Generic Eccentric

This is what electoral interference in European elections looks like - per the USG NSS strategy last year

By their friends shall you know them

After his oily flattery and rude criticism of the Europeans en masse at the MSC, Rubio has chosen to make bilateral visits to the two most pro-Putin, anti-Brussels and Trump-loving leaders in the EU, Fico in Slovakia and Orban in Hungary

"Still", perhaps more in some areas that others? But even that is changing rapidly.

Are the gaps very meaningful? Doubtful.

Some people seem to find comfort in thinking that the US watches over them and protects them. They don't. That time is over, if it ever even existed.

Behold, yet again, the kindergarten tier efforts to divide Europe by trying to downplay one of the two biggest ones to create friction.

Some people even applauded, though absolutely nothing has changed.

Unfortunately the saying "same shit, different package" applies here.

What does she intend to continue exactly?

Europe needs to be independent in every way.

Nothing Rubio said fundamentally changes the US strategic goal of splitting up Europe through dissent by supporting the nationalistic anti-EU forces which happen to align with the MAGA ideology.

Wherever Europe is, they are watching China's hands, not the mouths.

Because "After Munich, Rubio will travel to Budapest for a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán."

Big words from Merz in Munich

The Msc motto, under destruction " probably means international order based on rights and rules is currently being destroyed. but I'm afraid we have to put it in even harsher terms.

This order no longer exists"

Switzerland, data, thinking emoji

The Swiss government has ended its contract with American analytics company Palantir, after federal agencies in the country rejected Palantir at least nine times over seven years...

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In today’s Vatnik Soup, made together with chef invité @martinlaineolen.bsky.social , we discuss the extensive links between pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Russian officials and intelligence operatives, and how Western politicians reinforced these links.

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Miksipä ei... Ukko pystyi nimittäin laulamaan (kiekumaan?) aika monet suohon.

🇺🇦 #UkraineSupportTracker: Europe steps up: In 2025, European military aid rose +67% & financial/humanitarian aid +59% vs. 2022–24 averages - compensating for the US withdrawal.
Military aid increasingly borne by small no of countries 👉 kielinstitut.de/publications...
#MSC2026

The FAA has issued a separate security NOTAM for Santa Teresa, New Mexico, banning all flight operations in the affected area for the same time window and altitude limits as the El Paso airspace closure, citing “special security reasons.”

YouTube video by tantemma M.A. Numminen sings Wittgenstein

I guess in the Danish case it is partially signalling as well.

As in "We're strapping up and gonna kick grandpa in the teeth if he tries to grab us by the island".

As for Finland, mostly everyone has internalized this:

China is really reading the room completely wrong and apparently can't even admit it to itself.

Attempting to split Europe, when Europe is hyperaware of what happens to those who bigger countries consider weak?

Continuing its biz warfare which just makes Europe and others look elsewhere?

Stupid.

After discovering some dangerous vulnerabilities of the TCAS anti-collision system and successfully validating them in the laboratory, researchers from the University of Genoa and the CASD – Scuola Superiore Universitaria , with the support of the PNRR SERICS - Security and Rights in Cyber ​​Space partnership , have analyzed a real case: a series of TCAS anti-collision system alarms recorded over a 3-hour period by 10 airliners landing at Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on March 1, 2025 . The analysis indicates that the observed behavior is consistent with an in-flight cyberattack on the collision avoidance system, but in a previously undocumented variant . To protect future operational scenarios, the research team has also developed a new method for identifying the source of the attack .

1/ Last week the Italian researchers who have been looking at vulnerabilities in the TCAS system put out a press release about their analysis of the "phantom" resolution advisories that happened near KDCA last March. (Image via Google Translate.) life.unige.it/comunicati-s...

The idea was to not spend time discussing whether the doctrine is to be first strike or not, and what if and what about. Just pick one and move on to more practical things.

Doctrines are fluid anyway.

In order to reach the goal of nuclear deterrent, one needs to have nuclear weapons to begin with.

Hypersonic Systems Startup Emerges from Stealth with Series A and Test Launch Hypersonica has emerged from stealth, announcing a €23.3 million Series A funding round and the successful completion of a hypersonic missile test.

Hypersonica has emerged from stealth, announcing a €23.3 million Series A funding round and the successful completion of a hypersonic missile test.
europeanspaceflight.com/hypersonic-s...

In Search of a Nordic Nuclear Doctrine The discussion about a possible Nordic nuclear weapon need to be more nuanced, including doctrine and a realistic look at the cost.

The discussion about a possible Nordic nuclear weapon need to be more nuanced, including doctrine and a realistic look at the cost.

If Israel can build and maintain a nuke program, so can the Nordics together.

As for the need, it should be obvious by now that the answer cannot be other than "yes".

The rest are details. An analysis paralysis is the wrong way to go. Start with "no first strike" and build from that.

No, I still can’t get this out of my head, and I keep trying to grasp the full abyss of this idiocy, unsuccessfully.

Russia spent years, decades "fighting all of NATO," turning America into "radioactive ash" every night on state TV.

‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September Seamus Culleton has been in a detention facility in Texas for nearly five months despite having no criminal record

"In a phone interview from the facility, he said conditions there are 'like a concentration camp, absolute hell.'
"He has been locked in the same large, cold, damp room for 4½ months with 70+ men...constantly hungry...toilets are filthy...allowed outside <12 times"
www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

Would be interesting to see a fresh picture of Diego Garcia. There must be something sitting on the tarmac already.

February 6:
Happy Sámi National Day!

Some Europeans have still not caught up to a world profoundly shaped by Chinas industrial policy.

A lot of hard pushback on targeted buy-European because it would reduce European competitiveness and product quality.

Reality, created by China, would disagree.

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Norway’s PM Støre, quietly dismantling the myth:
“100 km from our border sits the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. It’s aimed at you, not us.
We track it, test it, share the intel.
25,000 troops train here next month.
This isn’t charity. It’s mutual defense.”

Does Wyden usually use that phrase at the end?

It seems like an obvious reference to the almost same phrase often used by Trump.

Interest intensifies.

Are you making craft cola of some kind?

"Limited strikes" against Iran won't have the outcome the US thinks it will have.

Iran knows the US cannot keep up the pressure for long enough.

To remove the existing .ir gov, the US would have to roll in with tanks.

US is unwilling and unable (politically, financially) to do that.

Can't really fault them for trying to give a face-saving way out for Trump.

But Trump and his cabinet were simply too dumb to use any of it. Instead they ramped the exceptionalism to 11.

After Greenland, many people realized no point in trying anymore, it was not working. USA has changed.