I agree that the spending is needed. If we tie it to “defense” though, what will happen if there is no threat to defend against?

In a way we saw this already in Germany in the 90s where a lot of disaster relief structures like alarm sirens, emergency communications, technical equipment for excavations, mobile generators and the like has been left to rot, because the cold war had ended (or it seemed so at the time). When we got his by natural disasters like floods and forest fires, the resources weren’t there to quickly manage the situations.

I understand the opportunist approach to taking the funding while we get it, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem of neoliberalism. Instead it will come back double with the next wave of austerity being argued even harsher because of all that defense spending (whether direct or in “defense infrastructure”) and debt.

These numbers are not reflecting the federal budget. The article is referring to Russias federal budget. Your numbers include all public spending, mostly retirement and healthcare which aren’t financed through the federal budgets. For Germany for instance it is run on mandatory pension and health insurance, cross financed in part from the federal budget.

Money is increasingly needed by the federal treasury, which spends every third ruble on the war

Going off the linked explainer in wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_expenditure

Public expenditures represented 46.7 percent of total GDP of the European Union in 2018. Countries with the highest percentage of public expenditure were France and Finland with 56 and 53 percent, respectively. The lowest percentage had Ireland with only 25 percent of its GDP. Among the countries of the European Union, the most important function in public expenditure is social protection. Almost 20 percent of GDP of European Union went to social protection in 2018. The highest ratio had Finland and France, both around 24 percent of their GDPs. The country with least social protection expenditure as percent of its GDP was Ireland with 9 percent. The second largest function in public expenditure is expenditure on health. The general government expenditure on health in European Union was over 7 percent of GDP in 2018. The country with highest share of health expenditure in 2018 Denmark with 8.4 percent. The least percentage had Cyprus with 2.7 percent. General public services had 6 percent of total GDP of European Union in 2018, Education around 4.6 percent and all other categories had less than 4.5 percent of the GDP.

Germanys federal budget is 476 billion euro in 2024 Germanys 2024 GDP is at 4.3 trillion Euro.

5% of 4.3 trillion is 215 billion. 215 billion is 45% of 476 billion, so even if the budget is increased significantly, these 5% GDP would correspond to a third or even more of the federal budget and be similar to Russias war economy spending.

It all depends on how it all will get managed,

Which is why i am bothered by these quotas. They create an environment for mismanagement. Maybe i am also more sensitive to it in general, because we see a lot of it in Germany, in particular with the military equipment procurement being riddled with corruption, inefficiencies and incompetence. I am worried the same will expand to general infrastructure as well.

“we cant put sanctions. If we put sanctions we close channels of talking with the Israelis” Unfortunately the actual “argumentation” of the German government.

So it is a capability that needs to be built. But building that capability should not be dependent on Trumps ramblings.

Problem is say for instance some small bridge in some village needs to be renewed. It is scheduled to cost 5 Million and be suitable for up to 7t trucks passing it. Now because some quota needs to be filled, instead a bridge for 70 ton tanks is built and cost 30 million.

The 5 Million bridge could have been built by a local company. The 30 million bridge needs one of few national specialists to build it. So now it gets delayed further as these companies have more contracts in the pipeline while smaller companies starve.

These types of quotas that are not based on actual needs create bad economic incentives and they create an environment which helps to foster corruption.

I think doing the most depraved heinous illegal shit is part of the appeal for them. It really drives home that they are above the law.

If they would legalize it, the same could be done to their children and then they will not find it so funny anymore.

Einerseits offensichtlich ein schlechtes Manöver und ich vermute stark, dass es da auch Hinweisschilder gibt, dass man das nicht machen soll.

Andererseits wissen wir nicht, wie es mit Aufzügen o.ä. Infrastruktur dort aussieht, damit Gehbehinderte sicher von einer in die andere Etage kommen.

Imo. this “defence infrastructure…” category is nonsense.

It can encompass anything and everything, or there could be pressure that only LNG Terminals for US gas and concrete bunkers are considered “resilience”. Also it ties general infrastructure spending to questions of defense and “preparedness” where it might not be applicable.

