Geopolitics in the 2020s.

[Zetterlund]

15 hours ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/12/detente-between-saudi-arabia-and-iran-is-no-panacea-for-yemen-war

The liberal media with its eyes on the prize though: what about female representation to end this generational war?! 

Women's groups being of course critical to the West's own foreign policy and defence policies. 

This has 'China has dragged 500 million citizens out of poverty, but at what cost?' vibes.

[vikingTON]

France deciding to take a leaf out of the Weimar Republic in 1930's book by just sacking off any concept of democratic government when you just can't be arsed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/17/french-anger-spreads-after-macron-forces-pension-age-rise

[vikingTON]

Just your regular exercise in utter fail from smug, Western liberal commentators:.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/22/vladimir-putin-xi-jinping-russia-china

Quote

Xi is not negotiating with the west from a position of strength. China’s economy is still reeling from three years of the zero-Covid policy and a real-estate crisis. It is vastly dependent on US and European trade, with the US dollar and the euro making up substantial parts of Chinese monetary reserves.  

That's right folks - running up a huge trade deficit with China was actually a cunning plan by the West all along! Straight out of the Sevco 'you sink us and we'll sink you' annals of utter desperation. 

Quote

Xi is well aware that his country is not ready to pay the economic price of openly challenging the west. In the absence of a popular mandate, economic growth is the only sure political survival strategy for non-democratic leaders, and Xi is not about to jeopardise his own security to help out Putin.

Just as well then that literally hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens have been pulled out of the most abject poverty within they or their parents' lifetimes. And if that doesn't work, there's always the Tiananmen Square backup. 

Chinese imperial regimes have  enforced the Mandate of Heaven for over 2000 years, but Angry Liberals on Twitter think that's not good enough now. 

Quote

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine precipitated a growing realisation in the west that it may be time to loosen its economic dependence on repressive regimes. The time for low-cost electronics and fast fashion may be coming to an end, as western consumers want higher quality, responsibly sourced goods and western companies are able to find other cheaper manufacturing locations. Xi’s feigned rapprochement with Russia is an attempt to reverse these changes and to negotiate more favourable terms for himself.

lol wut

Western consumers do not want to pay the exorbitantly higher prices that this ethical claptrap entails. It's a recipe for populism that will make Trump and Brexit look like a teddy bear's picnic. In what bizarre, alternate universe does she inhabit in which Western democracies are resilient enough to tolerate this completely rupture of their own social contract right now? 

But it's okay because there are cheaper manufacturing options out there anyway, that are definitely legitimate democratic states with no such issues as China's whatsoever. We can just ignore them and they're bound to go away.

Absolutely clueless.

Edited March 22, 2023 by vikingTON

[Guest]

Erdoğan has always spent highly on healthcare and education, improving outomes in both those areas for Turks. That's good but everything else about him has been bad. Like most post-imperial societies, Turkish thought has a strong fascistic strand to it that's easily brought to the fore. Since the beginning, Erdoğan has harnessed the electoral power of that Turkish chauvinism to keep himself ruling. In short, he's a horrible wee guy. 

Anyway, a left wing Kurdish identity party (HDP) was set up in 2015. Obviously, it is strongly opposed to Erdoğan so he's attempted to have the party shut down since its inception, usually under an anti-terrorism pretext. He's finally succeeded in this aim, having the party's bank accounts frozen, financially crippling them. It now looks like this will backfire on Erdoğan, though, as the HDP have announced in response they now won't field a candidate in next month's election. Instead telling their voters - around 10% of the electorate - to vote for the main opposition candidate.

Erdoğan is polling at an historical low so there is a real chance he could lose to his challenger, Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu, next month. If it happens, it won't change things much but will be a small win nonetheless.

[ICTChris]

There are reports that Azeri troops have crossed the line of control agreed after the 2020 war in Ngorno Karabakh. Azerbijan has been blockading the Armenian controlled sections of the territory for several months under the laughably false guise of environmental protesters. Now there are multiple reports that they are moving militarily. There have been some reports from the Armenian side that they have moved troops and military equipment towards the area.

The EU have been taking a more prominent role in the mediation of the conflict, with observer teams in Armenia to monitor the situation - Azerbaijan refused them permission to enter their territory. Iran have also been involved in the discussions, generally favouring the Armenian position, albeit quietly.

Very tense situation, with a big risk of civilian casualties should fighting escalate. There are tens of thousands of Armenian civilians blockaded in Karabakh now and they wouldn’t be able to escape the fighting.

[vikingTON]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/25/tiktok-china-cognitive-warfare-us-ban

Beginning to see an exponential growth rate in the number of unhinged Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiina takes in the 'liberal' media. 

[vikingTON]

On 17/03/2023 at 12:48, virginton said:

France deciding to take a leaf out of the Weimar Republic in 1930's book by just sacking off any concept of democratic government when you just can't be arsed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/17/french-anger-spreads-after-macron-forces-pension-age-rise

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/25/we-french-were-born-to-confront-authority-can-macron-withstand-the-onslaught

Quote

Since Macron’s pension reform was legally forced through parliament, and the vote of no-confidence in the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, was rejected by only nine votes, tension has been rising. It is in the air, just like spring and the smell of putrefaction.

