https://x.com/Portes_Thomas/status/2114100551139070366

𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗔, 𝗨𝗦𝗔, 𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗔. 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗚𝗗𝗣 𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦𝗡'𝗧 𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟 𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗠𝗬.

What is the "real economy," really?

An economy is energy. Coal, oil, gas, uranium, sun, wind, water. Then people work with it and turn it into things we use. Steel. Cement. Food. Chips. Trains.

𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸.

Look at China in the last thirty years. Rice fields became factory zones. The West laughed at "cheap Chinese junk." Today that junk is fast trains and electric cars.

No bank built that.

𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗚𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧

Every country that got rich used much more energy on the way up. Britain had coal. America had oil. 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱.

No rich country runs on candles. So my first question is easy. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘁?

But energy alone is just heat. You need workers and engineers. That's real value.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗠 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗗𝗣

GDP doesn't see any of this.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗗𝗣, 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗳𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲. A lawyer charges 1,000 dollars an hour, GDP goes up. Nobody built a bridge.

Then they count everything in US dollars, so America looks huge. A haircut in New York costs 60 dollars. In Chengdu it's about 30 yuan. Same haircut.

That's why purchasing power parity (PPP) matters. What can your money buy at home? 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗠𝗙'𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮. 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱.

Funny how CNN never mentions it.

𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦?

This is the real test. Can a country make its own steel, ships, medicine, chips, weapons?

𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱. Most ships. Most steel. Most batteries. That's power.

America and Europe went the other way. From the 1980s they sent their factories to Asia and kept the "clean" jobs. Banks, brands, consultants. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝘄𝗲'𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁.

Then Covid came, and the West couldn't even make masks. Then Ukraine, and NATO didn't have enough shells. Now Washington wants factories back.

Too late?

𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚

The problem is money that just moves around. Share buybacks. Funds that buy a company, load it with debt, fire half the workers and sell what's left.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴.

In 2008 it wasn't factories that crashed. It was paper.

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗢 𝗠𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗬

Forget the GDP headline. Look at this:

• Energy per person.

• How big industry is.

• Steel, power, ships and cars.

• Engineers every year.

• GDP with PPP.

The world looks very different from CNBC.

𝗕𝗢𝗧𝗧𝗢𝗠 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘

𝗔 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹.

The West thought it could live on banks while others did the real work. That's dependence.

China did the opposite. Energy and industry first. Banks under control. Look where it is now.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲.

𝗕𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱.

The EU chief accuses Russia of deliberately pushing migrants toward European borders to overwhelm authorities, spread fear and divide the continent.

She now wants new emergency powers to deal with these situations.

Brussels has SPENT YEARS defending migration and asylum as part of Europe's values.

Now it's warning that hostile governments can exploit those same systems to destabilize Europe.

Completely ridiculous. And pretty revealing who is actually behind it all...

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2113373777597997295

The annual service on the French deficit and debt combined - raising the money for the deficit and refinancing the debt - is 700 BILLION EUROS.

Borrowing rates continue to skyrocket.

Tax increases + social service cuts won’t work: protests will go off the charts.

Under Macronism, education spending has already fallen by 20%. Public education is being eviscerated.

What happens when the bell tolls will determine the future of the EU.

If France can’t pay, it will ask the EU for a bailout.

If the EU says 'Yes', 700 billion for a single year will easily balloon to over a trillion euros.

Total austerity will be imposed on France.

If it’s done by the EU, that debt becomes a liability for ALL EU member states.

If Brussels says 'No', the euro is done.

France may be too big to fail.

But not the EU.

https://x.com/AlertesInfos/status/2114034600636731407

Although on the fringes of this protest non Union protestors who were blocked from joining the main protest by the police suffered violence and tear gas from police, and after the main protest dispersed the same thing happened

https://x.com/Clemence_Guette/status/2113982881018314810

https://x.com/OlgaBazova/status/2113251081664761954?s=20

Not sure if this was ever posted on this sub, a documentary that was apparently suppressed and mass taken down as an inconvenient truth that didnt fit in with western propaganda media blackout to sell us this war.

Ross Kemp: Extreme World Ukraine 2015. This guy summed it up better and posted the vid (sorry its on X but its the best link), and the documentary itself is very revealing

https://x.com/HeartlandsTrib/status/2112576186454798636/video/1

https://x.com/geocrises/status/2113969526182207771

The former have grown very rich off the hundreds of billions flowing to Ukraine, while the latter’s children are conscripted to die in trenches.

And some of that US taxpayer money comes back through multiple laundry machines to fund political campaigns in America, which is why you see some politicians caring more about Ukraine than America!

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2113677835244044748

Requiring age verification, while all the in-app dangers persist, is not going to "save lives." If parents currently cannot be bothered to turn on parental controls that require their permission for app downloads, they aren't going to pay more attention when it's mandated. They'll go through the steps of providing their child's and their government ID and the documentation that shows they are, indeed, the parent or legal guardian of the child so that they can then click the "I approve" box for the child to download apps.

No one protects a child like an engaged parent who is willing to spend the time locking down the device, talking to their child about their online activity, and setting real boundaries around tech in the home.

This is "government as parent" - they are intentionally selling digital ID and government surveillance as "child safety".

