Infamous for fawning over tRUMP and imagining that he could sway P00ti across an enormous table, Emmanuel Macron continues to fancy himself a statesman capable of charming sociopaths away from their malevolent agendas. Macron not only failed to convince Xi to limit his support for Ruscia, his Franco-centric remarks created a diplomatic uproar. Macron called on Europe to develop its own stance independent of the US to deal with tensions between Xina and Taiwan. [Ironic considering that France is one of the few European nations with holdings in the Pacific.]
Warning against becoming “vassals” to the US or China, Macron declared that, “The great risk” for Europe is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy.”" [This from the President of a nation that inadvertently dragged the USA into two "Great Power" global conflicts.] Politicians, diplomats and analysts on both sides of the Atlantic condemned the remarks as "tone-deaf and ill timed" considering that the US has backed European security by bankrolling Ukraine’s defense.
"France, Germany, and the Netherlands have, in different ways, drawn up national Indo-Pacific strategies in recent years. They have been the driving force behind the EU’s effort to find a more decisive approach to the region. This effort led to the release in April 2021 of the European Council’s conclusions on the “EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific”, which paved the way for the union to adopt an official strategy that can now initiate a new approach. To move from the drawing board to implementation, Europeans will need to answer several tough questions that are in tension with the consensual language of EU documents."
"For weeks, allegedly classified documents from various parts of the US government concerning the Russian war on Ukraine have been circulating on the internet. The "New York Times" was the first of now many media to report on these leaks—without publishing the documents themselves. Copies of these can still be found quite easily, for example on pro-Russian telegram channels. But beware, there are also obvious fake and manipulated versions going around. [Jake Teixeira, "OG", was arrested 23-4-13.] The US-Government is now scrambling to assess and contain the fallout from this leak, while the rest of the world is asking themselves the following questions."
23-4-6 Military analysts said the [leaked] "documents appear to have been modified in certain parts from their original format, overstating American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed."
Modifications could point to a predictable "effort of disinformation by Moscow", analysts said. However, the "disclosures in the original documents, which appear as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, and other plans, represent a significant breach of American intelligence in the effort to aid Ukraine."
The "documents do not provide specific battle plans", such as "how, when, and where Ukraine intends to launch its offensive, which American officials admit is likely coming in the next month or so. Because the documents are five weeks old, they offer a snapshot of time — the American and Ukrainian view, as of March 1, of what Ukrainian troops might need for the campaign."
Individuals who score high in SDO desire to maintain and, in many cases, increase the differences between social statuses of different groups, as well as individual group members. Typically, they are dominant, driven, tough, and seekers of power. People high in SDO also prefer hierarchical group orientations. Often, people who score high in SDO adhere strongly to belief in a "dog-eat-dog" world. It has also been found that men are generally higher than women in SDO measures. A study of undergraduates found that SDO does not [?] have a strong positive relationship with authoritarianism. Felicia Pratto and her colleagues have found evidence that a high social dominance orientation is strongly correlated with conservative political views, and opposition to programs and policies that aim to promote equality (such as affirmative action, laws advocating equal rights for homosexuals, women in combat, etc.).
Happy 74th birthday, North Atlantic Treaty! The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmentalmilitary alliance between 28 29 European and 2 North American countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
