The report specifically says that “cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec”. They were later switched back to RUN. It wasn’t some other system.

This is such a bizarre situation that with just the voice recording we will probably never know what really happened.

I guess you’re right. It is first step in the US direction. Obviously they will not be able to maintain same conditions in prisons with 500% increase so if they maintain this course over the next decade it will probably end up looking like US.

It’s really tragic and should serve as a lesson to everyone. This crisis is the result of many failed policies and problems ignored over couple of decades. The socialist parties are as much to blame for this as the right wingers and at this point I don’t think anyone has any idea how to solve it.

The are talking about 600 prisoners in another EU country. This is still very very far away from US style mass incarceration. I mean in US we’re talking about Alligator Auschwitz now with people kept in tents without basic hygiene and with maggot infested food.

If this means less Russians in actual Benidorm I’m all for it.

Sometimes there’s no shoulder to drive on. In a city it’s pretty much impossible to weave through traffic.

Unprecedented only means that they didn’t fine anyone like that before. It doesn’t mean it’s excessive or anything.

Trump peed a little in his diaper when he heard it.

I have an idea! Let’s validate their regime by organizing big football tournament there. That will show them!

“For my next youtube video I will help to sponsor the brutal regime of the Taliban. Like and subscribe!”

“Why do Dutch children claim to be world’s happiest?” Is it because they are told that they should self-report as happy and are obedient? Yes.

Whether it can happen next week or not has absolutely no bearing on the fact that it must be done.

The fact that it must be done does not mean that it will be done. Of course you can hope that in some not-so-distant future we’ll get there (I sure hope so) but as of now US, Russia, Middle East and parts of EU will not only not support it but will actively fight against it. Calling local reps and posting on FB will not change that. It’s not a technical problem, it’s reality. It’s fine to express your support for the idea but it’s also fine to be realistic about its chances.

the only obstacle is mere political will.

That’s a pretty fucking big obstacle. This can only be done if all countries agree to it so with the growing number of countries taken over by right wing governments it’s basically impossible. Even the Spanish government that proposed this has its days counted. This is a nice PR move, not a realistic proposal.

This is why people don’t have kids anymore.

I read they didn’t knew if it’s going to work or not. They still don’t know if it worked. Trump says it worked because he’s Trump.

Where I live older cars can’t enter the city center. In a couple of years the ban will be expanded to all ICE cars. Many other cities are introducing same rules. This fight is pointless. Even if EU will not ban all ICE cars local jurisdiction will still fight them. On top of that last ICE cars manufactured in 2035 will still be on the roads until, what?, 2050? Those companies are basically lobbying for the right to complete against cheap electric cars from China with big batteries and fast charging. Good luck with that.

A lot of knee-jerk reactions here so to provide some context:

The government will not do it because they are simply unable to. They were barely able to reach 3%. The ruling party and the PM do want to increase the spending but their minor, far-left coalition partner is against it. They would rather spend the money on social programs. The far-left party even voted to exit NATO altogether. They are simply not serious people. The PM finally managed to increase spending to 3% by using executive orders. They simply don’t have a path to pass a new budget and increase the spending to 5%. So yeah, it’s not the ruling party that’s shortsighted, it’s their progressive coalition partner who is against any spending on the military.

You have to be special kind of a scumbag to intentionally bomb hospitals full of innocent people.

Iran is also bad.

They could but tourism is over 10% of Spain’s GDP so with the world economy on the verge of recession all the time they don’t want to risk it. On top of that there are limits as to what taxes the central government can impose on autonomic regions and many of them don’t want any additional taxes and fight every decision like that in courts. Not to mention that there are many places kept alive only by the short term rentals. You have half abandoned villages where there’s simply no work around. If you kick out tourists from there those places will case to exists. Your solution doesn’t distinguish between places like that and the mass tourism destination people are actually protesting against.

And if the flight is over an hour late you get back some of the money!

I don’t think you can equate European far right parties with American shit show. The main issues with American system are completely politicized judicial branch, totally corrupt legislative branch and irrational fear of “socialism” entrenched in society. In Europe, even in countries with growing right wing movements there are still strong anti-corruption measure, the top-level courts are still very much independent (on EU level, on country level it will vary) and most people understand and support social policies. So yes, in EU many individual countries can face issues with their systems and the EU as a whole will struggle to keep its current form but it’s still pretty far away from total collapse like in USA. Couple of right wing governments will not take it down.