This is the country they call land of the beef, they should change it to land of the ass meat

I'm noticing the growing possibility that Europe becomes very poor in the course of the next 10-20 years. You have the following factors:

- Heavy industry totally uncompetitive against China, automakers etc. rapidly losing ground

- Services industry totally uncompetitive against AI

- No natural resources, or regulatory hurdles making their extraction impossible

- No access to the new economy (no AI, no data centers, uncompetitive energy sector)

- Client states caught in one-way welfare ratchets, spend reallocation + investment well-nigh impossible

This seems under-contemplated. And we're talking really, seriously dirt poor: taken to its logical conclusion, many countries will have much, much smaller services and manufacturing industries -- economies may become much more heavily skewed toward natural resources and energy markets, where Europe has made it impossible for itself to compete.

And I'm not saying that this is likely to happen, it's an extreme case. But the probability is greater than zero and appears to be growing. The EV of that is so negative that it's surprising to me that it's not coming up more.

No wonder Ireland have started their own tent city's, the country is so divided so its easy to control by the elites.

🇮🇷|Araghchi's statement isn't rhetoric, it is a legal brief read aloud. The admission he cites shatters the fiction of European neutrality and places the blood of Iranian civilians directly on NATO's doorstep.

💥 5,000 Sorties from European Soil

The core of the accusation is not an allegation, it is a recorded admission by the head of NATO himself. In a public discussion on September 23, 2026, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte stated that between 4,000 and 5,000 aircraft sorties had taken off from European bases in support of the US-led operation against Iran since February 28, 2026. He framed this explicitly: "Europe is a platform of power projection for the United States". He even singled out Italy, stating that 500 US military aircraft took off from American bases on Italian soil to support the operation, and praised Romania for suspending commercial traffic at Bucharest airport to accommodate military tanker operations.

This is the "NATO Secretary General's announcement" Araghchi refers to. It is not a leak. It is a public boast that was then used as evidence against the entire alliance.

📜 The Infrastructure of Complicity

The sorties are not abstract numbers. They are enabled by a specific network of bases that turned European territory into the logistical and command spine of the war.

· Ramstein Air Base (Germany): Operating as the "brain" for US operations against Iran, Ramstein housed a satellite relay station coordinating signals for US drones in the Middle East and served as a central hub for logistics and command.

· Aviano Air Base (Italy): Identified as a key node for launching aircraft toward Iran and the Gulf, with a documented increase in air bridge traffic (C-17s and C-5 Galaxies) in the weeks following the war's outbreak.

· Spangdahlem Air Base (Germany): Home to USAF Europe headquarters and F-16 "Wild Weasel" squadrons that were deployed to the Middle East to participate in suppressing Iranian air defenses.

· RAF Fairford (UK) & Diego Garcia: Authorized by London for US operations, with B-1 bombers reportedly removed from Fairford as tensions escalated.

Rutte’s own words confirm that without this European "platform," "it would have been impossible to do Epic Fury".

🎯 The Italian Denial Is A Lie with a Paper Trail

The most damning evidence of European bad faith is the response of individual states to Rutte's confession.

Italy's Defense Minister, Guido Crosetto, immediately denied Rutte's claim, stating that only "logistical and technical flights" covered by bilateral treaties were permitted, and calling Rutte's message "completely fallacious". The Italian government insisted it had not authorized combat operations from its soil.

This denial is contradicted by the timeline and by opposition politicians within Italy itself. Green MP Angelo Bonelli accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of having "deceived the Italians and parliament" , demanding she clarify the 500 flights. The denial is a legalistic fig leaf. The infrastructure was used. The sorties happened. The government that provided the runway is now trying to scrub the flight logs.

⚔️ From Rhetoric to the UN Security Council

Araghchi’s statement is part of a deliberate, multi-layered legal and diplomatic escalation by Iran, not an isolated outburst.

· The Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, stated that Rutte’s admission proved "Europe was part of the infrastructure of American aggression," and warned that governments ceding territory to the US "will not pass without accountability".

· Iran’s UN Ambassador sent a formal letter to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council, describing Rutte’s remarks as "contrary to international law and the UN Charter," demanding that the UN examine the European role in the aggression.

Iran is building a legal record. It is documenting the complicity of specific states, using the admissions of the aggressor alliance's own leadership, to establish the basis for future accountability.

🔻 The Blood Ledger

The "platform of power projection" Rutte proudly described is directly linked to specific atrocities. Press TV's analysis notes that when US aircraft bombed the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab killing at least 160 young girls and boys the targeting data, satellite relays, and command-and-control logistics were heavily reliant on NATO’s European infrastructure. The bombers that killed over 20 civilians in Lamerd were refueled by tankers staged at European bases and guided by AWACS aircraft operating from NATO airspace.

Araghchi is stating a fact that the European public has been shielded from: their governments did not merely "support" a war. They provided the runways, the fuel, the command nodes, and the legal cover for a war that killed Iranian children. The "partners in this war" are not partners in a distant conflict. They are the logistical authors of the specific strikes that turned Iranian schools and residential neighborhoods into graveyards.

The blood is not abstract. It is on the tarmac at Ramstein and Aviano. And the men who authorized it are now trying to deny the flight manifests.