World Politics

[blutto]

....here is a thought generally not think tank approved...

“If you don’t like refugees coming to your country, stop voting for politicians who love to bomb the s*it out of them

.”

Our delegation from CODEPINK: Women for Peace saw this written on a tent at the Idomeni refugee camp in on the Greek-Macedonian border.

As we well know, neither the Greek nor Macedonian governments have bombed people, but they are having to deal with the huge numbers of refugees caused by the decisions of government far away. However, in a U.S. presidential election year, it is a message that American voters should heed

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44672.htm

Cheers

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Hilarious Eurovision last night; ridiculously political. Ukraine sent a singer (of Crimean Tatar heritage) who sung '1944', a song about the treatment of the Tatars under Stalin, effectively saying that Putin was doing the same. It was ridiculously political. You could tell which country would vote for Russia and Ukraine. Israel? Obviously Ukraine. Belarus? Of course, Russia. If someone gave points to Ukraine then Russia wouldn't get any from that country.

Ukraine ended up winning, despite Russia storming the popular vote. The well-known European country Australia came 2nd. You know, the one in Europe. It was slightly sad to see no one in the Ukraine camp realising they'd won after they were on like 530 points and Russia on 130 and Russia got given 361 (these were the final votes to be handed out); this to anyone with any grasp of basic mental arithmetic meant that Ukraine had won. The Russian guy worked it out, and was crestfallen. It took the Ukraine camp until the updated leaderboard to work it out, when it showed Russia on 491.

Israel is not in Europe either but who cares. The whole thing is like a 70s camp nightmare and the music generally sucks.

 

[python]

Re: Re:

Hilarious Eurovision last night; ridiculously political. Ukraine sent a singer (of Crimean Tatar heritage) who sung '1944', a song about the treatment of the Tatars under Stalin, effectively saying that Putin was doing the same. It was ridiculously political. You could tell which country would vote for Russia and Ukraine. Israel? Obviously Ukraine. Belarus? Of course, Russia. If someone gave points to Ukraine then Russia wouldn't get any from that country.

Ukraine ended up winning, despite Russia storming the popular vote. The well-known European country Australia came 2nd. You know, the one in Europe. It was slightly sad to see no one in the Ukraine camp realising they'd won after they were on like 530 points and Russia on 130 and Russia got given 361 (these were the final votes to be handed out); this to anyone with any grasp of basic mental arithmetic meant that Ukraine had won. The Russian guy worked it out, and was crestfallen. It took the Ukraine camp until the updated leaderboard to work it out, when it showed Russia on 491.

Israel is not in Europe either but who cares. The whole thing is like a 70s camp nightmare and the music generally sucks.

agree with both of you - not only the music sucked...it was a ridiculously politicized charade. curiously, as brullnux pointed out, while the winner's ethnicity was gamed, her parents still live in the crimea. moreover, not only they refused to move to ukraine (where their 'winning' daughter now lives), they voted in the infamous referendum to stay with russia and are the holders of russian passports.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Hilarious Eurovision last night; ridiculously political. Ukraine sent a singer (of Crimean Tatar heritage) who sung '1944', a song about the treatment of the Tatars under Stalin, effectively saying that Putin was doing the same. It was ridiculously political. You could tell which country would vote for Russia and Ukraine. Israel? Obviously Ukraine. Belarus? Of course, Russia. If someone gave points to Ukraine then Russia wouldn't get any from that country.

Ukraine ended up winning, despite Russia storming the popular vote. The well-known European country Australia came 2nd. You know, the one in Europe. It was slightly sad to see no one in the Ukraine camp realising they'd won after they were on like 530 points and Russia on 130 and Russia got given 361 (these were the final votes to be handed out); this to anyone with any grasp of basic mental arithmetic meant that Ukraine had won. The Russian guy worked it out, and was crestfallen. It took the Ukraine camp until the updated leaderboard to work it out, when it showed Russia on 491.

Israel is not in Europe either but who cares. The whole thing is like a 70s camp nightmare and the music generally sucks.

agree with both of you - not only the music sucked...it was a ridiculously politicized charade. curiously, as brullnux pointed out, while the winner's ethnicity was gamed, her parents still live in the crimea. moreover, not only they refused to move to ukraine (where their 'winning' daughter now lives), they voted in the infamous referendum to stay with russia and are the holders of russian passports.

