The Polls

[MamboJazz]

Weidel, who has previously praised the importance of children being raised in a traditional, nuclear family and has said that legalizing same-sex marriage is unimportant, nonetheless raises her two sons with her Sri Lankan-born female partner of 20 years, Sarah Bossard, in Willerzell, a sleepy village in the heart of Switzerland with around 1,000 residents. (Officially, she is registered as a resident of Überlingen, in Germany, just over the border from Switzerland.)

The AfD has opposed gay marriage and the expansion of laws allowing same-sex couples to adopt, but Weidel has said her sexuality does not conflict with the AfD’s traditional values, and analysts say the party’s rank and file are prepared to overlook her family life as long as she brings them success.

In Weidel's case she seems to think being gay is ok but you shouldn't propose it as normal model, while the left sustained the impression that being LBGT+ is somehow progressive, advanced or even superior to being heterosexual.

Being homosexual or immigrant never prevented people from being right-wing. The left never understood this. There were famous nazis openly being gay like Erich Röhm, who frequented Berlin's gay bars of the 1920s/30s and was an important militant troops leader to get Hitler into power (Hitler later gave order to murder him in 1934). The leader of the 1980s german neo-nazi scene was also homosexual. Sexual orientation doesn't make your political beliefs superior.

 

[bailar y tocar]

Russian forces closing in on Ukrainian troops in Kursk, official says

In the days since the Trump administration temporarily suspended military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv, Russian forces have stepped up attacks on Ukrainian troops in the region, officials and an analyst said.

www.nbcnews.com

Several independent western intelligence and open source intelligence analysts have been suggesting that the Ukrainian troops in Kursk region are almost surrounded. The reports also say Ukrainians are systematically withdrawing back into their own border. Ukraine has continued to deny they are surrounded or situation is dire. Some “experts” in the west also pooh pooh that Russians have managed to to surround the Ukrainian troops.

I watched a Ukrainian documentary that was done with cellphone cameras a few months ago.
The "frontlines" in this war is not what we would imagine from watching movies or historical footage from WW1, WW2 etc etc. The frontlines (as we would expect) are more like Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam wars.
The adversaries could be anywhere, anytime and pop up out of nowhere w/o any warning. The Russian casualties are enormously higher because they are fighting a more traditional "line" war whereas the Ukrainians are fighting a "hit and run" war. The Ukrainians do get hit though because the Russians use their massive advantage in drone numbers. For every single Ukrainian drone of which several might be jammed, the Russians deploy dozens at a time.

So, the idea that any one side is holding territory is a relative term. At any given point near the frontline, one side or the other has a higher % of possession at any one time. When the Russians deploy massive manpower to take over an area with massive casualties, then they can say they "hold" the territory.

 

[bailar y tocar]

Interesting things to learn about Afd, which I didn’t know. Reminds me of evangelicals in the USA rallying behind Trump, despite he being the opposite of their values.

People are willing to accept a devil’s bargain as long as their priorities are addressed. For the evangelicals it was abortion. It also overlapped with the mix of white grievances and white nationalism (which is what really is MAGA) since evangelicals are overwhelmingly white.

Alice Weidel doesn’t fit the profile of a far-right politician. The German AfD is willing to look past it.

Weidel led the Alternative for Germany, a male-dominated party accused of far-right extremism, from the fringes into the heart of power.

www.nbcnews.com

Weidel, who has previously praised the importance of children being raised in a traditional, nuclear family and has said that legalizing same-sex marriage is unimportant, nonetheless raises her two sons with her Sri Lankan-born female partner of 20 years, Sarah Bossard, in Willerzell, a sleepy village in the heart of Switzerland with around 1,000 residents. (Officially, she is registered as a resident of Überlingen, in Germany, just over the border from Switzerland.)

The AfD has opposed gay marriage and the expansion of laws allowing same-sex couples to adopt, but Weidel has said her sexuality does not conflict with the AfD’s traditional values, and analysts say the party’s rank and file are prepared to overlook her family life as long as she brings them success.

The party was able to harness simmering hostilities against both Muslims and foreigners, as well as anti-E.U. sentiment, building a stronghold in the regions that once made up East Germany, where skepticism toward NATO and the country’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia remains high.

