Its said he used to be quite charming and manipulative, so its not really stupidity. I think he may have a personality disorder. His choices often aren’t contemplated, but rash and emotional.

There’s also a pattern to his actions. Absolutely none of his decisions seem to be governed by empathy, morality, ideology, strategic national interests or even long term personal interests. Instead, nearly all his actions seem impulsive and emotional, aimed at satisfying his short term personal need for gratification, admiration or payback.

His frequent tantrums, his impulsive decision making, his inability to maintain composure, his inability to maintain professional relationships, together they all point to some sort of mental illness.

nottheonion?

Experts warned in advance that a US-Iran war would actually radicalize the regime, break the protest movement and allow the regime to re-establish greater control over Iranian society.

And offcourse to everyone’s complete and astonishing surprise, the experts turned out to be right.

Its not just Trump either. Western media were reprehensibly ignorant of Iranian politics. Most popular media outlets ended up giving a centre stage to monarchist demagogues. You couldn’t even turn on the tv without seeing interviews with ‘Iranians’ calling on the US to bomb Iran, calling Netanyahu a great patron and calling the Europeans cowards for not stepping in.

The thing is, none of these people actually presented the popular opinions of Iranians, despite claiming they did. Most of them had never even set foot in Iran. And those that had included those who’s families held positions in the regime of the Shah and thus fled the country over 40 years ago.

It’s like asking former Ba’athists what they think should be done in Iraq and them answering: the US should bomb the country and appoint the Husseins to help lead the ‘transition to democracy’.

What a joke…

According to the DNB this move has nothing to do with the political climate in the US i.e. Donald Trump.

But I think most Dutchies share in my relive that the bulk of our national gold reserves are now stored in places that are actually safe from foreign interference.

Case closed, Panthera for the win.

Seriously though, Putin can’t back his ass out of the dumpster fire that he himself lit and both Europe and the US have been trying desperately to find a clean and easy way out of this mess literally for years, including throwing him the political lifelines that could’ve gotten him out before it got worse.

The fact that what you’re proposing hasn’t ever been seriously proposed by anyone in the US or EU, is probably because its the absolute dumbest bat%#* insane brain fart of an idea that anyone’s come up with so far…

Just to get this straight: you believe that we should allow Russia to just walk away without so much as a taunt, sticking the EU with the bill of rebuilding a giant gaping hole of a country in the heart of Europe, with the threat that if Russia ever tries anything, we’ll station a non-existent European army, even though we’ve disbanded the organization that’s supposed to command, supply and organize this army, after also excluding its key supplier of weapons, troops and logistics, while hoping he doesn’t nuke us now that we’ve voluntarily broken our nuclear triad, and to just assume till then that the same man who wiped his ass with most of the international treaties that Russia ever signed will actually keep his word and not take advantage of our self-imposed weakness?

Damn, bro… you’re like the spouse lying in the hospital bed with a concussion, swollen face, and broken jaw murmuring: ‘he’s changed, it’s not his fault, I deserved it…’

If you really want to get political, you could argue that the system actually promotes and rewards stupidity.

The US government actively frustrates journalists and regularly withholds critical information from the public. Also, every major news outlet in the US is held by a major corporation and these corporations are well known to use both their public influence and financial means to promote corporate interests at the expense of public interests.

And on top of that, both political parties run polarizing campaigns that have the effect of turning parts of society on to each other, while mostly serving their own interests and those of corporations.

Much like the protagonist in the movie, you can try and make a sincere and rational plea for change, but politics have become a reality tv show that drowns out anything that is not sensational or absurd.

All true, but imo the movie doesn’t make an argument for a technocracy.

My read is that the movie is mostly critical of the US system, including capitalism, hyper-masculinity, hyper-consumerism and identity politics.

The movie doesn’t even star ‘smart’ people or elites because they all went extinct. And the reason they went extinct is because the system directed them into a rat-race of career succes and material wealth that ultimately led to an evolutionary dead end.

The movie actually ends with average people assuming responsibility for government, raising families and working together to improve the lives of the people.

Really, actual harm? How so?

