International Politics Thread - Disease and Disaster

[curly]

https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/968605940642729985

Normal, healthy country

[shosta]

[benjipwns]

Normal, healthy country

i'd imagine you might fall off your bike if you got shot in the head while riding it

so the social studies warrior pro-islam defense force DEBUNKED yet again

[benjipwns]

The EU is a long term social psychology experiment in getting the European nations to slowly dissolve and cede all authority to the larger federation. Europe can't go to war with itself for the same reason California never goes to war with Texas.

And that's why it keeps marching East and Russia keeps freaking out. People like Metternich were deeply afraid of what would happen if Napoleon could conquer all of Europe and direct its force anywhere. Well Brussels pretty much did that. And that's also why Russia would love to keep Ukraine anti-European and the Baltic States under their thumb and I'm sure they'd conquer Finland if they could. Because Europe is now the Napoleonic supranation that will eat its lunch.

at least credit the source of your jokes buddy:

[Syph]

no surprise benji has good taste
 


in other news:

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen charged over IS photos

"French prosecutors filed preliminary charges Thursday against Marine Le Pen for tweeting brutal images of Islamic State violence.

The prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre said the charges were issued for "distribution of violent images." If the case eventually reaches trial and she's convicted, Le Pen could face up to three years in prison and a 75,000-euro ($90,000) fine.

Le Pen's December 2015 tweets showed executions by IS extremists, including the killing of American reporter James Foley. She posted them in the wake of the November 2015 IS attacks on Paris, accusing the government of not doing enough to protect France."

shameful

[Raist]

Lol get rekt Marine.

edit: and yes, her parliamentary immunity has been revoked, so it could get somewhere (probably not much more than a fine tho).

[team filler]

[Rufus]

Du sprichst Deutsch?

[Brehvolution]

I don't. What does it say? 

[Rufus]

Right, sorry. :I

Angela Merkel said: "Every person in Germany earns 3000€ on average!"

I ask myself: "Am I not a person, or not in Germany?"

[Raist]

She actually said that?

God she's so fucking useless.

[Nintex]

I think that the Germans are afraid of having a somewhat functioning government and are apathetic to political debates. So they just keep voting for the Christian fatty to be on the safe side.

Looking at the US, not actually a bad strategy to vote on the most dull, uninspiring, bureaucratic figurehead.

[Syph]

Lol get rekt Marine.

edit: and yes, her parliamentary immunity has been revoked, so it could get somewhere (probably not much more than a fine tho).

wut
why would you want that?

[Rufus]

She actually said that?

God she's so fucking useless.

Can't find a source on it.

I think that the Germans are afraid of having a somewhat functioning government and are apathetic to political debates. So they just keep voting for the Christian fatty to be on the safe side.

Nah. Germans like stability, above all. Merkel's opportunistic pragmatism, "sitting out" of issues and opaque political positions (allowing people to project theirs onto her) put her on the big chair three times and will for a fourth (and final) time. Once we've formed another government, that is. Any day now...

[jorma]

Merkel is the perfect German chancellor for EU.

Imagine someone like Berlusconi or Sarko bossing Germany and lording it over the southern plebs? Euro project dead in two months.

[shosta]

ok but Trump is president so what does that mean for nato

[jorma]

ok but Trump is president so what does that mean for nato

George W already spent most of the Nato currency they had and used it to invade Iraq. Trump isn't going to be able to do anything with Nato.

[Raist]

Lol get rekt Marine.

edit: and yes, her parliamentary immunity has been revoked, so it could get somewhere (probably not much more than a fine tho).

wut
why would you want that?

Cause she's a piece of shit?

[team filler]

[benjipwns]

italy being italy

[benjipwns]

During the day many voters waited in line for more than an hour to vote, only to then be baffled by confusing ballots and the process to cast them - which for the first time required an anti-fraud check by polling authorities.

"You feel as if you have gone there prepared but it's not that clear," complained Sister Vincenza as she cast her ballot on Rome's Aventine hill before heading to Mass.

Some polling stations remained closed in Palermo two hours into election day because the wrong ballots were delivered and 200,000 new ones had to be reprinted overnight. Similar ballot glitches were reported elsewhere, forcing the suspension of the vote in two towns in Alessandria.

[benjipwns]

and of course, guess who's there!

"Italy is, more than anywhere else in the world right now, even more than Brexit, even more than the Trump revolution in the US, the cutting edge of the sovereignty movement, of people saying we’ve tried to play by the rules, we’ve voted in centre-Left governments and centre-Right governments, and none of that has worked," Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, told The Telegraph in Rome.

“So now people are looking at another alternative. What they want is power back to the people in a populist revolt.”

Mr Bannon is in the Italian capital to observe the outcome of Italy’s closely fought election, which he called “the most important thing happening politically in the world right now”.

