OddStr 💭

[Erik Arnell @ArnellOErik]

Den franska krisen pekas ut som ett skräckexempel på hur det går om man låter statsskulden öka för mycket.

Det är bakvänt. Lärdomen är att 🇸🇪 ska hålla sig långt borta från € och att vi måste sluta sträva efter att balansera statens finansiella budget.

https://t.co/NYuNpMzGso

[Mats Nilsson @mazzenilsson]

Wow...dystopia on display, the military-industrial complex is reassuring investors that the wars will indeed be endless... and profitable...

Asked about the Iran War's effect on defense stocks, Lockheed Martin CEO says: "Investors need to know and understand that this demand is not fleeting; it's permanent."

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Extremely wise words by Shivshankar Menon, India's former Foreign Secretary and National Security Advisor.

Asked by the host what worries him about India - what is a burden of history for India - he replied that "there is such a thing as excessive pride in your past."

He explains that talking of "your glorious golden ages in the past" to "feel good about yourself" is ok - a normal aspect of building an identity for yourself - but "when you then carry it on into victimhood and into revenge for history" and when that becomes a driving force for today's actions, then it becomes "dangerous."

He takes the example of people in India speaking about "a thousand years of slavery" (meaning Muslim and then British rule) or of Chiang Kai-shek writing every night in the top right of his diary "never forget national humiliation" (I checked and he actually wrote 雪耻 - xuě chǐ - which means "avenge the humiliation": https://t.co/6y1P9HUMfC, he did it from 1928 until his last diary entry in July 1972).

It's a wise point in general: when you think about it, nationalism isn't necessarily destructive in and of itself. But it becomes so when you convince yourself as a nation or people that you are a victim and that there is a guilty party. Because, as Menon puts it, it makes you "stop dealing with reality as it is" and leads to "counterproductive policy and ideas."

All the more dangerous because it’s so easy: nothing easier as a people, or as the ruler of a nation, than to blame others for what’s wrong. It spares you the much harder work of looking at your own failings, and absolves the rulers of responsibility.

And the inverse is really hard: nothing harder when you have indeed been a victim than to resist turning that grievance into a political program, and to instead focus on what you can actually build today - which often involves working hand in hand with the guilty party.

Which is, incidentally, why what China did was so impressive. It could have turned national humiliation into policies of revenge and hatred but instead chose to define it largely as China's own mistake for having been weak enough that foreigners could take advantage of that (Xi Jinping himself defines it that way in his book: https://t.co/kmmdYdWSjm). Which is constructive, because then the objective isn't revenge but building yourself, and China did that working hand in hand with the West.

We’re seeing some version of victimhood drive policies in too many countries around the world. Europe is, sadly, a case in point: Russia and China have become the all-purpose explanation for almost every problem on the continent, from energy prices to deindustrialization. Very practical for EU leaders who never have to answer for their own choices...

It's a good rule of thumb to have: if any politician builds his message around blame, take it as a red flag. That's what you reach for when you won't build.

This is the source video, by the way: https://t.co/qUCnMB8Qed On the WorldView Postcast of my friend @Hansong_Li

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This has got to be the most moronic story of the month. It's genuinely so stupid it frankly boggles the mind.

It was broken by Norwegian daily "Dagens Næringsliv" (DN) under the title "Chinese-owned rental cars filmed secret exercise: Saved video of soldiers and codes" (https://t.co/R28sm12SzE).

BUT when you look into the story what actually happened is that, for an exercise, the Norwegian army was short on cars so it rented some from Hertz.

Those rental cars had dashcams - as cars do - that the soldiers mistakenly kept on. At one point, some soldiers found out about that: they were clicking through the car menus out of boredom and stumbled on the footage, including clips of themselves typing gate codes in front of the camera. They deleted the footage. There is zero evidence the footage left the car.

THAT'S IT, that's the whole story.

China hysteria being what it is in Europe these days, this somehow got transformed into a "China spying" story because Hertz Norway is owned by Volvo, itself owned by Geely (a Chinese company), and 2 of the cars were from a Chinese brand, Deepal.

The narrative apparently being that Geely, through Volvo, through Hertz, deliberately left standard dashcams on in rental cars in the hope that the Norwegian military would one day rent them and forget to turn the dashcams off 🤦

And now, as is always the case, it's being spread globally by accounts like Clash Report 👇, which even found a way to make the story dumber: their version has the cars as "Chinese-owned Volvos", when they weren’t Volvos at all.

Such is the contemporary media ecosystem: one outlet invents the hysteria, the next one strips away the last remaining nuance and we all end up dumber for it.

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@itsdbtalks K-shaped economy -> some are partying, some are struggling

[Krystal Ball @krystalball]

The most consistent theme of conservatism is being completely unable/unwilling to understand how a thing is bad until it happens to you.

