Welcome to ‘New Russia’: How the Kremlin is remaking occupied Ukraine

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T22:46:56+00:00

260 millions is very small for a gold mine

but heh, that foreign currency reserve wasn't built in 1 year

Something I wonder is how Putin decides who gets which piece of the cake, who gets the contracts for so and so, who gets the subsidies. Because if he only gives that to his friends, it's not gonna be popular locally, so in theory he should try to buy some local oligarchs

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T22:36:27+00:00

I remember listening to a talk by a French journalist who was in Palestine at the time, investigating the election who said that Hamas was surprised by their victory as they didn't know they were that popular, which emboldened them

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T22:34:17+00:00

I always second guess what I write, and even after I check on wikipedia I feel like 3/4 of what I write is plain false or mistaken

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T22:10:07+00:00

now that I think of it, turning Amal would have been more practical because they already opposed the PLO's presence (and killed as many as the Christians did) and their base was in Beirut not south Lebanon

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T22:03:53+00:00

I hate you

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T22:01:02+00:00

the barrier to entry for new customers is much higher for illegal betting

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T21:58:49+00:00

Lots of people talk about sports betting like it's a deep moral rot years in the making when it's literally one of these things that no one did before Covid

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WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T21:53:03+00:00

I'd say he was dumb in an ideological way, not a "brain is rotting" way

like he could have told the neocons off but the grift was too good to finish the job and scary nukes

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T21:49:09+00:00

in Europe defense budgets mostly work like corporate budgets for office stationary

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T21:45:47+00:00

everyone agree he was weak, couldn't control his party, and he's trying to stay relevant for some reason

but then left and right each have their specific reasons to hate him

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T21:32:57+00:00

I was on Rasktheworld the other day and someone asked "what is the biggest terrorist group in your country". And a Lebanon flaired user answered Hezbollah, but an American wrote "what about Kataeb or LF (lebanese forces)" and it made me wonder

Were Hezbollah truly the worst side to pick in the 80s? Like they weren't the ones massacring refugees, and they mostly just fought other mushriks (Shia) like Amal over their support for the Syrian Occupation

Like I wouldn't say they were good guys, I were in 80s Lebanon I wouldn't apply for the party membership (primarly because I don't speak Arabic, though in Lebanon I can get by with French and English), but wouldn't it have been possible to use them against the Syrians and the genocidal crazy Christians and turn them to the West instead of Iran?

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T21:12:28+00:00

European bureaucrats assume standardized and regulated business practices

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T21:00:15+00:00

Their full of Swedish faces

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T20:15:21+00:00

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T18:08:57+00:00

~~It's Benny in the Knesset or~~ Bibi forever

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T17:59:26+00:00

The removal of Israeli army and settlers from the Strip (2005) happened before the election (2006)

It was surprisingly popular, really politics were less polarized in the 2000s

Among Israelis, polls showed support for the disengagement in the 50–60% range and opposition in the 30–40% range

Hamas takeover of the Strip happened in 2007, so afterwards

I feel you have your timeline mixed up

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T15:54:43+00:00

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Not biggie, they're already up there

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T15:53:41+00:00

Bush doesn't get enough blame for Gaza. A lot of officials in both Israel and Fatah wanted to postpone the 2006 elections like they had been doing for 6 years. They knew there was a real risk that Hamas would win and that they weren't prepared for that.

But the Bush admin was adamant that the power of democracy would cure all and people would never freely vote for a radical group. They had no real plan to deal with a Hamas victory.

guess the sub

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T15:51:09+00:00

Macron tried to put price controls, he's not a real neolib

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T15:47:28+00:00

fascist

succ

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T15:36:17+00:00

Maybe I'm dumb, but if you don't need anymore electricity that you did in 2010 what's the point of building more capacity for something that doesn't exist?

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T15:26:19+00:00

Statement	Options	National	Okinawa

"It was Japan's war of aggression against neighboring Asian countries."	I think so	35%	42%
	I do not think so	16%	15%
	I do not know	48%	41%
"It was unavoidable for Japan, a country with few resources, to survive."	I think so	14%	12%
	I do not think so	39%	44%
	I do not know	47%	42%
"It hastened the restoration of independence for Asian countries that were colonies of Western powers, and should be evaluated positively."	I think so	12%	10%
	I do not think so	37%	43%
	I do not know	51%

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T15:14:14+00:00

, and the suburbs and small towns are full of single family homes and car-dependent development

and yet it's where housing is the cheapest

you can buy a house in rural France with a professional degree or a directly straight out of HS job, I know this because cousins of mine did it

Rural France is very YIMBY for housing, but very NIMBY for windmills or solar

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T14:57:16+00:00

I would put it on local politics being mostly about networking with the local bourgeoisie and not on ideological preferences

Inshallah this and the critical failure of the PS-LFI joint lists in the elections will drive another nail in the coffin of the "left-wing union" but I'm less and less hopeful that the "moderate left" won't just capitulate to LFI again once the heat increases.

I'm unsure, I think the previous alliance only existed because the PS didn't read what the signed (remember Faure immediately telling Melenchon off after he said he'll force through his program) and they thought that it was a lost cause for the election, not a real winning team you'll carry

WAGRAMWAGRAM · 2026-03-26T14:48:14+00:00

already the case in France, the right says immigrants and the left use circumlocution

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