The insane thing is that sunny Spain lagged behind countries like Germany for a while, and I think still does a bit. IRC they decreased subsidies, increased taxes, and increased regulation after the 2008 crisis. Thankfully they have a more sensible government now, so they’re back on track to being a leader on solar.

Free and limitless fusion power, there for the collecting. They’ll need it as everything gets hotter.

I love how the censored segment was ‘accidentally’ published in Canada.

Feigned incompetence and malicious compliance is a great way to resist fascists and collaborators.

To paraphrase Machiavelli, if no one can tell you the truth, you are never safe from flattery. I don’t think that’s ever been more relevant than with Donald Daffodil. You tell him he’s a super genius who’s just won the biggest and most beautiful deal ever, and he’ll happily be distracted by the next thing.

And luckily for the EU, the current administration is so filled with incompetents, that it’s genuinely mitigating much of the damage they would otherwise have caused.

Maybe they could say they’re AI. Apparently copyright infringement’s legal then.

Which often results these same people to think that polite or nice people are weak or don’t pose a threat. Which can be a very stupid mistake to make.

The good news is that we don’t have to choose.

The bad news is that we don’t get to choose.

I suspect it’s partly the changing world order.

Russia, China, and now even the US are openly and brazenly attempting to sow discord in the EU. It’s not unlikely we’ll soon be in open war with Russia, and before that the sabotage and interference operations will only get worse. And the Americans are brazenly trying to install far right governments across the continent.

Sacrificing some privacy may ultimately be the lesser of two evils. Better than half the continent falling to fascism and/or becoming a client state of one of the bigger powers. When the Americans were at least still pretending to be our friends, it was possible to get some of this intel through them because they’re using facebook and google to spy on us, but now they’re compromised you need to get that intel somewhere else.

It’s a shame cunts are still running the world.

I should point out that the cinema experience used to be better. People have become more selfish.

Also, it heavily depends on the kind of movies you’re watching. Trash attracts trash.

I would also like to point out that Europe’s migrant crisis is largely a result of ISIS and Iraq. Guess who helped cause that clusterfuck? The same country which endless meddled in South America, which has resulted in a lot of migration to said country.

But hey, the US has always been good at sniffing its own farts and avoiding history books. What else is new?

Another situation where a dictator believes his own propaganda, thinks European democracies and their citizens are weak and decadent, only to come to the belated conclusion that people are people, that people can become monstrous when faced with any kind of hardship, and you really shouldn’t underestimate the descendants of people who collectively killed millions upon millions.

It would be funny if the entirely predictable result wasn’t unimaginable suffering.

We can expect more of this kind of thing as we get closer to war with Russia.

I honestly don’t get why Russia is still in Ukraine. They can’t win the war in the long run. Once it became apparent they couldn’t easily topple the government in Kyiv and ended up killing too many civilians, it was over. Entirely unsurpring, but dead children are an excellent recruitment tool.

Even if Russia conquers the entirety of Ukraine tomorrow, which it won’t, that’s just the first phase. Then it’s an Afghanistan style occupation and insurgency. Insurgent attack, predictable overreaction and civilian deaths, even more angry Ukrainians and Europeans, more attacks, even greater overreaction, even more terrorist attacks.

A kalashnikov costs 100 euros. Bombs cost less. Europe and the Ukrainian diaspora can fund an insurrection for the next thousand years. And it’s not as if there’s a sea border between Ukraine and Russia. You can’t easily tell Ukrainians from Russians either. Plus they can expect the shit to hit the fan in the Caucusus sooner rather than later. Especially with a bit of foreign funding.

Oh well, suppose it’ll make a good example of the sunk cost fallacy one day.

The right thing to do.

However, the downside is that this is bad news for the Israeli public broadcaster(KAN). Eurovision is one of the few things that has allowed them to maintain a measure of indepence. They kept winning/doing well, so Netenyahu had to delay full privatisation, despite their sometimes being critical of him.

I suspect that if further countries boycott Eurovision, the KAN will definitively fall, and Israel will slip further into authoritarianism.

It’s hard to feel too sorry for Israelis though. Just like with American politics right now, I can’t help but think it’s them reaping what they’ve sown.

Every time I want to quote the Smiths’ That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore, I remember Morrissey is a fascist supporter now.

America would sooner arrest someone for bypassing the firewall on an article about a prolific child rapist, than arrest an actual child rapist.

Exactly a year ago:

before the match, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were filmed pulling Palestinian flags from houses, making racist anti-Arab chants such as “death to Arabs”, assaulting people, and vandalising local property. Plans to attack Israeli fans were subsequently shared through messaging apps. After the match, Maccabi fans were ambushed and assaulted across the city centre, while a group of Maccabi fans around Damrak was recorded assaulting people and vandalising local property. … a report compiled with the chief prosecutor and chief of police which said the events were caused by a “toxic combination of antisemitism, hooliganism, and anger about the conflicts in … the Middle East” … The Maccabi Tel Aviv fan base is known to include far-right ultra groups that have been involved in racist incidents in Israel in the past, including directing racist abuse at Arab and black players on their own team.

Honestly, who needs that much hassle over a football match? Birmingham dodged a bullet.

The media coverage of this has been poor, but let’s not get started on UK social media, where I think it’s becoming increasingly obvious that bad actors who are already amplifying far right voices and trying to sow division, jumped on this whole debacle to once again be level 9000 bad faith wankers about the whole thing.

I’m Dutch. The article mentions this, but I think it’s important to reiterate that the idea the Netherlands is especially progressive has always been a bit of a myth. It arose partly because people mistake tolerance for acceptance. The Netherlands has long been a tolerant country. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an accepting country.

For example, the Nazis were able to murder 75% of the Dutch-Jewish population in the Holocaust. Statistically, you were arguably safer being a Jew in Nazi Germany. My countrymen tolerated their Jewish neighbours. But they didn’t care enough about them, to not look the other way or prioritize their career when the Nazis came along. The Dutch are often in denial about this, a bit like how the country still hasn’t fully come to terms with its colonial past.

Anyway, it’s not a huge surprise that right wing populists and Russia have had such success in the Netherlands. They’re exploiting a nasty seam that has always been there.