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[smjjames]

Can we kick Turkey out of NATO? I know Greece had a limited NATO membership back when they had a military junta government, but Turkey is trying to dive off the edge of the cliff here and it's a bizarre situation where Turkey is becoming (or trying to become) the very same islamists that we've been fighting for years.

[Starver]

Two implications to that, possibly.  (Likely more, but two to, start with.)

Firstly, the 'old game'. Turkey was a NATO bastion against the Warsaw Pact alliance, and Russia(-and-its-continued/returned-friends) would gain... something... against rest-of-NATO's loss, quite likely.

Secondly, the 'new game'. Turkey is a country on the edge of 'The West' (also applies to the EU), and wouldn't we prefer it to be on the inside, facing out at the mess that is the Middle East, than on the outside, leapfrogging the troublesome border one whole country nearer to the less ambiguous nations?

Turkey knows that it has been a useful buffer in the past and continues to be one in the present and foreseeable future, and doubtless is making use of such externalities in its various demands given/liberties taken in the name of the "rather inside pissing out than outside pissing in" thing. (And I imagine that those who are directly fielding such brinksmanship fully understand this, even if they don't agree on the resulting lines in the sand.)

[smjjames]

Thread! Rise from your grave! RISE!

*ahem*

Sillyness aside, there's this former Playboy model with ties to Putin that is running for President on the opposition side (I think) and is creating quite a stir, and I don't mean in the sexual way.

She seems to be a bit of a Russian Trump in the sense of being a disruptor, even though the article has a photograph of her at anti-Putin protests, she has family ties to Putin and the opposition is furious and accusing her of being a Kremlin plant to disrupt the opposition.

As for what I think? Well, I have no way of knowing or determining whether she is a 'Kremlin plant', but looking in from here, it looks a lot like the kind of disruption Trump generated in our politics. The reaction is even pretty similar.

It would be juicy irony if she pulled the same kind of unexpected win that Trump did, except over Putin.

The last time Russia had a female leader was Catherine the Great.

[Paxiecrunchle]

Oh darn and here I thought I had snuck onto all the politic threads already. Also, how is Australia part of Europe at all?

[Starver]

Eurovision? And that Gravity Tunnel elevator from the remake of Total Recall...

[scriver]

Eurovision. Annexation by music.

[ChairmanPoo]

The Central goverment will trigger article 155 this Saturday.

[smjjames]

The Central goverment will trigger article 155 this Saturday.

You mistook this for the regular Europe thread.

[Arx]

If Catalonia secedes, current predictions suggest that this will be the correct thread.

[martinuzz]

Oh darn and here I thought I had snuck onto all the politic threads already. Also, how is Australia part of Europe at all?

They fall under the British crown. If ever the Brexit happens, Australia will stop being Europe

[MetalSlimeHunt]

So is Europe more of an ideology or an infectious disease, in this context?

[martinuzz]

It's an incoherent mass of diseased ideology

[TheDarkStar]

get your regular dose of revolution vaccination or you might just catch a Europe infection

current infection rates are at 25.6% and have increased over the last few years, despite the best efforts of Spain, Britain, and Turkey

ignore Russia's vaccine, though. we have enough cases of Russian zombie virus already

[Jimmy]

It's an incoherent mass of diseased ideology

Politics, then.

[Loud Whispers]

It's a historical mess of infectious ideologies