patrick.net

Germany commits €100 billion to defense spending

Germany has announced a plan to prioritize military spending in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A "special fund" will be set up to better equip the Bundeswehr.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a plan to beef up the German military on Sunday, pledging €100 billion ($112.7 billion) of the 2022 budget for the armed forces and repeating his promise to reach the 2% of gross domestic product spending on defense in line with NATO demands.

Scholz announced the new allocation in a speech during a special session of parliament on Germany's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He said the spending would include investments and armaments projects for the German military.

Scholz also said Germany would supply the Ukrainian military with weaponry, in a reversal of previous policy.

"We need to support Ukraine in its hour of desperate need," the chancellor said.

"In attacking Ukraine, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not just want to eradicate a country from the world map, he is destroying the European security structure," Scholz told German lawmakers.
Why is the defense boost important?

"It's clear we need to invest significantly more in the security of our country in order to protect our freedom and our democracy,'' Scholz said.

Germany reported a record high in NATO defense spending for 2021, submitting a budget of €53 billion for the current year.

That figure marks a 3.2% increase over the year before. In 2020, spending was capped at an estimated €51.4 billion.

The €100 billion Scholz said would be dedicated for the armed forces this year is a one year boost though the move is significant, as Germany has often been criticized by the United States and other NATO allies for not investing enough in defense.

"We are not alone in defending peace," Scholz said, adding Germany would be deploying more forces to NATO's eastern flank.

Former German defense leaders have been publicly circumspect about the country's lack of military readiness since Putin gave a speech last Monday announcing his intentions and motivations for invading Ukraine.

The decision to step up and meet NATO's target for defense spending of 2% of GDP came as bitter medicine to some lawmakers , who could be heard reacted negatively to the chancellor's announcement during the Bundestag address.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-commits-100-billion-to-defense-spending/a-60933724

Conclusions from the above:

1. Trump was right.
2. Putin IS a stupid cunt: like a fucking blonde bimbo afraid to hit a lightpole but unable to look away from it xe steers right into the fucking thing.

https://mobile.twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1536301391106408453

https://mobile.twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1536477198676279299

Consider it done:

Finnish president Sauli Niinisto said on Tuesday that Turkey has agreed to support the NATO memberships of Finland and Sweden, and Ankara said it “got what it wanted” from the talks with the two Nordic countries.

Niinisto said the decision came after a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, facilitated by Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg.

“As a result of that meeting, our foreign ministers signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will at the Madrid Summit this week support the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO,” Niinisto said in a statement.

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/06/28/Turkey-agrees-to-support-Finland-Sweden-joining-NATO-after-getting-what-it-wanted-

MADRID – President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday, as he arrived at the NATO summit in Spain, that the U.S. would step up its military presence in eastern Europe.
Biden announced the U.S. would establish a permanent troop presence in Poland and maintain an additional rotational brigade of 3,000 fighters and 2,000 personnel in Romania. The troops in Poland will be the first permanent U.S. forces on NATO’s eastern flank. 

RWSGFY says

U.S. would step up its military presence in eastern Europe.

A WIN FOR PUTIN!!! THE MAN IS A GENIUS!!!

Bd6r says

RWSGFY says

U.S. would step up its military presence in eastern Europe.

A WIN FOR PUTIN!!! THE MAN IS A GENIUS!!!

Let's have some vodka to celebrate this great win:

Some people think that Putin is deeply shaken from Sweden and Finland joining NATO. He does not care. Why is that? Ukraine is not the same as Sweden + Finland together military-wise. The population of Ukraine (44M) is much larger than of Sweden (10.3M) and Finland (5.5M) together. On top of that, the collective west is much more willing to sacrifice Ukrainians than Swedes and Finns to weaken Russia. The West understands that the military conflict with Russia is not going be a safari like the wars in Iraq, Libya, etc.

Financially-wise, Finland and Sweden are weakening their economic growth by spending resources on NATO even if the US to carry a large share of the burden.

Are Finland and Sweden better protected from Russia as NATO members? Not much. NATO and the collective West would help them anyway (without NATO membership) in case of a military conflict with Russia. They are loosing money and the result is the same. The only country who may be benefiting from this development is the UK.

