Francois

Peace now!

[Adam Moczar @AdamMoczar]

⚡🇬🇧🇺🇸 JD Vance: “Defending your culture isn’t radical. It’s reasonable.”

“To everybody in the UK who rejects that idea, I’d encourage them to just keep on going

It’s okay to want to defend your culture. It’s okay to want to live in a safe neighborhood. It isn’t radical.”

[Murray Rothbard @MurraySuggests]

The Iranian navy, which has been destroyed eight times, has apparently closed the Strait of Hormuz again, because the United States, for the seventh time, won the war that wasn’t a war, so now the United States has to open the Strait of Hormuz that was already open before the not-war began.

The not-war began because Iran had uranium that was totally, completely, beautifully obliterated, so they can’t build the nuclear bomb they weren’t building, which is why the United States had to start the not-war it definitely didn’t start.

Now the United States, which has nuclear weapons, is threatening to use nuclear weapons to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, because nuclear weapons are far too dangerous for countries with nuclear weapons to allow other countries to have.

If the United States saw the United States doing what the United States does in other countries, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.

[Ivan Nyssen @ivannyssen]

C’est formidable ! Ils se réjouissent d’être ruinés, de s’enfoncer chaque jour d’avantage, de jeter de précieuses resources dans un trou sans fond, dans une guerre perdue. Quel soulagement (!) de continuer de financer la destruction annoncée de l’Ukraine et de son peuple. Quand à la crédibilité de l’Union Européenne, elle sonde les profondeurs des Abysses et le message qui revient à la surface est qu’on a toujours pas touché le fond. Quel désastre.

[Francois @Frassem]

@WW3finalboss Only if you include Russia

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

A retired U.S. Army general is calling the Iran war the greatest geopolitical disaster in American history. Brigadier General Steve Anderson told MSNBC that the Trump administration has “completely mismanaged this war” and warned that any ground operation would be “an absolute disaster.” He said the IRGC are 200,000 committed fighters in what they see as a holy war. Americans will die, he said. It is not a question of if. It is a question of how many.

The warning landed alongside a sweeping leadership purge at the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced out Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, ordering him to retire immediately, while also removing the head of Army Transformation and Training Command and the Army’s chief of chaplains.  It is the latest in a string of more than a dozen firings of top generals and admirals by Hegseth since taking office, with no reason given for any of them. 

One congressional observer put it plainly: experienced generals are telling Hegseth his Iran war plans are unworkable, disastrous, and deadly.  The response from Hegseth was to fire them.

Anderson cited Sun Tzu: know the enemy as yourself. His conclusion was blunt. The U.S. does not know this enemy. 

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[Francois @Frassem]

@trendsbelgique Bravo la gestion du @PSofficiel et @parlementbruxel 🙄

[Ethan Levins 🇺🇸 @EthanLevins2]

Trump today announced a 10 day ceasefire on civilian infrastructure.

Israel broke it within 4 hours.

They are prolonging the war on purpose to force an American invasion.

[KKGB @INArteCarloDoss]

The GOP will never recover from this

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

"Our greatest wartime leaders thought we should wage war only when it was absolutely necessary, that we should articulate the clear moral and political objectives that we use to guide our strategy and that we should treat the shedding of blood with the seriousness it deserves.
Power does not grow out of the barrel of a gun, cruelty is not the same as strength, and a politics built on such ideas promises ruin, delusion about the limits of our power and a betrayal of the promise of our founding." https://t.co/Z4SWtMRflx

[Francois @Frassem]

@clashreport @Bart_DeWever is finally the leader #Europe is looking for ! 👌@eu_commission

[Team ALXDM @alxdm]

"Je soupçonne certains CPAS dans les communes dominées par le PS d’être des bureaux de fraude sociale où on vous explique comment on peut rester dans le système. Et même les syndicats."

Bart De Wever a 100% raison et c'est pour ça qu'il faut dissoudre les syndicats.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

That's easily the most insanely provocative statement that Taiwan's Lai Ching-Te has ever made, and that's a very high bar.

In a speech on Saturday (full speech here: https://t.co/hB9qFAKZwE) he literally said that Imperial Japan's colonial rule over Taiwan was better than that of the KMT (Chiang Kai-shek's party that built modern Taiwan and his main opposition party today).

His exact words: "Japan colonized Taiwan in order to advance the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Nationalist government came to Taiwan just the same - merely [treating it] as a springboard for retaking the mainland. And especially after the KMT government arrived in Taiwan, the way it treated the Taiwanese people was even worse than colonial-ruled Taiwan - worse than colonial Japan's treatment of Taiwan."

There's so much wrong with this, I'm not even sure where to start.

First of all, the expression "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" to frame Japanese imperialism during WW2 is anything but neutral: it's Imperial Japan's own propaganda term for their imperial project of domination of Asia. An empire, incidentally, that the WW2 allies - including his U.S. patrons - lost millions of soldiers defeating.

Used unironically as he does, it's like describing Nazi Germany's occupation of Europe as an effort to build a "Prosperous New European Order" 🤢

Secondly, the man is literally - officially - the President of the Republic of China, the very state that Sun Yat-sen and the KMT founded. He draws his constitutional authority from the constitution they wrote, and won his presidency through the voting system they established - and then calls them worse than Imperial Japan.

