Crazy if you think about it. Afd , extreme right party in second place , in Germany. The country that experienced the NSDAP, Hitler etcetera #exitpoll#afd#germany
"The southern states of #Bavaria and #BadenWürttemberg have been inundated, causing #DamBursts and prompting dramatic rescues. States of emergency have been declared in several areas with more heavy rain expected."
News: Germany Bundeswehr General Christian Freuding indicated that Ukrainian forces able to target Russian aircraft over Russia with their German-supplied weapons. Thank you, Germany.
Waiting for the ever promised massive Russian escalation and nuclear apocalypse resulting from Ukraine now firing western weapons at targets inside Russia.
1/ Okay, while the Trump verdict has been very riveting, I'd like to talk about failure states in democracies for a bit.
Any stable democracy needs peaceful transfers of power. If a ruling government loses in an election and thus loses power, they are free to moan about it - but in the end, they should leave office without violence because (unless they screwed up bigly) they realize that they will likely return to power one day. They are invested in the system, and do not want to overthrow the basic democratic order of their country - because it works for them.
Thus, a country needs multiple parties with an investment in democracy, who are willing to form a government - but who are also willing to leave peacefully. If this is not the case, then the democracy in question is in a failure state.
An good (or rather, very very bad) example of a "proportional representation" democracy in a failure state was the late Weimar Republic. Starting in 1932, the NSDAP (Nazis) and the KDP (Communists) received a majority of the vote and thus representatives. Both wanted to overthrow the Republic and its democracy in its own way, and thus it became impossible to form a democratic government - let alone switch between different ones. But the Weimar Republic had problems in this regard even earlier, since there were numerous miniscule parties with only a very small number of candidates. They only cared about a small number of issues, had no motivation to compromise, and thus were not willing to join a working government.
Choose Life.
Choose a job.
Choose a career.
Choose a family.
Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers.
Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance.
Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments.
Choose a starter home.
Choose your friends.
Choose leisurewear and matching luggage.
Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics.
Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning.
Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth.
Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves.
NYTimes - BREAKING NEWS - Sunday, June 9, 2024 2:41 PM ET
Far-right parties are surging in the European Parliament elections, a strong sign of voter dissatisfaction, early data shows. Voters were expected to deliver major gains to anti-immigrant, nationalist parties, challenging leaders in #Germany and #France.
My take on this trend is this: voters, dissatisfied with the status quo, see the far right as the most likely to dismantle the system that oppresses them (yes, I know they’re wrong about that). They also fear a wave of immigration will overwhelm their culture and job markets. The left needs to do a lot better job of educating, organizing and mobilizing to counter this trend. Much work remains to be done to convince voters that “the left” can be trusted to bring about the substantial societal and economic changes voters desire. #politics#EuropeanElections#EuropeanUnion