The Swiss are actually quite unhappy that she lives there. The local town is obligated to provide police protection for her at Swiss taxpayer expense. I don't know why they do this and not bill her for the service.
Legally she can live in Switzeraland even though the district in which she runs for office is in Germany. She declares her Swiss residence as her 2nd home. Reports indicate that she has never been seen in her "first" home in her district. Under German electoral law, she has been elected by way of the 2nd vote - the proportional vote. The AfD has never won a district via the 1st vote - the direct vote - in western Germany.

 

[Smejmoon]

Record-Breaking demonstrations expected in Serbia on Saturday: "Serbia’s future as a free country is at stake" - Civil Rights Defenders

What started as a student protest has grown into the largest demonstrations in the country’s history. On Saturday, the biggest protest yet is planned, and it remains unclear how the government will respond. “The government is trying everything—threats, disinformation, and violence. Serbia’s...

crd.org

Students and youth in other Slavic countries are supporting this. Otherwise I wouldn't know.

 

[Offbeat]

Record-Breaking demonstrations expected in Serbia on Saturday: "Serbia’s future as a free country is at stake" - Civil Rights Defenders

What started as a student protest has grown into the largest demonstrations in the country’s history. On Saturday, the biggest protest yet is planned, and it remains unclear how the government will respond. “The government is trying everything—threats, disinformation, and violence. Serbia’s...

crd.org

Students and youth in other Slavic countries are supporting this. Otherwise I wouldn't know.

I knew it because it popped in my news feed several days ago. And in the YouTube feed too.

 

[Offbeat]

He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.

ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.

www.usatoday.com

A lot of stories of Trump voters who are now like “Ohh we didn’t expect him to do it like this”. When that is exactly what he was saying or telegraphing.

Among Trump voters who are in a pickle:

- Federal employees who voted for Trump and are now seeing what DOGE is doing. (They knew what Project 2025 exactly called for)

- Trump voters whose relatives are getting deported and caught up in ICE detention. It can be huge mental stress and financial drain to deal with immigration issues.

- Arab voters in Michigan and other places who voted for Trump to spite at Democrats and Biden. Their argument was how could Trump be any worse. Well Trump is busy trying to kick out the Palestinians out of Gaza, wants to build it as a beach resort town, banning people from 12 Muslim countries and trying to deport a legal permit resident who was protesting Gaza war. Three of those four are unlikely to happen but their argument has failed.

Not sure how those who voted because inflation occurred under Biden, are feeling now.

 

[Offbeat]

The case for boycotting the United States | Robert Reich

If you are considering a trip to the US, please reconsider. Why reward Donald Trump’s America with your tourist dollars?

www.theguardian.com

Don’t reward a bully.

Line that caught my eye is “half of us didn’t even vote”. It always surprises me that people want freedom but don’t care to vote. Then you end up getting likes of Trump. Why is it so hard for 80% of the people to vote.

In the USA voting is easy. Early voting is available making it easy to mail your ballot or drop it in early at a ballot box. There is no need to stand in long line on the Election Day. Yet.

 

[bailar y tocar]

The case for boycotting the United States | Robert Reich

If you are considering a trip to the US, please reconsider. Why reward Donald Trump’s America with your tourist dollars?

www.theguardian.com

Don’t reward a bully.

Line that caught my eye is “half of us didn’t even vote”. It always surprises me that people want freedom but don’t care to vote. Then you end up getting likes of Trump. Why is it so hard for 80% of the people to vote.

In the USA voting is easy. Early voting is available making it easy to mail your ballot or drop it in early at a ballot box. There is no need to stand in long line on the Election Day. Yet.

That is very true. Even an all-time high turnout in the US (in 2020) is not close to an average turnout in any European national election. When the overall turnout in the US is 67% that is considered phenomenal.

OTOH, the election system is severely undemocratic due to the electoral college. The extra votes in strong blue states like California and New York or in very strong red states like Mississippi and Oklahoma make no difference in the outcome of the national election and people know that. They do make a huge difference in local races for US Congress etc. When people do not turn out at all, then seats are flipped and the other party takes over in the legislative branch. This is another feature that makes the system severely undemocratic.

If the election was decided by the overall vote totals, it would be a very different story.

