The funny thing about all this, is that people keep acting like Putin is some rational actor who can be bargained with.
But he’s not, listen to his speeches, listen to what he says he believes and wants. Some of it may be propaganda for internal consumption, but a lot of it seems consistent with his actions.
He sees the existence of an independent Ukraine as an existential threat, he ether wants it gone or under a puppet regime that he has throughly locked down. He doesn’t believe that Europe and the United States want peace, he is convinced that there is a shadowy deep state in Europe and the US that holds a consistent foreign policy across multiple administrations across multiple countries, and he see that foreign policy being to subjugate or destroy Russia.
The man has surrounded him self with conspiracy theorists, from disciples of Lyndon LaRouche to advocates of Eurasianism. He is detached from reality, swirling about a toilet bowl of yes men. He is not someone who can be compromised with or offered off ramps, he’s been repeatedly given off ramps and rejected them every time, thinking them to be traps.
The only end of this conflict is when internal power structures in Russia shift away from conspiracy theorists, or Russia’s ability to commit aggressive action is less than the defensive capabilities of its neighbors.
Interesting how the Saudi export of their religion is a problem but you’ve got people in the streets cheering for Hamas who is just as brutal if not worse in their upholding of their interpretation of Islamic laws. One’s certainly more subtle than attacking and killing a bunch of civilians but both are troublesome for Western democractic ideals.
Iran and Qatari investments are paying off . Better than the investment in a golf league… y’know, if you don’t value human life that is.
Extreme wealth absolutely is correlated with psychopaths. Nobody becomes ultrawealthy while keeping a conscience; to get that rich you have to step on other people. Unfortunately this phenomenon is not unique at all to the Saudi regime and I don’t think their cruelty or violence are either; the ruling capitalists all across the world make decisions daily with the same outcomes.
Golf sucks. Personally I think it should die out. What a waste, all across the world, of good land and water.
David Morales, a former Special Forces soldier in the Spanish military who owned a Spanish surveillance firm that was contracted to provide security for the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
To be clear: when they say Morales, they’re talking about the Spanish for-profit surveillance guy, not to be confused with the president of Bolivia Evo Morales.
For a second I thought this was a back stab by Latin America, whew. Nope, just the US doing its illicit shenanigans.
The announcement of what could be Julian Assange’s final hearings – on 20 and 21 February before the British High Court – has sparked a flurry of speculation about what could be the final fate of the now 52-year-old Australian journalist and publisher, who has been imprisoned in London for four years while awaiting extradition to the United States where 175 years of supermax almost certainly await him.
But how is it possible that Assange can be jailed for 175 years, just for doing what any responsible journalist and editor should always do – that is, disclose war crimes and other wrongdoings he or she learns about by way of spontaneous witnesses? Especially since the US Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that it is permissible to reveal state secrets if it is in the public interest to do so?
Just based on the article, these “reforms” are clearly aimed at harming the working class. I’ll give you one guess as to which other class of people will benefit from them.
That’s very dismissive of the failures the former ruling party had. It’s hard to drum up votes for the guy considered responsible for tanking your county’s economy and spiking the poverty rate.
Like I agree, him winning is unfortunate and short sighted, but I think blaming the victims isn’t going to do anything other than help asshats like him win.
I’m not attempting to victim-blame; nobody is completely immune to propaganda and it’s not the fault of the working class that we’re bombarded by it constantly. Often people have no clue they’re being lied to all their lives. When they make decisions based on faulty information that’s shoved at them for decades by the rich and powerful, the working people are not to blame; the people who make the propaganda are.
I'm honestly interested to see how this goes. Usually when someone is elected who claims to be "libertarian" they don't actually adhere to the philosophy or just pay lip service. I lean socialist myself, but one size never fits all and Argentina is in bad enough shape that maybe this will help.
It looks like he’s trying to heal a patient with bloodletting. I think it might help to revive the economy, but also may be a disaster. Also I think that the social guarantees should at least be in force after things get better, if not the whole time. Trying to work things out for the country by putting the citizens in even worse position does not seem like a humane thing to do even if it works :(
Same here. Milei as an experiment could go either way, but staying the course would have led to certain disaster… and to be frank, the country as a whole doesn’t have a lot to lose at this point anyway.
Could go either way fucking lol, the man is an insane cunt - what fucking possible way could it go except to shit? He might become a normal dude after a stroke? What the fuck
I think that’s a bit oversimplified. Milei’s no doubt a knob and there’s a good chance he’ll screw up, but the alternative would have been the former minister of economy doing four years of the same, which would have been a 100% chance of screwing up. So before you make any more oversimplified statements, consider the alternative to Milei.
Milei has inherited a country on the brink of economic collapse and hyperinflation, caused by a government that has financed its overspending by just printing more money for decades, and borrowing whatever foreign currency it could. This is obviously not sustainable.
He wants to link the peso to the dollar (so the government can’t print more money at will anymore - not to mention the fact that many transactions are already half-legally done in dollars anyway) and do away with some of the many regulations that the Peronists have been promising for decades will help the economy, but which most experts agree have unsurprisingly crippled it further, and in many cases facilitated corruption.
His opponent’s political program can be summed up as “introduce more subsidies”.
Which one makes more sense to you?
It probably depends on what you want to achieve. At the moment it’s probably to avoid hyperinflation, another national bankruptcy and poverty levels climbing to new all-time highs. Massa (the other guy) is known for trying to counter the effects of the current massive inflation by printing more money for government subsidies (let that sink in for a moment), so one could argue that whatever Milei actually does, it can’t be worse than that.
His (to put it mildly) over-the-top rhetoric, homophobia/misogyny and the suggestions to sell your organs to make ends meet etc. are different beasts altogether, but I can’t blame the voters for ranking having food on the table higher than strengthening LGBTQ+ rights. I’m grateful I don’t have to make that choice in my own country.
You are talking about a guy who takes economic advice from a “psychic medium” who he believes is in turn talking psychically to his dogs, who he believes are clones of resurrected jesus-dog.
Yearly inflation for December 2023 has been 160% (stuff that used to cost 100, now costs 260)
A 50% devaluation, is the same as a 100% inflation: stuff that used to cost 100, now costs 200.
Milei has promised a reduction in inflation for the next year, from the 160% to just 60% (stuff that used to cost 100, plus through the 50% devaluation now costs 200, will end up costing just another 60% more, or 320“160”).
Meaning: instead of having to anounce a 220% inflation for 2024, he’s split it into “50% devaluation, plus 60% inflation”.
…see? He promised to reduce inflation, and he did! 🎉🤡 /s
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