Heck this very speech was given at an event celebrating 30 years of direct presidential elections in Taiwan (https://t.co/CZKysg7Uop) - which the KMT itself introduced. So he used the anniversary of a KMT achievement to argue that the KMT was worse than a colonial empire that never gave Taiwanese a single vote 🤢

Lastly, the framing of the existence of a "Taiwanese people" that was subsequently colonized by both Japan and the KMT is historically and demographically absurd. Over 95% of Taiwan's population is Han Chinese, descended from mainland migrants - and that includes Lai's own family (!), which came from Pinghe county in Fujian province (https://t.co/9OpzIufERc).

So framing things this way is basically saying that Japanese colonial rule over the Chinese people of Taiwan was preferable to governance by other Chinese people, including his own! You could hardly do more to insult your own ancestors, and yourself.

I mean, think about the absurd twisting of history that's going on here, the degree of madness in the current Taiwanese separatist narrative.

Lai doesn't hold office as the president of some independent "Taiwanese" republic: he is the president of the Republic of China - the state that took Taiwan back from Japan. His office exists because that liberation happened. As the President he is, by definition, its inheritor.

And he's arguing it was a mistake because, otherwise, his entire narrative falls apart. If the KMT's arrival was a liberation - which it legally, historically, and constitutionally was - then there is no "colonized Taiwanese people," no separatist grievance, and no justification for independence.

So we arrive at the absurd situation where the president of the Republic of China has to stand at a podium and argue that the Republic of China should never have retaken Taiwan.

Beyond shameful.

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

Trump has said he attacked Iran on the counsel of Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio.

[Francois @Frassem]

@RobertGreene 👌🏻

[TINO | Bourse, Banque et Investissement | 〽️🔟 @Tino_Bourse]

🚨 OUI, le SOCIALISME peut fonctionner ! L’exemple portugais.

Le Portugal devrait afficher un excédent budgétaire pour la deuxième année consécutive, une situation inédite depuis 1974. Dans le même temps, le gouvernement prévoit d’augmenter les retraites et de baisser certains impôts.

🙄 Comment un pays gouverné par des partis se revendiquant du socialisme peut-il à la fois équilibrer ses comptes et améliorer le pouvoir d’achat ❓

En réalité le socialisme portugais n’a pas grand-chose à voir avec le socialisme en France.

👉 Le Portugal sort d’une crise extrêmement violente au début des années 2010. En 2011, le pays a dû demander l’aide de l’Union européenne et du FMI. En échange, il a été contraint d’engager des réformes budgétaires et structurelles très profondes.

Depuis cette période, un principe domine la politique économique portugaise : la discipline budgétaire.

👉 Même les gouvernements classés "à gauche" ont conservé cette ligne.

La priorité reste la même :

✅ réduire la dette publique
✅ stabiliser les finances de l’État
✅ maintenir la confiance des marchés.

Résultat : le Portugal est passé d’un pays en quasi-faillite à un pays capable de dégager un excédent budgétaire.

👉 Un modèle basé sur le travail et la compétitivité

Autre différence avec le socialisme français : la culture économique portugaise est beaucoup plus orientée vers la compétitivité et l’emploi.

Le pays a notamment :

✅ maintenu une fiscalité attractive pour les investisseurs étrangers
✅ développé fortement le tourisme et les services
✅ attiré des entreprises internationales
✅ encouragé l’activité et l’entrepreneuriat.

Les Portugais travaillent également davantage d’heures en moyenne que dans plusieurs pays d’Europe occidentale, et le marché du travail est plus flexible.

 🤑Le modèle portugais repose sur la création de richesse avant sa redistribution.

Redistribution oui… mais après avoir créé la richesse !

⚠️ C’est ici que se situe probablement LA différence fondamentale.

Le gouvernement portugais assume une orientation sociale : protection des retraités, services publics, politiques sociales, mais ces mesures interviennent une fois que l’équilibre budgétaire est assuré.

L’ordre des priorités est clair :

✅ produire
✅ équilibrer les comptes
✅ redistribuer.

Vous trouvez cela logique n'est ce pas ❓Ben oui...

Mais dans de nombreux débats en France, cette logique est souvent inversée : on discute d’abord de la redistribution, puis on se demande comment la financer.

⚠️ Attention, l’exemple portugais ne signifie pas que tout est parfait dans le pays. Les salaires restent plus faibles que dans plusieurs économies d’Europe, et certains défis structurels demeurent.

Mais il montre une chose importante.

✅ Une politique sociale peut fonctionner lorsqu’elle s’appuie sur une base économique saine et une gestion budgétaire rigoureuse.

👉 Autrement dit, le problème n’est peut-être pas le mot “socialisme” mais plutôt la manière dont il est appliqué.

[Francois @Frassem]

@FRValue 🤔not wise

[Francois @Frassem]

@lesoir Pour quelle raison ? Voir les choses différemment de la @EU_Commission vous exclu des débats « démocratiques »? Ce n’est pas du « totalitarisme » ça ? @vonderleyen ?

[Francois @Frassem]

@GabrielAttal Un prêt 😂

[Interesting Engineering @IntEngineering]

AGIBOT is all set to greet the Lunar New Year not just with its newest humanoid robot model, the Expedition A3, but with a whole kung fu platoon of its X2 model starring at the 2026 Henan Spring Festival Gala.