They are just edging this bill till nobody pays attention. Democracy at work!

Up next: PayPal introducing new AI that purchases random shit for you.

I’m starting to get the feeling that “X is playing chess while Y is playing checkers” is an indicator species for a terrible take.

But they are not gonna leave, and we can’t make them without risking worse (for Ukraine and the world at large).

And of course we can’t force Ukraine to stop resisting (nor should we, it is their right), but I have the impression the west does not want this to end (regardless of the cost of Ukrainian lives), and sees this as an opportunity to weaken Russia.

The world of geopolitics is a world without police, so I agree that the invasion is a war crime, but in practice there is not much we can do that doesn’t make the situation worse.

In my opinion the best we can hope for is peace by means of a balance of power.

The lack of credible enforcement of international law is made very clear by the Iraq war, a war of aggression where the perpetrators were never held to account because the US was powerful enough to prevent that.

I don’t think it’s morally bad to be pragmatic in that sense, if trying to punish Russia leads to nuclear annihilation.

I’m not saying Ukraine doesn’t have the right to defend itself, but the west is not Ukraine and has a broader responsibility (and seems currently mostly concerned with destabilizing Russia regardless of the cost of Ukrainian lives).

Russia made clear that it had the intent and means to stop Ukraine from joining NATO, and yet the US kept promising. This was dangerous and escalatory, the West knew this (this is also the reason why France and Germany were originally against it when the US proposed this) and yet they kept promising. Even after Russia annexed Crimea and started fighting Ukraine in the east the US kept promising NATO, de facto forcing Russia to keep fighting. Even when Russia made it 100% explicit and clear, they would not take NATO of the table.

This war was preventable, and further conflict is still preventable. But the US has shown that apparently Ukrainian lives are not worth a lot compared to their geo-strategic plans.

And of course Russia doesn’t and didn’t have the right to invade Ukraine, but if the US are truly ‘the good guys’ then it’s time to act that way and find a peaceful solution (given the situation at hand).

And finally, while it’s up to Ukrainians to decide in what kind of country they want to live, I can imagine they would rather live in a neutral country than a destroyed one.

Making emotional appeals on how evil the enemy is, is not a great way to deescalate a situation. And if you want to keep more hospitals standing, peace is your best hope. We can not control what Russia does, nor can you defeat a nuclear power, we can only negotiate and hope to get back to a point where both Russia and Europe had their security concerns met and there was no war in Ukraine.

If the West keeps escalating, at some point Russia has to respond to not loose credibility. The fact that western politicians are convinced they are morally right seems to blind them to this. Russia is capable of doing real damage and has thus far threatened but also shown restraint, clearly they do not want to escalate this beyond Ukraine. Nobody, not the West, not Ukraine, and not Russia, has an interest in WW3 but every day we seem to blindly walk closer and closer. Making it all the more astonishing that not more mainstream voices confront the harsh realpolitik of the current situation.

Germany hast lost the plot.

Germany defining what it means to be Jewish again.

They have a special responsibility due to their history, but they deal with this crisis with all the gracefulness of a bull in a china shop.

According to the researcher Emily Dische-Becker, almost a third of those cancelled in Germany for their supposed antisemitism have been Jews.

“A political revolution has begon” and “tickets sold out in just two days” don’t really make sense together.

The most efficient and sustainable battery is none at all, in some cases this is not possible, but for trains the alternative is literally older than sliced bread.

It would make me personally so happy if Rutte doesn’t get the job. But I’ve the feeling he is already locked and loaded.

This is the 12th issue and it started in 1980.

It’s funny in which way the bot kinda doesn’t work in this specific example, where the boring numbers are the main attraction and the actual content of the paper is not that relevant (to me at least).

USA! USA! USA!

Cynicism time:

Rutte knew this was on the table and let the government collapse on purpose (it was very strange at the time why he would make an ultimatum out of an issue all coalition partners agreed on could be solved). Now we will likely have a hard-right prime minister because of the career wishes of Rutte. Super gaaf.

Why euthanasia, they look absolutely fine, as healthy and dandy as the average US presidential candidate.

Based on research by Adrian Zenz, an independent researcher that has never been shown to be a complete fraud.

I posted one meme about Taylor Swift and got called a Q Anon supporter.