Yeah, but Le Pen’s party is still going strong. I wouldn’t call it a win yet.

We don’t really need EM catapults though, IDK if they are even better than steam ones. To be honest, I don’t even think we need aircraft carriers in general, we should get submarines instead to sink carriers and other ships and carry nukes for defense and deterrence.

Not to justify it, but at this point Putin has maneuvered himself and Russia’s economy into a situation where if the war stops and another doesn’t start, the Russian economy will collapse and Putin will most likely end up dead. He made himself quite powerless in a way.

while leaving others virtually alone (France)

You realize Orbán has been bankrolling Le Pen pretty hard, right?

Honestly, emergency braking with LIDAR is mature and cheap enough at this point that is should be mandated for all new cars.

I hope they can escalate to Strasbourg. Can they?

Germany is way out of line here.

I guess the point is that big government systems, be they healthcare or military stockpiles don’t really ever dramatically reach zero. It’s always a slow rot until they are incapable of serving their purpose.

The article makes the point that the Russian military stockpiles are past that point and according to what they say they seem to be.

I think the T55 was their most produced tank.

If it was T72s, those are still good enough to be called MBTs today.

I think at this point the unspoken truth is that we must have a military that needs to be a deterrent to the US as well.

Could you back that up with a citation?

That is not really out of line with the title, especially if you line it up with the rest of the article. 1200 tanks that need major repairs does not mean a potential 1200 combat-ready vehicles. It means that you can, if you are really good, salvage 60% of that by cannibalizing the rest.

They drew down 350 tanks last year. Oryx confirmed 3800+ tank losses over the past 3 years, Ukraine claims 10000+. This means that they have enough tanks to last them another 6-8 months if we’re being incredibly generous, if they could do 2 years of work in an instant. This is practically an empty stock.

And that doesn’t count that these are the last vehicles for a reason. They are not 1200 T-72s that can be restored to full working order, it’s mostly going to be very badly damaged and worn T-55s or even T-34s, compared to which an RPG-7 is space-age technology.

The whole point is it would severely disadvantage China for its currency to become the international trade currency. They would lose control over it much like the US does not really control the dollar.

BRICS wants a new currency to replace the dollar AFAIK.

Uh-oh. If I was Altman, I would start running right now.

If I had to find something to critique, it is that bad-faith agenda-pushing is still rampant here, from “both sides” - rather all conceivable sides.

Not like I have a solution for it. Maybe forums shouldn’t be this big, and we shouldn’t primarily be talking to strangers.

It did actually. I don’t pay for sending a message or calling my neighbour if I go to the next country or Bulgaria. The EU made it law that roaming is free.

What still costs money is if you send a message in the NL to the NL if you have a Belgian number for example, which makes it so that you still have to get a new number each time you move countries. Or rather the bigger pain is calling my mom who lives in a different member state, that I can’t really do without incurring insane charges.

That is if you stay within one country. I still get some insane charges if I text someone 60 kilometers away because it’s international.

IIRC it’s because US cell carriers don’t charge as much as others for sending and receiving SMS

BCG has had a prominent role in helping Orbán cement his regime.

Budapest line M4 is fully automated, stations have some personnel but otherwise you can get on a train and look out straight ahead through the window, there is no cab.

Trains drive themselves, but I imagine there must be some switchboard type of thing somewhere.