Cold war 2.0

[Virtual ghost]

 

[Virtual ghost]

Mark Rutte makes humblebrag pitch for NATO top job


And the odds are that probably he will get the job.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Greens erupt as fossil fuel ‘phaseout’ is dropped from proposed climate deal


Nothing will come out of this. Better luck next year.

 

[SensEye]

That was in 2006, though, and there haven't been elections since then.

Exactly. And why is that? Because in Gaza, Hamas won't allow them. Or they are highly rigged and Hamas insures the outcome they see fit.

That was my point. Gazans elected a corrupt regime and now they suffer. Corrupt regimes rarely say: well if you don't like us, you can just vote us out next time. That's not the way things work.

As to whether the IDF could be more surgical, it's possible. But I think the trade off would be a much higher casualty rate among the IDF. Armies rarely decide on strategies that don't minimize casualties to their own personal. I don't recall the US being particularly surgical post 9/11. They eventually put boots on the ground, but not until they bombed the shit out of any region they considered dangerous.

 

[SensEye]

Greens erupt as fossil fuel ‘phaseout’ is dropped from proposed climate deal


Nothing will come out of this. Better luck next year.

Nothing much came out of the previous 27 COPs either, Admittedly, COP 28 was a super farce. I think this whole dog and pony show has become a conference junket/holiday. Approx. 70K delegates attended (most on the public's dime). I suspect most of them stayed in 5-star hotels and had lavish food/drink expense accounts.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Exactly. And why is that? Because in Gaza, Hamas won't allow them. Or they are highly rigged and Hamas insures the outcome they see fit.

That was my point. Gazans elected a corrupt regime and now they suffer. Corrupt regimes rarely say: well if you don't like us, you can just vote us out next time. That's not the way things work.

As to whether the IDF could be more surgical, it's possible. But I think the trade off would be a much higher casualty rate among the IDF. Armies rarely decide on strategies that don't minimize casualties to their own personal. I don't recall the US being particularly surgical post 9/11. They eventually put boots on the ground, but not until they bombed the shit out of any region they considered dangerous.

But that is the problem. What US did after 9/11 can't really be called a success story.

Therefore they should have been more surgical instead that they just march in force and cause humanitarian crisis that will turn just about everyone against them. Both In the field and in the UN. Hamas has to go but I have my doubts that this is the best way to do it.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Exactly. And why is that? Because in Gaza, Hamas won't allow them. Or they are highly rigged and Hamas insures the outcome they see fit.

That was my point. Gazans elected a corrupt regime and now they suffer. Corrupt regimes rarely say: well if you don't like us, you can just vote us out next time. That's not the way things work.

As to whether the IDF could be more surgical, it's possible. But I think the trade off would be a much higher casualty rate among the IDF. Armies rarely decide on strategies that don't minimize casualties to their own personal. I don't recall the US being particularly surgical post 9/11. They eventually put boots on the ground, but not until they bombed the shit out of any region they considered dangerous.

I'm not a fan of the way the U.S. conducted itself post-9/11. I didn't think we should have gone into Iraq to begin with, and I'm rather furious about Republican and Democratic presidents alike selling the American people bullshit for years about how much "progress" the Afghan army or the Afghan government was making. (These institutions fell apart immediately upon the withdrawal of U.S forces.) I'm extremely furious about this, especially sense I always suspected the "progress" was bullshit. I don't know exactly what went on over there but if this was something approaching an ideal world, there would be some kind of ongoing investigation into it, given the large amounts of blood and treasure spent. I have no idea why more people are not outraged about this.

People have also suggested Afghanistan could have been handled surgically in the beginning as well. Perhaps they were right. Bin Laden was retrieved in somewhat of a surgical method in "allied" Pakistan.

