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[Helgoland]

IIRC he's from Northern Europe. We use Poles for that stuff around here.

[ChairmanPoo]

It's pretty rich that you regard them as "useless", considering that Southern Europe's agricultural sector routinedly resorts to them as (illegal, grossly overworked and underpaid) labor.

He said 'unskilled'. Unless you mean Europe in general.

More precisedly he said "make something useful out of unskilled workers"

[mainiac]

Speaking of nukes, why don't we nuke the Mediterranean? Seems like an elegant solution to our migrant problem.

A more elegant modest solution would be cannibalism, make something useful out of unskilled workers. 

FTFY

[Grim Portent]

It's pretty rich that you regard them as "useless", considering that Southern Europe's agricultural sector routinedly resorts to them as (illegal, grossly overworked and underpaid) labor.

As a scotsman I am culturally mandated to regard any and all industries associated with fruit and vegetables that aren't incorporated into alcohol as useless.

[evilcherry]

Yeah, military intervention because taxes is a good idea. There aren't enough other ridiculous excusesreasons to kill people already.

The usage of the word "righteous" alone is a red flag.

Don't you remember Steinbrück's cavalry?

Seriously though, an outright invasion of Switzerland would be foolish. I think a more 'Russian' approach would be taken if a decision was made to incorporate Switzerland into the EU: Utilize a pins-and-needles tactics, selective blockades, low-level military action, but always give the Swiss a good reason not to escalate the situation themselves.
And if it does come to an all-out war, a bombing campaign coupled with a cutoff from imports of food, oil, and raw materials would break their neck rather quickly. There'd probably not even be a need for occupation troops.


Related, there's this old joke:
In 1940 the Nazis are planning the invasion of Switzerland, codenamed Operation Tannenbaum. A diplomat is tasked with sounding out a Swiss officer about the Swiss defenses.
"You are a small country, completely surrounded by our forces. How could you hope to survive an attack? We'd crush you within minutes."
"Mein Herr, we are a small country, but we have many mountains and valleys, many tunnels and caves, many fortifications and strongholds. And our entire population is trained and willing to resist any aggressor. If you invade, the whole Swiss people will become a single Swiss army intent on throwing you out. Even at this very moment, we have 250.000 militiamen under arms."
"So what would you do if we invaded with 500.000 of our soldiers?"
"Each of our men would shoot twice. Then we'd go home."

It would be wiser if the Swiss are goaded to attack.

In fact, you can actually declare war, maintain blockade, and do nothing. No drafts, nothing whatsoever, just make sure that no swiss watch can leave their lands, no millionaires can enter their lands, and telephone lines - thus SWIFT - is cut. They have to surrender sooner or later.

Regardless, my point on Monaco and BVI still stands. Monaco, for example, if France cooperates should fall in 1 hour.

[mainiac]

But if Europe did that Switzerland would stop exporting Nestle products.  How is the world supposed to poison children without Nestle?

[Graknorke]

Cadbury would have been a good call, before they got trashed by the shit, homogeneous kind of globalism.

[Descan]

Speaking of nukes, why don't we nuke the Mediterranean? Seems like an elegant solution to our migrant problem.

Nah, just dam the Straits of Gibraltar.

More Lebensraum land for Europe!

[Helgoland]

"No, your ancestors didn't live here ever since the dawn of the human race. They lived in Africa. This is Europe now."

[Descan]

Spoiler: The solution to all of Europe's problems! (click to show/hide)

[Baffler]

Spoiler: The solution to all of Europe's problems! (click to show/hide)

Considering the history of European interest in large water-related construction projects in Egypt, I'm not sure how well-received this new one would be.

[martinuzz]

This should really go in the Russia watch thread, but since that's on lockdown, I'll just add it here:

The president of the Republic of Tsjetsjen, Ramzan Kadirov, has called upon all Tsjetsen men to "lock up their women, and forbid them from using WhatsApp".

This, in response to public criticism against the marriage of a friend of president Kadirov (he even attended the wedding himself), Nazjud Gutsjigov, a 47 year old chief of police, with a 17 year old girl.
According to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, mr. Gutsjigov had pressured the parents into arranging the wedding, threatening them to abduct the girl, and cause them a lot of trouble if they would not comply. Apparently, it went so far that the police force surrounded the village they lived in, to prevent the family from fleeing.

