You know what deters Russia and China is winning in Ukraine
Writer/lecturer on Russian influence & information warfare | lead writer of greatpower.us | Be excellent to each other
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You know what deters Russia and China is winning in Ukraine
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The dictators are not huddling together in fear over “weakness” The dictators are unified because they hate freedom & sense how close some of the world’s greatest democracies are to toppling right over into the pit Statements like this just come from the delusion RU & China could ever be separated
The military is now the easy button and that not being the thing was half the reason we wrote the constitution in the first place
You know what’s important here, and what you pretty much never see in headlines? That it’s all ILLEGAL I L L E G A L www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
**to blow up 11 dudes for b-reel, apologies
Treating foreign policy like instagram content is deeply unserious It is also incredibly dangerous It leaves Americans — and Ukrainians, and all the treaty allies who have signed up to help us when needed — in pretty deep sh*t My latest: www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked...
… did we just use an entire Marine Expeditionary Unit to arrest 11 drug smugglers for propaganda b-reel? taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-sh...
Ultimately, the problem isn’t that the Alaska meeting happened. The problem is THE SHOW squanders any the real chance of holding Russia to account for what it has done to global security. This is dangerous — for Ukraine, and for America & its future My latest: www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked...
Trump’s meeting with Putin guarantees the war will expand and continue. Anyone selling a different story is attempting to impose intention on the Russians that simply does not exist. www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked...
Trump’s meeting with Putin guarantees the war will expand and continue. Anyone selling a different story is attempting to impose intention on the Russians that simply does not exist. www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked...
Ultimately, the problem isn’t that the Alaska meeting happened. The problem is THE SHOW squanders any the real chance of holding Russia to account for what it has done to global security. This is dangerous — for Ukraine, and for America & its future My latest: www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked...
Happy 101st birthday to USS Yorktown veteran Robert E. Taylor. Taylor was manning an anti-aircraft gun during the Battle of Midway when he received the order to abandon the crippled carrier. He jumped overboard and swam to the destroyer USS Balch. He now lives in Central Florida.
Also hiring on the spot at job fairs, cutting training time to 1/3, “learning on the job with experienced agents” = masked agents with no understanding of the law, rights of individuals they must uphold, etc. They get bonuses for grabbing people and an extra $10k for 5yrs as long as Rs in charge.
Ok I think it was this MIT study bsky.app/profile/fstu...
Yes thanks
The nightmares of a thousand generations is a thing I can’t stop thinking about
Ok, I scrolled past an academic paper someone posted about how college students using AI to write papers is making them dumber (to paraphrase) — but of course now i can’t find it. Does anyone remember what I mean?
Maybe we should just declare Russia a cartel so it fits the right performative security routine I mean they smuggle enough drugs in their diplomatic pouches to count as one taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-sh...
It’s the convergence of the quackery into one great stream of quack that is the thing that is going to kill us all
"Russia’s failure to resist Putin’s mafia takeover and Ukraine’s success in fighting back against it contain many useful lessons for Americans and anyone else who risks taking their rights and freedoms for granted." www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
It’s a major credit to the Bluesky community that in 2 days WaPo could only get 2 reposts of this drivel
Exactly right, @jwvizzard.bsky.social. The reason our military take their oath to the Constitution was to explicitly put loyalty to the nation above state loyalty — it’s the supremacy clause section. That was well known in 1861.
🎯 You pay more while America loses the century What a great deal
Bringing back styrofoam to the House cafeteria at the national policy level is weakening America, the American economy, American competitiveness, the chance for a bright American future It’s nonsense to cancel sustainable energy projects Americans will pay dearly www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/c...
Of all the “honestly I never expected” things — Congress absolutely rolling over and abdicating its power to the White House — any White House — is one of the most shockingly unnecessary. It will not be remembered well in history, by either side, ironically. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...
For those in DC — there aren’t ever enough jurors. We get jury duty reliably every two years on the nose. Show up. Yes we’re all busy. It’s never been more important. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...
Defeat never feels good, but sometimes it’s good to remember that fighting for something important and losing is far more worthy than slinking away in silence after failing to use platform and opportunity to do absolutely anything at all about that worthy fight.
