A lot is happening right now even though Trump and Putin won’t mention that Ukraine has opened a new attack vector at the northern front or still holds territory in Kursk Oblast – dishonesty like that makes me angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then SOF managed a small operation to take out 4 helicopters, two of which were endangered alligators KA-52, and a whole list of expensive radar installations has just been taken out in Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The radioactivity at Engels is 44 times higher than normal – a rumor that refuses to die out. Do you think Ukraine has simply taken out the tactical nuclear weapons that RU intended to use (or threaten to use) for its NATO test last September \ud83e\uddd0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shaikovka is too close to UA and so is Solty, so no high-value targets are placed there. At Engels, there was decent AA protection even though there are Twitter rumors that one AA position was empty at the time of the drone attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I understand this correctly, they (now) also have strategic aircraft up on the Kola Peninsula. If the same happens there in the future, it was definitely planned like that and ordered by us in Europe maybe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“unreasonable” everyone says again, but did you see the blast, it could very well have been tactical nuclear weapons that went off there. We are at the end of March now and it is not at all unreasonable that RU has started to finalize the weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a VERY long time, Ukraine was completely forbidden to even look at nuclear weapon infrastructure – the USA was very clear in statements made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When they took out a large radar that was part of that infrastructure, there was a big fuss about the USA’s red card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then they have probably been out droning silos at least once?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it’s not entirely unreasonable that Putin thought Trump was a guarantee here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Above all, we know that this really stung for Russia because they haven’t said a word about the attack on Engels \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And last but not least – these are not spontaneous attacks on randomly chosen targets. Ukraine chooses its targets very carefully all the time – the right place at the right time and moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I found another 20 billion for our defense industry, cut the contract with some carbon capture and put everything into the defense industry so that there will be a lot of new jobs and the rearmament we so desperately need. It’s all about prioritizing in times of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One could argue that the general environmental damage from this war, and future environmental damage if there is a global conflict, would be more important to try to prevent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right now, we have a very strange discussion in Sweden about food prices – Yes, ICA is dominant followed by Axfood, but Lidl has established itself and there are many small retailers besides the 7 that are on the list. COOP is expensive and has a poor selection, I don’t know anyone who shops there and yet Konsum was No.1 when I was little so they have themselves to blame reasonably?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always find a Lidl nearby in larger cities and we used to have Netto, and every suburb of Stockholm has its own large local retailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes – there may be reasons not to allow Axfood to grow further through acquisitions and refer to competition. ICA starts its own stores that people choose to shop in, so it’s hard to forbid them from having a concept that attracts customers \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dagab absolutely dominates, and ICA does its own thing, but our governments don’t make it easy for farm shops to sell directly to grocery stores – it’s actually this government that has made it easier. It seems like ICA has a program for farms to sell directly to stores. Now we have a couple of layers of intermediaries before the product ends up in the store, all wanting to make a profit and squeezing purchase prices – if farms could sell directly to nearby stores as they wanted all along, that wouldn’t be so bad – that’s probably a pretty big cost item that could be cut. Where I live, farm shops have a lot of locally processed products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not long ago, farmers were out screaming loudly because the previous government had a lot of targeted measures against them that made their lives harder. You might remember the diesel price and new guidelines for farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the amount of farmland is decreasing and our self-sufficiency is decreasing all the time BUT almost all food imports are from the EU and then Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands – not exactly third world countries, right, but countries with even higher energy prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I seem to remember that farmland is also supposed to be restored and not used, so the amount of cultivated land decreases correspondingly I guess – actively driven by a certain party…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there was a soaring electricity price after the shutdown of nuclear power that knocked out some larger greenhouse operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there is a significant underlying inflation in both fuel and electricity prices, it is quite logical that food prices eventually skyrocket like a spear, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I feel that we are now facing the consequences of previous poorly distributed policies. Just because they couldn’t foresee the consequences back then doesn’t mean they should get away with anything now, reasonably?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And food boycotts are also legal, it will be interesting to see where it ends up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ICA messed up right away and threatened to have to throw away a lot of food – it’s better to throw it away than to lower prices, maybe not received so well by customers and not the PR they want to go out with, I guess?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It doesn’t escape me that in the name of the environment, they have chosen to make life harder for one of our most important strategic resources, the self-sufficiency rate in food, in the years before Russia chose to start a war. You don’t get any prizes for guessing that it was the Green Party again, electricity supply and food supply seem to be like red flags for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you think that the issue of self-sufficiency rate has been raised earlier by experts or was it discovered now. You guessed right – but then they have been environmental polluters and those who tried to raise the issue were put through the wringer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finland has an 80% self-sufficiency rate in food but their Green Party is pro-nuclear power so maybe they haven’t been completely infiltrated by Russia over there and have a sensible policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are where we are, but for my part, I think we can start putting the money into nuclear activities and prioritize things related to national security in various areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s also an old Russian trick to steer towards very expensive investments that yield poor results. I think I see this in the Baltics where they have been testing various bunkers and tank obstacles for several years instead of building defense (they could have asked Ukraine which bunker was best already in 2023 \ud83e\uddd0).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All votes shall be decided by a simple majority, and each vote carries equal weight, even that of the anonymous parliamentarian whose name no one knows \u2013 after reading this, you now understand how Russia operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, Estonia is supposed to build all the bunkers in the northern part of the country, not where Russia will attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Feel free to spend 20 billion on carbon capture when we could significantly strengthen our defense for that amount \u2013 the key is to redirect funds to all sorts of other things instead. And these 20 billion are just one example of MANY, so many that the opposition thinks we need to start raising taxes because we can’t afford it, or the current government thinks we need to borrow money because we have none \u2013 when we can spend 20 billion on carbon capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pension funds that heavily invested in Northvolt could, for example, invest in something much safer that provides good returns for the citizens \u2013 the arms industry. I don’t think they will need to write off the investment to zero in a few years and then be forced to lie about it to crying pensioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, the trick is when the money is earmarked for defense to try to allocate as much as possible to some prestige project that swallows most of it \u2013 I don’t think that’s the case with this one, but apparently the first measure should be to build new regiments, which would probably consume 4-6 billion or more that could have gone directly to weapons for Ukraine. It’s not very difficult to convince politicians about the importance of regiments, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Didn’t Reagan break the back of the Soviet Union with the space race (Star Wars), for example?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I think the following is outdated, but with Russia effectively projecting a threat towards Europe, more and more countries have started focusing on their national defense instead of sending everything to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, that reaction came too late because Ukraine now has increasingly more domestic production, and enough has already been sent or is on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n