They really do only have themselves and their patrons to blame.

The extra military funding was an accounting trick, that €100B isn’t part of the budget somehow. It’s extra external special money, cause there’s always money for war. When social services need money there never is any, as usual.

The irony is that the Bundeswehr is in such bad shape that this €100B won’t bring them back to anything close to resembling combat readiness. Whereas €100B would go a long way to helping the most vulnerable German residents.

Yeah fuckin classic.

Especiay after the continuous mismanagement scandals in that sector. Navy helicopters not fit to fly over water was my favourite.

I would like to quote this comment I saw a couple of weeks ago:

To think this is some sort of bad scenario for Russia is to be blind. They are starting to effectively tax the national bourgeoisie, the thing the Usonian “left” prides so much they should do to fix all of their homeland issues regarding quality of life, and here is painted, under the lenses of a right wing news site, as a bad thing. Under any logical circumstance if a country needs money, what makes the most sense if you don’t want to hurt the people, is to tax companies, otherwise you will end up having low wages, or you will cut spending on some other form of social welfare, which in turn then produces inflation and destabilises the country since the spending power of the working class gets diminished.

This is what Seishi Hinada, National Executive Committee member of ZENKO and the International Strategy Center, has to say about plans for the re-militarisation of Japan as a strategic geopolitical landmark in the eyes of the US to control East Asia:

The Japanese government is making the most of the war in Ukraine and the rocket launch by DPRK is getting the general public behind its policy of massive military expansion and acquiring the capabilities to attack foreign bases. Regarding the military buildup by the Japanese government, the general public seems to be in support of those policies, but there are weak points. When it comes to a tax hike for the sake of military expansion, the approval ratings will drop. So Kishida cannot talk out loud about the tax hike, and the only option he has left is to cut the budget in every other field: social welfare, health care, education, and the rest of it. In addition, the Japanese population is shrinking quicker than anticipated. So the government is asked to take drastic measures to deal with this issue too. But again, they cannot finance it because they allocate a large share of the budget to military expenses. By exposing these contradictions, more and more people will realize the necessity to radically shift the policy of military alliance and military buildup toward peaceful dialogue and disarmament. The general public’s consciousness is changing. Kishida’s support base is not so strong.

And he’s not some sort of “tankie” or radical left wing person, he’s someone that for decades has opposed the US occupation of Okinawa with military bases. In any circumstance, even if Russia is economically in not such a great position, this is the correct move to either get a grip, or gain some strength, not the move of a delirious and dying government.

It was about 56 billion in 2022, according to ZDF.