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@GeniusGTX Imagine being a math/ai genius but still think that tax income fund government expenses 🤦🏽‍♂️

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@jbendz @MartinLorentzon Hur mycket fattigare och farligare kan det bli?

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@motorsport140 @PoliticalChef Välstånd idag

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@ChristinaSpjut @PoliticalChef

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@PuppetMattster @ryangrim Only because of the Soviet Union. If there was no fear of a socialist revolution there would have been no need for those bribes (socialized healthcare etc)

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@Mmm2Catherine @BarbaraSutton15 @bbclaurak https://t.co/z9M762YKim

[Conor O’Riordan☘️ @ConorOR12345]

@upholdreality Here is the full interview on BBC:
https://t.co/EgKGTeY2hl

[OddStr 💭 @OlofStrand]

@AaronBastani Nr 1, undisputed champion 🏆
The civilized west (Us an Eu); killed 38 million people through sanctions between 1971 and 2021

https://t.co/EWVz6lyBRG

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

No one infantilizes Americans more than Americans.

They are forever cast as misled children.
Tricked by elites.
Manipulated by media.
Betrayed by politicians.

But how many decades does a population get to hide behind naivety?

How many invasions?
How many lies?
How many mass graves?
How many "mistakes" before innocence expires?

The rest of the world does not get this luxury.
Vietnam did not get it.
Iraq did not get it.
Palestine does not get it.

Only Americans are allowed to sit atop the machinery of death and still be described as tragically confused.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

If you want a sense of how dire the situation is in Cuba now, here is a list of the measures the Cuban president says the nation has started taking to try to keep people in nursing homes and hospitals alive while Trump and Rubio choke the island of essentials, which the Cuban government is now referring to a "genocidal blockade" -- which is absolutely will be if it is allowed to persist.

Cuba is not at war with anybody yet we are starving them...because why? Because Marco Rubio wants to?

From the office of the Cuban presidency:

This Friday, measures adopted by the country’s leadership were announced in response to the nation’s current situation, amid the intensification of the #GenocidalBlockade.

⚡| Energy Sector
•Prioritize available fuel for essential services: public health, water supply, food production, defense, and hard-currency-generating activities.
•Continue and accelerate the installation programs for solar photovoltaic parks and solar modules for households.
•Speed up the delivery and installation of solar modules sold to Health and Education workers.
•Install 5,000 solar modules in isolated homes and plan an additional 5,000 for social centers (nursing homes, children’s homes).
•Expand incentives for the installation of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in companies and households.
•Concentrate core administrative activities from Monday to Thursday.
•Adjust fuel sales to the public until the situation normalizes.
•Continue developing domestic oil production.

🚚| Transport Sector
•Ensure fuel for port and airport operations, imports/exports, and the transport of vital cargo (food, fuel, medical supplies).
•Reduce the Nueva Gerona–Batabanó ferry frequency to two trips per week (Tuesdays and Saturdays).
•Extend the frequency of national passenger trains to once every 8 days (starting February 8). Temporarily suspend other rail services.
•Reduce national bus departures, maintaining a basic daily service from Havana. Suspend the waiting list service.
•Offer full refunds within 30 days for tickets for canceled services (rail or maritime).
•Maintain guaranteed Medibus services (for patients) and transportation for students and teaching staff.
•Reorganize local public transportation according to fuel availability in each territory.
•In Havana, establish a new transportation service specifically for Health personnel.
•Strengthen the electric mobility strategy: install solar charging stations and distribute electric vehicles.

👩‍🏫| Education Sector (General Education)
•Prioritize early childhood: maintain the operation of daycare centers (possibly with reduced hours).
•Maintain in-person classes in Primary Education with flexible schedules, allowing early dismissal due to transportation needs.
•For Lower Secondary, Pre-University, and Technical Education:
•Implement blended-learning or condensed schedules (by days or subject blocks), decided locally.
•Give special attention to grades marking the start and end of cycles (e.g., 7th and 9th grade, 12th grade).
•Temporarily redistribute enrollment from some IPVCE schools to urban pre-university schools.
•For students in the final years of technical/pedagogical programs, shift to a training model in schools near their homes, with periodic in-person sessions.
•Resume and adapt the “essential content” experience used during COVID-19.
•Accelerate the delivery of solar panels to teachers.

👨🏾‍🏫| Higher Education Sector
•General transition to blended learning, adapted by degree program and university.
•Transport students back to their provinces of origin.
•Support teaching activities through institutions in the student’s territory (CUM, branch campuses, workplaces).
•Strengthen faculty in municipalities by relocating professors from central campuses.
•Use telework as the main modality, with limited ICT support due to the energy situation.
•Prioritize strategic research and development projects remotely.
•Ensure completion of studies (final exams, thesis defenses) for students close to graduation.
•Reorganize the admissions process for Higher Education.
•Postpone the “University 2026” event.