The mainstream media pictures the latest expansion of NATO as a great success when it reality it is marginal at best. Anyway, they say that about anything than Brandon's overlords do.

Argentina and Iran are joining BRICS and that is more significant than the NATO expansion. They can tell who is forming the new world order (not Brandon's overlords) and they are just joining the winning side.

tomtomtom says

Argentina and Iran are joining BRICS and that is more significant than the NATO expansion.

KAURI SHELLS, RUBLES, AND IRANIAN RIALS WILL SOON ECLIPSE USD AS WORLD'S RESERVE CURRENCY.

Bd6r says

tomtomtom says

Argentina and Iran are joining BRICS and that is more significant than the NATO expansion.

KAURI SHELLS, RUBLES, AND IRANIAN RIALS WILL SOON ECLIPSE USD AS WORLD'S RESERVE CURRENCY.

More likely a commodity standard will.

This ensures a balance of trade and doesn't allow one entity to just create an infinite amount of "money" to purchase goods and services for free. Like the United States does.

US dollars are FINE - as long as you spend them quickly. They needed to be collected in reserves so long as energy could only be purchased in the US dollar, that's ending.

richwicks says

US dollars are FINE - as long as you spend them quickly.

USD is the best looking horse in glue factory, figuratively speaking.

richwicks says

energy could only be purchased in the US dollar, that's ending.

I dont think that is necessarily true. (In sense you can use also other currencies to buy oil)

Bd6r says

richwicks says

US dollars are FINE - as long as you spend them quickly.

USD is the best looking horse in glue factory, figuratively speaking.

Not anymore, the Ruble is the strongest currency in the world at this point. It has placed a floor on it's value in terms of gold. Not all nations are barred from it, just the "coalition of the willing" which is the US, Canada, most of Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. That's about 2 billion people in a world of 8.

richwicks says

Ruble is the strongest currency in the world at this point. It has placed a floor on it's value in terms of gold.

Sounds like Soviet times when ruble was the "strongest" currency.

And how many USD could you buy in Moscow by using rubles today, and how many USD can you withdraw from your Russian bank dollar account?

If ruble is so valuable why do they introduce limitations with purchase and withdrawals?

Bd6r says

richwicks says

Ruble is the strongest currency in the world at this point. It has placed a floor on it's value in terms of gold.

Sounds like Soviet times when ruble was the "strongest" currency.

No. During the Soviet Era the government would constantly lie, but when you actually went to exchange your currency, you'd get the official rate for your dollar, or Franc, or Lira or whatever, but LEAVING the Soviet Union, you'd get the market rate. You could bring foreign currency to a black market though. You wouldn't get market rate, but you'd get better than the official rate.

I wouldn't be surprised if the United States enacts the same sort of confiscation scheme here.

I lived through the Cold War. What I can't fucking understand is how people can't see the US is the new USSR. Our propaganda is even worse and more laughable. We have political prisoners right now - at least 800 of them for protesting a stolen election on trumped up bullshit charges, evidence isn't being made available. Our balloting system is a fucking joke, completely unverifiable - there's no exit polling anymore. Politicians and their family flagrantly violate the law. Our government lies to us CONSTANTLY about its success - EVERYTHING is a success! We left Afghanistan because "mission objectives were met" - officially. We have censorship, people with contrary political viewpoints are persecuted, fired from jobs and cut off from payment systems. Julian Assange is being slowly murdered. Our NSA is the Stasi/KGB collecting information on everybody. We are in continual war, and every war we enter, is accompanied by an avalanche of ridiculous lies and propaganda. Even religion was openly attacked, people were prevented from going to church, but going to Walmart and liquor stores was fine.

The US of the 1980's that's LONG dead.

How can you not understand this? How can you not see it?

We're are at the point where I post information from a peer reviewed scientific journal, THAT can get me deplatformed! How can you not see it?

What's worse, is you have been programmed, and I mean LITERALLY programmed, to robotically defend it. You think you'll escape it? That your CHILDREN will? Unless you can put your kids through college on a bullshit degree, where they get a government job making $600,000 a year when they get out because you're part of the "party faithful" (i.e. the mob) - you're not part of that class.

How fucking obvious does it have to get for you? When will you realize you're a useful idiot?

Bd6r says

And how many USD could you buy in Moscow by using rubles today, and how many USD can you withdraw from your Russian bank dollar account?