[shosta]

He's just worried about all that inmigrante clandestino

[warcock]

Man as an ameritard i find  the backlash the SPD  is currently facing from long time members to be really weird. I've been conditioned for so long now to make concessions in terms of ideology and values that I find it bizarre, no even irresponsible that they would give their leaders shit for this. And we dont even have to deal with a parilmentary system. It must be nice to actually have representation

[benjipwns]

the preliminary results for the PR vote in Italy (with my ignorant (but still better than John Oliver's?) attempts to summarizing each party):
Five Star - 32% (sorta no platform, anti-europe, anti-coalition party started by that comedian though he's somewhat not part of it anymore)
Democratic - 19% (basically standard social democrats, main party of left coalition, was governing party)
Lega Nord - 18% (former secession movement that's turned into either a populist anti-europe anti-immigrant party and/or an outright fascist party depending on the day of the week, now the largest party in right coalition)
Forza - 14% (Berlusconi's reboot party, previous largest party in right coalition and like "vote for the crook, it's important" type status)
Brothers of Italy - 4% (part of right coalition, anti-Europe conservatives but with legacy tied to past fascist parties, also founded by and run by a woman...so MISLEADING NAME)
Free and Equal - 3% (non-coalition left party/alliance, like a wee step to the left of social democrats)
More Europe - 3% (part of left coalition, the current state of the historical Radicals, classical liberals/left-libertarian alliance, pro-Europe)

Us with Italy - 1% (part of right coalition, more standard european christian democrat party)*
Together / Pop Civic List / some regional parties - combined 1.5% (part of left coalition, mishmash of progressive, green, and christian democrats)*

none of the parties or coalitions are going to get 40+% to form a government...this is the worst the Democratic Party has ever done since its founding...the five star, lega, and brothers combo of 54% of the vote means that basically the only solution of a Berlusconi + left coalition agreement that people were hoping on won't really get anywhere even if they pull in free and equal, they'd be able to form a government, but couldn't do anything

*may not get over threshold for PR seats depending on where the votes come from

[benjipwns]

Giulia De Virgilio and her husband, Vico Vicenzi, both 72-year-old lawyers, walked out of a polling station in Rome’s historic center on Sunday and said they had cast their votes for Mr. Salvini, despite usually voting for the left.

Their comments suggested that Mr. Salvini’s efforts to transform his party from a northern secessionist movement into a force appealing to Italians everywhere had paid off. He convinced the couple that illegal migrants posed an existential threat, especially after a young woman was killed and dismembered in a central Italian town in January. The police arrested Nigerian immigrants in the killing.

“They cut out her heart, her guts — they are cannibals,” said Ms. De Virgilio. She said, “Nigerians are drug dealers.”

That anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as a strong dose of euroskepticism, swept Italy this election season.

The Five Star Movement appealed to voters on both the left and the right, especially in the country’s poorer southern regions. Young voters flocked to their throw-out-the-bums message.

Five Star’s ability to elide hard positions on controversial issues such as immigration and leaving the eurozone, as well as its support for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, made it a difficult target for its political enemies.

Both Mr. Berlusconi and Mr. Renzi characterized Five Star as the greatest threat to Italy to come along in ages. But now it is Italy’s most popular party

[warcock]

Jesus fuck, now that Schlaube is no longer in finance we have Rutte's leash being pulled last week barking against closer union and now 5-star running away with the election.  FML

[benjipwns]

from what I can tell, Italy so screwed up their electoral laws in the last few years that it's not clear exactly what the process is for, well, what looks to be the results of this election, even though they should have expected this after well the last one and everything since then

the best part is that there was agreement between all the major parties for a reform in 2015, and then when they took a secret ballot in Parliament on it, it got battered

then the next one they passed and is still in effect (for the lower house, not the Senate) already had half of it struck down as unconstitutional

[benjipwns]

at least in good news for successful democracy, Putin is polling at 69% against just 8% and 6% for the two leading Western globalist elite puppets threatening destruction of Glorious Russia, so that scare of him falling under 60% a couple weeks ago just appears to be a faulty pollster who is likely trying to undermine Russian democracy probably at the orders of some bitter American deadenders

hopefully the President is enacting strong security measures to ensure that the West cannot attack the important democratic electoral processes of the country and also has in place strong corrective measures to counter any attempts at altering the outcome against the will of the Russian people

[Marhunchy]

from what I can tell, Italy so screwed up their electoral laws in the last few years that it's not clear exactly what the process is for, well, what looks to be the results of this election, even though they should have expected this after well the last one and everything since then

the best part is that there was agreement between all the major parties for a reform in 2015, and then when they took a secret ballot in Parliament on it, it got battered

then the next one they passed and is still in effect (for the lower house, not the Senate) already had half of it struck down as unconstitutional

and, from what it looks, the next government will be a limited one, with the sole scope of writing a new electoral law

to have new elections

[Brehvolution]

[Nintex]

No 1. on the Al Qaeda hit list.

