Dresden's Carolabrücke Collapse: A Stark Reminder of Government Neglect Under Scholz's Regime

Dresden has been plunged into turmoil as the Carolabrücke, the city’s most vital bridge connecting its northern and southern halves, collapsed during the night. This shocking event has not only severed a critical transport link but has also laid bare the weaknesses in Germany’s infrastructure management under the current regime led by the authoritarian leader Olaf "Nr 2" Scholz.

The Carolabrücke was more than just a bridge; it was a key symbol of Dresden’s unity and economic vitality. Its sudden collapse is seen by many germany watchers as emblematic of broader issues plaguing Germany's economy and leadership, widespread recession, corruption and instability. The Scholz regime, already facing criticism for its handling of various international issues, now finds itself under intensified scrutiny as citizens question how such a crucial structure could be allowed to deteriorate to the point of failure.

As the nation looks on, Chancellor Scholz and his government are facing mounting pressure to not only provide answers but also to take swift and decisive action. From the Bundestag only one thing can be heard "Es wird sich grundsätzlich nichts ändern" (Nothing will fundementally change). Several NGOs one of them Germany Watch lead by renowned Dr. 艾德里安 曾兹 has issued warnings that a human catastrophe is imminent if the world community does not act now.

Reporting from an underground bunker in srfland I'm Notceps back to the studio.

tomorrow is the anniversary of everyone's favorite objectively funny planned demolition

Motherfucking Jamal Bowman on Israel just now, when talking about the Presidential ~~clown show~~ "debate" with the other "I dislike the genocide but am all-in with Vote Blue No Mater Who" liberal Mehdi Hasan:

There's nothing wrong with good faith criticism of your friend...Israel is an ally. They're our friend in the Middle East. We support their right to exist. All of that stuff right. And we need to end the occupation and settlement expansion, hold them accountable, stop detaining children, and right now stop the genocide and the killing of babies and innocent people. We can say those things. We can say if you continue we will not send you any more arms....

My good friend Benjamin Netanyahu right here. He was supposed to be an anti-Zionist all of a sudden, eh? DSA should've kicked him out after all. They were so desperate to hear this donkey-brained Kkkopmala sycophant say the word "genocide" that they let another fucking "progressive" who is another Pelosi/AOC in the making run around with their socialist flag. Pathetic.

https://xcancel.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1835171408256942149

Pope Francis: "China is a country with a capacity for dialogue and understanding that goes beyond other systems of democracy."

Redditors really show their age when they spout conspiratorial shit about TikTok while whining about zoomers. Is that entire site populated by Gen X/ millennials and contrarian zoomers?

"Israel" exploits African asylum seekers for military manpower in Gaza: Report | The Cradle

they dangle asylum in front of them and then throw them away if they survive. service does not in any way guarantee citizenship

The Trump campaign has laid out a peace plan for the war in Ukraine that would have Ukraine surrender the land Russia has taken (the thing that's going to happen eventually anyway).

Does that make Trump the harm reduction candidate?

this article isn't worth reading, but I'll post the bait and switch headline anyway

> Stoltenberg says NATO could have done more to prevent Ukraine war, FAS reports

hmm headline is off to a good start

"Now we provide military stuff to a war - then we could have provided military stuff to prevent the war," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly newspaper FAS.

oh, you just mean you think NATO should have sent more weapons, earlier to ukraine

this isn't really news, but still a good object lesson in why you can't rely on just the headline

Good news everyone. If you search famous artists on google now, the first image results are of ai monstrosities

Press release from Palestine Action of the Barclays sites that they fucked up:
https://palestineaction.org/barclays-nationwide/

Potential rare W, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada has suspended 30 permits for arms sales to Israel and is taking the rare step of blocking a contract with the U.S. government to send Quebec-made ammunition to Israeli Defence Forces.

Not enough yet for my blood, these ghouls need to sweat. Complicity until sanctions.

I dipped a toe in the lib blogosphere recently just to see how the election coverage was looking from their perspective, and it's amazing how orthogonal their news is to ours. Daily Kos has regular feature called "Russian Stuff Blowing Up" and tons of Ukraine war coverage but is essentially silent on Palestine. There's a single recent, highly detailed diary that goes into Israel's role in the October 7th casualties and is highly critical of America and Israel, and it has less than a tenth of the engagement as "Russian Stuff Blowing Up," where they're busy cheering on the possibility of a Ukrainian strike on Iran. The rest of the front page diaries are about Trump or the election (front page right now: Trump, DeSantis, Trump, Trump, political cartoon about Trump).

