Talk About Tennis 2.0

ti-amie wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:44 pm

Melissa Shell @shellmelissa150

What's happening? Russia bombing there too?

Serbia has never been able to swallow their loss in '92. Nationalism is and always has been a vehicle for violence and hatred. "We're number 1!!!"

There was a very long and informative thread about this on the Bird App. I'll see if it was aggregated by the Thread Reader App.

Uh, what?

"The FAO reports the 7.2 billion will be used to reduce the deficit and debt."

I think they mean population, not deficit and debt.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:53 pm There was a very long and informative thread about this on the Bird App. I'll see if it was aggregated by the Thread Reader App.

Thread by Una Hajdari

There isn’t a conflict or escalation brewing in Kosovo atm. Kosovo Serbs set up roadblocks towards two main border crossings with Serbia in the north, in opposition to a move by the gov’t whereby Serbian citizens need special certificates when entering the country. #calmdown



Since Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo, citizens need special “temporary documents” while residing in the country. PM Albin Kurti recently announced that Kosovo would reciprocate by demanding the same from Serbian citizens. The decision enters into force tonight.

Politically motivated (or influenced) Kosovo Serbs gathered on the roads towards the border in order to stop people from driving to Serbia. Similar roadblocks have been set up several times over the years, and while they do signal tensions, they rarely lead to armed escalations.

This is because the north of Kosovo is covered by more NATO/KFOR troops per capita than almost any place in Europe. They are stationed there to maintain order, and escalations like these are exactly when their powers come into force.
Of course, this comes on the back of a month-long spat between Kosovo and Serbia over how that border in particular (which Serbia considers an internal, administrative border) should be handled. I wrote about the last time things got intense last year:

Von der Leyen urges end to Serbia-Kosovo border tensions
Pristina says a draft agreement has been reached to bring to an end spat over license plates.
https://www.politico.eu/article/von-der ... -kosovo-bo

Ever since Kurti was elected PM, he has tried to solidify Kosovo’s independence by doing to Serbia what Serbia has done to Kosovo — as in, if you don’t think we’re independent, watch us exercise our powers on our territory.
For Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, this hurts his pride and he’ll try to save face by making inflammatory statements like the one below to deflect from the fact that his hands are basically tied.

(Reference in Serbian is at the link below)

There have been sirens going off in North Mitrovica, the main Serb-majority municipality in the country, for a good part of the day. They’re intended to go off anytime there’s even a whiff of an incident that could endanger civilians, so that they know to stay off the streets.

But they go off when there are police raids there as well, like they have in the past year or so when the police confiscated illegal goods. While they are definitely unpleasant and startling, the main goal is to make sure civilians aren’t accidentally caught in crossfire or w/e.

The reason Serbia is “upset” is bc Kosovo did this outside the EU-monitored dialogue between the two, intended as the venue for solving outstanding bilateral issues. It messes with the perception President Vucic tries to emulate that he has everything under control.

At this moment (obv subject to change) Kosovo Police confirm that they were shot at while on the ground in the northern part of the country, but that no one has been injured. They also confirm that Kosovo Albanian drivers close to the border crossing were hassled by local Serbs.

While none of this is “normal” or welcome, it sadly isn’t extraordinarily out of proportion to previous incidents in the north. Various political and criminal Kosovo Serb groups flex their muscles when they feel their domination in that area is threatened, and yes, they are armed

The KFOR (NATO troops part of the Kosovo Forces) have active and regularly updated intervention plans on all the main roads leading into Kosovo in the North, which they can implement whenever they deem the situation to have significantly escalated.



While Russia is *always* happy when things go haywire in the Balkans, this incident was entirely tied to a decision by the Kosovo government that was announced ages ago, and the fact that Serbia is unhappy about it.



After the 1999 NATO bombing of what remained of Yugoslavia (yes the thing Putin always mentions), Serbia withdrew its military and political presence from Kosovo and signed the Kumanovo Agreement which set up a NATO-enforced air and ground safety zone.

While various facets of the agreement were suspended at times as a sign of goodwill (and joint NATO and Serbian army patrols were organized along the border) when a security crisis hits they’re immediately reimposed. This basically the equivalent of NATO Article 5 being violated.

As someone who has personally visited Bondsteel (the biggest US army base in the region, found in Kosovo) and the barracks of various NATO members close to the border — I can claim with almost 100% certainty that Russia or Serbia cannot (re)occupy Kosovo overnight.
The only thing this frantic fear-mongering (and spreading of alarmist disinfo) will achieve is that (armed) rabble-rousers will feel encouraged to actually go out and shoot people while the whole world is watching. So have that on your conscience while you spread fake news.

Additional NATO and Kosovo police presence has been placed on the bridges between Serb-majority North Mitrovica and Albanian-majority South Mitrovica, to pre-empt spillover tensions. FYI, the main bridge between the two municipalities has been closed off for almost two decades…
… and is guarded by international forces (such as the Italian Carabinieri) to deter ease of access for people who might want to escalate things. (This is for those suddenly interested in inter-ethnic tensions in Kosovo.)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1553 ... 40993.html

I know. I find it to be even more potentially destructive than Twitter, where, at least, some serious people post information.
This one is basically digital methamphetamines.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 12:02 am Uh, what?

Doug Ford is Rob Ford's brother (Rob was the mayor of Toronto for a few years).
That explains everything.

(Warning - language... but really funny...)

OH the brother of that guy. Now I get it.

Well, it's a start, I suppose...

ti-amie wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:28 pm

Missouri was miserable enough without him. He's such a tool.

You just commented on a post that has the names Josh Hawley and Rand Paul in it, and said "he is such a tool".
I am puzzled by the use of the singular.
(Not really, I know what you mean).

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 3:50 pm You just commented on a post that has the names Josh Hawley and Rand Paul in it, and said "he is such a tool".
I am puzzled by the use of the singular.
(Not really, I know what you mean).

The sum of those 2 almost equal a whole human?

That is how dictatorships eventually evolve. The Supreme Leader starts seeing enemies all around him. Then, he needs them checked. Then, a few get jailed, then executed. Slowly, the fear spreads too much. Soon, the government is non-operational because everybody is afraid that, regardless of what you say, you end up on the wrong side.
He has to go. He has become a true danger for the planet.