Russia is still basically a heavily militarised Italy in terms of its economy
Are we still believing this bullshit?
Russian economy (2022):
Total Energy consumption: 33.8 Exa Joules
Energy consumption per capita: 234.397 GJ
Europe economy (2022):
Per capita: 62.68 GJ
How the fuck was this even something Europeans actually even found themselves believing?
Democracy is when you live in the country with the highest suicide rate in the world and a corporate dystopia where union or communist organising is illegal.
The approval rating for the government, like all liberal “democracies” (none of them are democracies) is 36%. I could guess that it was lower than 50% before goggling it because it’s almost like a law of liberal democracy. The people don’t actually have any control over policy (which is always controlled by oligarchs in countries with parliaments). Once the election hype dies down, being betrayed becomes inevitable.
The problem is that decoupling from the US is a very complicated process, especially when it comes to technology. Well, it’s complicated in the sense of how to decouple without hurting corporate profits/control, or giving rise to a populist momentum.
It is explicitly the policy of the chinese government to not try to take Taiwan by force unless some red line is crossed and the one china 2 systems policy is irreversibly violated.
Since the policy hasn’t been irreversibly violated, the mainland hasn’t invaded. This has been the system for the past 70 years and has been maintained by every Chinese administration, including the current one which has run for 10 years already and has still maintained the same 1 china 2 systems policy.
Of course, due to many factors, such as the fact that an invasion is still possible, the military build up along the first island chain by the west in an attempt to encircle china, and the ability of western powers to cut off oil imports to China by blocking off the straits of malacca, the mainland builds up naval power as quickly as it can.
However! As other commentesr have pointed out, these barges are actually useless as military equipment, as can even be seen in the photo that is presented. Why would a country with aircraft carriers and a virtually unlimited supply of drones/missiles rely on such comically sinkable bridges to roll in tanks into Taiwan?
“It’s crucial that your support for Ukraine doesn’t decrease but instead continues and grows,” Zelenskiy said, according to a text of the speech. “And this is especially true for air defense, military aid, and our overall resilience.”
It’s crucial, why? What will it accomplish?
Kallas has put forward a proposal for EU members to deliver as much as €40 billion in military aid this year, stepping up after €20 billion flowed to Kyiv in 2024. Assistance would be voluntary, but participants would be encouraged to make contributions in cash or equipment in proportion to their respective economies. After several countries balked, the debate was narrowed to focus this week on the ammunition component.
Amazing. Every EU country is rushing to ramp up military spending by using the war as justification. Hundreds of millions of euros have been slashed from welfare budgets. And yet, they don’t want to spend any of this money in the country where the war is actually happening!
He said Russia had suffered more than 50,000 losses during the operation - including those killed, injured or captured.
I love how they are clearly just making up numbers.
Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believed the Kursk operation had “accomplished its task” by forcing Russia to pull troops from the east and relieve pressure on Pokrovsk.
But it is not yet clear at what cost.
It’s over. Ukraine has been "at what cost"ed by the BBC.
So far this isn’t anything like that period in German history.
Seeing the rise of AfD and Germany’s agressive collaboration on the Israeli genocide, I have to respectfully say, liberals like you are willfully burying your heads in the sand.
Poland has been doing more than its share for Europe defense
Europe’s defense against who? Europe faces no actual military threats from anybody. And no, civilians in the imperial periphery or immigrants don’t count as military threats. For the last 3-4 centuries, the only nations who have been killing Europeans are other Europeans.
Americans are more likely to invade Europe than help them in a conflict.
Even Trump, who is trying to shake down Europe has actually continued/resumed aid to Ukraine. I can’t believe that Europeans are falling for a con from the world’s greasiest clown. He only postures so that you guys are scared into spending more money on NATO and American weapons.
Wakes up to do what? Kill more kids in the Middle East?
If NATO tries to get Ukraine to join, the war will be prolonged and escalated. If they don’t, then what the fuck was Ukraine holding out so long for?
NATO is stuck in between a rock and a hard place. There is no way for them to come out of this without taking a massive hit to their reputation (which would be well deserved).
This video is only further proof of this. Europe and America can only “solve” this contradiction in the tried and tested way. Choose the easiest option, loot the parties involved, massage public opinion then move on. And often these steps don’t even happen in order.
Nothing too surprising. Forcing disarmament in Ukraine is an obvious precondition for a ceasefire that that directly relates to the causus belli of the war itself.
Anyone who thought that Trump wouldn’t be just another imperialist of the same variety as Biden has egg on their face. Great man theory bunk yet again.
If the war ends earlier than 2029 or 2030
What the fuck is this guy smoking? In what world is the AFU going to last past 2026?
They kind of are, since the US military, finance oligarchy, industry and us aligned media completely dominate Canada. For the most part, trump doesn’t even need to annex them to make them into the 51rst state of America.
It’s very likely that many parts of those vehicles are sold to these companies by CCP owned or partly-owned businesses, from the steel to the leather to the plastics, these cars are cheap for a reason.
Tell me you have 0 understanding of the socialist market economy without telling me you have 0 understanding.
With the amount this man flip flops, he could power a hundred MW generator. Although this is to be entirely expected for anyone who remembers Trump’s first term.
The source says
The 268 parliament members present on Tuesday voted unanimously in support of the Ukrainian president.
While the Ukrainian parliament has 450 members. The article implicitly confirms that much of the parliament is not there at the vote when it says that the threshold for passing the resolution is 226 votes.
So this article is not actually saying that the opposition has given approval to Zelensky’s term (though they might have, idk).
I was told 6 months ago that capturing territory in Kursk would force Russia to the negotiating table and down voted when I predicted this would not happen.
For years, realist thinkers have been banished to academia or ignored. …
Every single example of the “realists” in this paragraph have them being the ones telling politicians to avoid war and expansionism, the exact opposite of the “strong bullying the weak”! I think it is kind of insane how this is how “realism” is characterized in liberal media. And that too as a “strong bullying the weak” ideology! Liberals have unironically become full on bush-era Neo-cons.
George Kennan argued against NATO expansion in these pages in 1997, predicting that it would inflame Russian militarism and undermine Russian democracy.
Damn, I didn’t know people predicted the Ukraine war that far in advance.
What’s brought about this turn? In part, it is insecurity, the motivation of all bullies.
Day 1041 of me painfully begging people to stop psychoanalyzing their enemies.
Even so, the United States and its allies are stronger than Team Russia and China if they stand together.
I’m beginning to think that when this author decries “realism”, they think “realism” means “being in touch with reality”.
While Mr. Trump embraces some elements of realism — giving in to the strong and sacrificing the weak — his tariff wars and threats against peaceful neighbors could end up being as costly as the military adventurism of the previous liberal order. Rajan Menon, a professor emeritus at the City College of New York, told me that people who expect the Trump administration “to follow the playbook of realism” by showing restraint “are going to get very disappointed.”
Other than the continued use of nonsense categories like “strong” and “weak”, I actually agree with this paragraph.
After Athens sacked Melos, word of its brutality spread. Its allies turned against it. Athens lost the war. Noble ideas, it turns out, do matter.
I know nothing about the history of war but I would be surprised if this is how it actually played out.
Please no exploitation of gnc folk 🥺