Erdogan got out of the way, and Orban made a huge deal about how Hungary wouldn’t be the one to hold it up… and then Erdogan timed it so Hungary would be the one to hold it up.
I genuinely hope Erdogan and Orban backstab each other more aggressively going forward, as it would be good for NATO, the EU, and the world in general.
I think it's an important step to increasing international pressure on Israel. International pressure was a major reason for how the apartheid in South Africa came to an end. But I do agree it's terrible more immediate actions aren't being taken to help Palestinians like an actual ceasefire or aid not being prevented for possible "dual-use"
It should be noted that the votes on these measures were nearly unanimous among the 17 judges who considered them. Even Israel’s own ad hoc judge voted against his country on a couple of counts.
They’re being paid to do so. Indirectly, of course, but I’d bet my aggregate lifetime income that some solid forensic accounting of campaign contributions to these assholes - not to mention a LOT of the PACs affiliated with them - ultimately lead to addresses in Moscow.
At the same time, with the Baltic states and Finland in NATO now - and Sweden on the cusp of accession - the Suwalki Gap has become much less of a strategic bottleneck for NATO.
In an interesting recent development, apparently Meloni (who’s very far right) was integral in getting Orban to chill the fuck out and allow passage of the EU’s military aid package to Ukraine. So as much as I dislike her, I do have to give her credit for that.
That's one of the important reasons that the far-right took over politics in Italy recently, the Italian right is very pro-Ukraine while the Italian left is anti-Ukraine for some godawful reason. Being pro-Ukraine alone got them a significant portion of votes the left would've gotten otherwise. Couple that with one of the primary issues in politics becoming LGBTQ rights, with (especially southern) Italy being largely very catholic and consequently anti-gay (in fact gay marriage is still illegal in Italy, you only have same-sex civil unions), and with the other primary issue being immigration (mostly as a guise for racism), the Italian public started voting very right-wing.
The fact that the left started infighting in Italy and were completely splintered at the time of elections spelled their doom. You can find a similar scenario in some other European countries in the past few years.
Now that the right is fucking basic shit up in Italy, a good amount of the public has slowly been starting to realize that they liked it way more when the leftists were in charge and making slow improvements, even if it wasn't perfect... but it isn't helping much to stop the rise of the right. Italy has always been aligned with highly conservative beliefs, it's common to miss the "good ol' days" when Mussolini was in charge and the economy was good, so it's the norm for politicians to openly say borderline fascist things (well now it's just flat out blatantly fascist speech).
I am consistently infuriated by how far-left political parties have become Russophile/Sinophile/extremely anti-western, for no other reason than “Russia is the successor state of the USSR” (sorta, but not really, if we’re getting technical) and “the PRC is the only true socialist country!1!!one”(lmao no it’s fucking not).
Like, I’ve gone to rallies in my city run by the DSA and Socialist Alternative, and there’s always some dipshit up at the front with the big fucking Soviet flags with pics of Stalin, Lenin, and Mao on them, and I just want to smack them and beg them to read, like, literally any history on the atrocities they perpetrated. They’re not heroes. Socialism isn’t supposed to be about heroes. It’s supposed to be about equality, egalitarianism, and human decency, rendered through political and government policies.
It feels like a lot of these groups are actually far more enamored by the authoritarian components of the former USSR, and far less interested in the actual “socialist” aspects - particularly, in the ways that socialist ideas could be applied in western societies that are going through late stage capitalism, but in most cases were able to avoid being subjected to authoritarian “communism” (quoted so because the USSR was very, very far from what communism is actually supposed to be in an idealistic sense, even if you ignore the authoritarian part).
I think what everyone is starting to understand is that Orban is going to hold out for a kickback every single time anyone else needs literally anything done quickly, in any context. They’re proving themselves to be a consistently awful international partner in any regard (unless, of course, you’re Russia).
I thought there was a glimmer of hope considering he finally acquiesced to funding relief and aid for Ukraine, but apparently not. Orban has been fucking around entirely too much, and he really needs to find out.
Note that the blocking forces (troops that prevent assault troops from retreating) are always armed, however, and that blue-on-blue is a feature for them, not a bug.
So you’re saying the people being systematically oppressed and marginalized are turning radical in their helplessness? How rude of them. They should just shut up and go into the gas.
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