But then hilariously Russia said the result was rigged !

 

[movingtarget]

Russian Journalists Resign

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/may/17/three-russian-editors-resign-amid-threats-to-press-freedom

 

[blutto]

Re:

Russian Journalists Resign

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/may/17/three-russian-editors-resign-amid-threats-to-press-freedom

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrew Coyne leaves editor role over National Post’s election endorsement

Andrew Coyne says Postmedia executives didn't want him to publish a column dissenting from the paper’s endorsement of the Conservatives. He plans to continue writing columns.

https://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/10/19/national-post-comment-editor-resigns-over-election-endorsement.html

Columnist quits over ban on him writing about billionaire Sheldon Adelson

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/26/columnist-resigns-sheldon-adelson-las-vegas-review-journal

....different means, same result....

Cheers

 

[blutto]

....ahhh, the obvious benefits of the glorious revolution.....

Since 2014 we have in Ukraine a mass deforestation. The entire forests and parks are being eliminated, causing local environmental disasters. However, until now the logging has been mostly illegal. But now the EU is demanding from Ukraine to lift the ban on exporting timber/wood as a condition of obtaining the next EU macrofinancial aid (1.2 billion euro), reminding Kiev that this is a term of the Euroassociation agreement, – reports Ukrainian Minister of economic development and trade.

Currently, even the polluted radioactive forests of the Chernobyl zone are being cut: “But logging in a post-apocalyptic forest would pose a number of health concerns. Trees, like moss, absorb radiation from the subsoil. Also, clear-cutting churns up soil, stirring radioactive dust and accelerating erosion,” reports New York Times.

Not to mention the Carpathians, which have turned into ‘devastated lands’ in the two years since Maidan. “The total devastation of protected forests in the Carpathians has been underway in recent years,” notes Censor Net, providing photographic evidence of the environmental destruction that’s taking place

https://off-guardian.org/2016/05/18/the-eu-and-the-deforestation-of-ukraine/

Cheers

 

[fatandfast]

It is alarming how little comment has been made in US politics as the 200+ million people of Brazil teeter on who knows what. We have people crashing the borders of every EU country will little fanfare in US politics. The US is paying Mexico to stop the child and teen crossers who are fleeing gang violence in Central America, it became too unpopular to detain young kids who travelled without an adult.
Now Brazil looks to be ticking towards something explosive. Who is going to help them when the flood gates open? Don't know how many are looking to get to Germany, but lots will want to get to NYC and Los Angeles. If there is a such thing as world politics I hope it kicks in soon

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

It is alarming how little comment has been made in US politics as the 200+ million people of Brazil teeter on who knows what. We have people crashing the borders of every EU country will little fanfare in US politics. The US is paying Mexico to stop the child and teen crossers who are fleeing gang violence in Central America, it became too unpopular to detain young kids who travelled without an adult.
Now Brazil looks to be ticking towards something explosive. Who is going to help them when the flood gates open? Don't know how many are looking to get to Germany, but lots will want to get to NYC and Los Angeles. If there is a such thing as world politics I hope it kicks in soon

Political turmoil, Zika virus problems, civil unrest, economic issues and the Olympics race to be ready. Hardly a great mix. Why on earth would a country like Brazil want to host both the World Cup and Olympics a few years apart ? Has anyone seen the state of the water quality on the sailing course ? It looks like an open sewer.

I have heard that Egypt will be providing the next big influx of immigrants for Europe and it's already started. No future for young people, no jobs, no freedom of speech combined with an authoritarian regime and it seems now that a lot of military hardware the US provided them with has simply vanished !

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

....ahhh, the obvious benefits of the glorious revolution.....

Since 2014 we have in Ukraine a mass deforestation. The entire forests and parks are being eliminated, causing local environmental disasters. However, until now the logging has been mostly illegal. But now the EU is demanding from Ukraine to lift the ban on exporting timber/wood as a condition of obtaining the next EU macrofinancial aid (1.2 billion euro), reminding Kiev that this is a term of the Euroassociation agreement, – reports Ukrainian Minister of economic development and trade.

Currently, even the polluted radioactive forests of the Chernobyl zone are being cut: “But logging in a post-apocalyptic forest would pose a number of health concerns. Trees, like moss, absorb radiation from the subsoil. Also, clear-cutting churns up soil, stirring radioactive dust and accelerating erosion,” reports New York Times.