You cannot buy or sell rubles today in terms of US currency.

The question is, is how much does a commodity buy in each currency? Russia isn't experiencing any inflation in food, electricity, gasoline, anything. The US is.

If we're eating bugs in 2023, Russia won't be.

richwicks says

Russia isn't experiencing any inflation in food, electricity, gasoline, anything. Th

Wrong, I dont know where you get this
The annual inflation rate in Russia fell to 17.1 percent in May of 2022, below market expectations of 17.3 percent, from 17.8 percent in the previous month, which was the highest since January of 2002. On a monthly basis, consumer prices went up 0.1 percent, after a 1.6 percent jump in April and also lower than forecasts for a 0.3 percent increase. Prices slowed for food (0.6 percent vs 2.9 percent in April) while the cost of non-food (-0.1 percent vs 0.5 percent) and services (-0.3 percent vs 1.1 percent)

https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/inflation-cpi

Source is Russian statistics service

Bd6r says

richwicks says

Russia isn't experiencing any inflation in food, electricity, gasoline, anything. Th

Wrong, I dont know where you get this

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=RUB&to=USD

From institutions that actually are still able to trade the currency. They don't care about politics or propaganda, they care about $$$$, only.

richwicks says

From institutions that actually are still able to trade the currency. They don't care about politics or propaganda, they care about $$$$, only.

Now you are contradicting yourself. I gave you data about inflation originating from Russian sources, which show that a rouble buys less food etc, and you show me how much dollars can be bought with rouble, after saying that

richwicks says

Russia isn't experiencing any inflation in food, electricity, gasoline, anything. The US is.

richwicks says

When will you realize you're a useful idiot?

If I am a useful idiot, then I dont know who you are. You contradict yourself in space of 2 comments. That is not a show of high, or for that matter of any intelligence.

https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1542909485169229825

I'm all for NATO, as long as the US ain't in it.

It'll create an interesting situation for German and other European "No Nuke" states. Dependence on Britain and France, too. Might create a balance against Ger Money.

Trump was RIGHT.

Bd6r says

richwicks says

From institutions that actually are still able to trade the currency. They don't care about politics or propaganda, they care about $$$$, only.

Now you are contradicting yourself. I gave you data about inflation originating from Russian sources, which show that a rouble buys less food etc, and you show me how much dollars can be bought with rouble, after saying that

Well, I agree with Mises, that inflation is how much money exists. If Russia hasn't created more currency, it will drag down prices through competition. But yes, I was wrong about the common interpretation of inflation. The fact is though, the Ruble is extremely stable, for now - because Putin did something that hasn't been done in 5 decades, placed a floor on gold. He's tied the currency to a commodity - at least temporarily.

Bd6r says

richwicks says

richwicks says

Russia isn't experiencing any inflation in food, electricity, gasoline, anything. The US is.

richwicks says

When will you realize you're a useful idiot?

If I am a useful idiot, then I dont know who you are. You contradict yourself in space of 2 comments. That is not a show of high, or ...

Look, when was the last time the US government has been honest about Russia or in any war, or about anything?

They lied about the Iraq War, they lied about the Libyan war, Syrian war, they don't even mention Yemen or Somalia, they lied about the Afghanistan war.

They lied about the pandemic, they lied about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and the danger of the disease itself, they lied about Russian Collusion, and Russian hacking.

What have they told the truth about in the last 2 decades?

Well, the Ukraine war apparently.

I make errors certainly, but I don't lie, and I recognize patterns. Why can't you do this?

Our intelligence agencies have been caught now, recently, setting up false flags, and engaging in entrapment. Russia isn't a threat to us, our threats are domestic. Why can't you see that?

Russia wouldn't be in Ukraine, if the United States wasn't in Ukraine. When has US involvement ANYWHERE been beneficial to either the country they were involved with, the United States itself, or the people of this nation? US involvement in Ukraine is just going to get a few million people killed, that's it.

Could be wrong about that. Russia will minimize the number of causalities just as the US does. We'll never get an accurate number of the slaughter. How does this advantage the United States? Well, a few psychopaths are probably jerking off thinking about the carnage they caused, and a lot of Offence Contractors are sure to make money.

