Of course when this clown shows up on Fox News, or OAN, touting his book or offering insight into government, no one watching will bother to remember that he was kicked out by his own party for wild fabrication and fraud.
I'm honestly surprised it happened. I fully expected Republicans to continue to embrace his fraudster ass until the end of time. It's weird to see just how far away they're willing to draw the line, though. Like, it was known from the start that he was a fraud, and they were all onboard anyway.
For all of the base-load talk, this is the real reason people are pushing nuclear.
The projects always go over budget. They always go way over time, too. Both of these things are good for the banks who loan out the billions to build new plants. And they know that if the company goes bankrupt the government will subsidize it.
Nuclear is just not economical enough to be part of a sustainable energy system.
During the time when Sweden built the current nuclear reactors, some where built in just a few years. Sweden had experienced people back then that knew how to build them. We don’t have that anymore. Pretty much no one has.
We also had less examples of issues we need to be prepared for.
One thing people always get wrong is that they assume Fukushima wasn’t build to withstand tsunamis and how stupid that supposedly was. But it was built to withstand tsunamis. Up to 9 meters of height, which was 50% more than the largest one they had on record. And it’s not like they had other projects to look for to figure out that a 50% margin of safety was too little for this. Turns out, it was. So now, you want to build at least 100% margin of error in tsunami areas, something you couldn’t have known before.
And that’s just one example from one rather specific type of engineering during a construction process that isn’t even specific to nuclear power. And as accidents happen (see for example Admiral Cloudberg’s excellent air crash investigation series!) we figure out more and more things we need to engineer against to prevent this in the future. As a result, what we build nowadays is orders of magnitude safer than what we did in the past. But it also means that building it has become a huge obstacle, if for no other reason than the sheer number of things you need to be aware of, abide by and track during construction and planning.
Fukushima was not a failure of engineering or proper safety measures with construction. It failed because they were old plants that hadn’t been maintained properly and were in disrepair.
So no, the margin of safety was not too little. The “lesson” learned from the Fukushima Daichi reactor flooding was about proper maintenance and funding.
Yeah well… Nuclear is too expensive and now I heard another rethoric on how renewables are not making enough profit to be worth it for the big companies. We’re going in circles before these people admit that coal and gas won’t be replaced by anything.
Prighozin was funding much of Wagner himself, for example.
So, who is going to pay now that he’s dead?
And that Russia’s young men are not coming home in boxes because they are just not coming home (Russia doesn’t want the bodies so as to avoid paying death benefits to families)
I imagine these families will be happier and happier each day that goes by without having any information about their loved ones.
But honestly, the biggest head scratcher here is the plain fact that mercenaries “to dispose of Putin” have been available forever
But if Prigozhin was paying their fees and keeping them in check with his control structure how could they have been available to change their masters?
I see your reply to the article as you see the article itself: full of speculations and assumptions but the main difference between the OP post and yours is that you are a nobody giving his opinion on the internet while the author of OP post was assistant director intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for the HQ Land Command.
Given the status I’m more inclined to listen to his speculations rather than yours, respectfully
You seem to equate a family not having a body with not having news of that soldier. But Ukraine has been collecting and identifying Russian bodies since the start of the war, and notifying families wherever possible. Many of the soldiers also have their own phones, and those phones have told the west a great deal about what is really going on behind Russian lines. Yet you seem sure that none of those soldiers would use their phones to speak of deaths within the unit. Interesting take.
You seem to forget that, following the bombing caused by a massive presence of phone signals in a single spot, Russia has been much more careful in letting its trooper use their cellphones. Beside that I imagine a family not having any news from his relatives at the front would be anxious for their loved ones and would start asking questions, even if it meant facing criminal charges. Ukraine can identify a portion of the bodies from the battlefield I imagine, and they would be able to reach the families of an even small percentage I reckon.
LOL. Think that over a bit and get back to me. Seriously.
I’ve thought about it and I really can’t see who can pay Wagner’s operators salaries, let alone arming them according to their standards (much better than the Russian army ones, can we agree on that?).
As far as I know Russia pays its soldiers 300-400€ a month and Wagner mercenaries are paid circa 2k (those who are not serving instead of being in a cell). Prigozhin was capable of providing for Wagner through his affairs in Africa and through the money he got from the Kremlin, will Putin be able to substitute such an income? What will happen if not? I’ve got my answers but they are just hypotheticals, who will live will see.
True enough. But that does not make either of us an expert on Russian affairs. His article does make one of us a fantasy writer, though.
