Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸

Researcher of social cohesion🕊️ PhD'r, teacher, geek & Mozillian - 'cause communities never forget & institutions never remember 🌱 My opinions belong to me.

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

Peeps following me talk about this kind of stuff..and I learn from them (from you🙏, thank you all)

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

Bessent says the IMF must stop work on climate change, gender, and social issues and the World bank needs to squarely back a Trumpian agenda vis a Vis China with the USA effectively setting limits on global development funding.

[Faisal Islam @faisalislam]

Bessent says “Need to make the IMF, the IMF again” criticising its focus on green and social issues and “pollyannish” views that don’t call out “surplus countries” for “distorted” trade and currency practices and “unsustainable lending practices” by certain creditors - ie China

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

Richard just realised that he voted for the wrong person in 2024. Richard is also the President of the @CSPICenterOrg (the Centre for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology). 🤷🤦🏻🙇🏻

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

First public person i’ve seen admit they made a catastrophically stupid decision in 2024. Many more to come. Congrats Richard!

[Joseph Lo Bianco @josephlobianco]

Hard to find adequate words to describe the depravity of continuing air strikes and strafing civilians as millions scramble to uncover their loved ones from earthquake rubble. https://t.co/dofeMCqPFt

[Progressive International @ProgIntl]

BREAKING 🇿🇦 More than 100 parliamentarians from around the world stand with the South African people against US President Donald Trump's executive order, calling it "an assault on their right to self-determination."

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

@roryontour Exactly, sometimes it's just the hardest thing to get people to call a spade a spade.

[CRITICAL THEORY @roryontour]

There's not much to love with these new Republicans. They are loud and dumb just like Republicans in the Bush era. But these new ones keep letting the cat out of the bag and telling everyone how it really is.
They want a world enslaved to the two headed beast of U.S. imperialism and disaster capitalism. That's not news to the international left or anti-imperialists across the world. But it appears to be shocking news to American liberals who like to do their imperatism behind a veil of Lies and mythology about good guys and bad guys endlessly replaying WWII in a global economy where the rising tide lifts all ships.
Problem is neoliberalism has failed, and trickle-down economics was always a big fat lie, and these new republicans wouldn't have the wit to explain it if they did understand what was going on. As a result the contradictions of late stage capitalism will continue unabated until the U.S. Empire slips into insignificance.

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

Aside from the extremely dodgy grasp of economics by Vance, he's validating the dependency theory thesis. But the USA has always wanted it's cake and to eat it. Look at the WTO DOHA rounds, Kyoto & climate, HR laws. Champion of free markets, yes - as long as they work for us.

[Ben Norton @BenjaminNorton]

This point is crucial: The US vice president has admitted that Washington's goal is to keep formerly colonized countries in the Global South trapped at the bottom of the global value chain.

The US-led West wants to maintain a strict international division of labor, in which poor countries in the periphery produce low value-added goods (with lots of competition and therefore low profits), whereas the rich nations in the core extract exorbitant monopoly rents through their control over high value-added technologies (with little to no competition, reinforced by strict intellectual property rights).

China has tried to challenge its subservient place in the world-system, to move out of the periphery -- so the US government has responded with aggressive tariffs, sanctions, and export controls, aimed at sabotaging China's technological innovation and economic development, to keep the US at the top of the global value chain, where it can continue to extract monopoly rents.

In other words, JD Vance has inadvertently acknowledged that the fundamental thesis of the dependency theorists in the 1950s and '60s was indeed correct!

Another win for dependency theory.

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

@RoryStewartUK Also reported in Guardian. In 2015 USA border guards routinely strip-searched my colleague (professor, muslim from SA) upon our attending scientific conferences (CIES) which led to our boycotting all USA based conf. So it's not totally new, but the racial profile here is.

[The Intellectualist @highbrow_nobrow]

Black Saturday: The Day the United States Ceased to Be a Constitutional Democracy

The Moment Democracy Ceased to Function

🧵1/10: Saturday, March 15, 2025, may have seemed unremarkable to most Americans. But in time, history will remember it as Black Saturday—the moment the United States ceased to function as a constitutional democracy.

For the first time in modern American history, a sitting president openly defied a direct federal court order—and nothing happened. No intervention. No enforcement. No consequences.

A legal ruling was issued, and the White House simply ignored it.

The White House’s Decision: Power Over Law

Inside the White House, the decision was not about law—it was about power.

