DaTaniel

Disinformation Remix on Geopolitics, Economics, Energy, anything Russia-related.

[The Moscow Times @MoscowTimes]

More than 80 years after the end of World War II, Russia and Japan have not formally ended hostilities due to the Kuril Islands.

Now, Tokyo is “patiently urging” Moscow to come back to the negotiating table, but Kremlin officials appear uninterested. https://t.co/DHgzKzBMPW

[Asia Times @asiatimesonline]

#Putin is threatening tit-for-tat seizures of foreign vessels if the West keeps targeting #Russia’s #ShadowFleet. It is another bid to escalate to de-escalate, this time at sea, and restore deterrence before maritime risks spiral. #RussianNavy #Geopolitics
https://t.co/7XuZSarnJh

[Iuliia Mendel @IuliiaMendel]

They forcibly mobilized a 43-year-old pediatric anesthesiologist who’d spent 20 years saving Ukrainian newborns. Paperwork gap of a few days. Grabbed by the military recruiters. Sent to a training center. Four days later he “falls” from a fifth-floor bathroom window and dies. Official line: accident.
This is what “defending democracy” looks like when the body count gets high enough. The same media that lectures us about freedom is silent. How many more doctors, fathers, and actual productive citizens get fed into this meat grinder before someone admits the truth?

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

Chas Freeman: How U.S. Decline Reshapes the Middle East
https://t.co/hvigV5tamh

[Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks]

Longer-term government bond yields are rising everywhere. If you're wondering why that's happening, just look at the one outlier in all this: Switzerland. Swiss public debt is little more than 30%. Everywhere else, fiscal policy & debt are out of control.
https://t.co/PROCIP7B6b

[Sevim Dağdelen @SevimDagdelen]

„Was können wir Europäer konkret tun, um noch mehr Russen zu töten – russische Soldaten natürlich?“
fragt Michael Martens (FAZ) in Belgrad Selenskyj.
Wehrmacht und SS hätten ihr Kriegsziel kaum klarer formuliert.

[Brian McDonald @BrianMcDonaldIE]

Syria and Russia have reached an agreement on the future of Russia’s military presence at Hmeimim and Tartus after 18 months of negotiations, Syrian state news agency SANA reports.

Under a memorandum of understanding, civilian facilities, including Hmeimim airport and the fourth commercial berth at Tartus port, will be gradually transferred to Syrian state control within three months.

The two sides have also agreed to redefine the role of facilities currently used for military purposes and Russia’s bases are to be reorganised into joint Syrian-Russian training centres rather than continue operating as traditional standalone military bases.

According to the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the transition period is to be completed within no more than three months, after which the new arrangements will take effect.

[Brad Setser @Brad_Setser]

China's export boom continues. If export and import prices in June were both unchanged, export volumes are up 14% y/y while import volumes are up 2-3%

1/

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

The owner of the beehive took this photo.

The beekeeper forgot to put the frames in which the bees collect honey, and the bees built their own architecture from the honeycomb, the natural ventilation so that the air can flow freely and maintain a stable temperature.

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

Karen Kwiatkowski: U.S. Military Breaks Down & Economy Crashes
https://t.co/fO6BtbNxKB

[DaTaniel @da_taniel]

https://t.co/SiUNor2zWu

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

I’ve written for @unherd about how Hungary’s new government is doing everything Orbán was accused of — and getting rewarded by Brussels for it.

The new Hungarian PM Péter Magyar calls it “Operation Purgatory”: a sweeping constitutional and administrative offensive designed to destroy the Orbán system — and ensure it can never return to power.

The 16th Amendment imposes a retroactive lifetime term limit of eight years on the prime minister, barring Orbán — who has served for 20 years — from ever holding office again. No wonder critics have dubbed it the “Lex Orbán”. Virtually no parliamentary democracy imposes term limits of this kind. The 17th Amendment also sets a 12-year limit for MPs: conveniently, no sitting Tisza MP is affected — only the opposition, wiping out Fidesz’s entire senior cadre.

Then there’s the president. Rather than pursue impeachment — the only removal mechanism the constitution provides — Magyar simply inserted a line into an amendment declaring that the incumbent president’s term "terminates today". Removal by legislative fiat. Even Amnesty International Hungary called it a constitutional coup. Add to this a purge of the Constitutional Court via a new retirement age, a special body tasked with investigating one party only — the old ruling party Fidesz — the shutdown of public media news output, the closure of Fidesz-aligned institutions and a judicial raid that took the party’s website offline.

These measures are clearly aimed at destroying the opposition outright, at making sure Fidesz can never return and thereby locking in Hungary’s EU-dictated agenda forever: dismantling Orbán’s heterodox economic model, phasing out Russian energy whatever the cost and full alignment on Ukraine.