Not to mention the Carpathians, which have turned into ‘devastated lands’ in the two years since Maidan. “The total devastation of protected forests in the Carpathians has been underway in recent years,” notes Censor Net, providing photographic evidence of the environmental destruction that’s taking place

https://off-guardian.org/2016/05/18/the-eu-and-the-deforestation-of-ukraine/

Cheers

Depressing. I also heard that acid rain has also taken care of huge areas of the Black Forest as well. Most of England's forest has also disappeared. Not to mention what is going on in Indonesia and the Amazon.

 

[python]

is there anyone here who had followed the ousting of the brasilian strong lady dilma rousseff ?

to be frank, i did NOT follow her other than reading a random headliner that she was removed for being corrupt...

then, several days after the removal, i read her interview where she blasted her detractors as 'all- man, old elite group' of the right wing politicians who ousted her in order to roll back her progressive, leftist reforms and sell out public property to the international corporations.

while i don't have any for or against evidence re. the gender discrimination claims, the right vs the left plot seems a valid argument, reading this article:
Brazil's interim government wastes no time erasing Workers' party influence
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/brazil-rightwing-government-michel-temer

i also just learned from the article, that just about every brasilian politician involved in her ousting was also (officially !) accused of corruption or some other form of wrong-doing..read for yourself, here's some characteristic quotes:

“It’s a completely rightwing government. Even [President Mauricio] Macri in Argentina is not as rightwing as Temer’s government,”

Temer [the guy who replaced dilma as a president -python]has said he is prepared to make unpopular decisions because he does not intend to stand for re-election in 2018. He is barred from running due to previous electoral violations

...This was evident in his [temer's -python] seemingly reluctant acceptance of André Moura – who is accused of attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and embezzlement – as the coalition leader in the lower house.

Temer had wanted a less controversial figure, but had to accept the recommendation of a powerful rightwing lobby controlled by the suspended house speaker Eduardo Cunha, who orchestrated Rousseff’s impeachment...Cunha was himself removed from his post by the supreme court for obstructing justice

i doubt those asserting this was a plot assisted by an uncle from the north, but if dilma rousseff was ousted for being corrupt, those on the right who did her are documented corrupt if not much more so...

 

[ScienceIsCool]

Re:

is there anyone here who had followed the ousting of the brasilian strong lady dilma rousseff ?

to be frank, i did NOT follow her other than reading a random headliner that she was removed for being corrupt...

then, several days after the removal, i read her interview where she blasted her detractors as 'all- man, old elite group' of the right wing politicians who ousted her in order to roll back her progressive, leftist reforms and sell out public property to the international corporations.

while i don't have any for or against evidence re. the gender discrimination claims, the right vs the left plot seems a valid argument, reading this article:
Brazil's interim government wastes no time erasing Workers' party influence
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/brazil-rightwing-government-michel-temer

i also just learned from the article, that just about every brasilian politician involved in her ousting was also (officially !) accused of corruption or some other form of wrong-doing..read for yourself, here's some characteristic quotes:

“It’s a completely rightwing government. Even [President Mauricio] Macri in Argentina is not as rightwing as Temer’s government,”

Temer [the guy who replaced dilma as a president -python]has said he is prepared to make unpopular decisions because he does not intend to stand for re-election in 2018. He is barred from running due to previous electoral violations

...This was evident in his [temer's -python] seemingly reluctant acceptance of André Moura – who is accused of attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and embezzlement – as the coalition leader in the lower house.

Temer had wanted a less controversial figure, but had to accept the recommendation of a powerful rightwing lobby controlled by the suspended house speaker Eduardo Cunha, who orchestrated Rousseff’s impeachment...Cunha was himself removed from his post by the supreme court for obstructing justice

i doubt those asserting this was a plot assisted by an uncle from the north, but if dilma rousseff was ousted for being corrupt, those on the right who did her are documented corrupt if not much more so...