 

[1derpalm]

 

[MamboJazz]

When you never wanted a ceasefire the last three years in Ukraine but somebody else starts negotiations about it and you now jump on the train by demanding even more ceasefire to be necessary:

Germany's Scholz demands full Ukraine ceasefire as soon as possible

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has praised a planned pause in Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as a "first important step" on the path to a lasting peace. This also applied to prepara...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Offbeat]

When you never wanted a ceasefire the last three years in Ukraine but somebody else starts negotiations about it and you now jump on the train by demanding even more ceasefire to be necessary:

Germany's Scholz demands full Ukraine ceasefire as soon as possible

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has praised a planned pause in Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as a "first important step" on the path to a lasting peace. This also applied to prepara...

www.yahoo.com

My guess is that they want to remain in the good graces of DC aka Trump. EU is not a country. In addition to the EU level collective interest in Russia-Ukraine, each leader also has to calculate the bilateral impact. The local and national interests (mostly economic) can suffer due to bad equations with Trump.

The EU leaders after the invasion were browbeating and pressuring the rest of the non-western world to sanction Russia. That didn’t sit well. Now they are finding it difficult to stand upto the USA and doing a U-turn on their previous positions.

 

[David]

as i said before....you are a typical close-minded individual, everything that opposes your opinion you classify it as propaganda....read some history to understand the world around you

I've personally been to Ukraine, and have been working with Ukrainians for 20 years. I can tell you with confidence there are very few pro-Russian Ukrainians. A good example would be Victor Yanokovych. He was a puppet dictator, who fled to Russia after he ordered troops to fire on demonstrators and was found to have embezzled billions of dollars. And of course he had his supporters. Paul Manfort helped run his election campaign, the same Paul Manafort who was Trump's campaign manager and convicted of financial crimes. Manafort helped create a fake campaign to make it look like Yanokovych was pro-West and got him elected in 2010. Manafort worked closely with Russian oligarchs to fund Yanokovych's campaign. This is just one of many example's of Russia secretly trying to influence Ukrainian elections, and steal from Ukrainians. Then we know what happened next. They attacked Ukraine and killed so many people, committing many war crimes along the way. Ukrainians know the story, and almost all are firmly against Russia now, including many who are in territories that were previously part of Ukraine and now controlled by Russia, and even now do secret attacks to sabotage Russia behind enemy lines.

 

[MamboJazz]

"Prepare possible war with Russia."
That's the headline in official german news, I read it every day. I searched for an english article about it from today:

MSN

So German Intelligence warns about russian attack to come, and EU says they want to invest 800 billions into military the next years (US spends this sum in a year for military, so not that mindblowing actually).

The UK Guardian dismisses these EU dreams:

"Officials think the EU can raise €800bn in new defence spending – €150bn from EU-backed loans raised on capital markets and €650bn fiscal flexibilities that allow EU member states to go into debt for defence without breaking the EU’s fiscal rules. EU diplomats say the headline €800bn will never be realised. Some of the largest and wealthiest member states, with top credit ratings, such as Germany and the Netherlands, have no intention of taking out EU-backed loans. Other member states, especially in southern Europe, are seen as reluctant to deepen their national debts for defence."

‘As real as it can get’: EU to loan €150bn for European defence from invasion

EU launches scheme to buy more weapons in Europe as Russia remains ‘a threat for the foreseeable future’

www.theguardian.com

Whatever the sum, military projects always fail and are money graveyards. The years will pass with this money graveyard, waiting for the russians to attack, while the economy in Germany is rapidly going south already since a while, and the EU far-right will have an easy game to point out this is mad and grow even bigger (AfD has risen another 3% in polls the last month). The Kremlin may enjoy to watch how EU goes south, while they can feel safe with their nukes.

In Germany they don't even find enough people for the small army of today: despite all public campaigns not enough are interested. Maybe raising unemployment rates will help get more people into the army. Maybe germans will start to love military again after such a long abstinence, their journalists already do.

 

[bailar y tocar]

Whatever the sum, military projects always fail and are money graveyards. The years will pass with this money graveyard, waiting for the russians to attack,

If Germans and others wanted to learn a thing or two on how to defend yourself from Russia.... they could talk to a few Ukrainians who are doing that right now.
A bunch of top-level politicians and military leaders would be useless. If otoh, junior officers talked to battlefield commanders - they would learn a lot about this hybrid war. Then the junior officers would make recommendations on what type of weapons systems are needed to fend off Russians. They are not all that expensive.
Drones are much cheaper and much more effective than fighter-bombers.
Massive numbers of drones launched from drone motherships are more effective than artillery.
Drone boats are more destructive than big navy ships.
The list goes on...

