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Has anyone here written on the recent Romanian elections "scandal"?

My suspicions is that it's a less severe version of the Georgian case: someone who doesn't automatically bow to NATO & EU won an election, and liberals cry about Russian coup (without ample evidence)

Or maybe there is actual evidence, unlike in Georgia?

Even if there is evidence, the rundown is usually: Russians giving money to a right wing candidate is BAD, end of democracy, while NED giving money to a different right wing candidate is just the power of Freeeedom
It's highly unlikely that TikTok alone would be enough to win an election, anyway

In 2019, the net profit of the banking sector amounted to 1.7 trillion rubles; in 2020 - 1.6 trillion; in 2021 - 2.4 trillion; in 2023 - 3.3 trillion. The forecast for the current year is 3.5-3.8 trillion, that is, twice as much as in the pre-COVID, calm 2019. The main beneficiary of what is happening in Russia is the banking sector (financial capital), and not the defense industry or exporters. No industry received more than banks.

It’s over. Finance capital has won. Specifically, American finance capital has won. There is no other way to read this data without cope.

And to add to that:

Putin began his meeting with big business with the words: "The economy does not live by the rate alone, but also by the supply of goods on the market first and foremost." It is clear that the issue of the rate and the complaints of business generals about the Central Bank greatly irritate him. But, according to the law and rules, the Central Bank is completely independent in decision-making. Even the head of state cannot influence the decisions of the Central Bank's board of directors. They tried to change the law in the early 2000s. It didn't work. Everyone who needs to knows this. They have to fight off complaints with jokes.

There is no way to defeat American imperialism without defeating American finance capital. Even when you are winning on the military front, you still have to escape the ideological indoctrination from the IMF.

https://neurosciencenews.com/long-covid-spike-protein-brain-28156/

Key facts

• Spike protein persists in brain tissues and skull bone marrow for years post-infection.

• mRNA vaccines reduce spike protein accumulation in the brain by 50%.

• Chronic spike protein presence may accelerate brain aging and increase stroke risk.

https://xcancel.com/AryJeay/status/1870290401510264884#m

Yemeni missile dodges 2 Israeli interceptors before striking in Tel Aviv.

As time goes on, I continue to think Louisville is the most barbaric city in hell world https://www.lpm.org/news/2024-12-19/pregnant-kentucky-woman-cited-for-street-camping-while-in-labor

It looks like the twitter account of the suspect in the latest terrorist attack in Germany has been found. The suspect appears to be an ex Muslim atheist man who left Saudi Arabia for Germany in 2006, and believed that the German government was persecuting ex Muslim and women Saudi refugees, along with trying to spread radical Islamic ideology across Europe? Saudi Arabia apparently wanted to extradite him, and Germany refused, and that appears to be related to his work in helping apostates, mostly women, to escape Saudi Arabia for refugee status in Germany, which was interpreted as participation in human trafficking, again of mainly women. The details are unknown at this time, this is all speculation with regards to that. In some of his tweets, he says that Germans are complicit in the persecution he faces as an ex Muslim and that he wants to take violent action against German citizens. He also appears to be a Zionist. Also went on an unhinged rant about how women social media influencers and models leaving Islam would lead to the collapse of the religion. It appears that he has a fixation with regards to ex Muslim women.

Content warning for his twitter account: Islamophobia, condoning terrorist acts, sexism, Zionism, and everything in between.

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I remember hearing that some of the prisons in syria where people are being released from USED to back in the day be CIA blacksites, where america could hold people indefinitely and that lasted until syria-us relations deteriorated. Anyone know if that's true?

Also the syrian had arrested abdullah occalan and then also released him?

People keep making fun of how that photo of the cops surrounding Luigi, just one guy, makes him look more badass (as they should), but here's the other thing: Why are they walking? Why not just put him in a van and drive him to the location like they normally do?

Zambian soccer player Barbra Banda, 24, was the target of transphobic attacks from exclusionary trans groups after being named the BBC's British Player of the Year. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, notorious for her attacks on trans rights, was one of the figures who endorsed the comments on social media.

Active at Orlando Pride in the United States since March of this year, Barbra Banda is Brazilian Superstar Football player Marta's colleague. Barbra is a cisgender woman (in other words, she identifies with the gender she was assigned at birth). In other words: she is not a trans woman. That same year, Rowling was also one of the public people to use her X profile to attack Algerian boxer Imane Khelif during the Paris Olympics.

The player was announced as BBC Player of the Year on Tuesday (26). The result is based on a popular vote. She was part of a shortlist with other players, all of whom were defined, according to the British newspaper, by “a large panel of experts involved in soccer from around the world”. After Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala in 2015, Banda is the second African player to win the newspaper's title.

The player told the BBC that she was “shocked and surprised” by the nomination and thanked her family, the Pride team and the Zambian national team (she was also part of the squad at the Paris Olympics). “Growing up in Zambia was never easy, especially as a girl,” said the athlete, saying that it took a while for her mother to support her in pursuing athletics. “It wasn't easy, but I think hard work and consistency really helped,” she added.

“Presumably the BBC decided that this [naming the Band Player of the Year] was more time-efficient than going door-to-door to spit directly in women's faces,” tweeted J. K. Rowling when sharing a post by The Telegraph's sports editor-in-chief. Another figure known for speaking out against the rights of trans people and their inclusion in sports is British swimmer Sharron Davies. She said on her X profile that the nomination is “trolling pure and simple”. “Of all the fabulous female footballers in the world, the BBC has deliberately chosen a man to be the best female footballer of the year,” she wrote in one of her posts.

Apparently the attacker in Magdeburg was a Saudi doctor living in Germany since 2006. Things are about to get ugly in Germany, especially given they currently don't have a government and there are elections in February. Fully expect the AfD to take advantage of the rampant Islamophobia latent in all Germans, and pair that with "it's time for Syrian refugees to go home to a Safe Syria." Grim.

Source: https://www.barrons.com/news/saudi-man-arrested-after-magdeburg-attack-state-premier-7df18630

The latest from Justin Podur talked in depth about one aspect of the Syrian War that IMO has become a bit of an elephant in the room. This is one war where sanctions played an important role, albeit with massive caveats.

There was a civil war that ruined the country, and then a part of it was occupied. That part was permitted some rebuilding and was supplied by the occupying force. Either financially (Americans buying the SDF's oil in the northeast) or directly (Turks sending their oligopolies to rebuild and supply the local economies in Idlib and Afrin). The portion of the country that remained under control of the central government more or less failed to rebuild - wether that's an indictment of Assad's government, Russia's and Iran's financial werewithal, the power of the sanctions themselves, or all of the above is up for discussion.

The truly bleak statement from Justin is that while the sanctions architecture might create a real demand for acquiescence, the moment the country bends the knee slightly it doesn't get rewarded for it. Western policy seems all stick, no carrot. Assad is gone. Yet Syria went from being bombed 3 times a week by the Israelis to 300 times in 3 days. The entire security infrastructure of the country is just gone. And still the Europeans and Americans are dithering on wether they'll even remove sanctions imposed on a new regime which, by and large, is giving them everything they ever asked for and then some.

So in my view this is a cautionary tale to the likes of Venezuela and Cuba. Juan Guaidó could have taken over the former and turned PDVSA into a Chevron subsidiary. Something tells me the Americans would still never forgive these countries for mildly inconveniencing them.