Of course the US is lying about the Ukraine/Russian conflict, they ONLY lie. I'm tired of it.

This is your honest, trustworthy, government:


original link

It's just a criminal syndicate. All they do is lie to us, blatantly, why do YOU take it? They think you're stupid, I'm certain you're not. You're not, why do you defend these assholes? Why do you think they are telling you the truth about Ukraine? This mother fucker's crackhead slut son "worked" at Burisma to funnel bribery money. This war in Ukraine would have NEVER happened if these mother fuckers were in jail, or executed, as they ought to be.

Somewhere, there's some poor kid, whose mother is a stripper, whose father is a crackhead, and whose grandfather is the president of the United States. How low are we going to go?

Now they need to build a new nightclub to accommodate Sanna and roll a train of cocaine a day. This is not a good deal for Nato.

Note that transfer of 90% of troops from NATO-encircled Koenigsberg to Ukraine shows that it is not NATO putler is afraid of

Bd6r says

Note that transfer of 90% of troops from NATO-encircled Koenigsberg to Ukraine shows that it is not NATO putler is afraid of

Not only Koenigsberg, other places on the border with NATO too:

Since Russia first launched its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been peeling military forces away from its bases in Northern Europe to plug gaps in its forces suffering high losses and battlefield setbacks against Ukrainian troops.

Of an original estimated 30,000 Russian troops that once faced the Baltic countries and southern Finland, as many as 80 percent of them have been diverted to Ukraine, according to three senior European defense officials in the region, leaving Russia with only a skeleton crew in what was once its densest concentration of military force facing NATO territory.

“The drawdown we’ve seen from this region in the past seven months is very significant,” said one senior Nordic defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters. “Russia had this ground force posture facing us for decades that is now effectively just gone.”

...Russia is moving other high-end military hardware, including antiaircraft systems and missiles, away from the region to Ukraine alongside its troops. Russia appeared to remove some S-300 antiaircraft systems from a protective ring around St. Petersburg, one of Russia’s largest cities that is near Finland’s border, according to satellite imagery obtained by Finnish media outlet Yle this month. One missile basing area in the region, manned by Russia’s 500th Antiaircraft Missile Regiment, appeared to be abandoned entirely, according to the satellite imagery.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/09/28/russia-ukraine-war-nato-eastern-flank-military-kaliningrad-baltic-finland/

The obvious consclusion from all this is the sooner Ukraine is accepted to NATO the sooner Ruscia will feel safe and willing to remove their war criminals from Ukrainian territory (and even borders).

Eric Holder says

Koenigsberg,

Kroliewiec, Karalauci, or Twangste after referendum for joining Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth

Bd6r says

Eric Holder says

Koenigsberg,

Kroliewiec, Karalauci, or Twangste after referendum for joining Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1577635915996008454

Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has revealed that Poland has entered into negotiations with the U.S. to enter the NATO nuclear sharing program.

American nukes are currently stored in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands within the program.

This won't have happened if Pukin didn't launch his SCHMO.

BY BARTOSZ BRZEZINSKI
OCTOBER 22, 2022 2:50 PM

Hungary’s government supports the NATO membership of Sweden and Finland and has submitted the ratification documents to the National Assembly, Minister Gergely Gulyás told reporters at a briefing on Saturday.

Gulyás, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, said the expansion of NATO to include the two Nordic countries would be ratified by mid-December at the latest, according to media reports.

Asked by a reporter if NATO would be getting stronger with Finland and Sweden joining, Gulyás replied that he hoped so.

BRUSSELS — Turkey’s parliament has voted to approve Finland’s NATO membership bid, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the security alliance.
..
Thursday’s vote was the last hurdle in Finland’s quest to join the military organization. Its eventual accession would remake European security, doubling NATO’s land border with Russia and bringing the full force of the alliance to Europe’s far north.
Turkey was the last holdout among NATO member countries, who need to approve new members unanimously. Once it notifies the United States that it has approved Finland’s bid, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the alliance, will formally invite Finland to accede to the Washington Treaty, according to NATO.

Anyone see this about food inflation in Germany? it is 22% from March 2022 to March 2023 ...

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/german-inflation-eases-less-than-expected-march-2023-03-30/#:~:text=Food%20prices%20continued%20to%20rise,costs%20for%20oil%20and%20gas.