👩🏿‍💻| Labor and Social Security Sector
•Issue no new labor regulations, applying existing contingency rules.
•Promote telework and remote work modalities.
•Adjust work schedules according to the needs of each workforce.
•Reassign workers to key economic activities or areas of social interest.
•If necessary, apply temporary work interruption with guaranteed pay equivalent to the basic salary during the first month.

🚜| Food and Water Sector
•Increase food production at the territorial level, prioritizing productive hubs with the greatest potential.
•Promote alliances among all forms of productive management (state and non-state) to address commercialization and prices.
•Use Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in food production.
•Allocate fuel to guarantee essential water pumping.
•Concentrate industry on producing and supplying chemical products for water treatment.

➕| Other Sectors
•Tourism: Design a plan to reduce energy consumption and consolidate facilities, taking advantage of the high season.
•Culture and Sports: Make adjustments to programs and activities.
•Science, Technology, and Environment: Guarantee resources for early warning systems.
•Special Education: Do not modify its operation; create a special scheme to guarantee services due to its high sensitivity.

[WomensLiberationAotearoa @wlaotearoa]

"A Soviet and an American are on an airplane seated next to each other.

“Why are you flying to the US?” asks the American.

“To study American propaganda,” replies the Soviet.

“What American propaganda?” asks the American.

"Exactly" the Soviet replies."

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

I'm not so arrogant as to think I understand and anticipate the outcomes in every country in the world, including ones where I don't speak the language and haven't studied its extremely rich and complex history or current political dynamics.

The extreme arrogance of American policy makers who think they can manage other countries and get the results they want is the primary factor in why so many US wars, interventions and regime-operations have produced absolute atrocities, nightmares and horrors.

You have no idea what percentage of Iranians support this. You have no idea what the next regime will be. The Israel and US - highly involved in all of this - don't want "freedom" for Iranians. They want the re-imposition of the brutal dictatorship that served as Israeli and American puppets under the Shah and brutalized, tortured, imprisoned and killed dissidents (which is what sparked the revolution of 1979).

Do you want the people of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Jordan to succeed in rising up against and deposing their dictators?

I refuse to ignore the fact that the people in the US and Israel most cheering for regime change in Iran are the people most supportive of Israel -- Mike Pompeo said there's a Mossad agent beside every protester in Irann -- and these same people have very little interest in bringing "freedom" to the dictatorships that serve Israel and the US. To the contrary, they support those dictatorships.

Just please spare me the bullshit about how this is about Americans being so deeply interested in liberating people from repression.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

New research highlights from 2025! 

This thread covers some of our latest work on capitalism, imperialism, post-growth and ecosocialist futures. It's all open access, and free PDFs are available via the link at the end of the thread. 🧵

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is as close to a smoking gun as I've ever seen on Ukraine.

Amanda Sloat was Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council under Biden, meaning she was the one directly running Ukraine policy from the White House.

And she now admits that, had Ukraine told Russia before the war or at the Istanbul talks "fine, we won't go into NATO," it "may well have [prevented/stopped the war]" but she (and by extension the White House) "was uncomfortable with the idea of... implicitly giving Russia some sort of sphere of influence or veto power on that."

Now, almost 3 years on, she says "it certainly would have prevented the destruction and the loss of life."

Think about how extraordinary this is.

First of all, she's being dishonest: by definition, neutrality for Ukraine wouldn't have given Russia "some sort of sphere of influence" but would have made it... neutral, i.e. in-between spheres of influence.

Ukraine in Russia's sphere of influence would be Ukraine joining some sort of Warsaw Pact, which is in fact exactly the optionality she's saying SHE wanted to preserve, only with NATO. She's describing her own position and projecting it onto Russia.

Also think about the cost equation. Hundreds of thousands dead, a country in ruins, and the justification is America being "uncomfortable" about not preserving optionality. Not even an actual gain - just the theoretical possibility of one day pulling Ukraine into NATO.

The banality of evil.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

In a normal world, this should be an immense scandal in Europe.

Le Monde has a long article (https://t.co/HsWFThQ5wF) describing the hellish life of Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the ICC in The Hague, due to U.S. sanctions punishing him for authorizing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.

Guillou's daily existence has been transformed into a Kafkaesque nightmare. He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction.

He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands.

That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are:
- punishing a European citizen
- for doing his job in Europe
- applying laws Europe officially supports
- at an institution based in Europe
- that Europe helped create and fund

and Europe is not only doing essentially nothing to protect him, they're actively enforcing America's sanctions against their own citizen - European banks closing his accounts, European companies refusing him service, European institutions standing by while Washington destroys a European judge's life on European soil.

Again, in a normal world, European leaders and citizens should be absolutely outraged about this. But we've so normalized the hollowing out of European sovereignty that the sight of a European citizen being economically executed on European soil for upholding European law is treated, at best, as an unfortunate technical complication in transatlantic relations.