Droplet

This is just increasing austerity to slow the core EU states (Germany, France) from their impending economic decline. Austerity is coming to the rest of Europe. Everyone gotta pay the debt somehow because according to the neoliberals, debt cancellation is not a possibility.

Saw this comment over at Naked Capitalism today and just had to share it here:

Had a bad thought. Suppose that the engineers say that it is far too risky for those astronauts to go back to Earth using the Starliner so they will have to wait to get a lift with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule or maybe a Russian Soyuz after several months. But then the Boeing board meets and decides that if that happened, that it would make their program look bad and endanger future contracts. So then they order those two astronauts to fly Starliner back to Earth right away. It could happen that way.

Kim went to international school in Switzerland, so he would know English and German. I’m not sure if North Korea teaches Russian like Cuba did though.

Putin obviously knows English and German from his posting in Germany during his KGB days.

Watch this clip.

Really? Standing on the tarmac waving goodbye to Putin’s plane? North Korea has such an interesting culture.

Reddit libs: watching the photos and clips coming out of the Putin-Kim meeting is so surreal. It’s like watching two Hollywood villains getting together. Streets full of children, probably dragged from their school, being forced to wave Russian and North Korean flags and smile as the two dictators walk by.

• Kim Jong-un called Russia the most honest friend and ally, and Putin the dearest friend of the Korean people

Really? How low is the bar these days?

Here’s Yahya reciting one of Mao’s famous poems lol: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1oQ4y1w7fB/

Two most important results of Putin's visit to Pyongyang.

• Russia stated that it no longer intends to comply with the sanctions imposed by the West, both through the UN Security Council and without it, which severely limit the interaction between the two countries. What was long overdue. After this step, horizons open up, limitless and mutually beneficial - from legal labor migration to the development of trade and industry in both countries.

• Putin announced that North Korea could become one of the first countries to receive modern weapons systems in response to Western supplies to Ukraine. Which will change the balance of power not only in the region, but also in the world. If earlier Pyongyang’s statements about its intention to reach Washington with a missile were purely theoretical, now it is naked practice and only a matter of political will. There is no need to say how they feel now in Seoul and Tokyo.

And what Russia will receive in return - from shells and MLRS to the North Korean corps on the outskirts of Kharkov - will become clear in the near future.

Putin also took Kim on a ride around Pyongyang in the Aurus, and visited the Orthodox Church of Holy Life-Giving Trinity in Pyongyang before leaving.

Next stop - Vietnam.

It’s AI generated. There is a whole series of meme videos with him on Bilibili, including one where he quotes from the Three Body Problem lol.

No, but if the US federal government starts getting involved, they can funnel a huge volume of money into it.

You should think of these as vehicles to prop up the value of the US dollar, which are fundamentally disconnected from the real economy in the real world. The US will then use the high value of the US dollar, propped up by virtual capital, to then wreck the other countries’ economies and their real sectors. That’s the power of finance capital.

As the article you posted says, extending Trump’s tax cut would cost $4.7 trillion over the next 10 years.

Let me remind you that the US interest payment now costs $1 trillion in one year alone. That’s how aggressive Biden’s rate hikes are - the fastest since Volcker shock in 1980.

Also, we’re not even talking about Biden’s ability to give Ukraine $175 billion yet in just 2 years of the war (most of which will flow back to the US and their donor class). If they can ramp up the war in Ukraine, Israel and now it looks like Lebanon as well, and keep it going over the next few years (the next decade?), they can now pump out as hundreds of billions more every year at their whim for their proxies.

As I said in another comment here, both Biden and Trump are known quantities. They both have their report cards. Has Trump managed to give out $175 billion like Biden has given to Ukraine? Does he even have the ability to do that - strong-arming the Congress and bend them to his will like Biden is capable of?

It simply means that undocumented spouses of US citizens don’t have to leave the country to apply for legal residency (which could take years) and can continue to work in the US while waiting for their application to be approved.

That’s it. That’s the announcement.