The president reacted furiously to the story in the Russian newspaper. He called it "slander, spread by a bunch of liberals". The journalist who wrote the story has fled the country, and the Tsjetsjen minister of Information has been fired over the incident.

While president Kadirov had not much trouble censoring the article away from local written media, he found out it was not so easy to remove the story from social media.
Hence he called upon the Tsjetsjen men to "lock them up (the women), and forbid them to go outside: maybe that will teach them not to post everything on social media. Family honour is a most valuable thing! Men, remove your women from WhatsApp!"

According to the law, mr. Gutsjigov was not allowed to marry the girl in the first place, because he was not divorced from his first wife. The Tsjetsjen Republic is part of the Russian Federation, and Russian law forbids polygamy.

The Russian justice department does not seem to be willing to make any case against it though. The Russian child ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, claims to have studied the case, but not to have found anything illegal. He even defends the choice of the 47 year old police chief of marrying such a young bride, claiming that "women in the Tsjetsjen region more often than not look as old and withered away at age 27 as normal Russian woman do at age 50".

That's woman's rights in Russia for you, apparently. Or at least in Tsjetsjenia

[Loud Whispers]

I've made my opinions on invading the Swiss in the AGG

"No, your ancestors didn't live here ever since the dawn of the human race. They lived in Africa. This is Europe now."

I feel like I'm pointing out the obvious, but the ancestors of Africans did live in Africa m8, and Europe is not Africa

This should really go in the Russia watch thread, but since that's on lockdown, I'll just add it here:

The president of the Republic of Tsjetsjen, Ramzan Kadirov, has called upon all Tsjetsen men to "lock up their women, and forbid them from using WhatsApp".
This, in response to public criticism against the marriage of a friend of president Kadirov (he even attended the wedding himself), Nazjud Gutsjigov, a 47 year old chief of police, with a 17 year old girl.
According to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, mr. Gutsjigov had pressured the parents into arranging the wedding, threatening them to abduct the girl, and cause them a lot of trouble if they would not comply. Apparently, it went so far that the police force surrounded the village they lived in, to prevent the family from fleeing.
The president reacted furiously to the story in the Russian newspaper. He called it "slander, spread by a bunch of liberals". The journalist who wrote the story has fled the country, and the Tsjetsjen minister of Information has been fired over the incident.
While president Kadirov had not much trouble censoring the article away from local written media, he found out it was not so easy to remove the story from social media.
Hence he called upon the Tsjetsjen men to "lock them up (the women), and forbid them to go outside: maybe that will teach them not to post everything on social media. Family honour is a most valuable thing! Men, remove your women from WhatsApp!"
According to the law, mr. Gutsjigov was not allowed to marry the girl in the first place, because he was not divorced from his first wife. The Tsjetsjen Republic is part of the Russian Federation, and Russian law forbids polygamy.
The Russian justice department does not seem to be willing to make any case against it though. The Russian child ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, claims to have studied the case, but not to have found anything illegal. He even defends the choice of the 47 year old police chief of marrying such a young bride, claiming that "women in the Tsjetsjen region more often than not look as old and withered away at age 27 as normal Russian woman do at age 50".
That's woman's rights in Russia for you, apparently. Or at least in Tsjetsjenia

It's probably more to do with the Russian Fed's unwillingness to touch Chechnya for obvious reasons

Polygamy is illegal in Russia, though it is permitted under Islamic law if both the first wife and any future brides consent, and their husband treats them equally.

Kadyrov is loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin but enjoys a large degree of autonomy in running the mainly Muslim region, having put down an anti-Moscow insurgency that had given rise to two wars in Chechnya after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Kadyrov keeps the fundamentalists happy, this keeps Putin happy, Kadyrov keeps his head
Hufflepost

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I think Kadyrov can do anything he wants... Russia can't handle the third war against Chechnya

[reality.auditor]

I am personally more interested in why not much (beside sporadic shellings, inconclusive fights around villiages, shooting down totally-not-russian 6m$ drones, catching totally-not-russians themself and similiar local entertainment) is happening since fun with totally-not-russian-only tanks in Debaltsevo months ago in eastern Ukraine, at least so far.

My personal guess is that Ukraine was more trouble for Putin than he expected. Not that he could just take toys and go home - he dug pretty big hole and can only dig even deeper. A lot will happen before this all will be over...