Now the international powers that be are more interested in entering into weapons contracts with Ukraine than they are “stepping back and letting Russia continue the war” (i.e. selling vital electronics components to Russia for their fighterbomber jets?) and the longer Russia continues the war the more they underline how international powers stand far more to gain by working with Ukraine and gaining access to their advanced technology and innovative tactics than they do partnering with Russia and gaining access to outdated equipment, doctrine and armored vehicles that simply cannot protect their crews and passengers period.

Ukraine wants to be part of the EU. So any country wanting such military support from Ukraine would have to be aligned with the EU as well. That was a huge selling point of Russian weapons. Currently China fills that market with decent enough cheap weapon systems. They certainly do not care too much about Russia buying weapons components from them.

Leon Schreiber is as the Minister for Home Affairs responsible for matters of citizenship in South Africa. That is why I quoted him. No idea why him being white changes any of that.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said he could not provide details on Elon Musk, Reon Barnard, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks’ South African citizenship.

https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/816425/elon-musks-south-african-citizenship-questioned/

No, she forces the rain into the Everglades camp so they have some showers…

Vodka may be distilled from any starch- or sugar-rich plant matter; most vodka today is produced from grains such as sorghum, corn, rye, or wheat.

Mostly, because it is cheaper and it is allowed, but potato is also an option.

It does not even need to be a majority. Actually doing it makes you more believable when you promote any sort of action. It also works as a sort of promotion in itself. As in people can see you cycle, not eat meat or have solar panels on your roof. By doing it, you also create demand for the alternative, like for example solar panels, bicycles or vegan products. That makes those alternatives easier and cheaper to purchase. It also makes it politically easier to ban something, as part of the society is not impacted at all.

In the end calling somebody an idiot, for promoting individual action due it not being an attempt to change society is just dumb. After all anybody who does that promotion tries to bring other people to do something. At that point it really is no longer the action of an individual. Honestly it really is a simple way to lobby against such actions on a bigger scale.

Looks like they plan to introduce some sort of change in the next parliament session.

Wales just moved from first past the post to proportional under a Labour government in the Senedd.

Labour had a bit more then a third of the votes, which is pretty close to were Reform is polling today. However Labour won a massive majority with those votes. If Labour wants to prevent a Reform victory they need to change the election system. It is even worse for the Tories. So long term Tory supporters will cheer them on.

We are heading into a feudal system of a sort. The wealth gap is absolutly massive and the only way to end up in the upper class is to inherit. As per usual the population feels that the system is unfair, but is unable to see the real problem. Media is really pushing far right talking points, as the upper class realizes that the system is broken and a real revolution is a problem. Thats how the US ended up with a de facto monarchy. The UK is moving towards that pretty quickly too.

The good news is that Labour might make some really usefull changes. Mainly end first past the post to prevent Reform from taking over. That might very well allow left wing parties like the LibDems and Greens to win more seats and change the narrative.

June saw a 42% collapse due to airport closures. The probably more important number is that 2023 tourism was more then three times higher then it was this year.

Israel has had a ceasefire for a bit. Unlike last year, when it was fighting all the time.

The EU has 10x the economy of Russia and 3x the population. The EU is at 31.8% low carbon energy today. Degrowth would still include building green alternatives, so GDP might half or so. That would still leave EU GDP at 5x Russias. Being self sufficient also means events abroad would impact the EU less. Not to mention that most potential enemies make most of their money by selling oil and gas. That very much includes Russia.

Just to say it, but Russia is not winning against Ukraine right now and European aid is not exactly massive compared to what would be used in a full scale war.

TACO

Russia is building more, so they will never fully run out. If you are thinking of storage, then they are out of the long range systems and currently move towards WW2 era guns. They have a lot of those, but the range is much shorter. So even more destroyed guns.

We just saw Progressives not voting for Harris, which lost her the election. The Democrats ignored that.

The good part is that the Democrats have no plan right now. So if anything Progressives should register to primary in better candidates. Also donations, but to individual candidates. This is why New York mattered so much. If Progressives can win, then it is a huge problem for the neoliberals.

In 1933 the first concentration camps also had massive improvised parts. It took about a year for them to be run fully professional. Conditions also became worse over time, with the start of WW2 being a huge step. That was also the start of the extermination camps, which were meant for genocide. Concentration camps were “just” really horrible prisons, which also had criminal and political prisoners, which were actually partly released.

This is just early concentration camp. Good chance it gets worse.

The gamble just doesn’t really seem worth it.

China is not invading Taiwan. However if it comes to a war with the US, then it really has to take out Taiwan. It is just too close to the mainland, allowing for easy bombing and missile attacks, while als being able to cut off shipping from the mainland. Obviously the US likes that a lot, as it makes war against the US much more costly for China.

At the same time leaders often make horrible decisions. Just look at the US invading Iraq and Afghanistan or Russia invading Ukraine. Clearly not good wars for the countries invading, but they still did it.

Dolph is vegan and seems to not care about religion, but mostly stays out of politics.

That would turn the Democrats into a progressive party, which would have nation wide positions, proper party infrastructure in every state and some funding systems. Given how few vote for third parties, that would be a huge win for progressives.