October 7th is sometimes called Israel's 9/11, but I don't think any country should follow our blueprint. I suspect it will make Bibi more popular than ever even though he was the guy in charge when it happened, so that will track, I suppose.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Cruise missile strikes Norway-flagged tanker off Yemen

 

[Virtual ghost]

Polish right-wing MP douses Jewish menorah with fire extinguisher

Ukraine to EU: Don’t wait on US to make decisions

Orbán aide: Hungary could lift Ukraine funds veto if EU unblocks all frozen cash

Meloni’s star Christmas guests: Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk

Finland to reopen some Russia border crossing points

Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy meets with Biden in White House

Xi visits Vietnam as China seeks to counter US influence

 

[Virtual ghost]

Germany’s CDU questions Islam’s place in society

This is basically the template of what is probably coming. Since this will be copied all across EU in most of the talking points.
In short this is the genuine end of Merkel era.

 

[Virtual ghost]

 

[SensEye]

Germany’s CDU questions Islam’s place in society

This is basically the template of what is probably coming. Since this will be copied all across EU in most of the talking points.
In short this is the genuine end of Merkel era.

It looks like a pretty good approach, but I suspect the courts will interfere. It would be nice to see policies along this line lead to election victories. I see Sunak in Britain is taking another kick at the can to oust illegal immigrants to Rwanda. I hope he succeeds and that it also leads to an uptick in his political fortunes.

 

[Virtual ghost]

It looks like a pretty good approach, but I suspect the courts will interfere. It would be nice to see policies along this line lead to election victories.

The truth is that they have do this. Because if they don't they are risking far right surge, and that would probably cause more problems than it solves. Even as it is far right has about 20-25% in the polls. So getting about 30% of the seats isn't really that hard for them to achieve, what would really boost them in various powers that come with the seats. Plus some regions in the east could fall under complete control of the far right. Therefore if center right doesn't do anything the odds are that they will be sandwiched between far right and left wing parties. After all this is exactly what we are watching in the USA.

 

[Virtual ghost]

EU Parliament elections projection

Here you can pretty clearly see how Renew Europe (yellow) that is centrist pro business block of the EU is getting overshadowed by hard right blocks ECR and ID.

Plus when you sum ECR, ID and about 2/3 of the independents (which are basically just local radicals, like Orban) you get the picture of 194 seats. What would evidently make it the largest block in the case that right wing populists are united. Plus some of the new and incoming parties will join those groups. So 200+ seats is just what is in the polls. Therefore if Netherlands scenario happens and there is last minute surge, this can go all the way to 300 seats out of 720. Plus when we add about 40-50 seats of the far left the conclusion is that the mainstream blocks could be on the edge of losing control over the parliament.


EDIT: not to mention that even in the mainstream blocks there are some "black sheep".

 

[Virtual ghost]

While others are doing philosophy of life the Ukraine is defending itself by all means they have.

 

[The Cat]

 

[ceecee]

PR campaigns with violence.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Putin: No peace in Ukraine until Russia reaches its goals

Putin says Macron stopped calling him

Ukraine must join the European Union

European Council updates: EU leaders discuss Ukraine accession and aid

Taiwan’s US envoy: West needs to call out China to prevent invasion

South Korea scrambles jets over Chinese, Russian warplanes





The 2 days that salvaged a climate deal

It seems they managed to patch it up, at least on paper.

 

[Virtual ghost]

This is exactly what I said it would happen in the terms of opinions.


However this video is still too morally based to recognize certain realities. In other words overwhelming force doesn't work if you want it to have moral high ground. Since in that case the plans will probably get lost in contradictions between force and morals. However if you unleash full force with minimal morals then this can be quite "effective" in doing what it was set to do. Especially if the opponent is objectively weaker.

Today many areas of quite numerous countries were actually conquered zones. However since the force went all the way the territory eventually got annexed and that was it. In other words younger generations see that territory as a part of that country. In the case that war doesn't work great leaders would give up on the concept long ago.

So form the dark side point of view: can this work or not largely depends on what exactly do you want to do and are you ready to go all the way. Because if you are ready to go all the way that basically changes everything and in that case the logic of this video will fall apart.


:devil's advocate for the sake of educational purposes:

 

[Virtual ghost]