The increased expenditure is largely at the behest of the US though. That German rearmament document is also still very... US compatible since they talk about the Asia-Pacific theatre (in the context that they want to do away with having formal military theatres, but still) which is basically antipodal to Germany and where, realistically, they will have essentially zero independent power projection under any circumstances short of spending their entire military budget on their navy. That's very much something which is meant to back up the US.

OTOH, with Germany wanting to hold the Olympics in xx36 and wanting the strongest military in Europe by xx39... you never know.

CNBC

U.S. soldier arrested for $400K winning Polymarket bets o...

The arrest comes as concerns have grown about people with inside information making bets on the Polymarket and Kalshi prediction markets.

Guess nothing can be done about omnipresent gambling, sorry, predictive market trading.

3 hours ago, Malcador said:

Guess nothing can be done about omnipresent gambling, sorry, predictive market trading.

Tsk, tsk, only Redacted's staff are allowed to make that sort of insider trade. Guess we'll have to teach him a lesson.

Americans deserve to know who’s behind those suspiciously timed Iran war-related trades and bets

5 hours ago, Malcador said:

CNBC

U.S. soldier arrested for $400K winning Polymarket bets o...

The arrest comes as concerns have grown about people with inside information making bets on the Polymarket and Kalshi prediction markets.

Guess nothing can be done about omnipresent gambling, sorry, predictive market trading.

Peanuts compared to those who made a killing (figure of speech) in oil futures hours before the surprise attack on Iran in the middle of negotiations. Pearl Harbour 1941 seems like a less unique situation these days-

The mistake was to not pay an appropriate tribute to their big boss.

Edited Friday at 01:52 PM4 days by Lexx

https://www.reuters.com/world/pentagon-email-floats-suspending-spain-nato-other-steps-over-iran-rift-source-2026-04-24/

Wonder how long lasting this damage to US relations will be.

16 minutes ago, Malcador said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/pentagon-email-floats-suspending-spain-nato-other-steps-over-iran-rift-source-2026-04-24/

Wonder how long lasting this damage to US relations will be.

Perhaps we're heading toward a "Pan European Treaty Organization" (PETO) in which the USA and Canada will be cooperative partners, rather than co-signers? That would put the political control in the hands of the EU.

^I dont know about that. What with Germany, Japan and (presumably) Italy having recently unshackled their defense budgets, we have concrete evidence of the formation of Axis² and them steamrolling to a fascist nirvana with the rest of Europe at their heels. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster forever damn them to a bottomless pit of marinara.

49 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

^I dont know about that. What with Germany, Japan and (presumably) Italy having recently unshackled their defense budgets, we have concrete evidence of the formation of Axis² and them steamrolling to a fascist nirvana with the rest of Europe at their heels. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster forever damn them to a bottomless pit of marinara.

Well, currently the USA is kinda spearheading the fascist thing. As bad as the right wing push in Europe is right now, we're still doing more against it than the USA tried in the last 6 or what years. Considering this, I'm not too worried about a sort of Axis².

Edited Friday at 07:56 PM3 days by Lexx

6 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/pentagon-email-floats-suspending-spain-nato-other-steps-over-iran-rift-source-2026-04-24/

Wonder how long lasting this damage to US relations will be.

Eh, if it's just suspension from 'important positions' it's a bit of a nothingburger. You cannot suspend members of NATO, there simply is not provision for it and everyone would have to agree to alter their charter. Which, presumably, the targeted parties would refuse to do. The Falklands thing is probably more significant, with Millei being a Trump bootlicker and all. Especially since Starmer caved over Diego Garcia, a deal Trump approved of, hated, approved of again then finally stopped.

Just wait until some troll from Morocco mentions Ceuta and Mellila to Trump...

5 hours ago, rjshae said:

Perhaps we're heading toward a "Pan European Treaty Organization" (PETO) in which the USA and Canada will be cooperative partners, rather than co-signers? That would put the political control in the hands of the EU.

The EU already has collective defence outside of NATO (since the Lisbon Treaty 2007/9, and there was a precursor even since benelux days, iirc). They also have a set of agreements with non EU European and other countries, though they generally stop short of outright alliances, even defensive.

The 'realistic' scenario for NATO without the US is pretty much literally NATO, without the US. ie dissolve or mothball the alliance, everyone* else joins the North Western HemiDemisphere Treaty Organisation. It's not all that realistic though, even with Trump.

*for a certain definition of everyone; would not be a surprise if Turkey were not invited despite their military strength.

11 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

^I dont know about that. What with Germany, Japan and (presumably) Italy having recently unshackled their defense budgets, we have concrete evidence of the formation of Axis² and them steamrolling to a fascist nirvana with the rest of Europe at their heels. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster forever damn them to a bottomless pit of marinara.

they are already part of axis

all of them are puppet or proxy of usa

Looks like some guy thought the correspondence dinner security was like a video game, and you could just rush past the mobs and they would lose aggro. Thankfully it seems like no one was seriously hurt.

39 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

Looks like some guy thought the correspondence dinner security was like a video game, and you could just rush past the mobs and they would lose aggro. Thankfully it seems like no one was seriously hurt.

Meh, who cares, really.

Looks like the already low net IQ of the administrative branch has just plummeted.

