It’s a remarkable day when the (last) elected president of Georgia says the ruling party stole the election in a Russian special operation — and the Secretary of State says the govt that rigged the vote will just have to respect the will of the voters and move toward Europe… /1

https://twitter.com/zourabichvili_s/status/1850623129783251168

The US embassy in Tbilisi has been notably silent about the harassment of disinformation researchers from US think tanks and the attempt by Georgian Dream to create a narrative that the US was “interfering” in the election. Which is disappointing /2

The graphics wouldn’t be so funny to you if people were arguing you have less rights as a citizen —because you are a woman

And every dude — especially every dude with daughters — needs to think about whether they want them growing up with less opportunity than their mothers

https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1812130788483223936

It’s not macho

It’s oppression and misogyny

It’s absolutely creating parallel worlds of power and opportunity for men and women — and ensuring men have inordinate power to dictate the lives of women

F*ck that

Guys, I know. I KNOW. But here’s the thing

I have spent 18 long & increasingly bloody years listening to Russia dudebros explain how anything you do to expose/punish Putin “only makes him stronger”

It was the basis of our do-nothing-about-revanchism policy

It was flat wrong /1 All that time playing nice-nice can now be tallied in dead Ukrainians, African countries with Wagner-backed coups, the number of far-right parties still feeding off the teat of the migration crisis Russia sparked with its annihilation of Syria almost a decade ago /2

The real story of the “young” far-right M*G* “manhood”-heads is that none of them finished college — actually many never even went — because they were hand picked & cultivated via a right wing radicalization pipeline that has been deliberately built over the past 3 decades /1

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1679829904026730496

The whole point of grabbing enthusiastic high school kids is that by giving them a vague position with pay and connection to authority, they are totally dependent on you and more likely to become unquestioning zealots of whatever ideology — also they can never leave /2

“Russia is bogged down in Ukraine & can’t do anything else” 🙄

Russia has used the Wagner turnkey resource theft model in Africa to help fund its war against 🇺🇦

This isn’t the first coup/attempted coup they have backed or benefitted from in Sudan /1

Russia has stolen (likely billions of dollars of gold) from Sudan. This CNN report from last year documents a flight that attempted to smuggle a ton of gold — as cookies — a few days after the war started /2

cnn.com/2022/07/29/afr…

Astonishingly malicious BS against Estonia in this, sourced as west dip complaints

Estonia:
-sent huge amounts of its own new defensive equipment rapidly to help 🇺🇦
-sent functional needed equip
-has given more (as % def budget) than any other ally /1

politico.eu/newsletter/bru… The facts in the linked piece are simply incorrect.

Additionally, they do not include the absolute outpouring of civilian Estonian support, including crowdfunded/donated body armor, uniforms, ambulances, fire trucks, vehicles, medical supplies, other gear /2

Twitter was powerful was bc real valuable information—from historians, revolutionaries, reformers, emergencies, issue experts, OSINT, what have you—could come from ground level & have breakthru influence

Now it will just be another elite influence box crowding out real people /1

https://twitter.com/zoeschiffer/status/1640507567700086785

It is being re-engineered so you only see what the guy in charge thinks is important, with a back door for whoever is willing to pay to piggyback the same system, but 👆 story is important because even if you pay, you don’t have advantage

Advantage comes only from patronage /2

Pretty much this

https://twitter.com/kalenskyj/status/1638796049685917696

Yeah we wouldn’t want anyone to take a moral stance against internal repression in their own country or external imperialist ambitions & the mass slaughter of civilians in a war of aggression. We’re just here to provide a soft normalization of Putin’s worldview, says hockey.

https://twitter.com/marklazerus/status/1638668558669594624

Like many Washingtonians I grumble about the state of repair of the older terminal in Dulles and the moonbuses to everywhere — and then I get rerouted through Newark and remember Dulles is like a palace, the moonbuses a litter born by oiled centurions. Newark has added new furniture to replace normal gate seating — modern looking tables and chairs — only they are bolted to the floor like prison furniture. 👍

Welcome to Newark, please stare into this camera and surf the internet for free on a tablet mounted to a prison table

Gonna get pretty tonight

There’s an important story in the NYT today looking at armament issues for Ukraine. I encourage you to read it.

I am also going to offer some thoughts on specifics here.

“A day in Ukraine is more than a month in Afghanistan.” /1

nytimes.com/2022/11/26/wor… This is what we ask of the Ukrainians.

Tens of thousands of rounds fired at them a day, and we don’t give them what they need for fear *Ukraine* will “escalate” by striking Russian targets I guess we have deemed unacceptable.

