trompete

"This is an unprovoked attack, literally no history before that!" Just pointing out anything that happened before makes you a heretic.

I would also like to know this. My inference from some examples I have picked up, is that anyone not currently involved in the fighting effort should not be targeted. Even soldiers that are off duty (unless they are commanders), or anyone who has laid down their weapon (including partisans without POW status) should not be killed. I assume, therefore, that a settler is not a valid target, unless they're currently doing militia stuff. For killing, that is. I assume you can arrest them if they are accused of having done something illegal.

I at one point skimmed through "Der Judenstaat" by Herzl, and it's a bunch of class collaborationist shit. Like he thought rich individuals should chip in by buying land and financing transports and such, and the working classes should contribute their labor.

The EU wants to join operation "Prosperity Guardian" (tagesschau | archived)

Berlin is "ready" to join, and are "working hard" on plans. EU foreign ministers are going to have a meeting on the 22nd of January to discuss this.

I watched the press conference of the newly-founded BSW (Wagenknecht) party.

They come right out of the gate supporting anti-immigration stuff and pro national industry (class collaborationist) stuff, clearly trying to appeal to reactionary voters and donors. Then when you watch more and they explain a bit more, it gets slightly more reasonable, making me think they're probably not going to be worse than SPD/Greens on most issues. It's a nationalist Keynesian socdem party, really.

They are libs that want to manage the capitalist crisis in a way that's less painful for the working class, willing to throw under the bus various marginalized groups, including asylum seekers, trans people, and even the long-term unemployed (though again, that's something the other parties are probably even worse at).

The foreign policy stuff towards the US, Ukraine and Israel is better than other parties, but not actually good, especially Israel (pro ceasefire, pro two-state solution, liberal Zionists). They're anti-escalation fence sitters, not principled anti-imperialists. Makes me wonder what they'd actually do if they got into power.

Also, Wagenknecht has not been able to get any of her past initiatives off the ground, so while this looks promising in electoral terms, I wouldn't be surprised if this bombs somehow. It might take protest votes away from the fascists, but how does any of this fix anything? This is just delaying the collapse.

Germany wants to send more fighter jets to Saudi Arabia

Because the Saudi fight against the Houthi rebels also helps Israel, according to Baerbock.

The previous position was articulated in this amazing, classic Baerbock speech in front of the Green party congress from 2022:

Firstly, we are not directly sending weapons to Saudi Arabia. There are no weapons deliveries from Germany to Saudi Arabia, where human rights are trampled upon. [Applause.] Secondly, yes, we, in a joint project, which is an old contract, which others before us have signed. This was *sighs* very hard for us, for Robert [Habeck] and me, but we cannot just sit there and "schwupps" *snaps fingers*, this old contract magically disappears, is gone. But it is there. And it is difficult to balance that, because we want and need more European arms cooperation, as otherwise 100 billion [special budget for the military they just passed] will in no way be enough. And I don't want to cut even more social services, and that Lisa [Paus, family minster] does not have the funds for the children, which she desperately needs.

In case you can't understand this genius: They were, in fact, sending weapons to Saudi Arabia, but it was through an old joint European arms deal, but "they had to", because money ... err ... think of the children! You wouldn't want the children to go hungry do you? They would never sign new contracts with those evil Saudis. Never! Oh would you look at that they just did.

Oh yeah I know (Wiener Saftgulasch!). It's push onions around, smoko, push onions around, smoko, push onions around, smoko, you get the picture. It's chill and it smells good.

I guess I only do this occasionally and I've got too much time on my hands anyway.

Pretty sure you don't even need to push around the onions if you set the stove low enough.

idk frying onions is the least stressful part of cooking

ok yes

no

For much of the year, Russian forces in Ukraine have been suffering from significant shortages of vehicles, weapons and above all ammunition. However, from a low point in the spring, Russia’s military supply situation has been steadily improving.

"Significant shortages?" They had more than Ukraine of pretty much any material at all times. The only thing Russia was actually short on was infantry, and they had that problem already fixed by January 2023.

There are no concessions the West could force Kyiv to offer, or indeed offer itself, that are more valuable to the Kremlin than defeating Ukraine through its current strategy of resourcing a long war to exhaust Western support and grind down resistance by 2025 or 2026. States do not stop fighting when they think that they can win wars, especially after taking hundreds of thousands of casualties and seeing their previous aura of military power badly damaged internationally by initial poor performance.

Don't negotiate, you're winning! Oh, you're not? Well, can't negotiate while you're losing! Just like, don't negotiate no matter what! OK?

What's also great is that they're claiming the Russians are not going to want to negotiate. Yeah guess what? That's because you're not being realistic. Just give them what they want. They're going to get it anyway. Fuck these people and their optimistic delusions. Now they hope the war will go into 2026 and Europe is going to get its shit together and then they're going to turn the tide. There's not going to be any recruits left by 2026, and you should never bet on Europe getting its shit together. They want to gamble on this ten thousand to one chance?

Oh no we would never discriminate based on ethnicity, but your passport says subhuman right here! That's not racism that's just the rules!