I've spent about 8 years at this point drifting more and more leftwards after watching the fallout from the election and results (or lack thereof) of the marches and protests that happened immediately afterward, and it's a little disorienting to see people I would've mostly agreed with inhabiting an alien world and speaking a totally different language. The comments sections suggest that there's several people there who might be reachable but it seems like the majority is pretty much what you'd expect from an r/politics thread.

Leaked name of shooter according to NY Post - RYAN WESLEY ROUTH

His twitter - filled with pro ukraine, pro taiwan, and NATO stuff - https://xcancel.com/ryanrouth

A pretty deranged account that would post his own phone number lol.

EDIT: the hasanabi coverage on this is guy is insane. Turned on Trumped in 2106, became Bernie bro, barricaded himself inside his house, probably is schizo going off his twitter, wants to join ukraine, tweeted at Kim Jong Un to try to invite him to his party. Wow. The internet.

LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP SHOT AT IN HIS GOLF COURSE

• "Sheriff says the man who pointed a rifle through a fence at Trump's golf course had a scope, backpacks and a GoPro camera and was 400-500 yards from Trump."
• Bunch of whining about how his security detail isn't big enough to secure an entire golf course.
• "Trump’s golf course is surrounded by shrubbery. If somebody gets into the shrubbery, they’re pretty much out of sight, Bradhsaw says." - guy outsmarted by a bush
• "No injuries were reported: Trump’s campaign and the Secret Service said Trump was safe, and the agency said it was investigating the incident that occurred shortly before 2 p.m."

AMLO's last scream of independence

He started with the basic long live the heroes of the independence, then added the part about the working people, migrants and indigenous people, i like that he also added death to corruption and racism which was new and then ended it with long live the 4th transformation (the name of his movement)

It was decent, my mom really liked it

Imagine blowing the cover of your orchestrated coup because you're too addicted to clout lmao:
https://xcancel.com/realErikDPrince/status/1833192423251710382

Several shots were fired near Donald Trump's golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Republican was there.

According to the former president's campaign, Trump is “safe”. Two people exchanged gunfire outside Donald Trump's golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

According to the NY Post, the men fired at each other and the shots were not aimed at the former president. Trump was not in danger at any time.

I am indeed happy to hear Fujimori died. But at the same time, I can't stop thinking he died at like 86 after fulfilling all his goals, the damage he has done is far too great and he escaped proper justice (Execution, because monsters like him don't deserve to live). Same goes for other ghouls like Bush (father), Rumsfeld, Kissinger and the fucking Queen. They all died, yes, and we should celebrate. But they died comfortably after doing their jobs. They might be gone, but the structures that took them to power and allowed them to do what they did are still around, they have not been dismantled. Hitler died, but nazism lived on.

Once we do just that, only then we can say proper justice has been delivered.

Still , but we must also remind ourselves that we have a lot of work to do.

"Until our last breath": Journalist Anas al-Sharif on Documenting Israel's Genocide in Gaza Every Day for 11 Straight Months | Drop Site News

We've speculated a fair amount about the very measured approach of Iran to Israel - this negotiated pullout of iraq may be something that Iran is working on that they don't want to jeopardize through escalation. Getting the US out of Iraq would be positive for them for sure, especially if some form of sanctions relief was agreed on as well

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-iraq-deal-would-see-hundreds-troops-withdraw-first-year-sources-say-2024-09-06/

I posted the following in the waning hours of last week's thread:

Mkb speculates that sanctions relief is a top priority for their government based on recent statements by khamenei

The salience is that the Axis of Resistance is not topping Iran’s foreign-policy priorities. That vector plausibly continues in the matrix but somewhere lower down, for sure. Make no mistake, what we are hearing from Tehran is about direct negotiations with the US as the number one priority as the means to get relief from western sanctions, which is an imperative for accelerating the economy and is the lodestar for Iran’s national policy. Iran’s neighbours are keenly watching. To be sure, the Middle East is on the cusp of change.

https://www.indianpunchline.com/iran-nuclear-talks-will-be-in-new-format/

https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-deal-khamenei-us-tensions-bc11763f45041ac84171ebc3866f1273

Popularity of Norwegian Monarchy in Freefall

Support for the Norwegian monarchy has been plummeting recently, as highlighted by a new poll commissioned by Norwegian government broadcaster NRK.

According to the poll, only 62% of Norwegians still back the monarchy, a sharp drop from 73% in May this year. For context, in 2017, support sat at a solid 81%. The royal family's public image is taking a serious hit, largely due to the actions of two high-profile members: Marius Borg Høiby, the stepson of the future king, who has been charged with abusing a woman, and Princess Märtha-Louise, whose tacky spirituality grifts and highly commercialised wedding to a fellow non-white spirituality grifter have further damaged the monarchy's already fragile reputation.