This boils down to a failure to shift our mindset./2

This is a very strange story, so let’s me clear about some things:

1) there is remarkable unity among the allies on support for Ukraine, especially since Russia’s renewed missile strikes targeting civilian infrastructure

2) this is not just political—public opinion is high /1

https://twitter.com/politicoeurope/status/1596114005080391684

3) this story attempts to conflate discussions among the allies with weakening support for Ukraine — which simply is not true

4) Russia is working hard to create pressure on points that can cause stress/division — energy, power, food, etc /2

Since we’re all bringing out the dead, where to find me:

1- greatpower.us — revamping newsletter, pieces from 🇺🇦 asap, pls sign up so I don’t lose you tweeps 💕 (has a free option)

2- on Post. post.news/29f91160-4908-… (still beta)

3-🦣 journa.host/@MollyMcKew# (sigh) There are expanding community functions for the newsletter which I will try to get going so we can talk amongst ourselves

Post is new, still launching, be patient, it will open soon and could be good

Mastodon, haven’t played yet, will soon.

addendum to y’day post on how American women “foolishly” (apparently) expect equal rights as citizens—another hot-take from the f**eralist f***nuts, now with a woman pimping the “repress women” cause

Msg: women voting bad; women lying with legs open for “devotional work” good /1

https://twitter.com/mollymckew/status/1591884037467279360

The problem, you see, is when we work with our brains instead of a sledgehammer, women feel they have something to contribute & “the govt” pays them to do waste-of-time jobs with brains as if they are equal to men — letting them think they have value beyond sperm receptacle 🫠 /2

Good news! The Swedish village in Ukraine (on the banks of the Dnipro in Kherson) has at last been liberated by the latest Ukrainian advance 🙌 🇸🇪 🇺🇦

The village was occupied in March during the renewed Russian invasion.

https://twitter.com/friaukraina/status/1591526933233532928

In March, I attended a fundraiser at the Swedish church in Tallinn for the Swedish village in Ukraine — and learned the fascinating, brutal story of how the village came to be, when Catherine the Great coerced Estonian Swedes to resettle from Hiiumaa. Only 1/3 of them made it.

With snow due this week, was glad to hand off this load of winter gear to our designated Ukrainian unit❄️🇺🇦

Thank you all, especially the @PoliticologyPod community, for answering the call and sending very generous donations. Y’all melt this girl’s heart, I swear 💙💛 Thanks @HelikonTex @Smartwool @WigwamSocksUSA @ORGEAR @RockyGear for discounts on gear, including top-notch uniform-compatible winter coats, boots, gloves, & loads of socks. (As my father says: wars are won by socks 🧦)

Some very happy Ukrainians are proudly wearing your gear 🇺🇦

Still see a lot of people talking about the “abortion election”— & I really think anyone saying this needs to understand it isn’t about that, it’s about the idea that women should have less rights as citizens and men can arbitrarily control them, including thru sex & violence Plenty of far right “let us emulate the pilgrims”/“the problem is the unmarried women with no men to control them”/“we’re losing our traditional values” types have openly expressed the idea that women are not equal this election cycle. It’s flat out bananas

I bet myself $50 that if I clicked the link to this “even if Ukraine wins, it loses” piece, the author would be from the Quincy institute — and hot damn! That’s a lot of horseradish vodka for tonight.

But will just say: the opposite of this is actually true. /1 After WWI, all the old empires and systems fell apart. That strange time coasted straight into the next war.

After WWII, the new architecture of everything was built.

When the Cold War ended, the systems disintegrated again. But in a different way than we expected. /2

I’ve read F-list piece making the rounds today. Don’t even want to link or post from it

But I will say: look for defenders of family values, religious freedom, or the rule of law who consider themselves conservatives who will denounce this dystopian vision of the nation Is it a shock to me that people who continually argue there is no values-based reason to support Ukraine against Russian revanchism are arguing for an America similarly captive to authoritarian views as the Putinist system extols?

Absolutely not.

The US & UK have, since 2016, been passing a political dunce cap back and forth.

Haha we said, you voted for Brexit!
Haha they said, you elected this TV clown!

Many pass-off in BoJo/Trump years — hard brexit, threats to leave NATO, hardest brexit, Putin Helsinki shitshow /1 No10 scandals, WH scandals, Covid related scandals.

No one wants to relive the whole list, but both sides kept reading the transatlantic developments, saying haha at least we didn’t do THAT.
/2