During the last couple of elections, we had pretty much reached a threshold beyond which more donations no longer translated into better chances of winning.

And so even looking at the overwhelming financial support for the Republican candidates, I can’t help but wonder if its actually going to make a difference this time around.

Trump is the most unpopular president ever and so far his endorsements seem to had the opposite effect of making his preferred candidates lose. It seems no amount of crypto is going to save you, if you’re seen as running for Trump in a local election.

That is actually a stroke of brilliance.

4 million is a lot of money, but it is also a pathetically low amount if you’re trying to make a dent in European politics

In fact, there are so many leftists in Europe -who would jump at the chance of publicly humiliating Trump- that I honestly believe you could raise 4 million just by starting some sort of kickstarter.

The German government confirmed that this was a deliberate act of aggression by Russia aimed at German citizens and assets, but their response has been tame at best. I doubt this will raise so much as an eyebrow in Russia. And it will certainly invite more Russian aggression.

For years Germany has been reluctant to call out Russian crimes and has been resisting calls to scale up support for Ukraine. I’m no expert, but Russia really crossed a line this time and I feel like Germany should’ve used this moment to respond more publicly and decisively.

For example by sending more troops to the Eastern border, acting against a black fleet tanker or significantly boosting their support for Ukraine (Taurus missiles?).

Dutch politicians have often laughed away foreign accusations of being a narco state, but in truth the Netherlands’ problems with organized crime and drug trafficking are becoming harder and harder to ignore. This incident puts the spotlight on a problem that is probably only going to get worse in the foreseeable future.

I expected them to vote as much. Iceland is a tiny country that relies mainly on fishing. And it’s not like the smaller mainland European nations, who heavily rely on their larger neighbors for trade and defense.

The vote also seems to have been prompted by fears of US aggression. Iceland is already in NATO so (on paper) it benefits from collective defense. Joining the EU might cement defense commitments by mainland countries, but Iceland will still need to invest heavily in national defense for that to realistically protect them from a belligerent America.

Here’s the thing: Putin genuinely believes the West is hedonistic and degenerate. His view, which is enforced by the people around him, is that we will avoid war at all costs.

Putin’s logic therefore is that he doesn’t actually have to defeat NATO on the battlefield, but that he simply needs to scare and intimidate us enough for us to break cohesion and back down.

In other words, with every single month that goes by without the EU withdrawing their support, Putin will be tempted to escalate further, hoping with each new provocation that this will will finally be the one that breaks the West’s defiance.

This is laughable offcourse, as many EU countries are directly being threatened by Russia’s aggression and thus have a vested interest not just in defended themselves, but in having Russia choke itself on Ukraine.

In other words, yes Russia’s army can’t stand toe to toe with NATO but Putin’s misguided beliefs and strategic incompetence are nonetheless increasing the chances of this war spilling over into a full scale war between NATO and Russia.

I had a colleague once. Terrific guy. He was funny, professional and generally pleasant to be around.

One day I told him I watched Walking with Dinosaurs. He answered, with a deadpan stare, that dinosaur bones were placed in the earth by God to test our faith 😕

Trump: “Putin personally promised me that he wouldn’t attack NATO. And I believe him”

Putin: busy attacking NATO through assassinations, covert sabotage, armed drones and cyberwarfare

Maybe return the favor?

The EU has pretty advanced cyber capabilities, but we somehow lack the will and/or capability to respond with a massive DDoS of our own?

The last time a CIA director had direct talks with his Russian counterpart, it was to warn the Russians not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The last time before that, it was to warn the Russians not to invade Ukraine.

Russia is presumably behind the incidents in Leipzig and Rome earlier this month, which constitute direct attacks on NATO military assets and are a severe escalation of the conflict.

In addition Russia has placed ballistic missile launchers in Belarus, has started bombing the border crossing between Moldova and Ukraine, has started engaging in routine airspace violations into NATO territory, all while laying the political groundwork for a massive and forced mobilization.

It seems very reasonable that Ratcliffe’s visit is in response to either the recent attacks or new intelligence pointing to further escalation.

Aha, thank you for clarifying! I literally did not know that both movies were based on a series of novels. My bad 🙂