 6, 2018 21:57

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I am quite a lot more skeptical than you are about Saskaņa being bona fide social democrats.

Topical tweet:

https://twitter.com/leonidragozin/status/1048851230167109632

Very much right. Noone will form a coalition with Saskaņa. Not because they are corrupt (cool and good reason), but because they are Russian (actual reason).

# ¿ Oct 7, 2018 13:13

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

I don't think they are, examined in vacuum, a good socdem party, or a party that would value the concept of tikumība as a political entity. The fact is, however, that they are the only real party within a pole's reach from centre-left politics.

Naturally, I don't hold any whatsoever illusions about feasibility of Saskaņa coalition either - I have more than enough relatable experiences on that matter due to me not being a "pure bred" Latvian from Riga.

That still doesn't change my vote, in hindsight or otherwise.

Considering my own views, I'm just glad that we might stay out the Vysegrad club this time around.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2018 13:46

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

I hope this is not an analogy where you insinuate Saskaņa being Chech Republic here while also somehow denying that National Alliance et. al. is both Hungary and Poland simultaneously.

Nah. Romania would be a more apt comparison for Saskaņa. But yeah, I was comparing NA to Poland/Hungary.

edit: And speculating that they will not be influential enough to shift us in that direction.

a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Oct 7, 2018

# ¿ Oct 7, 2018 14:16

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

Looks like coalition will be all parties except Saskaņa and KPV.

Being in opposition is a pretty good outcome for both of them. Neither has to deliver on their promises and they get to call out the coalition whenever it inevitably fucks up.

edit: Where did you hear that? My Twitter feed doesn't have anything concrete yet.

HorrificExistence posted:

a country created by nazis turns out to have lovely political thought

wow

a quality contribution to a thread. poast more pls.

a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Oct 7, 2018

# ¿ Oct 7, 2018 18:56

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

There have been three investigative journalists killed in Europe in less than 12 months. Caruana Galizia in Malta, Jan Kuciak in Slovakia and now. It's kind of bad anf made worse by the fact this barely registers in the grand scheme of shittiness.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2018 08:35

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

anilEhilated posted:

Out of all weird poo poo I'm learning about Latvia here, this weirds me out the most. How the hell is that supposed to work?

About as well as you would expect. With literal tire fires and such.

I think that a portion of the society is only now waking up to the fact that 'Farmers' in the 21st century has an agrarian rather than a pastoral meaning.

edit: beaten while searching for a video of the fire, but still

# ¿ Oct 8, 2018 20:36

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

That Agris Baumanis clip.

the what now?

fake edit: ok, found it :stonklol:

fake edit2: it is or at least starts as a trashy/cringey/racist homegrown porn video where a guy who was on a ballot of the "totally not nazi" party fucks a black chick

fake edit3: Olaine looks like a hard place to argue for racial purity from

a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Nov 7, 2018

# ¿ Nov 7, 2018 22:43

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

LeoMarr posted:

2019s gonn be helluva year

I am morbidly curious as to how this will be spun to be the fault of NATO and what's left of the West.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2018 12:50

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I'm a bit burned out on politics in general and Latvian politics in particular (and wasn't very knowledgable to begin with), which is why I am venting now.

There's a social media scandal going on in Latvia right now concerning a recent article that describes ties between Azov and the main Latvian nationalist party. This follows recent revelations that their secretary-general had posted on the Iron March forum and Benjamin Raymond had visited their offices in 2014, allegedly following an invite from an unnamed and now deceased member of the ranks.

https://en.rebaltica.lv/2019/12/azov-movements-race-war-plans-find-sympathetic-audience-in-latvian-government-party/

Currently there's a lot of effort being put into painting the article as biased, poorly researched and playing into the pro-Russian narrative of misrepresenting Ukraine, mostly based on (admittedly dodgy) tweets and social media posts of one of the co-authors, as well as a lot of personal attacks on the journalists/media outlet.

I think it is a reasonably well sourced and relevant article, but the nationalist reaction online is a bit soul crushing.

How the hell are you supposed to maintain a positive outlook with stuff like this?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 11:30

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Some more stuff from Belarus popped up in Latvian news. Won't lie, it gave me chills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAJIrnphTFg

# ¿ Sep 24, 2020 18:19

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

My Twitter feed this morning is bursting with takes that Borat Sagdiyev is in fact a racist caricature of Eastern Europeans that could and should be equated to racist depictions of other cultures, even if it is used to expose the racist views of the people he interacts with.

