TalkingDuck [he/him]

Decent election results in Bulgaria. You can guess that by the freak-out in Western media:

Bulgaria’s pro-Russian former president set for strong election win, exit polls show

He is not even pro-Russian, but got stuck with the label because 3 years ago he was against weapon shipments to Ukraine and wanted some waivers on Russian gas sanctions.

The polls project his party, Progressive Bulgaria, to be right on the edge of obtaining a majority. If it fails to do that, he will have to form a coalition either with the actual pro-Russian party (far-right reactionaries, a slightly more sane version of AfD) or with the hilariously incompetent liberal party (Bulgarian version of the German Greens).

Iran so far has been trying to avoid any escalations and is just playing an eye for an eye. They might be holding back the Houthis as the response if/when KSA and UAE decide to directly engage in the war.

NVIDIA Statement on the Biden Administration’s Misguided ‘AI Diffusion’ Rule

Wow. Did not expect such strong language in an official statement from a publicly traded company.

That global progress is now in jeopardy. The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided “AI Diffusion” rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide.

While cloaked in the guise of an “anti-China” measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America’s global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead.

I can’t say that I disagree. This really is one of the most demented policies of the whole Biden administration. Even from the POV of an imperialist, restricting half of NATO from one of your top exports makes zero sense…

Thanks for the write-up! Really interesting how the fact that Eastern European countries are experiencing similar material conditions also leads to them developing nearly identical political scene.

It has been widely speculated whether Trump’s administration will be a lunatics clown show that has no concept of foreign policy or regular bloodthirsty neocons itching to start war on every continent.

Does the sudden uptick in support for Ukraine mean that the state have no trust in Trump and are trying to wrap things up before he comes?

deleted by creator

A Secret Service agent spotted an AK-47-style weapon poking out of bushes

Dear Mods, I demand we get this as an Emoji:

I apologise for the comment in advance, but the absolute political shitshow we have witnessed in Europe over the past few years has given me a weird appreciation of Angela Merkel.

She managed to keep US influence relatively at bay, maintained good economic relations with Russia and China, knew how to throw a bone to the various anti-EU factions within Europe to keep them from gaining influence, annoyed the Brits to the point they left the union and obviously maintained the EU’s imperialist projects while keeping their image and her legacy clean. Compared to her the Macron-Scholz-von der Leyen trio look like dumb, dumber, and the the dumbest. IMO she beats Obama for most competent imperialist of the past few decades.

Israel union calls for general strike as protestors across country demand Gaza hostage deal - BBC

Trump was always against abortion ban because he knew how much it will help drive Dem turnout

Trump calls DeSantis abortion ban ‘a terrible mistake,’ sparking anger from some key Republicans - September 19, 2023

Trump privately called a Roe v. Wade reversal ‘bad’ for his party - June 24, 2022

Hypothetically if there were two identical candidates with their only difference being that candidate #1 will enact abortion rights, I think voting for them is a valid form of harm reduction.

However just look at the track record of Kamala and the Dems. Just this campaign they have been willing to fund genocide, imprison immigrants, increase police funding and completely ignore climate change. They have no moral compass, the only guiding principle for them is whatever will earn them more money or votes. And abortion rights happens to earn them both a lot of donation money AND a lot of voters. They have no incentive to ever fight for it in the same way they will never fight for M4A or free college education. It is simply another tool to force large part of the working class to forever vote for them.

I personally won’t label anyone who votes for her thinking they are fighting for abortion rights as an evil person, but for me it’s just a completely useless act. Even if dems do act to protect them, they will 100% do it in a way that Republicans can easily re-ban next election.