He certainly knows Wagner better than you since he probably met them on the battlefield.
Works for me, lol. It’s just an opinion, and everyone’s got one.
But it helps, when forming an opinion, to acquaint oneself with all available fact first. And to be completely honest, you didn’t even spot the most questionable opinion in my post. (Hint: Who is Sergei Shoigu?) But keep working on it, because as far as I’m concerned the more people that are interested in the subject as whole, whether right or wrong, the better.
Thank you for taking the time to state your disagreement.
No problems, it’s a pleasure to have a conversation about these thematics since there is always to learn about any subject. In this sense, who is Sergei Shoigu? What I know about him is that he is a Putin sycophant only good as a yes man and coming from a political career scarcely linked to any military activity. Am I missing any information about the man?
Wagner was never a “pure” independent mercenary corporation. They were created, funded, and indirectly controlled by the Russian government to interfere in foreign conflicts to advance Russia’s goals while maintaining plausible deniability for the Kremlin. We can be sure that the Kemlin’s appountees are now stepping into leadership roles of Wagner. The question is whether Wagner will be disbanded or rebranded (salvaged and reconstituted) by Putin.
I keep scrolling through all and seeing this re-posted over and over again, so to save anyone else the trouble- the NY Times interviewed one 73 year- old tribe elder who complained about the youth not following traditions.
It’s a typical “brown people are too primitive to handle our modern white man’s world” article that crops up, especially in right-wing tabloids, regularly.
That is so sad, these kinds of times should already be over in humanity’s history. Why doesn’t anyone have a solution? Are the war mongering powers just waiting for the new nuclear deterrent? Future AI terminators pls just go straight to Russia/China/USA leadership and let the humans be
I think it’d be better if we disregarded highly authoritarian leaders in general and embraced socialism. Back in the day, kings and emperors fought their battles, but it didn’t make their feudalism any less… feudal.
Humans cooperated and formed large confederations long before capitalism and liberalism were ideas.
It’s true that unequal and selfish organisations have often consolidated power and squashed other organisations but we’ve also seen humanity going the opposite way many times before.
To shrug our shoulders and say humans are inherently greedy so socialism can’t work is a cop out. We’ve dismantled unequal power structures many times before and we can do it again
[T]he ministers and generals of the two countries, dressed in bathing-drawers and armed with clubs, can have it out among themselves. Whoever survives, his country wins. That would be much simpler and more just than this arrangement, where the wrong people do the fighting.
Let’s say your country was about to be invaded, your house stolen and you sent elsewhere or killed so that citizens of the invading country could occupy your house and your land instead.
And all of that not happening was hinged on the physical prowess of an old guy who’s probably been in politics for decades.
There’s also conscription in places which don’t attack others, because of an attack threat from a neighbor. I just hope that whatever helps humanity forward, goes to the root cause. Imperialist state oligarchs are a good start. And other billionaires
Macron now: maybe better distance ourselves from the USA
Is anyone even taking this guy seriously? I mean i kind of understand he will say anything at all that have a slight chance of lessening the internal contradictions in France, but please tell me not even liberals have memory this short?
To be fair, maybe he actually thought that US would back his idiotic plan, and when was told to go pound sand that’s where he flipped to US is unreliable narrative.
Fair enough, it’s not the first time he’s made noises like this, but US not backing his hare brained scheme is likely the reason behind the latest outburst.
Germany, UK and France were something like the centers of influence in the EU. Since UK brexited, Macron tries to capitalize on France being the one calling the shots, but doing it in a pretty embarassing manner. Remember his call to Putin early in 2022? Whatever one thinks about the subject of the call, he ran rogue from the EU and tried to be the frontrunner of EU-Russia relationships and probably claim the title of the peacemaker. Predictably, the only things he’s got are a tacker’s lecture and international WTF. And he also does this to the US, making himself look like a middleman in a EU-US dialogue. He looks like a Napoleon from historically incorrect jokes about his height, but not being a Napoleon-tier historical figure himself, but rather a side character. The type you skip all dialogs with.
Except the effect of his “autonomous Europe” policy is Europe being more and more dependent and more and more sabotaged by USA. Sure, Germany have more to say about it and they are gargling on US boot totally lately, but France influence is almost as big.
I guess they had a decent shot at it in the last two decades, but they blew it completely, and considering what Hollande and Merkel did with Minsk agreements, maybe they were never really intended to do it anyway.