I don't have the time or energy to force myself to think about this in depth, but I'd be surprised if has not came up before. Ends justify the means or?

# ¿ Oct 25, 2020 10:43

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Truga posted:

as a stupid slav, borat is extremely cool and good. a really big portion of internet left has lost its sense of humour somewhere, and it's getting incredibly tiring

Nah, some of it was definitely coming from enlightened centrists in a "see, the left has no problem with offensive stereotypes when it fits their narrative and what's up with carpeted walls anyway" kind of way. It died down since.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2020 10:39

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

iv46vi posted:

If you never tried proper soup Kharcho, boy are you missing out.

The only correct soup post so far. I will allow sorrel soup too.

Are there any delicious Višegrad politician meltdowns about the Biden win?

# ¿ Nov 8, 2020 13:51

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I was about to ask the same thing, but differently.

How's the situation in general in your respective countries? We're intending to return to Latvia at some point this year, some time after getting our shots where we live currently. However, the general vibe of things, admittedly based on social media posts and news reports, suggests that there's a lot of pent up frustration/aggression lately that spills over to day to day interactions, including things like aggressive driving, general rudeness, vandalism and low level violence, etc.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2021 14:36

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

So looks like the entire Latvian embassy got expelled just now, after the FM and the mayor of Riga jointly took down BY's red/green flag at the IIHF hockey championship venue and replaced it with the Pahonia.

hell yeah.

edit: https://twitter.com/tvrain/status/1396844848590819335

# ¿ May 24, 2021 16:12

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

The Latvian right has been salty at Leonid Ragozin ever since an article he cowrote a couple of years back called out the close ties between some Azov people and visible Latvian nationalists and periodically brings out his tweets to paint him as a Russian imperialist/supremacist who happens to be anti-Putin.

Much of it is bad faith Twitter bullshit, but I realize I don't know where to begin forming an opinion about who's who in the Russian opposition. Tips?

# ¿ Jun 10, 2021 13:51

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Erulisse posted:

You don't have kids do you. A hungry kid is an unstoppable force of trying to eat anything. This is utterly awful.
60 euros a month is barely survivable even having all utensils to prepare and store food, let alone in some forest.
Are there any donations for them? How in hell does this even happen

I'm not sure about Lithuania, but I'd hazard a guess it's a similar approach as in Latvia.

Support for asylum speakers is kept deliberately low in order to both deter new asylum applicants and to motivate them to get further into Europe to reach more hospitable countries. We already saw this backfiring with Belarus last year, where Belarusian asylum seekers complained about the level of support.

In addition, if the 2015 refugee crisis is any indication, any attempts to increase this support would be a political nightmare for the parties/politicians. Add the alive and well "rapefugee" bogeyman to the evergreen "the state doesn't take care of it's own" narrative and you have just painted a permanent target for smears on your back. In an already unstable year due to antivax/antimask lunacy, the chances of anything being made better are worse than zero. Such is life.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2021 05:48

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

Seemed funny (and unfunny at the same time) enough to post:
https://twitter.com/parfitt_tom/status/1434792533217923074?s=19

# ¿ Sep 6, 2021 09:51

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

cinci zoo sniper posted:

I know that this sounds a bit dramatic, so to give you a practical example - official information related to the pandemic in Russian became available months after that in Latvian, and was basically entrusted to private sector news media to translate and disseminate.

Yeah, that's no surprise either, because this exchange has been happening every year for the past decade and has always been and will always be pretty schizophrenic.

- We should cut funds / shouldn't fund public broadcasting in Russian, because they should learn Latvian to enjoy our glorious content.
- What do you mean, they prefer Russian funded media with Russian content instead?

On the other hand, I might have missed recent developments, but I don't think that Saskaņas core is too fond of gays or immigrants either and their messaging around this has always been very careful around that.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2021 10:42

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 05:18

a podcast for cats: Jun 22, 2005; Dogs reading from an artifact buried in the ruins of our civilization, "We were assholes- " and writing solemnly, "They were assholes."; Soiled Meat

I'm pretty sure that in my age cohort (early millenial) the expectation that the pension system in Latvia is unsustainable and will collapse is largely seen as axiomatic. Rain is wet, sky is gray, all government spending is graft, nobody will get retirement.

I've heard this being repeated for as long as I've been paying attention and I have little doubt it will become an entirely avoidable yet self fulfilling prophecy.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2021 13:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Eastern Europe: Olivier's sphere of influence

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