Rather than saying “we need to spend X% on defense” the question should be: “which capabilities do we need?” and derive the costs from there.

Das da rum “Gebeten” wird, finde ich schon nicht so dolle.

Die Frage von Sperren sollten nicht von privaten Unternehmen mit undurchsichtigen Schattengremien entschieden werden. Die Verletzung von Recht kann letztlich nur durch ein Gericht abschließend festgestellt werden.

In some EU countries that is the correspondent 5% GDP NATO spending goal.

E.g. if Germany would spend 5% of GDP on military, that would be about half of the current federal budget, so it would become a third of the federal budget if other spending isn’t slashed.

We “ever” had is a bit far fetched imo. Certainly more than what happened during most of Merkels reign, but then again Merkel never failed to pass a budget.

His campaign being based on lies is not the same as election fraud.

There is no indication of relevant fraud happening with the 2025 elections themselves.

Except when you run a blackmail operation of course you will compile all the information of all the people, so you can blackmail them with it.

If it was only about abusing children, Epstein could have done that with relatively little attention. Instead he made sure to have as many people involved as possible.

There is credible reasons to believe that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been instructed by Mossad, as they have extensive ties to Mossad and Israel, in particular through the father of Ghislaine Maxwell, Robert, who Epstein apparently helped stow away stolen money. Also Robert “fell of his Yacht” when it became known that he was a Mossad asset.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein#Alleged_connections_to_intelligence_agencies

Epstein was rumored to be associated with Intelligence agencies.[292] The U.S. journalists Dylan Howard, Melissa Cronin and James Robertson linked Epstein to the Israeli Mossad in their book Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales. They relied for the most part on the former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe.[293] According to him, Epstein’s activities as a spy served to gather compromising material on powerful people in order to blackmail them.[294] There is also a possible connection to the Mossad via Ghislaine Maxwell, whose father Robert Maxwell is said to have had contacts with the Mossad.[295] Epstein’s victim Virginia Giuffre also alleged Epstein to be an intelligence asset, linking on Twitter to a Reddit page, that alleged Epstein was a spy, running a blackmail operation.[296]

As U.S. Attorney in Florida, the later U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta reached a settlement with Epstein’s lawyers (including Alan M. Dershowitz) in 2008, which allowed him to receive a very light prison sentence. Acosta later reportedly stated that he was told that Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and that the issue was above his “pay grade.” According to Acosta, he was pushed to give him a good deal.[297] Former CIA Director and diplomat William J. Burns met with Epstein three times. According to a CIA spokesperson, Burns hoped that Epstein would help him “transition to the private sector.”[298]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell#Mossad_allegations;_Vanunu_case

The Foreign Office suspected Maxwell of being a secret agent of a foreign government, possibly a double agent or a triple agent, and “a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia”. He had known links to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), to the Soviet KGB, and to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.[58]

Shortly before Maxwell’s death, Ari Ben-Menashe, a former employee of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, approached a number of news organisations in Britain and the US with the allegation that Maxwell and the Daily Mirror’s foreign editor, Nicholas Davies, were both long-time agents for Mossad. Ben-Menashe also claimed that, in 1986, Maxwell informed the Israeli Embassy in London that Mordechai Vanunu revealed information about Israel’s nuclear capability to The Sunday Times, then to the Daily Mirror. Vanunu was subsequently kidnapped by Mossad and smuggled to Israel, convicted of treason and imprisoned for eighteen years.[59]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell#Death

Murder was ruled out by the judge and, in effect, so was suicide.[65] His son discounted the possibility of suicide, saying, “I think it is highly unlikely that he would have taken his own life, it wasn’t in his makeup or his mentality.”[10] Maxwell was afforded a lavish funeral in Israel, attended by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli President Chaim Herzog, at least six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence[67] and many dignitaries and politicians, both government and opposition, and was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.[68][69] Herzog delivered the eulogy, and the Kaddish was recited by his fellow Holocaust survivor, friend and longtime attorney Samuel Pisar.[70]

Also note how the recent denials from Israel are extremely agressive https://time.com/7302177/epstein-mossad-israel-intelligence-naftali-bennett/:

The Israeli politician on Monday said he had “100% certainty” that Epstein did not have any ties to the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, or the country itself.

