Lenin ended any oppurtunity for none CPSU members to be elected to the Soviets and banned factions in the CPSU in 1921. He then eliminated opposition with the Cheka. Even before that the Communists acted under “war communism”, which meant killing anybody not 100% in line. That very much included Machnos work in setting up a Soviet Democracy in Ukraine, due to them being Anarchists. Stalin then abolished the Soviets in 1936.

The Soviet Union had a bit of it, in the very beginning, but it failed and turned into a statist dictatorship. That is why Stalin ordered the Anarchists to be killed in Spain as well, the Prague Spring got crushed due to moving into a more democratic direction as well as many other movements of worker uprisings.

Socialism means collective ownership of the means of production. The issue with the Soviet Union was that all means of production were controlled by the state. However there was no way in which the people controlled the state, since at least 1936 and argueably earlier then that.

I am not saying media is not bias, but that some media just spins the truth, whereas others do not have a problem with fslse reporting. After all tankies are called tsnkies, because they ignored that the Soviets used tanks to violently get rid of the Prague Spring. This happens on the left as well.

And yes that is why I like reading economics news websites like the economist. They report on subjects left leaning news tend to not care about, but which can be incredibly important. Also with rich people using their reporting as a bases for invedtments, makes it hugely important that they do not outright lie. Commentary on them is horrible though, unless they go somewhat agsinst the neoliberal norm, which is rarer, but usually some of the best stuff.

False neutrality is propaganda, but so is being so is being activly biased. So a good left news source has to be wiling to show the fscts, when they speak against the left.

First of all EVs do not need that much power. We are talking something like 25% more electricity production for a country like Japan. Then Japan has rather a lot of onshore and even more offshore wind potential. Mountains are a problem, but hardly something which can not be overcome. Solar can easily be installed on roofs and mountains are even less of a problem.

Also really important to say it. Combustion engines in cars are massivly inefficent. So an EV is still better for the climate, even if run with coal electricity. The other factor is that Japans population is falling. So they will need less power over the long term.

What does Germany get out of supporting Israel? The Arab countries are much more powerful then Israel, in terms of trade and so forth.

Ask the Russian oligarchs how they feel about Purin causing massive sanctions against Russia.

France and Spain have voted fairly reliably against Israel. Spain called Israels action a genocide. Germany and the UK are the two European countries most pro Israel.

Slight difference being that to the best of my knowledge China is not a state of the UK.

The monument is celebrating the liberation of Bulgaria from the Nazis by the Red Army. The slight problem being that Bulgaria was an Axis member, who in 1944 turned on the Axis and even declared war on Nazi Germany to be invaded by the Red Army a day after declaring war on the Nazis.

Somebody wants to pay Wirecard and send FSB money all across the world.

Germany has cut back in EV sales insetives, but not in subsidies for building up factories. Right now half of the battery factories being planned in the EU are planned in Germany, with German car makers being a massive driver of it. Volkswagen sells twice as many EVs as Stellantis and BMW is only a bit behind Stellantis. As for German car makers in China, they are all starting to wall of that site of the business from the rest of the company. So they can sell it quickly or are at least in a better position to cut it off when sanctions start.

The Schwieberdingen plant develops combustion engines. Certainly not relevant for EVs. The other site in Feuerbach is for logistics and office stuff, so the first thing they cut.

The simple truth is that an electric drive train is much simpler then a combustion engine one. That means less workers.

Can he not change the head of TVP and probably Orlen, which would really change the media landscape in Poland?

To be fair East Berlin was among the best places under Communism, due to being the capital, the GDR being rich compared to other Soviet satellites and the competition with West Berlin.

The rule is that a Eastern European country as defined by the UN should host the COP. However Russia is blocking everybody on the unfriendly country list for Russia. Now they also block the Azeris, who are not even on the list. Not only that they also are a large oil and gas producer. Basically unless they host it in Russia or Belarus, which a lot of countries would block, it ends up with Germany, which Russia also considers an unfriendly country. Not only that you just have to look at EU voting on climate issues to see that the current German government tends to be harder on most climate issues then even the EU members further east.

Basically this is Russia being a dick and getting about the worst deal it possibly could in the matter. The host is a huge part in preparing these events and I can not imaging how Germany would do a worse job then Azerbaijan from Russias perspective.

The funny part is, if they can not agree on a host Germany is going to host it.

Since when does Germany have first past the pole?

The heating bill was unpopular because it is a massive hit to the gas industry, which has a famously great lobby and amazing connections to the media. Germanys gas imports are down by 71% comparing September this year with 2021. That is mainly due to the lack of Russian gas transit via Germany, but it massivly hurts the industry. Half of Germanys gas consumption comes from heating buildings, which will be solved by the heating bill. That kind of attack would not happen in an election year.

As for Merz the current polling of the Union party would be considered bad under Merkel. For Laschet a stupid joke was enough to kill his chances of victory, Merz does worse on a monthly bases. He should be at the 40% mark and not at 30%.

As Clinton said: “It is the economy stupid”. The conservatives had two economic crisis during the last 16 years. After the big financial crisis 2008 Merkel could have been deposed, if the SPD would have been willing to go into a coalition with the Left. They next crisis was Covid, which brought the current government. At the same time the SPD is not that popular to begin with. 2017 they got 20% of the votes and the last conservative canidate was really unpopular so Scholz was able to beat him. Now they are 5% lower, which is bad, but no crazy. The Liberals have only ever won with protest votes anyway and they can not hide while in government. So that is normal too.

Also really important to mention that this is about half time. The next federal election is in two years. So right now is the time politicans do the unpopular, but necessary stuff. Then the population forgets that that happend. The heating bill is a great example. It was hugely unpopular, but it passed and nobody talks about it anymore.

What is really bad is the current budget crisis and you have to admit that having an unconstitutional budget is a massive problem and a failure of the finance minister to do his job. Obviously this is unpopular.

Anyway there are two more years to go. The economy propably recovers until that point and the government ends up setting up a huge gift package to be reelected. There is also plenty of time for a scandal and Merz has done a few of them already.