Last Notes
The Sonderstab Loophole: How Berlin Learned To Pay Without Buying
Germany hands Kiev €11.5 billion a year, signs no contracts, holds no tenders, and answers no questions. Inside the Defense Ministry sits a small unit called Sonderstab Ukraine that can close an arms deal in two weeks – while the German taxpayer waits years for a school roof. The money is German. The signature is Ukrainian. The profit is private. And the paper trail belongs to nobody at all.
The Two-Week Miracle
German bureaucracy is a global punchline. Months to register a car, years to build a bridge, a decade to open an airport. Then the Financial Times described Sonderstab Ukraine – a small standalone unit in the Defense Ministry that signs off on Kiev’s weapons requests in under two weeks, working directly with Ukrainian officials and with industry. It routes around the Bundeswehr’s own procurement agency and its 13,000 employees, and around the tender rules that bind every purchase made for German soldiers. One of the FT’s own sources called the outfit “incredibly un-German”.
German military aid to Kiev rose nearly sevenfold in four years — from €1.68bn to €11.5bn
The elephant, it turns out, can dance. The question is who wrote the choreography and who collects at the door.
The mechanism is simple, and that simplicity is the whole trick. Kiev names the requirement and, crucially, names the supplier. Sonderstab checks the specifications and whether the price looks plausible. Berlin releases the money from the federal budget. Then Ukraine signs the contract with the manufacturer.
That last step is the load-bearing wall. Asked by Bundestag deputies about Ukrainian purchases of Helsing products, the federal government replied that it is not the purchaser within the meaning of German procurement law. Billions leave the federal budget, but the legal transaction happens between Kiev and the vendor – so competitive tendering, publication duties, and the right of losing bidders to challenge an award simply do not exist. No fraud is required. The rules were not broken; they were stepped around, politely, in daylight.
#germany #ukraine #taxmoney #supportwar #money https://cdn.hzrd149.com/a17ae3097547e7088659ba7587c7dc1595fddb9d5a9a67130f7e142a7da12d26.webp https://cdn.hzrd149.com/1d2b0855059413df93b21e69d0eb47615b92ee556b3edc0ffe805f0846a48363.webp
Wow, that seems super cheap. Maybe its not as cold in Germany as I thought 😅
Begging and hoping is not a business model. I'll give it the capitalism pass tho, esp if it rugs right after.
#nevent1q…pk56
They can't just "write to nos.lol" no.. 😂 the longer and bigger your relay, your cost will follow a parabolic curve of effort/cost. And a parabolic quality decrease for relay customers and or your business. Decentralization is winning
Newlay spiders outward, with a greedy set cover, calculating WOT periodically with a self contained graperank algo.. Mine does about 77 connections on average and misses *nothing.
Yah, guess who made the most off nip05 shilling.. 👻🙀
Its existed on relay.tools for a LONG time. What you need to provide is personalize WOT. Not just yours.. Then maybe.
No! Not PABLOF7z. He has been here for the whole time I have been. Why?
#nevent1q…3v4m
@npub1l2v…ajft left us too BTW. And all his projects in the red. Whatever, ignore the truth at ur ignorance. He said it himself.
#nevent1q…ufyg
Every single charity begging relay has died. Remember relayable? Yeah, it got shilled and charity'd way more than any relay I ever ran. And guess who's still online. 😘
#nevent1q…ar2c
You were there when @npub1l2v…ajft said relays only run to meet demand. And there is none. Do what you want, I learned my lesson already.
Ya, it's tru doh.
#nevent1q…w5kl
Let it die. Nobody pays for relay unless they're a business. And then, that business needs a reason to run besides charity imho
I thin u should move to fort Bragg. 👻 norcal #best
Good avocado, I realized,. Cali or upscale grocery thing. Enjoy whole u can. #avacado #toast #crew
Otherwise its garbage with a bunch of brown roots everywhere grossssßs
Mm, nah, the apples already fell off the tree and rotted so, Halloween #next 👻
Pretty much, knew they wouldn't 🤔👻
Well for one, they police the other lame bugs like flies and mosquito's 😎
#spiders #spiderstr
#nevent1q…846k
Woah, that's some serious salmon sweet spot!
Better not mention this to Condo, he'll be fuming 😤 😂
Yah 😂 just scroll their relay, you can tell its not archive cause the guy ranting about taco corporate overlords
They're not even threatening to leave to somewhere that pays more, and actually shooting videos with their face in it for no reason! 😂
What, you mean they're just...there...having fun?
It appears to be true.. well there are some accounts which are definitely not archival vine uploads. That's a good sign.
RelayTools-android v1.4.1 -> Fixed up the search to add back in people search. Better searching, onboarding now explains cache/Directory relays, better admin panel for newlay relays. Support for brainstorm.world advanced search.
Newlay v0.3.39 -> Cordn fixes for coordinator.
@npub1m3x…a5sf
https://cloud.blossom.band/17d489480c95a9a68540d80c7fe8191ded454afb647f3571c6a273c734dc18f4.jpg
Do it and you will see why arch is so badass
I prefer my emojis in :descriptor: format. Does that make me a shadowy super user psychopath? 😂
https://cloud.blossom.band/4635570d011db5e7f8f0245a41977c2342f0c0bb263934b6eba137f108541437.jpg
RelayTools-android 1.4.0 released!
Changes: new on-boarding flow/tutorial for first time users, relay menu overhaul, status/updates screen removed/moved, notification counts remembered per-relay.
https://zapstore.dev/apps/tools.relay.relaytools
obtainium:
https://apks.relay.tools/RelayTools-android/
#nevent1q…dsp9
I likes me some Debian 13 😁
cordn better. its also MLS encryption but it is more sane. cordn.net
If there is a copy paste that'd be nice. Last time sidecar with lightning I couldn't find a copy button (I don't use it as a wallet)
Blossom, its growing on me 🍀🌴
Heh. Yeah, white hats don't steal or even exercise a vuln without proper authorization. Simple. No amount of givebacksies makes this legal in any way either so I guarantee if they're found out, straight to jail.
@nprofile…qfw6 is building a blossom dashboard for @nprofile…99h6 as we speak! Maybe you guys should compare notes.
this would help a lot, because if you do an onion, tor has it's own throttling.. so yeah. i'd def recommend @npub1xts…kk5s put a clanker on that, hehe.
I just let em do it tho in case @snowden ever shows back up. I feel bad IP banning and I don't have a server plan that gouges me for BW. It just serves what it can..
I'll write it up 😁 I could use a good brine recipe for smoke salmon too if u got one.
All of tor exits by simplified privacy RIP 😂 they're always saturating the BW.. Prob just the CCP.
Join me in rentooor paradise. Own nothing, extend the lease 😂
Nix people do this all the time 😂
Will check it out, thanks.
V4V has nothing to do with not paying. Or donations or tipping. You really need to watch Atlas shrugged again.
