The All Things Political Topic - In politics stupidity is not a handicap

[Lexx]

"The United States has given us (Europe) three weeks to agree on terms for Ukraine's surrender. If we don't, the United States will withdraw from Europe."

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-europe-troops-ukraine-peace-deal-2033823

The next few weeks are going to be interesting. Even more interesting than they currently are.

Edited Friday at 11:19 AM by Lexx

[HoonDing]

Can we help them pack?

[rjshae]

I'd say he's more likely to hear objections from Congress than from Europe. The US troop force in Europe has already shrunk from a peak of 300,000. It's going to be costly to redeploy the remaining forces, and even more so if we ever need to return. But, whatever, we're in stupid mode so par for the course.

Edited Friday at 03:37 PM by rjshae

[Malcador]

https://www.whec.com/national-world/a-look-at-dan-razin-caine-trumps-pick-to-be-the-top-us-military-officer/

Unqualified white dudes is the new DEI it seems.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Always has been.

[Elerond]

At least merit based hiring is back

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/22/2305562/-Which-Candidate-Is-The-DEI-Hire

[ShadySands]

Well, from Malc's link

Quote

Caine does not meet the position’s prerequisites, such as being a combatant commander or service chief, as laid out in a 1986 law that does allow a president to waive those requirements.

So he doesn't even meet the requirements and had to get a waiver

E: I don't know anything about Caine or how he might do in the role, I just hate the dumb discussion about DEI from the right.

Edited yesterday at 12:34 AM by ShadySands

[uuuhhii]

80 year after ww2

nazi have at least 20 percent of vote in germany

guess people really doesn't learn

[Zoraptor]

That result is a great example of media messaging. By any objective measure AFD getting 20% is a disaster, but because they were expected to do even better it can be easily spun as being Good News™.

It's actually slightly more than Hitler got in 1930, and radicalisation wise almost 60% of the youth vote was AFD or Der Links. Far cry from all the status quo types being worried about the Greens, now they are a safe status quo option.

[BruceVC]

None of the other  German political parties will work with AfD in a coalition so they will be relegated to making noise in the opposition benches

@Lexx and @Boeroer Are you guys prepared to share who you voted for and why? Are you happy with the overall results considering what it could have been?

 

[Lexx]

Rarely am I more disappointed in my country. Especially my town is something like 40% AfD, it's driving me mad. The only good thing is that AfD stays < 25%, since this means they can't do that much, especially nothing important. Also BSW (the most obvious Putin puppet) is below 5%, which is another good news.

The future looks grim. AfD gained over 10% in votes. Next election will probably seal the deal and then after 90something years, we finally have Nazis back in the government.

Or the coalition building will fail and CDU will work together with the AfD after all. Remember-- just because they say that they won't work with them, doesn't mean they will stay true to their words. I don't trust any of those snakes.

That said, bringing back the CDU is just stupid. They had 16 years with Merkel and they did nothing. In big parts it's their fault that we are where we are now. I'm not blaming SPD, they didn't really had time to do stuff. Personally I would have given them more, just to see what happens.

Edited yesterday at 07:10 AM by Lexx

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

 

@Lexx and @Boeroer Are you guys prepared to share who you voted for and why? Are you happy with the overall results considering what it could have been?

I am def. not happy with the results, but it went as expected. CDU/SPD (which is the only realistic option now) always meant stagnation and hesitation in the past. Something we (and esp. Europe) really don't need right now. But maybe they'll prove me wrong.

It also has direct consequences for my personal life because my wife is part of the higher ranks of the Foreign Ministry. Although here it's more important how decent and competent the actual minister is, it's less about the party.

I met a lot of politicians in my life because of my attachment to the Foreign Ministry via wife, esp. when serving in foreign countries. Every party has decent people (cannot include AfD here though because I never personally met an AfD politician). Sometimes the politicians I generally agreed with and I thought are decent human beings turned out to be douches - and vice versa. It's the same with personnel and voters. 

---

My vote:

I always consult the "Wahl-O-Mat" (since it's available), which is a website that presents a lot of political questions/demands to assess. Based on your (weighted) answers/assessments it shows you which parties' programmes do cover your views best.

I can show you my results:

I recommend this or similar tools to everybody who is about to cast a vote in an election. It helps to clear up the absolute chaos the media as a whole and esp. social media is causing and see which party is proposing what and if that's actually okay with you. 

Edited yesterday at 08:18 AM by Boeroer

[Malcador]

Surprised DOGE is ok with this waste of money.