“The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” Bennett said in a post on X. “There’s a vicious wave of slander and lies against my country and my people, and we just won’t take it anymore.”

EDIT: Also note that Israel is notorious for harboring fugitive child abusers. Israel is strategically building on child rapists to support them.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-jewish-american-pedophiles-hide-from-justice-in-israel/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-07-25/ty-article/.premium/tip-of-the-iceberg-how-foreign-sex-offenders-find-refuge-in-israel/00000182-3532-d7e9-af96-3d73c52c0000

Ist hier übrigens auch so: in /c/Nahost oder /c/europe ist der nahe Osten für die User nur interessant, wenn es um Israel geht. Die jüngste Waffenniederlegung der PKK als wirklich epochaler Akt für die Türkei? Da hat sich keiner aufgerafft, einen Beitrag einzureichen. Der jetzt wieder aufflammende syrische Bürgerkrieg? Uninteressant, bzw. nur interessant, wenn Israel eingreift.

Das ist schlichtweg falsch.

https://feddit.org/post/15640432
https://feddit.org/post/15751831

Diese Besessenheit der Medien und der User mit Israel ist einfach eine Schande und trübt den gesamten Blick auf den Nahen Osten.

Israel verübt gerade einen Völkermord und ethnische Säuberungen. Sich damit so lange auseinanderzusetzen, wie es andauert, als “Besessenheit” zu verurteilen finde ich völlig daneben. Das erweckt auf mich den Eindruck, dass man das am liebsten “Aus den Augen aus den Sinn” haben möchte und nicht die eigenen Einstellungen bgzl. der Täter hinterfragen möchte.

Ich finde den Betrag auch ziemlich schwach. Es sollte mindestens damit verbunden werden, dass sämtliche Ansprüche auf Pension, Büros etc. verwirkt werden, sowie dass alle Finanzen seit Amtsantritt und bis an das Lebensende öffentlich gemacht werden müssen.

I’ll take someone claiming that a post about North Korea is western propaganda over someone that is trying to explain, how supporting genocide is somehow the right political choice.

I feel like the people that feel an over presence of “tankies” on instances that aren’t ml, hexbear or grad, are confused that the fediverse is notably more left-leaning than what they are used from reddit, Twitter or other corporate social media. Being exposed to maybe not being that “lefty” after all and more of the right side of the political spectrum here, seems to rub them the wrong way.

Here’s a screenshot of the !worldnews@lemmy.ml As you can see, on the “tankie instance” News positive for Ukraine is getting the upvotes and stuff positive of Russia is getting the downvotes

Ich glaube unsere Gesellschaft ist eher übersexualisiert, mit dem Problem, dass “durchschnittliche” Sexualität und Körper nicht mit Pornos, Serien, Instagram-Models & co. mithalten können.

Ein ähnliches Problem sehen wir auch bei Konsum und Status, wo durch Influencer & co. ein völlig falsches Bild vermittelt wird.

Wenn dann offenes LGBTQ als Teil dieser Entwicklung erlebt wird, und beständig das Feuer aus der Politik kommt, dann vermischt sich das leichter.

Dazu kommt aus meiner Sicht, dass LGBTQ und migrantisierte Frauen eine einfachere Zielscheibe sind als migrantisierte Männer und Halbstarke lieber auf diese einschlagen, als sich mit Männern ihrer Größe anzulegen.

Die “Reichen und Mächtigen” haben nicht aufgegeben. Sie haben diese Krise aktive und ständig weiter befeuert. Sie wollen diese Krise. Sie wollen, dass sie in ihren Bunker oder auf ihren Anwesen hocken, während der eine Teil der Menschheit zu Grunde geht und der andere Teil ihre Sklaven werden.

Sie wissen was sie tun.

I got run over by a car some ten years ago. Despite the windshield being smashed in, i didn’t get any injury except the big bloody wound on my head and some scratches around my body. Had i hit the frame instead of the windshield i would have probably had my skull fractured.

Yeah, this is absurd. Also if someone makes a “ghost gun” they can easily destroy the printer before using that thing.