Dutch opposition leader Geert Wilders.
Last week he was in Moscow:


This week:


It's spreading.

[Raist]

[curly]

https://twitter.com/georgeeaton/status/970679622307405826

[VomKriege]

at least in good news for successful democracy, Putin is polling at 69% against just 8% and 6% for the two leading Western globalist elite puppets threatening destruction of Glorious Russia, so that scare of him falling under 60% a couple weeks ago just appears to be a faulty pollster who is likely trying to undermine Russian democracy probably at the orders of some bitter American deadenders

hopefully the President is enacting strong security measures to ensure that the West cannot attack the important democratic electoral processes of the country and also has in place strong corrective measures to counter any attempts at altering the outcome against the will of the Russian people

I believe I heard the administration is working towards Putin winning with roughly 70% of the vote and a 70% turnout (from Julia Ioffe IIRC ?) if possible and without bending the election out of any credibility. As Putin gets older and without any solid succession plan, it's getting increasingly more imperative to sit his legitimacy.

[Raist]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43277176

Theresa May has urged the EU to get on with discussing her "ambitious but practical" vision for economic relations with the UK after Brexit.

[chronovore]

https://twitter.com/christreilly/status/970350233979891712

[Raist]

https://twitter.com/christreilly/status/970350233979891712

https://twitter.com/luke_kol/status/970591256471638016

[warcock]

https://twitter.com/christreilly/status/970350233979891712

LOL. I would like a dictatoresque statue like size of this https://goo.gl/images/SaiGC3

[warcock]

https://twitter.com/georgeeaton/status/970679622307405826

(Image removed from quote.)

Seeing that figure for the PS is really fucking extraordinary. In hindsight, even if taken at mere face value, that shit should be enshrined in the hall of fame of great political upheavals. Nobody cares well cause france. But how bold in 2017 to bet on the sanity of the general electorate to get through the second tour. (I wanted hamon to win)

[Raist]

The PS has been a fucking shit show for at least 4-5 rounds of presidential elections breh.

[warcock]

The PS has been a fucking shit show for at least 4-5 rounds of presidential elections breh.

Quand meme depuis la derniere presidentielle. It's a pretty dramatic shift.

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/georgeeaton/status/970679622307405826

(Image removed from quote.)

Because Corbyn is also bought and paid for by...

The Russians 

[Corporal]

In news that actually matter, if you're in Germany you can spend 70 cents on postage and mail a letter to the Easter Bunny. If you do so before the 23rd of this month, it's gonna reply. The answer will contain a rare first person account of the windup to Easter and a look behind the scenes at Easter Bunny Inc ...and a small token of appreciation.

Hanni Hase
Am Waldrand 12
27404 Ostereistedt

I have to admit that I'm kinda tempted. Election shmelection. Whatever.  Just gimme Easter Bunny loot.

[Raist]

That easter bunny thing makes no sense.

Bunnies don't lay eggs FFS.

[Brehvolution]

That easter bunny thing makes no sense.

Bunnies don't lay eggs FFS.

Video proof. Raist disintegrated.

[Nintex]

Geo-political pro-tip

[chronovore]

Geo-political pro-tip

(Image removed from quote.)

[VomKriege]

Хочешь чаю ?

[VomKriege]

...the harder they fall

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-myanmar-award/u-s-holocaust-museum-rescinds-award-to-myanmars-suu-kyi-idUSKCN1GJ2U0

[benjipwns]

because of her failure to condemn and stop military attacks on her country’s minority Rohingya Muslims

i'll go out on a limb and assume her power to stop anything the military is doing is only minimally more than mine

i'll go out on another limb and assume her lack of criticism is due to preferring not being put back under house arrest now that she's in her 70s

[benjipwns]

also, it seems like the holocaust museums awards should only be for bad things like awards for "most victims ethnically cleansed" and "most power consolidated in self"

[benjipwns]

and it comes with a cash prize, that they have to accept in person, then you arrest them when they come! foolproof!

[Nintex]

It seems like May wants to hold the Russians accountable for nearly killing about 20 people.
But she really needs to ask herself how they managed to pull that off (twice) in the first place.

[Nintex]

You guys should watch the interview that Megyn Kelly did with Putin.
She emotionally brings up the gassed Syrian children.

Putin shrugs and says it doesn't matter 


"DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT KIDS DYING!!"

"It is of no concern"

 

[FStop7]

“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trails 1945-1949)
I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the
defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men.


Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”

Quotation: Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to
watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trail

[warcock]

This roast of Benoit Hamon is so epic. 

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/973250755695034368
Put this in the "Events leading up to WW3" column

[Atramental]

 

[VomKriege]

Britain seems rather serious about that nerve agent assassination attempt likely conducted by Russia. Good for them.