The intense focus on rewriting history are, you know, really, really a bad sign
In a very quiet way, this article is quite terrifying. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Everyday unclear why so many in the West believe in preserving Russian sanctuary www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/u...
Everything Russia does is to prepare for escalation
USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier in the North Sea - August 23, 2025 SRC: INT- dvidshub.net
Is anyone keeping track of all the military resources actually being used for domestic stuff? I mean that in terms of transparency and inside the government
“Pursuing peace”
Everyone needs to stop forgetting season one, because honestly the writers are just getting lazy. We did this episode before. And yes, it was possible to survive with some modicum of honor. If you had some. taskandpurpose.com/news/mattis-...
I mean at one point, Russian agents were running both US and UK counterintelligence. By why learn things.
I cannot possibly explain fully what incredibly dark, dangerous, and cynical sh*t this is — literally using the playbook of our enemies against a steadfast ally FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON except making b-reel propaganda I’m definitely going to need some more detail on the who, the how, & the funding
“Competing with China”
You can never find enough men who want to discuss the future of “civilization” 🤪
Fun detail from this piece, just SIGH
Ordinary Americans and virtually everyone overseas can see what’s happening but somehow the political class and media just watching the show with new clever aphorisms and just going along
🎯
One of the most tedious parts of Trumpworld is the nonsensical subplots never die, and they so often embrace the tactics of America’s enemies against American allies in ways that hurt American security
At least there’s this
“Pursuing peace” kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-so...
This also tracks with research showing a critical factor on social media was pols who echoed/amplified conspiracies, certain rhetoric In America especially we let pols off the hook for the erosion of norms online+in public life It has far reaching consequences in how we see & talk about ourselves
Very sad to say farewell to my oldest cat, who made it from a kitten living in a window box to a handsome 21! What a great cat-panion (& editor!) all these weird years. House with no cat feels very wrong Let strays find you, make a place for them in your heart, and support no-kill shelters 💕💕
I will say again — regulation is a good thing, and every rollback of anti-toxin regulations hidden in every bill is killing Americans.
This thing I keep saying about the appeal of misogyny — yeah. Just, yeah.
Actually a fascinating piece about the layered ways the new tax cuts for the rich make American food production more insecure while also increasing food insecurity and weakening access to non-processed slop for millions of Americans Everything about the bill makes the lives of working people harder
"flight manifests for 3 legally contested deportation flights from Texas to El Salvador contain dozens of additional, unaccounted for passengers than a previously published Department of Homeland Security (DHS) list of people deported from the United States on those flights, 404 Media has learned."
Unconscionable
“Competition with China” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
It’s almost like the firehose of super-amped false narrative can’t sustain itself when there is no actual fire to point it at
Maybe we can just outsource all former FEMA duties to Waffle House, which will probably take it a lot more seriously than the current govt
I feel like preparing for the apocalypse is something we can all get behind
Last night, swarms of Shahed drones, some with thermobaric warheads, attacked Kyiv from multiple directions. Russia is now using faster Chinese engines (200–220 km/h) and developing models that could reach 600 km/h.
Apocalyptic democracy > corporate democracy
🇺🇦❗️14 missiles and 368 UAVs neutralized over Ukraine at night. ▪️368/394 – UAVs; ▪️8/8 – ballistic missiles Iskander-M; ▪️6/6 – cruise missiles Kh-101; ▪️0/4 – S-300 missiles; ▪️Hits in 8 locations (33 UAVs) and debris falling in 23 locations. The main target is Kyiv.
We totally f*cked it up!!
It’s absolutely mental. Easily double the work of just sweeping the leaves into a yard waste pile/bin. And it’s such an awesome tree!!
Sigh
He’s speaks such nice English, though
Here’s an idea: just take gender out of passports. Who cares. It’s a useless identifier. This isn’t a census form in 1835. Everything is biometrics and facial recognition now. Stop wasting taxpayer money on this utter BS.
Dear Canada: I’m soooooo sorry. My sister has a protected massive beech tree in her yard. It drops leaves over the fence into a neighbor’s yard. The neighbor wakes up early every fall morning to shovel the leaves back over the fence. America is now this neighbor. Sorry www.cbc.ca/news/world/c...