Beyond the policy questions here, there is simply no way this brazen attack on the opposition can be defended on democratic grounds — and indeed Orbán himself, for all the EU establishment’s claims about the allegedly autocratic nature of his government, never dared to legislate his opponents out of existence. Yet the EU establishment, which spent fifteen years branding Orbán a proto-dictator, has responded by unblocking €10 billion in frozen funds. We saw the same film in Tusk’s Poland.

The lesson is clear: “democracy” and the “rule of law” function above all as pretexts for disciplining governments that resist the EU’s expanding authority. Indeed, when it comes to supporting its own emissaries, there is apparently no red line the EU will not cross — up to and including greenlighting the outright annulment of entire elections when they go the wrong way, as we saw in Romania in 2024.

As for Hungary, the strategy seems clear: the EU is bent on punishing the rebellious colony — by making sure it can’t rebel ever again.

Read the article here: https://t.co/w4AxoN7ffe

[Bjorn Lomborg @BjornLomborg]

Alarmists: “World on fire!”

Reality: By Aug 5, global burned area likely never lower than 2026

Disasters in France, Spain & Canada are tragic—but climate is global. Cherry-picking isn’t science

Climate policy does near-nothing for fires

We need better fire policy (prescribed burns, let some burn) and better climate info

https://t.co/iDqlYckvRT

[Ryan Milton 弥瑞恩 @1860rm]

🇨🇳At a port inauguration, the Americans draped an American flag over the logo of Chinese manufacturing company ZPMC on the cranes—until the wind snapped it loose, exposing the Chinese inscriptions.

[Seyed Mohammad Marandi @s_m_marandi]

The Moroccan regime is simply another tool of Netanyahu and Trump. They are punishing Spain for supporting Palestine.

[Johannes Varwick @JohannesVarwick]

Dass ein solcher (inzwischen zurückgezogener) Vorschlag für neue Geldscheine von einer EU -Behörde gemacht wurde zeigt, dass viele nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank haben.

[Francesco Sassi @Frank_Stones]

🚨 A drone strike at Egypt’s Damietta Port hit two LNG vessels—the Energos Winter FSRU and the Gaslog Salem.

This isn't just another tactical event; it marks an epoch-making expansion of hybrid energy warfare in the Middle East. 🧵🇪🇬🇺🇸🇾🇪🇸🇦🇮🇱👇

[Martin Sonneborn @MartinSonneborn]

Sagen, was ist
Dieser Auszug aus der Rede von Navid Kermani beim feierlichen Rekrutengelöbnis im Bendlerblock lohnt nicht nur wegen des dummen Gesichts, das Verteidigungsminister Pistolius dabei macht... Smiley!

"Zu sagen, was ist, bleibt die revolutionärste Tat."
R. L.

[Bjorn Lomborg @BjornLomborg]

Less Global Fire

7 months through 2026:

Every continent is below average, and Africa, Americas, and Europe are at record lows

Yet, all you see is Canada (below average) and Europe (record-below average)

You are being badly informed on climate change

https://t.co/iDqlYckvRT

[Brian Berletic @BrianJBerletic]

US plans for destroying nations like Russia, Iran, and China have been publicly published, talked about, and implemented for decades.

Politicians do not make these policies. They simply sell it to the public or distract the public away from these policies.

Multinational multi-billion dollar corporations don't sit there every 4-8 years leaving their future/fate and US policy to "voters" and the clowns they pick for office.

Instead they have created a political system to serve as an "explanation" for and/or a distraction away from their own continuity of agenda.

Corporations fundamentally pursue the maximization of power and profit - and therefore their collective agenda driving US policy is to maximize US power and profit - hence endless exploitation at home and hegemonic war worldwide no matter who you vote for.

This should be beyond commonsense.

But instead of understanding this as the fundamental nature of the US system and going on from there - people cannot help but to indulge in the daily political circus and attempt to cobble together fictional narratives to explain why "Obama" or "Trump" or "Biden" are doing the things they're doing - essentially continuity of agenda - without actually acknowledging continuity of agenda itself and the real interests driving it.

Instead, the "reason" Trump is continuing wars the corporations have planned and implemented for decades is because "he's blackmailed" or "has bad advisors," or "lost his temper" and not because the US political system is a deliberate system of control rather than a process of self-determination.

If you understood continuity of agenda and that unelected corporations drive it - BEFORE the 2024 elections you would have known these wars would continue and others would be started - just as they now have been - regardless of who won.

These people ignoring continuity of agenda and doing "analysis-by-official narrative" or "analysis-by-political party" are constantly wrong precisely because of this.

They are the same ones who said Trump would end all these wars in the first place (simply because he "said" so) or that Iran "won" and the US would leave West Asia (because the Western media suggested it), and are still looking for reasons to explain US policy in terms of "Trump," his "emotions," and the circus performed by him and those around him and even those "opposing" him.

And because they are doing this - they will continue to be wrong.

Truth is arrived at through first principles and scientific analysis and an understanding of material reality.

Like a math problem, if you don't get it right from the very start - everything you do onward will drift further and further from the right answer.

Go back to the beginning and start over until it all actually adds up.