He did talked about sending French troops, but that move only really benefits USA. If he wanted to distance France from USA he should first and foremost start with the most pressing things on US agenda - condemn Israeli genocide using all means available to sanction Israel, and at least try to act for a peace in Ukraine instead of constant stoking and escalating the conflict.
How is condemning Israel relevant to the protection of Europe?
He’s saying they should be relying on themselves instead of the US. For Europeans, what goes on in Israel is many layers removed from what’s going on in Ukraine.
Because it alienates them from their vassalizing lords, the United States.
Europe is currently stripping itself for parts for US interests. It is most in their interest to have an independent foreign policy but they’re so stuck in their imperialist wager of extracting wealth from the poorest countries (using the US as the global seat for this regime) it’s unimaginable to Euro liberals. They’re now so culturally ties to absolute nonsense about “Western values” and xenophobia (racism) that they can’t even bail themselves out of this situation.
Is Russia really in any position to be trying to wage war on multiple new fronts? Poland just implied Russia is going to attack Europe. With what? Dry Russian wit and empty vodka bottles?
Russia still has a lot of men and has already transitioned into a war-time economy. All Europe has done is have Baltics and Poland (and probably also Finland) go through potential invasion strategies, the rest of Europe doesn’t even believe in the possibility of war. The only way circumstances could be better is if Trump gets elected because that old fuck will make sure to hamper US support. Other than that if you’re going to invade you couldn’t want better conditions.
I’m not saying it will happen. I’m going to say the invasion would the stupid and hardly beneficial for Russia and the logical thing would be to not invade. But I will add that I said the exact same thing about the invasion of Ukraine and we know how that went. I wouldn’t put it beyond the realm of possibilities.
the invasion would the stupid and hardly beneficial for Russia and the logical thing would be to not invade. But I will add that I said the exact same thing about the invasion of Ukraine and we know how that went.
The main difference here though is the consideration of NATO. If you attack Ukraine you’re attacking one country, if you attack NATO you’re attacking many, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, who have some of the largest military’s forces on the planet and access to nuclear weapons. Russia had reason to believe it might have actually win against Ukraine, there’s no possible way they can think that they could win against NATO.
He’s counting on NATO continuing to take the “let’s just sanction him” approach. He’s essentially hoping they’re bluffing while he tries to get the gang back together. (USSR)
They won’t do that if he’s actually invading though. NATO’s point is they won’t ever escalate a situation. That whole point is to try and prevent something like world war II happening again. So declining war on Russia while he’s attacking a non-nato country would be an escalation. But they’re all about responding in kind to an attack against them.
Why multiple fronts? The current conflict may be frozen under “right” circumstances, Putin will have several years to resupply. It doesn’t matter if Ukrainian allies have more economical and technological power than Russia if people in places like Germany cry that Currywurst now costs 1 EUR more than 2 years ago, and just want this to be over.
If I remember right, most polls show people are against sending weapons. This might be why Scholz is cautious about sending Tauruses. The Baltic states have warned for years that Russia is a threat, even before Ukraine was invaded in 2022. But others didn’t listen to them then, and many still don’t take them seriously. The truth is, Russia is doing better than Ukraine’s allies because people think the conflict won’t reach them, and they prefer not to support politicians who would sacrifice short-term benefits for long-term security.
I’m not disputing your main point, I just think it’s interesting that you chose Germany as an example, which, as I wrote, is one of the top contributors, even adjusted for GDP.
In that case, I fail to follow your explanation. What’s more important: Words/sentiments, or actions? For example, Macron talks the talk, but fails to walk the walk, as evidenced by France’s sub-par contributions.
In my opinion, the outcome is what matters. But also: Sign off the Tauruses, Olaf!
I think most people are missing the strategy of modern Russian warfare. Is Russian going to roll tanks and soldiers into the Baltics this year? Probably not.
Russia is using more of an asymmetrical approach to warfare with a ramp up. On the low end is the disinformation campaign. (News and religion: there are a lot of Orthodox in Latvia) Economic “Little Green men” Conventional warfare Nukes or the threat of nukes
I’m the Baltics they are in the disinformation and economic section of the ramp up and are worried about escalation.
Also note Russia goes up and down that ramp escalating and descalating as they did in Ukraine.
Oh it’s here, but the economists most news agencies talk to only look at rich people metrics like stock prices and meaningless poor people metrics like unemplyment %.
Except Real Wages, incidence of home ownership, full-time employment, and GDP per capita are all up. This all while inflation continues to drop and has never risen anywhere near the levels seen abroad.
Mr Musk had initially rushed to embrace the news when Jenna, formally known as Xavier, transitioned at age 16.
