@LozzaFox Please, Laurence: go and enlist in the Russian army. They take rapists and serial killers, so they'd *probably* take you.
Seriously, you fighting for Russia on the Ukrainian front line would be the funniest twelve-and-a-half minutes of my entire life! 😆
Good stuff from @cjcmichel. Armenia's election flew under the radar here, but it was no small thing given what Moscow put into making it go the other way.
"Other countries in Russia’s “near abroad” are charting their own paths. In Moldova, the Russian-occupied region of Transnistria is suffering economic collapse and growing more supportive of reintegration with the rest of the country. In Armenia, the national government is moving along a pro-Western path, recently hosting its first bilateral summit with the European Union. Even after Mr. Putin threatened Yerevan with a 'Ukrainian scenario,' the government there didn’t waver—a far cry from the behavior of a Russian vassal." https://t.co/oiMqowZVw6
Trump's past-the-deadline attempt to defy court orders on restoring the name of the Kennedy Center reminds why it's vital not to "take his word for it" on the $2 billion payout to Jan 6 criminals - and his own reach for lifelong tax immunity.
In the immortal word of NY Deputy Mayor Alair Townsend, "I wouldn't believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized."
@afneil Well there's the blatant one where musk offered, $1 million to vote. Elon Musk hands out $1m checks to voters amid Wisconsin supreme court election race | Elon Musk | The Guardian https://t.co/WfGV9Mk3I9
Farage says his new theme of racial politics will now be pushed in his own Substack.
The idea, it seems, is to avoid scrutiny by anyone who may point out his carefully-crafted misrepresentations.
https://t.co/k6ejc34BJW
.@ossoff: “He’s trying to put his face on the money. He's building a monument to himself . But see, Atlanta, he's doing these things now because no one will honor him when he’s gone… because he's a failed president and a national disgrace”
Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
@955196@lewis_goodall@afneil Gates is a minnow in relation to Musk. And a much more thoughtful person - not a deranged narcissist with a determination to shape the media space to his peculiar whims. There are important shades of distinction in this area.
@afneil I'm sure you know all about the Gilded Age, and how it ended, and why it had to end? So many on the right (even the sane right) these days seem to find it necessary to pretend they can't see the problem with titanic concentration of wealth at the top of society.
A young woman from Germany vanished without a trace 11 years ago. Now, her name makes several appearances in the Epstein files. Her family wants to finally learn what happened to her. https://t.co/cwnleksESl
Nebiullina, the Russian central bank chief, had a conspicuous period of public absence. Here's are my thoughts on her role and Putin -
(1) Ethically, she's in trouble. She's not just a complier but a creative contributor to Putin's war - in the sense that it has been her job to find creative ways to keep Russia's economy stable as Putin goes on with his war. Her private opposition to the war, and her view that, without her, Russians would suffer even more from Putin's war, doesn't help her.
(2) Her final term expires in 2027. Whether they find a way to keep her in her job is tied to the bigger question - how far will the Putin regime eat up the remaining institutions that protect it from the worst consequences of its own actions? Up till now, Russia's economic management has retailed a degree of procedural competence absent in the rest of the regime. Increasingly, this island of technocratic autonomy will shrink.
(3) Putin's own thinking about this is not flat denial. He doesn't need to deny ominous economic figures and projections. It's rather that he puts them up against his sense of the big picture. He is a leader addressing himself to history across centuries - and he's got a his finger on the nuclear button. Economic crisis that doesn't immediately threaten his power is not a big deal in the scheme of things. Moreover, Putin's sense of Russia's special destiny is not about the Russian people. They are just pawns that fill in the object that really matters - Russia's quasi mystical journey through time.
@mazemoore Hi buddy. Do you know the difference between a biolab and a biological weapons facility? Do you think scientists should research pathogens so we can better fight them? How do you think they should do so?