Well, Temer at the very least was a CIA informant. Wikileaks has published two of the cables he sent via the US Embassy. http://www.globalresearch.ca/brazils-acting-president-michel-temer-used-to-be-us-intelligence-informant-wikileaks/5525589

John Swanson

 

[python]

Re:

is there anyone here who had followed the ousting of the brasilian strong lady dilma rousseff ?

to be frank, i did NOT follow her other than reading a random headliner that she was removed for being corrupt...

then, several days after the removal, i read her interview where she blasted her detractors as 'all- man, old elite group' of the right wing politicians who ousted her in order to roll back her progressive, leftist reforms and sell out public property to the international corporations.

while i don't have any for or against evidence re. the gender discrimination claims, the right vs the left plot seems a valid argument, reading this article:
Brazil's interim government wastes no time erasing Workers' party influence
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/brazil-rightwing-government-michel-temer

i also just learned from the article, that just about every brasilian politician involved in her ousting was also (officially !) accused of corruption or some other form of wrong-doing..read for yourself, here's some characteristic quotes:

“It’s a completely rightwing government. Even [President Mauricio] Macri in Argentina is not as rightwing as Temer’s government,”

Temer [the guy who replaced dilma as a president -python]has said he is prepared to make unpopular decisions because he does not intend to stand for re-election in 2018. He is barred from running due to previous electoral violations

...This was evident in his [temer's -python] seemingly reluctant acceptance of André Moura – who is accused of attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and embezzlement – as the coalition leader in the lower house.

Temer had wanted a less controversial figure, but had to accept the recommendation of a powerful rightwing lobby controlled by the suspended house speaker Eduardo Cunha, who orchestrated Rousseff’s impeachment...Cunha was himself removed from his post by the supreme court for obstructing justice

i doubt those asserting this was a plot assisted by an uncle from the north, but if dilma rousseff was ousted for being corrupt, those on the right who did her are documented corrupt if not much more so...

did the white house or the dept of state ever comment on the wikileaks info?

i'd think, looks plausible enough to leave w/o an official response...

 

[fatandfast]

The situation in Brazil is far from simple but here are a couple of simple components. Government spending millions to put makeup on some of the poorest neighborhoods. As the ever contracting economy visibly shrinks before the eyes of average citizens they see wide spread physical spending on construction for the games and it doesn't look like practical financial sense to the everyday person. Bombs but not the biggest.
The Brazilian Constitution forbids certain people from being prosecuted while holding cabinet positions. The President having a form of pardon power while in control.ex President Lula was appointed to a cabinet position as it was unfolding that he may have taken @200 million dollars while in office. Most of the cash in kickbacks and bribes from the state oil company. She didn't have any sound political reasons for putting him in the inner circle and to many angry people it looked like she was harboring a criminal using her presidential power.
The unemployment rate has jumped @4 points in four years, TV and radio ads,along with newspaper and billboards trying to sell Olympic tickets and high end tours and accommodations to people who never could afford it is an open insult to lots of people.

 

[python]

...the sykes-picot treaty that many historians describe as europe's post-colonial responsibility for the current troubles in the middle east is celebrating 100. except that it was britain and france drawing arab borders, my knowledge of the period was sketchy. turns out, there were more critical things playing a role during the disintegration of the ottoman empire. i never knew that the french captured damascus or that it was the kurds themselves who rejected their own independence when offered.

more in this excellent, informative and balanced article (almost a year old):

Forget Sykes-Picot. It’s the Treaty of Sèvres That Explains the Modern Middle East.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/10/sykes-picot-treaty-of-sevres-modern-turkey-middle-east-borders-turkey/

 

[Echoes]

Picot-Sykes reminds me of Lawrence of Arabia (the film).

Treaty of Sèvres, is that not the agreement between Guy Mollet (left-wing French PM) and Anthony Eden after Nasser nationalised the Canal?

 

[python]

...so, austria the birthplace of you know who is about to make a hard right. the 1st hard right in europe in a while. who's next ? france ?

 

[Echoes]

In France, Marine Le Pen is not as popular as media say. The FN has never exceeded the threshold of 14% of the registered active population. If she seems popular, that is because abstention dramatically goes up.

The thing is also that Marine Le Pen takes a lot from the left-wing agenda: defence of the secularist public school system, Islamophobia in the name of secularism, pro-Europe and pro-Nato. She's been vividly criticized on her right side.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

...so, austria the birthplace of you know who is about to make a hard right. the 1st hard right in europe in a while. who's next ? france ?

Well, the hard right lost. Just.