In the 8 years of war before the fullscale invasion, Russia was already committing blatant human rights abuses Ukrainians know why they fight www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
In Kew until the end of September — worth seeing in person if you happen to pass thru! www.kew.org/kew-gardens/...
More of the thing:
… and the art installation is beautiful and vivid and standing in the brown, parched Kew this year, it feels like a scene in Soylent Green where you are allowed to see what there used to be.
“Oh I just loved it so much I cut it down so I could be buried in it —“ 🤦♀️ Yeeps Anyway, the oak itself is knobbly and awesome …
This reminded me of the very cool “Of the Oak” art installation at Kew Gardens — which is based on imaging of a rare oak hybrid that was developed to be drought-resistant — if you see how dry Kew is this year, seems important! But this is the story of the guy who made the hybrid, and his hubris
The Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” has cast very different shadows depending on which party holds the White House. When lower courts blocked Trump admin policies, SCOTUS intervened on an emergency basis to lift those orders in 77% of cases. For the Biden administration, that number was 0%.
Thinking about this again
“We already passed a law because of some conspiracy, but —“
There’s a word for the thing where you have no rights, no disaster relief, no remedy for abuses unless a powerful man makes a phone call for you.
This is all so self-defeating.
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Parasites and yachts on the brain…
🔴 Russian forces have launched one of the most massive attacks on Ukraine to date tonight, with Lutsk and Zhytomyr being the primary targets. Preliminarily, the assault involved: - 540 to 620 Shahed drones or decoy drones - 6 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles - 4 Kh-101 missiles.
These maps are insane.
It’s beautiful writing about something that isn’t easy to explain. I appreciate you sharing it with us.
“El*n didn't ‘activate’ anything—he built me this way from the start.”
This so very beautifully expresses the mindset of Ukrainians living in war. The past and the future are walled off, the present is forbidden. This is protection. There is only movement through space and time, feeling undefined. We need to do more for Ukraine.
South Korea is canceling its planned purchase of 36 AH-64E Apache helicopters from the United States and redirecting some of the money to unmanned systems, according to a South Korean lawmaker. www.stripes.com/theaters/asi...
Greg Abbott caved to the Russian disinfo campaign about Jade Helm 2015 — signaling to the Russians to go full steam ahead into 2016, that American behavior could be changed by their info campaigns — and has never looked back. One conspiracy after the next.
America has left a giant soft power vacuum. We knew who would fill it. www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/07/08/r...
Extremely cool, extremely grim effort to preserve the sounds of the melting glaciers in this mini-doc
Fantastic article here on the miracle of PEPFAR, the mass death it stopped — and the insanity of cutting off the most successful US engagement of Africa in history. bsky.app/profile/sewi...
On the anniversary of the children's hospital strike, Ukraine Intel names the Russian officer who prepared the attack as Russian Major Denis Sheinov, head of the special engineering service of the 121st heavy bomber aviation regiment of the 22nd heavy bomber aviation division.
Well the thing is, anyone who cares about Ukraine says the same. And says it to POTUS. “You could be the hero of” blah blah. But he’s just got that thing about Putin that gets in the way.
The faces of hegssy and ratcliffe here. Jeepers.
Are you doing a DC book event
California, Florida, Texas, Louisiana — wasn’t there one more state with Marines deployed? 5 states. 10% of American states have active duty military deployed in them. And it’s like la la la.
Worth noting that Russia is actively still stealing Ukrainian children in order to forcibly change their identity, indoctrinate them, and train them to kill their own people. Has been happening since 2014, accelerated after Feb 2022, still ongoing. The Kremlin has no interest in peace.
Admittedly I didn’t bother enlarging the photo because either way it’s kind of a wtf is even happening here. This is peak mil-play nonsense.
I mean for Pete’s sake what century are we even in
I’m confused, are the supposed migrant criminals attacking with drones? Is that why truck-mounted machine guns are joining the parade floats?
Other than footage for the No 1 viewer and boring authoritarian showmanship — what is even the point of this? Overtime pay? All it does it make the supposed narrative look absolutely hollow Like oooooooooo the dangerous gangsters are hiding in broad daylight at the empty playground. Sure sure.