A federal judge ruled against the administration. The debate inside Trump’s team was not whether the ruling was legal, but whether they could get away with ignoring it. They decided they could. And they were right.

This was not a clash between equal branches of government. It was the moment the judiciary was exposed as powerless. The courts do not have an army. They rely on compliance.

But a court that cannot enforce its rulings is not a court—it is a suggestion box.

And a presidency that can ignore the courts without consequence is no longer constrained by law—it is an untouchable executive.

Trump did not declare the end of judicial authority in a speech.

He demonstrated it in practice.

This is how democratic systems collapse—not with a single act, but with the normalization of defiance, the expectation that a ruling can simply be brushed aside.
https://t.co/h8GGvIhtQV

[JΛKΣ @USMCLiberal]

This needs to be seen by every American.

Download it, before it’s removed.

[Cane Fields @bluewavemaui]

@YourAnonCentral Here is what really happened in the Oval Office

[Vatnik Soup @P_Kallioniemi]

After 9/11, NATO's Article 5 was invoked for the first (and only) time ever by the United States.

Troops from the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Spain, Poland, Norway, Romania, Turkey, New Zealand, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Finland, and many others joined the fight in Afghanistan.

More than one thousand of these soldiers paid the ultimate price.

JD Vance - Have you said 'thank you' once for their sacrifice?

[Ed Krassenstein @EdKrassen]

BREAKING: After Trump's disgraceful actions at the WH today with President Zelensky major world players just came out to defend Ukraine and Zelensky:

- Donald Trump and JD Vance: You never thank us... waa waa waa.

- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk: “Dear Zelensky, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.”

- President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausea: “Ukraine, you’ll never walk alone.”

- Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen: “Dear Zelensky, Denmark proudly stands with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”

- French President Emmanual Macron: “There is an aggressor: Russia. There is a people being aggressed: Ukraine. We were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago and to continue doing so. We, that’s the Americans, the Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, and many others. Thank you to all those who have helped and continue to do so. And respect to those who, from the beginning, have been fighting. Because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, for their children, and for the security of Europe.”

- President of Moldova Maia Sandu: “The truth is simple. Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine defends its freedom—and ours. We stand with Ukraine.”

- Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson: “Sweden stands with Ukraine. You are not only fighting for your freedom but also for all of Europe’s. Slava Ukraini! ”

- Incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Mer: “Dear Volodymyr @zelenskyyua, we stand with #Ukraine in good and in testing times. We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war. (FM)”

- Crotia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković: “Croatia knows from its own experience that only a just peace can last. The Croatian Government stands firm in its belief that Ukraine needs such a peace - a peace that means sovereignty, territorial integrity, and a secure Europe.”

- Finland’s Prime Minister @PetteriOrpo: “Finland and the Finnish people stand firmly with Ukraine. We will continue our unwavering support and work towards a just and lasting peace.”

- Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal: “We stand united with @ZelenskyyUa and Ukraine in our fight for freedom. Always. Because it is right, not easy.”

- Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris: “Ukraine is not to blame for this war brought about by Russia’s illegal invasion. We stand with Ukraine.“

- Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkevics: “Ukraine is a victim of the Russian aggression. It fights the war with the help from many friends and partners. We need to spare no effort for just and lasting peace. Diplomacy sometimes is the art of the impossible in difficult circumstances. Latvia stands with Ukraine”

- Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof: ”The Netherlands supports Ukraine as firmly as ever. Now more than ever. We want a lasting peace and an end to the war of aggression started by Russia. For Ukraine and its people, and for Europe.”

- Prime Minister of Luxembourg Luc Friedsen: “Luxembourg stands with Ukraine. You are fighting for your freedom and a rules based international order. ”

The West stands with the heroic Zelensky. Trump sides with the evil Putin. What has America become?

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

It's by far the cheapest and most successful military campaign the USA has supported to counter Russian cold war influence in the 21st or 20th century. So, by all means negotiate, but to throw away the chance for Ukrainians to reach peace now, would be an absolute betrayal.

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

USA gave 0.3946% of GDP (119.7bn between Jan 2022- Dec 2024) Eg. 0.1315% of USA GDP per year to help Ukraine destroy Russia's military capability and stop it grabbing one of the largest countries in Europe by force? What's their problem really?