I'm slightly surprised at the rise of the right in Austria, and especially Vienna. Austria is a very safe, well off country compared to many in Europe and I feel that despite many migrants having come to or through Austria, it has not been that badly affected. Sure, enough to warrant hatred of the main parties and gain of the Freedom party, but not enough to warrant almost a victory of the hard right.

I guess maybe then that this shift has been a long time coming, the migrant crisis only exasperating and accelerating the rise. Not having followed Austrian politics that closely, I cannot be sure, or know. I have to admit though, Vienna turning so far right surprised me no end. A city that has consistently stayed red since WW2, the 2nd most liveable in the world and the most in Europe, with rents fairly low and safety and cleanliness high from an outside perspective voting against the SPÖ, which seems to have done a pretty decent job there, is confusing, at least for me. However, the migrant crisis has affected Vienna far more than any other city in Austria.

The next country to turn hard right is either Netherlands or Denmark. Le Pen has many detractors from Left, Right and Centre. In the run off polls she loses even to Hollande, whom nobody likes. The Lega Nord have little chance in Italy, though M5S might have a shot if they can come up with more than 4 coherent points to argue about. Belgium have Vlaams Belang, but AFAIK they aren't too close yet. Netherlands and Denmark are 100% the next Western European states to turn right. Jobbik in Hungary also, and Our Slovakia in, you guessed it: Slovakia, are also in ascendancy. The former is an islamophobic fascist. Like openly fascist.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

With the can kicked even further down the road, how long can Greece hold on? With the IMF pushing other Europeans (read: Germany) to cough up more cash to bailout the country in exchange for even deeper austerity measures of spending cuts (on top of the €14b already in place) and new taxes on alcohol, tobacco, fuel, internet usage, cars, hotels, as well as an increase in the basic value-added tax rate from 23 to 24 percent.

No prospect of Greece meeting the draconian terms of its current bail-out plan and that debt interest payments on the soaring national debt would eat up 60% of the budget by 2060 in the absence of debt forgiveness.

So they're giving them more money, in exchange for even deeper cuts and higher taxes?

People were seen burning Euro notes in the streets of Athens this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/may/23/greece-bailout-funds-austerity-eurozone-economy-live

 

[blutto]

Re:

With the can kicked even further down the road, how long can Greece hold on? With the IMF pushing other Europeans (read: Germany) to cough up more cash to bailout the country in exchange for even deeper austerity measures of spending cuts (on top of the €14b already in place) and new taxes on alcohol, tobacco, fuel, internet usage, cars, hotels, as well as an increase in the basic value-added tax rate from 23 to 24 percent.

No prospect of Greece meeting the draconian terms of its current bail-out plan and that debt interest payments on the soaring national debt would eat up 60% of the budget by 2060 in the absence of debt forgiveness.

So they're giving them more money, in exchange for even deeper cuts and higher taxes?

People were seen burning Euro notes in the streets of Athens this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/may/23/greece-bailout-funds-austerity-eurozone-economy-live

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

..... no, they're giving the banks and their spawn more money...and then there is the selling off of the country....

PERIES: Now why are the lenders then acting the way they are?

HUDSON: Because they’re using finance as the new means of war. There is a war going on in Europe but it’s not a military war anymore. They’re now using finance instead of war and they’re using finance to say, we can grab your country. We can put you out of work. We can control you and we don’t have to kill you, we can just make you immigrate by taking away your pensions and taking all your money. There’s a land grab just as if it were an invasion to grab Greece’s ports, to grab Greece’s railroads, and to grab everything else. This is war

.

But there’s a bitter class war of debtors against creditors or creditors against debtors going on in Europe and all they can do right now is expose the hypocrisy of the IMF. If you’re talking about Greece, let’s juxtapose the IMF supporting a really insolvent economy of [ ] in the Ukraine.

The IMF is preparing to bail out Ukraine, to say you don’t have to pay your debts that you owe to Russia or any governments that the U.S. doesn’t like. You have to sell off your land to George [Sherouse] and the people who the U.S. government does like. Look at the duel standard that the IMF is imposing on Greece compared to what it’s doing for the Ukrainian government. You see that the IMF has become a tool of the New Cold War and the Syriza people and the Greeks can do is point out how unfair this is and to try to let the world know that what is happening is a movement way to the right wing of the political spectrum and that finance is war.