Trump fires all 24 members of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s governing body

I guess that'll teach us not to build windmills.

3 hours ago, Malcador said:

Meh, who cares, really.

more gun than any other nation yet no one can hit one big slow orange target

pathetic

There is just no way he didn't stage it himself this time.

Cake is still cake

https://i.imgur.com/1Dnptud.mp4

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-insurgent-assault-forces-russian-withdrawal-in-northern-mali/

I have often mentioned  how the military coups in  countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have become abject failures because they have all failed to address the main reason for overthrowing Democratically elected governments

These military generals all promised to end the  insurgencies in their respective countries  from Islamic extremist and separatist groups. What made it worse is French and UN forces left or were booted out and the Russians came in to fight the insurgents

And since then its got progressively worse,much worse. The Russians have failed spectacularly to achieve any military success

Latest example, a coordinated attack across the country and  the capture of a major town

"Hundreds of Russian troops have abandoned a key military base in Mali after insurgents launched an unprecedented wave of co-ordinated attacks across the country, killing the Defence Minister and capturing a northern town.

Islamist radicals joined forces with northern separatists to orchestrate the biggest rebel offensive in the West African country in 14 years, with attacks on towns, cities, military bases, airports and homes of senior politicians.

Defence Minister Sadio Camara, a close ally of Moscow, was among the dead. Videos from Mali showed his home reduced to rubble after it was targeted by a truck bomb on Saturday as the attacks began. His death was officially confirmed on Sunday night. Two senior army and intelligence commanders were also reported to be severely injured.

The assault was a humiliating setback for Mali’s military junta and its Russian allies, which were unable to prevent an insurgent operation that ranged from northern towns to the centre of the country and even into the junta’s strongholds around the capital, Bamako."

7 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-insurgent-assault-forces-russian-withdrawal-in-northern-mali/

I have often mentioned  how the military coups in  countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have become abject failures because they have all failed to address the main reason for overthrowing Democratically elected governments

>snip<

Isn't the whole fight insurgents with military force such a 20th century way of thinking? You want to get rid of insurgents, take away their reason to exist. It varies of course from case to case, but as far as I know, most insurgencies are the result of large disenfranchised groups with no future and nothing to lose. As far as I have been able to follow, most insurgencies in Africa and South/Latin America (and The Levant) are the results of a combination of isolation (information control), poverty (inequality) and rampant corruption in the "democratically elected" governments, meaning they are just totalitarian regimes with a better PR apparatus.

If people have a job, a future, get exposed to other ideas, prospects instead of projects and something worth keeping, like a home, they tend to be too busy to worry about risking it on doing insurgency.

But you can't fight income inequality, poverty, ignorance and homelessness with military forces. At best, you keep insurgents around because it helps those in power to tighten their grip on said power.

Edit: Don't get me started on genuine democratically elected governments toppled by western powers because they were inconvenient

1 hour ago, Gorth said:

Isn't the whole fight insurgents with military force such a 20th century way of thinking? You want to get rid of insurgents, take away their reason to exist. It varies of course from case to case, but as far as I know, most insurgencies are the result of large disenfranchised groups with no future and nothing to lose. As far as I have been able to follow, most insurgencies in Africa and South/Latin America (and The Levant) are the results of a combination of isolation (information control), poverty (inequality) and rampant corruption in the "democratically elected" governments, meaning they are just totalitarian regimes with a better PR apparatus.

If people have a job, a future, get exposed to other ideas, prospects instead of projects and something worth keeping, like a home, they tend to be too busy to worry about risking it on doing insurgency.

But you can't fight income inequality, poverty, ignorance and homelessness with military forces. At best, you keep insurgents around because it helps those in power to tighten their grip on said power.

Edit: Don't get me started on genuine democratically elected governments toppled by western powers because they were inconvenient

Absolutely, in these examples in these countries the insurgencies are sustained by several factors

• poverty in the regions

• failed government policies to address the reasons for poverty and indigence

• refusal of the Juntas to negotiate on any terms

There is no military solution. But the problem with all the 3 Juntas is they will never accept compromise because took power with the message " only our type of leadership can defeat these groups, Democratic governments are too weak to do what must be done "

Historically you can see success in subduing this type of insurgency through military success, look at Chechnya and ISIS in the ME

But that still requires an economic model and offering people a better and stable future. This doesn't exist in Africa, that's why Al-Shabaab is still active in Somalia for 30 years

All these Juntas and the Russians are doing is thinking brute force will win the day and achieve peace

Edited yesterday at 10:23 AM1 day by BruceVC

Sounds like those countries just need to instituted a UBI and their problems will vanish overnight. 🤔

"Islamist radicals joined forces with northern separatists to orchestrate the biggest rebel offensive in the West African country in 14 years, with attacks on towns, cities, military bases, airports and homes of senior politicians."

Slava Ukrianaiji

3 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Sounds like those countries just need to instituted a UBI and their problems will vanish overnight. 🤔

They so far off from being able to implement something like UBI but that would make a huge positive difference if somehow they could

24 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

"Islamist radicals joined forces with northern separatists to orchestrate the biggest rebel offensive in the West African country in 14 years, with attacks on towns, cities, military bases, airports and homes of senior politicians."

Slava Ukrianaiji

The Slava Ukraini crowd don't care about dead Blacks, so no issue.