1/7. US warns that Russia will invade Ukraine. General disbelief, daily Russian mockery. (December 3, 2021-February 24, 2022)
2/7. Russia invades Ukraine, kills tens of thousands of people, kidnaps tens of thousands of children, commits other ongoing war crimes (February 24, 2022-present)
3/7. Russia blames US for Russia's invasion of Ukraine (March 2022-present)
4/7. US warns of terror attack in Moscow. Putin denies any risk and mocks the United States. (March 7 and March 19, 2024).
5/7. Terror attack in Moscow, ISIS takes responsibility, Russia meanwhile kills Ukrainian citizens with drones and missiles as it has for more than two years. (today, March 22, 2024)
6/7. Russia's security apparatus, focused on carnage in Ukraine, has failed in Moscow. Russia's leaders, focused on demonizing the US, did not protect Russians. What next?
7/7. It would not be very surprising if the Kremlin blames Ukraine and the United States and uses the Moscow attack to justify continuing and future atrocities in Ukraine.
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1/7. In case you haven’t been following, here is a short summary of the misnamed Russian-American "peace process" regarding Ukraine.
2/7. The US demands that Ukraine accept an immediate unconditional ceasefire. Ukraine agrees.
3/7. Russia rejects any talk of such a ceasefire, and instead asks for a halt on strikes on energy targets, an area where Ukraine is hurting Russia. The US agrees and Ukraine agrees.
"Pete Hegseth: The Short Course – 13 Steps to National Destruction"
A thread. Full essay via link in image below or profile.
1. Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, has no qualifications for the job. He has never run a large organization and has no national security expertise.
2. Hegseth has zero notion of which other countries might threaten America or how. In his books this is simply not a subject, beyond a few clichés.
1/5. The way Trump, Trump Jr, Tuberville, and Hannity are talking now about Greenland, Mexico, Panama, and Canada plagiarizes Putin in 2013, before the first invasion of Ukraine.
2/5. All this stuff about borders not mattering, people secretly wanting to be ruled by us, the unreality of their countries – not very American, not even MAGA, but very Kremlin.
3/5. At the very least, Trump is giving Putin cover for Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine by recycling Putin’s arguments against our own neighbors.
The Mump Oligarchy – A Glossary
1/10. Mump regime. Musk plus Trump. Mu...mp. The real centibillionaire and the fake rich person in the proper order.
2/10. Mump oligarchy. The regime is an oligarchy, rule by the wealthy few. Trump is the oligarchs' spokesman. He might stay or go. The oligarchs will remain.
3/10. Mump as illness. Physical illness: we are made sick and scammed blind (think of RFK Jr and Ramaswamy). Mumps is one of the diseases that will return without vaccines. Mental illness: Musk's idea of prosperity is that he hurts you and you thank him. See my work on sadopopulism.
1/5 If Trump wanted Russia to negotiate, he would make the war harder for the Kremlin, not create the conditions for Russian victory. I wish reporters would point this out. cnn.com/2024/12/12/pol…
2/5 Putin has made clear over and over that his goal is to destroy Ukraine as a nation and a state and that he has no interest in peace talks.
3/5 Trump’s proposed policy is to force Ukraine to negotiate by denying it weapons otherwise. But the Ukrainians are not the problem! The problem is Russia, the aggressor.
1/6 Dr. Helen Ouyang in @nytimes: “The country is not heading toward a single-payer system, but that doesn’t mean we have to continue leaving patients and their doctors in the dark.”
Yes, it does in fact mean that, absent some other drastic reform.
2/6 It doesn’t help to write and publish essays like this, which present doctors and patients as good people facing tragic choices in an unchangeable system. How the system works to kill Americans for profit has to be front and center.
3/6 Only the US among comparable countries enables useless middlemen to profit hugely by placing themselves between doctor and patient. We have to be reminded that we are uniquely choosing a senseless system that takes both our wealth and our lives.