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

Hi there. I used to be a reasonable Republican. And I sat and watched Trump and Vance behave like a couple of schoolyard bullies. But the MAGA press machine has told me to join with all the other nodding dog cabinet ministers and tweet out this cut and paste BS. So here it is. #growaspine @marcorubio

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

That's what their 3.4% of GDP military budget is intended to achieve. They spent over 8 trillion on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere since 9/11. In Ukraine they have only spent 1.495% of what they spent in the war on terror, to actually achieve a concrete result.

[Matt McManus @MattPolProf]

Just finished @zeithistoriker's latest. Its a short and punchy book that really does a lot to historically clarify the right-libertarian/neoliberal to hard right pipeline that's been subject to a lot of speculation. In particular the central chapters on race and IQ...

[Daractenus @Daractenus]

Seeing how the USA now hellbent on emulating their newfound ally of Russia, both at home and abroad, I find myself obliged to repost my dive into Russia's posh cities, just to give your average MAGA a glimpse into the greatness Trump is sure to bring about! Do enjoy!🧵

[Javier Corrales @jcorrales2011]

All my life I have studied democratization and autocratization. My 1st field trip was to newly democratic Argentina. I then added autocracies to my portfolio: Cuba, Ven, etc. I think I can recognize the stages of transition to authoritarianism. Here are the boxes checked off.

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

Trump's ploy to get the EU to jump to his tune won't work, they aren't easily moved by his bluster. Ideological gambits to recast history eventually run out of steam. Trump's regressive vision of an authoritarian world order will burn itself out, and the USA will change course.

[Tom Salmon 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @Fishytom]

Instead of pivoting to those 3 options, European leaders have a middle road:

1) increase military spending but remain with NATO
2) confiscate frozen Russian assets & give them to Ukraine
3) continue to maintain sanctions against Russia, Iran, and potentially China.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is an absolute must-read by Singaporean diplomat @mahbubani_k who proposes a path forward for Europe: https://t.co/cY3MOtewnt

First of all, he argues that "Brussels has slavishly followed Washington for too long" and that European leaders have become so pathetic that "they are licking the boots that are kicking them in the face."

He says that it is shocking, and even a display of "infantile strategic thinking", that "Europeans didn’t anticipate the quagmire they’re in". They based "all European strategic thinking on the best-case scenario of the United States being a totally reliable ally", despite the US's proven history of being anything but.

To him, "the only way to restore Europe’s geopolitical standing is to consider three unthinkable options":

1) "Europe should announce its willingness to quit NATO"

He argues that "a Europe that is forced to spend 5 percent on defense is a Europe that doesn’t need the United States", given that this "amounts to $1.1 trillion", which is more than the U.S.'s own defense spending.

This is exactly right: why exactly would Europe remain under subservience to the U.S. if it increases its military budget, as Trump wishes it to? And also, why would it spend this budget on U.S. equipment when it can use it to prop up its own economy? It makes no sense.

2) "Work out a new grand strategic bargain with Russia"

He dismisses the false notion that "Russia represents a real security threat to the EU countries" and effectively proposes to out-Trump Trump: why let him work out a grand strategic bargain at the expense of Europe, when Europe can negotiate "fair compromise with [Russia], respecting current borders between Russia and the EU and a realistic compromise on Ukraine that doesn’t threaten either side’s core interests"?

If a grand bargain is on the cards, Europe has evidently much more to lose by letting Trump negotiate it. And much more to gain by negotiating it themselves too: after all Russia is their neighbor, not the U.S.'s...

3) "Work out a new strategic compact with China"

Mahbubani writes that when push comes to shove the only reason for the downturn in EU-China relations is because "the Europeans foolishly believed that a slavish loyalty to American geopolitical priorities would lead to rich geopolitical dividends for them." But instead "they have been kicked in the face."

He also points out that "China can help the EU deal with its real long-term geopolitical nightmare: the demographic explosion in Africa." And that "unless Africa develops its economies, there will be a surge of African migrants into Europe." As such "Europeans should welcome any foreign investment in Africa that creates jobs" and not, as they're currently doing "shooting themselves in the foot by criticizing and opposing China’s investment in Africa" (which he says "demonstrates how naive long-term European strategic thinking has become").

To conclude he reiterates that "Brussels is sacrificing its own strategic interests to serve American interests in the hope that geopolitical subservience would lead to rewards", but "clearly, it hasn’t."

Europe should draw the right lessons and "carry out the currently unthinkable option: Declare that henceforth it will be a strategically autonomous actor on the world stage that will put its own interests first. Trump may finally show some respect for Europe if it does that."

Nothing to add, he nails it!