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

If there's one thing Elon approves of, it's spending time posting through it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

If there's one thing Elon approves of, it's spending time posting through it.

[Malcador]

Hegseth really gives off this fresh out of boot energy, with the constant bravado and dropping "warrior" every 10 words.

 

[majestic]

8 hours ago, Lexx said:

Or the coalition building will fail and CDU will work together with the AfD after all. Remember-- just because they say that they won't work with them, doesn't mean they will stay true to their words. I don't trust any of those snakes.

We have 25 more years of experience with this situation. You can bet your ass powerful lobby groups will push the conservatives towards working with the AfD, and eventually, the conservatives are going to give in. It happened back in 1933, it happend in 2000, 2017 and almost in 2025 here in Austria and it will happen in Germany, because at the end of the day, Merz can yell "it is time to go back to politics that benefit the majority of Germans again!" as much as he wants, but both the CDU/CSU and Merz in particular are not up to the task.

You can't be bought and paid for by the new monyed nobility and make politics for the majority. There's a reason large and powerful corporations support the CDU as much as they do, and a reason why they're heaping money onto the AfD. A CDU-lead government isn't going to help the situation in Germany at all, because - as you already noted - it is by far and large their fault that you're in this situation in the first place.

When I look at the more prominent figures of the CDU and CSU, I feel like throwing up. Merz is a multi-millionaire raking in more and more millions every year and considers himself to be a part of the middle class, Philipp Amthor is dangerous and has highly unsavory connections to shady foreign companies and Jens Spahn is as incompetent as he is corrupt. Eh, and I really don't want to talk about Söder, or any of the talking heads out of Bavaria. Where have the times gone when the weirdest thing coming out of Bavaria was a quaint little fellow talking about how much time you are going to save when you board the railway station in Munich.

In a way you're lucky that your social democrats stopped being social democrats with Gerhard Schröder and simply became a vehicle to carry on the CDU agenda even without the CDU, which means as long as the SPD has enough votes to form a government with the CDU that will be a more acceptable version - mark my words, once that is no longer possible, or there's a move back to more traditional social democratic values in the SPD, that'll change.

8 hours ago, Lexx said:

Also BSW (the most obvious Putin puppet) is below 5%, which is another good news.

In a way, it is not. Having the FDP drop out of the Bundestag while BSW gets in would have put Merz in a fantastically problematic situation insofar as that he would have had to include the CSU's go-to punching back, the Grüne, in his coalition (Hell would freeze over before they'd work with Sarah Wagenknecht or Die Linke), or look directly towards working with the AfD. It would have unmasked him a lot sooner, because it would have been really easy to claim that they tried to make it work with the SPD and the Greens, but just couldn't.

At least Christian Lindner got what he deserved, that underachieving little weasle. Bye bye, and hopefully you Germans aren't going to elect the FDP back in like it happend in 2017. The sooner this party of CDU pilot fishes burns in hell the better for everyone.

Edited yesterday at 03:23 PM by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Hegseth really gives off this fresh out of boot energy, with the constant bravado and dropping "warrior" every 10 words.

 

I think he's very much the ideal pick for the Trump administration: someone who meets a specific aesthetic image Trump wants and is completely in the tank for Trump. That he's more qualified to spend all day tweeting nonsense or cosplaying as a soldier than the job he landed doesn't mean anything so long as he looks good in photo ops and can give a good interview.

[Boeroer]

56 minutes ago, majestic said:

Having the FDP drop out of the Bundestag while BSW gets in would have put Merz in a fantastically problematic situation

That was actually what I was hoping for:

1. FDP drops out
2. BSW gets in
3. Merz is forced to form a coalition of CDU,SPD and Greens

 

[Bartimaeus]

Hey everyone, look at the bright side: in another election cycle, maybe the U.S., Germany, and Russia will all be on the same side, and by this time in four years, we'll all be enjoying the perks of jolly old global cooperation between powerful states with militaristic ambitions. Of course, it is sometimes the case that seemingly similar nationalistic authoritarian regimes do not always get along with one another...but bah, I'm sure it'll be fine.

[HoonDing]

At this rate I might not even be dead before the Complete Collapse

[uuuhhii]

pathetic loser like trudeau and macron look like beacon of dignity and virtue compare to annoying orange

is this the secret plan to save liberalism

[Gfted1]

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

...in another election cycle, maybe the U.S., Germany, and Russia will all be on the same side...

Nah, considering the recent elections, were going to have to team up with Russia to give them damn nazis another smackup.