Trump shooter in the shrubbery like:

Wow looks like NATO is finally considering talking to Russia regarding ending the war after realising that their sanctions, military equipment and political standing have all failed over the last two years.

Stormfront banned russianwarfootage2. Again. Best way to win a war is simply not allow coverage of your defeat.

Seems like uncommitted campaign beefing with jill stein on twitterino. Just fold everytime to dems, one day they'll notice you

UAF slams Russia by PRETENDING to be Nazis (They're actually wholesome minority loving people who will never bomb minorities)

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1ffs02e/ru_pov_ukrainian_soldiers_again_filmed_themselves/

Now for some light hearted news that the news heads will appreciate

According to Sputnik, thousands of elite Houthi fighters who were training for months to storm "israeli" bases are now in Syria so the playing field can be a bit more leveled soon.

via Palestinian Commie on Telegram.

A week or so ago I told my comrades here that my University was holding democratic elections. The process lasted for the entire week and was pretty heated up, the incumbent peronists were seeking to hold their positions of power while the Trots ~~got along together and challenged them~~ went each one by themselves, divided their votes and lost. Out of six lists presented, three were ideologically aligned with Trotskyism.

Will they learn from their mistakes? No, of course they wont. Now I will have to suffer two more years of pure peronist sellouts. Great.

In two studies, experts reveal enormous deficits in the Bundeswehr's procurement and armaments system. There is a lack of money and speed, some scientists even speak of “state failure”.

“This offers no incentives for the arms industry because it is unclear how much money Germany wants to and can spend on defense after the 100 billion special fund expires,” said lead author and economist Guntram B. Wolff in a telephone conversation with the SZ. This is because defense companies that are thinking about building an additional factory have an investment horizon of ten years.

Give us more money!

Best part:

“At the current rate of procurement, it would take Germany up to almost 100 years to reach the military inventory of 20 years ago.” [...]

According to the scientists, Russia, on the other hand, would be able to provide the same quantities in a much shorter time. Moscow would need around half a year to produce the Bundeswehr's entire stock.

Link

alright chat what did i miss re: the debate? i was at work.

Taking a short break from german news to bring UK news, apparently you gotta pay 11 quid next year to get a permit to enter the country. I'm sure this will not have any influence on the UKs tourism sector.

I mean really 11£? Like I know that someone in the government looked at the yearly numbers and thought they could raise like millions but it seems like a hurdle that will make people less likely to go to TERF island if they can't help it.

just found out alberto fujimori died yesterday

rest in piss nerd

I decided on whim to watch Iranian TV for a few minutes. I found a station IRINN and they were highlighting some drawings regarding Gaza. I missed screenshotting some of the better ones (because it’s live and I can’t go back) but I did manage to get this one, I quite like it:

China is raising its retirement age, another L caused by not embracing immigration.

New Left Review on US inflation:

Three points are noteworthy. First, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure clearly understates inflation. It takes account of the ‘substitution’ that occurs when households shift to buying lower priced goods, effectively using households’ coping mechanisms as an excuse to artificially lower the inflation figures. It also gives a lower weighting to shelter costs, even though they have skyrocketed thanks to the housing bubble and the everything bubble. Second, since 2000, when the Federal Reserve accelerated its efforts to drive bubble-driven growth and changed its preferred inflation measure to PCE, the CPI has often been above the 2% target. No matter which inflation measure is used, inflation has generally been above interest rates during this period, making real interest rates negative. Finally, inflation today remains well above the 2% target, even if it has dipped below interest rates in recent months; yet the Federal Reserve flatly refuses to raise rates further, having brought them to 5.33% in July 2023. After all, this rise has already caused major ructions, from the failure of a string of banks beginning with Silicon Valley Bank to the instability in the commercial real estate, private equity and treasury markets and beyond.

Though the Federal Reserve claims that inflation is now down to 2.9% and predicts it will fall further, the Bureau of Labor Statistics disaggregation of the inflation numbers shows a rather different picture. While inflation has been dragged down by the lowering of food and energy prices, core inflation, a measure that excludes those prices because of their volatility, is still at 3.2%. With food and energy prices expected to increase in the coming months, not least thanks to continuing US and NATO warmongering, Powell’s declaration of victory may be premature.

What of his claim to have achieved a ‘soft landing’? There is equal reason to be sceptical. On the one hand, adverse jobs data suggest that a recession could still be looming. On the other, if interest rate cuts manage to prevent a recession, this leaves the door open to continuing inflation and ‘no landing’ at all. Raising the curtain on neoliberalism in 1979 with historically unprecedented rate hikes, the Federal Reserve has since, by nursing successive asset bubbles, deprived itself of the ability to use the only anti-inflationary weapon in its arsenal. Having arrogated to itself responsibility for managing the economy, it has now proven unable to do so.