To me this suggests that he first thought it would seem hip and contrarian to support his trans daughter, then he realized that actually the people he considers hip and contrarian are all about hating on trans kids now, and so swiftly pivoted to doing that. (I don't imagine he had any strong feelings about his daughter as a person either way - it's not like he was around for her childhood changing diapers or whatever)
Everything in the 90s was Xtreme. He’s 52 which means he was in his 20s that decade. He got way into the X-Games, ate nothing but warheads extreme candies and Taco Bell extreme nachos, drank the 7-11 Xtreme Gulp, and watched the Extreme Ghostbusters.
Taiwan (Republic of China) and China (People’s Republic of China) are different governments that both lay claim to the same territory.
The TL;DR is that in 1949 the communists won the Chinese civil war and the remaining nationalist opposition retreated to Taiwan, beginning the state of affairs that we have today.
PRC considers Taiwan part of its core territory and will not renounce its claims. RoC has, since 1991, officially recognised that they can’t retake the mainland, but there’s ongoing debate about whether or not Taiwanese reunification or an independent Taiwan is the end state.
Personally as a German. while disappointing at facevalue, i wouldn’t read too much into it in respect to any shifts in the commitment to supporting Ukraine (but i might also be wrong here).
To me this very much is an internal self-inflicted struggle about balancing budgets and we’ll only be able to tell whether it actually affected things in retrospect (if it’s even possible).
In the end maybe more purchases will be directed through EU funds (of which Germany pays a substantial share) or instead of direct aid things are financed through low interest rate loans (that later might even get forgiven). Or you have some other kind of schemes where aid indirectly goes towards Ukraine.
And who knows how the conflict will change, promting adjustments in deliveries. Like the recent airstrikes probably leading towards more air defense systems being delivered than originally anticipated (with a single Patriot system being worth as much as 1 billion if i understand it correctly)
I sincerely hope you are correct in this because this sort of funding cut, if it is what it sounds like and not your explanation, is absolutely the last thing Ukraine needs right now.
Well i aswell hope that this isn’t just my bias speaking :)
Unlike France or GB, which recently had elections substantially changing majorities, here in Germany it’s still the exact same people in charge since the start of this war. With the only major change being the defense minister, and that was for the better. So the people deciding here are the same that (based on this article) doubled this years support budget. And as far as i am aware there really hasn’t been any major event that would have shifted the sentiment in foreign politics from what we’ve experienced until now.
On the side of internal politics as mentioned it is basically a self-inflicted struggle to balance the budget and limit new debt. Because for some reason we chose to write that into our constitution, restraining our options. So everyone is fighting for their share and by the looks the winners are the usual: more money to secure pensions for old people and the automotive industry. While not only the budget for Ukraine is on the chopping block, but also other stuff like a reform of welfare for children or infrastructure projects for railroads.
Might sound bad, but it’s nothing really new and so far lack of funds hasn’t been an issue delaying German support. So i don’t expect it to be going forward either. We’ll just keep moving in lockstep with what others provide, slowly build out capacity and react to new developments. Which would be no change to how we’ve seem to have handled it so far, and not like “the slashing the budget by half” would imply.
And as mentioned above i am sure there are plenty of additional ways to support Ukraine that don’t hinge on the budget. Like telling Ukraine to direcly purchase through the manufacturers and giving security assurances for loans. Might be a worse deal on paper for Ukraine, but in the short/medium term wouldn’t make a practical difference. And things can get sorted later.
But regardless of how this plays out we won’t have any type of deadlock like the one delaying US aid until recently. And the largest party in the opposition is also in favor of supporting Ukraine, despite taking any opportunity to take shots at whatever the governing parties decide.
I am a bit more pessimistic than you. The “social democrats” SPD made their EU campaign on claiming to be the party that brings peace in Europe. The “liberal” (aka neoliberal with some alt-right tendencies) FDP was annoyed to have to start helping Ukraine instead of Russia just succeeding with the invasion and more business to be made under a new status quo. The “green” party has turned to be the most staunch supporter of weapon deliveries and military investments now. However their entire foreign policy is focused around doing what the US says and does.
If Trump wins, Germany will be quick to let Ukraine fall to Russia. Another big issue are the state level elections in eastern German states, where either fascist AfD governments or polarized deadlocks are to be expected. The AfD is a big Putin fanclub.
Also looking at how Germany left Afghanistan backstabbing and sacrificing the people die that risked their lives helping you, is the go to way of German foreign politics now.
telegraph.co.uk
Top