 

[MamboJazz]

the junior officers would make recommendations on what type of weapons systems are needed to fend off Russians. They are not all that expensive.

The defense industry is not at all interested in selling unexpensive things, and the politicians have also interest in feeding companies in their home area with multi-billion contracts. Bureaucracy, corruption and useless products are business as usual in the defense industry, and especially combined with modern IT they are always doomed.

 

[Offbeat]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/us/brown-university-doctor-deported-hnk/index.html

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found

France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched

www.theguardian.com

USA border agents or immigration officers are scanning the phone for photos, personal messages, and other activities of those entering the USA who are detained for any reasons. I think it is called secondary screening. Any critical remarks of Trump can be used to deport it seems from various news reports.

One reason that till FB came along, it was customary on the internet to use pseudonyms. Whether it was blogs or usenet or messengers or other discussion forums. After the FB a lot of people have a digital footprint that ties them directly to their real life persona.

On the LinkedIn, I don’t see much political oriented posts. People use LinkedIn for personal branding. Therefore most of the time they are busy posting announcements of their “accomplishments” or writing mostly useless stuff about some topic.

With people having send so many comments on Twitter, YouTube, and other social media in the last 15 years, you have to wonder what despotic regimes could use against you!!

 

[Smejmoon]

We get positive or negative social credits by posting here?

 

[MamboJazz]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/us/brown-university-doctor-deported-hnk/index.html

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found

France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched

www.theguardian.com

USA border agents or immigration officers are scanning the phone for photos, personal messages, and other activities of those entering the USA who are detained for any reasons. I think it is called secondary screening.

Sounds weird. For doing that I am forced to enter the PIN of my phone so they can enter it, and then they check all photos including the nudes of my girl-friend? And read all messages, which in case of foreigners are mostly in foreign languages, but US border agents are so good in languages? And all border agents are Trump lovers?

Famously in Israel they interview single travellers half an hour and confiscate phones when you leave the country, that’s why I never wanted to go there.

 

[Offbeat]

Trump revoking protections for 530,000 Cubans, Haitians and other migrants

Migrants who entered the US under the Biden-era programme will lose their temporary status next month.

www.bbc.com

Now this. I don’t know if the status accorded to these 500K migrants was under a law passed by the congress or through executive order by Biden.

This all demonstrates how little Biden and Democrats did to Trump-proof various aspects of the govt. Right now the administration is trying to ignore the judges’ ruling and also undermine the laws passed by the congress. This is absolutely unprecedented but was telegraphed by the project 2025. Other than diehard MAGA voters, the rest those who voted for Trump didn’t think he would really wreck the havoc by stream rolling over everything that USA govt has stood for since last 50-70 years.

 

[Offbeat]

Sounds weird. For doing that I am forced to enter the PIN of my phone so they can enter it, and then they check all photos including the nudes of my girl-friend? And read all messages, which in case of foreigners are mostly in foreign languages, but US border agents are so good in languages? And all border agents are Trump lovers?

If you are not a citizen or permanent residency, you have to provide means to unlock your phone. This has been long standing policy in the USA. The rights are the border are very restrictive. It is different when you are inside the country. But at the entry points, it is different story and it has been legal.

Yes once the immigration and customs decide to go through your phone, there are no limits. May be better to buy a second phone and only have kosher contents on it if visiting USA, Russia, or China! Both USA and Chinese officials have power to go through your phone contents at slightest suspicion. I won’t be surprised if Russians will do it too.

Famously in Israel they interview single travellers half an hour and confiscate phones when you leave the country, that’s why I never wanted to go there.

I don’t know when they started that. I have traveled to Israel with two phones. But I had a pre-clearance for arrival and departure because it was a business visit on behalf of company. Out of two or three visits in the last ten years, I was interviewed only once on departure for 10 minutes. They wanted to know which areas on Israel I had visited during my stay and what did I purchase.

Whose phones do they confiscate?