Politics Thread!

[Harlequin]

In the meantime big scandal here.
The second in the hierarchy of our 'noisy right wing'* party is being charged with pedophilia and intent to prostitute for having sex with a 15 years old.
The political leader admits to it but states he didn't know he was was a minor, says he thought he was an adult.…

That does not sound as easy a mistake to make with boys as with girls. Females seem to mature faster.

Still, at least these fascists appear to accept homosexuality these days. That is progress, of a sort.

(I would go on again about how paedophilia has nothing to do with local age limits and everything to do with being sexually attracted to individuals who have not yet undergone puberty but that could be a translation error).

[F-ZeroOne]

Still, at least these fascists appear to accept homosexuality these days. That is progress, of a sort.

Older than one might think; the chief of the SA ("Brownshirts") was homosexual, and apparently didn't try to hide it much. On the other hand, he was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives so...

[KlaxonCow]

[Harlequin]

[video]

I recall his rants against the previous deal. I had forgotten his describing the current one as "the best deal, IThey say, ever made".

[PFVA]

In the meantime, in Europe,
the 'True Patriots' are having a meeting in Madrid to organize a combined strategy.
Their major issue is to stop immigration.
Vox (Spain), Viktor Orban, Salvino (Italy), Marine Le Pen, and several others are present.

[tufty]

Yeah, but Elon thinks they're shit. AfD aren't part of it.

[PFVA]

Ow, I didn't know of that split.

[PFVA]

All over the news this morning it's now oficial there is rare metals needed for the tech industrie near the Dnipro in the areas Russia and Ukraine are fighting for.

And the "patriots" that met in Madrid decided on their slogan: "Make Europe great again". They are so creative. No one else thought of that one And the main objective of their fight, Muslim immigration, they want to re-christianise Europe.

[KlaxonCow]

All over the news this morning it's no oficial there is rare metals needed for the tech industrie near the Dnipro in the areas Russia and Ukraine are fighting for.

Indeed, Trump has made this a condition of support for Ukraine.

But Zelenskyy has said "fine, let's make that deal" because if it guarantees America's backing then, sure, have the rare earths. After all, this is existential for Ukraine - if they lose, then Russia gets all those rare earths instead. There's no reason not to say "yes", even if it is, let's be frank, a form of blackmail.

https://news.sky.com/story/lets-do-a-de ... p-13304934

'Let's do a deal': Zelenskyy touts Ukraine's rare earth stores to Trump

Donald Trump has said he wants Ukraine to supply the US with critical resources in exchange for financial support in its war with Russia.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Donald Trump "let's do a deal" as he offered the US a partnership over Ukraine's stores of rare earth and minerals.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump said he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with critical resources in exchange for financial support in its war with Russia.

In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Mr Zelenskyy said: "If we are talking about a deal, then let's do a deal, we are only for it."

While emphasising that Kyiv was not proposing "giving away" its resources, he said he was open to a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly.
[...]

[PFVA]

yeah, we know but that has been the thing since the beginning. The US, Nato, and the E.U. supported Ukraine because they did not want those resources to go to Russia. And Russia invaded Eastern Ukraine because they wanted to keep the access to those resources.

It's nothing new. And the ones who are suffering most with the war, those in Eastern Ukraine are also the ones who will benefit the least.

All the rest was for show, it was just theatrics and that's what I don't like.

[KlaxonCow]

Well, there is something new. Trump just openly admitting it and threatening to take American money away unless they hand over those rare earths.

Like, the "gangster" lack of diplomacy and just saying, out loud, "we're only helping you if you hand over the goods".

It might have been obvious that this is what was going on, but the West didn't actually say that. It was all presented as a "moral struggle" for a "sovereign nation" and such.

But Trump has no subtlety, so he's saying the quiet part out loud. He's reading the stage directions to the whole world, with zero guile. Because he's a moron.

(But, as I covered previously, sometimes even morons are right twice a day.)

[F-ZeroOne]

Russia invaded Ukraine to get rid of all the Nazis, don't forget, nothing to do with resources at all...

[KlaxonCow]

Russia invaded Ukraine to get rid of all the Nazis, don't forget, nothing to do with resources at all...

Which is why shit like this:



...doesn't help the Western narrative that Putin's full of shit that the West is full of Nazis that want to invade Russia. The Kremlin probably have this on repeat on all Russian TV stations constantly.

Putin's narrative works in Russia because Napoleon attacked, Hitler attacked, NATO keeps moving towards them. From the Russian perspective, the West is this imperial force that keeps trying to attack them. When he talks about "Nazis" in Ukraine and NATO expansion, this is really what he's riffing on. He's scaring his people with "the West is preparing to attack us again" propaganda. And we're not exactly always behaving in a fashion that reassures the Russian people that Putin's wrong about that.

Vlad's no doubt loving the Trump administration so far. Proposing imperial conquest and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Elon doing Nazi salutes. This is all "on a silver platter" stuff for Putin's narrative of the West.

Like, I'm not entirely sure myself that these guys aren't attending neo-Nazi meetings in private. Like, why would Elon do that? Unless he was "dog whistling" to his neo-Nazis mates that "I'm 100% with you guys".

[zip accident]

Like, I'm not entirely sure myself that these guys aren't attending neo-Nazi meetings in private. Like, why would Elon do that? Unless he was "dog whistling" to his neo-Nazis mates that "I'm 100% with you guys".

As I've said before, Elon and his son->daughter have presumably had a big falling out, probably in 2022, and that's who the message is too, it's a "fuck you sideways with a pineapple" to his now daughter. She isn't unfortunately going to come out as anything right of liberal (not that anyone sensible would), because Elon would be against whatever she is for. That's the main message, the "I'm with these guys" is pretty explicit, not dog whistling at all, but it's the "fuck you" (which arguably is being dog whistled) that's got the emotion behind it.

[tufty]

Say what? A message to his daughter? Bollocks.