It wasn't 'legally forced' through parliament - a contradiction in terms - it was legally imposed despite parliament's democratic rejection. Just like all the good old emergency decrees that the President of Weimar Germany used to override pesky democratic opposition to government policies.

The open desire to pick and choose when democratic norms should apply just because is not a symptom of rude health. 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/25/tiktok-china-cognitive-warfare-us-ban

Beginning to see an exponential growth rate in the number of unhinged Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiina takes in the 'liberal' media. 

I read this the other day, a succinct counter:

Edited March 26, 2023 by FreedomFarter

[Zetterlund]

When it comes to China, Australia is doing its best to out-do the USA when it comes to hysterical propaganda. It's a hot topic on the news all of a sudden, which definitely isn't anything to do with the hundreds of billions of dollars they're about to shovel into a fire at America's request in order to acquire a few submersible white elephants.

Apparently this is to counter the 'threat' of China. The threat presumably being that China will, for reasons that none of us are intelligent enough to understand, decide to destroy the trade relationships they depend on for their very existence. 

[Zetterlund]

Spectacular heads gone from this utter lunatic.

 

[GNU_Linux]

2 hours ago, Zetterlund said:

Spectacular heads gone from this utter lunatic.

 

 

[ICTChris]

An Azeri MP has been shot and wounded in Baku. Reports blaming Iran, amidst rising tension between Iran and Azerbijan.

 

[vikingTON]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/09/the-observer-view-on-afghanistan-wests-betrayal-should-be-a-cause-for-shame-in-britain-and-the-us

Quote

Retrospective inquiries are important but do little to help the Afghan people, day-to-day victims of a huge humanitarian crisis and a violently oppressive, misogynistic Taliban regime. Yet what is the government doing? It is slashing UK aid to Afghan women and girls while abjectly failing refugees and evacuees. The fall of Kabul represented a great betrayal. The betrayal continues.

Western liberals continuing the delusion that the values of their Twitter echo chamber could be imposed on a different society at the opposite end of the world, by drone bombing yet more innocent wedding parties.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/09/the-observer-view-on-afghanistan-wests-betrayal-should-be-a-cause-for-shame-in-britain-and-the-us

Western liberals continuing the delusion that the values of their Twitter echo chamber could be imposed on a different society at the opposite end of the world, by drone bombing yet more innocent wedding parties.

The US was not protecting Afghan girls from the Taliban, as that article asserts, it was murdering Afghan girls. Right up until USA belatedly left, they were still at it. Two year old Sumaya Ahmadi had her life ended by a drone strike only days before the US military pull out (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58604655.amp). That's it. She's dead. Her life is over now. She got two years.

Sumaya Ahmadi and countless other Afghans could've been spared had the US ended their occupation earlier. Yet here The Observer editors think the "shame" was in it finally ending. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by FreedomFarter

[vikingTON]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/emmanuel-macron-sparks-anger-europe-vassal-us-china-clash

Americans and legacy West Germans having a normal one at the prospect of European states having an independent foreign policy sometime this century. 

[MazzyStar]

8 minutes ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/emmanuel-macron-sparks-anger-europe-vassal-us-china-clash

Americans and legacy West Germans having a normal one at the prospect of European states having an independent foreign policy sometime this century. 

Does Macron actually think Europe has a choice in the matter? As for Europe not becoming a “vassal” of the US, he’s about 7 decades too late for that. 

[Guest]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65279818

The constitutional council, made up of nine people all over the age of 64, two of them hand-picked by Macron, voting on something that penalises young, poor French people. There's been the mass demonstrations and polls show a large majority of the French public are against the change. Demands for a referendum were rejected. Amendments to slightly soften the bill were rejected. The bill was put straight to these nine arseholes, bypassing parliament. 112 protesters since arrested because they're the problem not the authoritarian neoliberal state.

The amount of democracy in liberal democracy is extremely low.

[Guest]

Lawyer Steven Donziger won a multi-billion dollar judgement on behalf of native Ecuadorians against Chevron's destruction of their land. That happened in Ecuador and Chevron then sued him in USA as a result. A court in the Southern District of New York agreed that victorious advocacy for indigenous peasants against a US corporate behemoth should see Donziger have his life ruined. Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court in USA refused their option to challenge that Southern District of New York court's decision. Notably, the only dissenters on the Supreme Court were two Republican appointees, not any of the 3 Democratic appointees. Summarised here:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/14/the-case-of-steven-donziger-supreme-court-liberals-help-turn-judges-into-prosecutors/

 

Interesting to me is why that specific court was chosen by Chevron to pursue Donziger in and why these SDNY courts have so much power. That's explained here:

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by FreedomFarter

[welshbairn]

The news about British troops landing in an Eastern Sudan port raises the prospect of direct conflict with the Wagner group who are trying to establish a Russian naval base, partly to transport their gold from a deal with the RSF side of the current hostilities.

Edited April 24, 2023 by welshbairn

[Guest]

Good read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/world/americas/brazil-land-occupation.html

What this guy points out in his tweet thread here gives important context. He's also correct that the article frames things wrongly and is heavily biased. For me, though, the article at least shows some sympathy.

Vasco da Gama top.

Edited May 2, 2023 by FreedomFarter