PERIES: Finally, Michael, what choice does the Greek government have? What can they do?

HUDSON: Mr. Tsipras says they have no choice. He says the choice is only to surrender and in fact the argument now is not between Greece and the IMF. Not between Greece and Germany or Europe. The arguments that keep going on are solely between the IMF and Germany as to whether the IMF is going to break its traditional rules and make a loan in violation of all of its principles. Under its articles of agreement, the IMF is not allowed to make a loan to a government that cannot afford to repay the loan. All of the staff of the IMF have unanimously found that Greece cannot pay the loan because the terms of IMF loans, the conditionalities, shrink the economy and make it impossible to pay.

So the IMF says that we’re going to break the rules of that and we’re going to lend, essentially because the U.S. tells us to do that and Greece is going to have to pay so we can demonstrate that if Spain tries to stand up and pay its pensions to people, if France pays its labor, if Italy pays its labor, we’re going to smash their economies, we’re going to smash their labor unions, and we’re going to smash their labor just as we do to Greece. Greece is a demonstration very much like when the Nazis bombed Spain, in the Picasso drew the great drawing for. This is the IMF’s version of the Nazi bombing of Spain to say, this is what’s going to happen to labor throughout Europe if you don’t surrender.

http://www.unz.com/mhudson/the-financial-invasion-of-greece/

Cheers

 

[python]

Re: Re:

...so, austria the birthplace of you know who is about to make a hard right. the 1st hard right in europe in a while. who's next ? france ?

Well, the hard right lost. Just.

I'm slightly surprised at the rise of the right in Austria, and especially Vienna. Austria is a very safe, well off country compared to many in Europe and I feel that despite many migrants having come to or through Austria, it has not been that badly affected. Sure, enough to warrant hatred of the main parties and gain of the Freedom party, but not enough to warrant almost a victory of the hard right.

I guess maybe then that this shift has been a long time coming, the migrant crisis only exasperating and accelerating the rise. Not having followed Austrian politics that closely, I cannot be sure, or know. I have to admit though, Vienna turning so far right surprised me no end. A city that has consistently stayed red since WW2, the 2nd most liveable in the world and the most in Europe, with rents fairly low and safety and cleanliness high from an outside perspective voting against the SPÖ, which seems to have done a pretty decent job there, is confusing, at least for me. However, the migrant crisis has affected Vienna far more than any other city in Austria.

The next country to turn hard right is either Netherlands or Denmark. Le Pen has many detractors from Left, Right and Centre. In the run off polls she loses even to Hollande, whom nobody likes. The Lega Nord have little chance in Italy, though M5S might have a shot if they can come up with more than 4 coherent points to argue about. Belgium have Vlaams Belang, but AFAIK they aren't too close yet. Netherlands and Denmark are 100% the next Western European states to turn right. Jobbik in Hungary also, and Our Slovakia in, you guessed it: Slovakia, are also in ascendancy. The former is an islamophobic fascist. Like openly fascist.

excellent summary of the european far-right, though some of them could be termed populist. of course, it is the anti-immigration and anti-muslim sentiments that turns many voters. i'd agree that wilders' rhetoric is particularly dangerous...regarding the semi-authoritarian regimes in europe, i am particularly concerned with poland. no so much for their domestic, anti-democratic policies - which at the end of the day are their own business - but more with poland's increasingly obvious role of leading 'new europe' against the 'old'.

of all the countries in the east, poland has the population, good economy and the improving standard of living to become a defacto leader among the former communist block states. their foreign policy has increasingly been based on playing america against 'old europe'. also, it was the polish-american effort that helped to fuel the 'revolution' in ukraine. it's rather obvious that provoking the bear can spark another military conflict in no time...

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Austria just showed the deepening chasm between urban citizens and rural areas. Paradoxically, the lower the number of migrants in an area, the higher the vote share of the hard right.

 

[Forever The Best]

Turkey is ***.Enough said.Jail sentences will be coming left and right.Erdogan and his police will probably kill innocent people and give jail sentences to the parliamentarians after the last laws in our country.The Islamists have the majority and our country is ***.

 

[python]

can't get bored in the world we live in...

syria is under airstrikes, the socialist france is under labour strikes and the only american press i have some respect for talks of curbing evil human nature in hiroshima in stead of apologizing for his countries horrendous war crime

i am off shopping.