janhoglund

https://mastodon.nu/@janhoglund

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Last Notes

2025-03-31 06:22:15

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“This president, abetted by the supine acquiescence of the Republican Congress and licensed by a US supreme court partly of his own making, is not just temporarily deconstructing the institutions that comprise our democracy. He and his circle are making a bid to reshape the US altogether by systematically erasing and distorting the historical underpinnings of our 235-year-old experiment in self-government under law.”
—Laurence H. Tribe
#trump #usa #history

2025-03-31 06:17:21

“What we are currently living through is nothing less than a reorganized forgetting of the building blocks of our republic and the history of our struggles, distorting what it means to be American. The body politic is being hollowed out by a rapidly metastasizing virus attacking the underpinnings of our entire constitutional system. Make no mistake. This is how dictatorship grows.”
—Laurence H. Tribe, Donald Trump is seeking to erase the United States as we know it
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/24/trump-us-constitution
#trump

2025-03-31 02:41:26

“…I think I’ve finally felt, on the personal level, the “information collapse” that I’ve been thinking and talking a lot about recently. It’s the term that I’ve been using to describe the tectonic shifts in our news and information system and the chaos of a world in which algorithmically driven social media on platforms owned by unaccountable monopolists has driven out fact-based reporting and news.”
—Carole Cadwalladr
https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/introducing-instafacism
#instafacism #informationcollapse

2025-03-29 20:01:51

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“An American is about ten times more likely to be incarcerated than a Dane. Danes have access to universal and essentially free health care… Danes on average live four years longer than Americans. In Denmark university education is free… Danish parents share a year of paid parental leave. In the US, one parent might get twelve weeks of unpaid leave. … American children are about twice as likely as Danish children to die before the age of five..”
—Timothy Snyder
#usa vs #denmark

2025-03-29 20:00:09

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“The US is is 24th in the world in the happiness rankings. Not bad. But Denmark is number two (after Finland). On a scale of 1 to 100, Freedom House ranks Denmark 97 and the US 84 on freedom — and the US will drop a great deal this year.”
—Timothy Snyder
#usa vs #denmark & #finland

2025-03-29 19:56:00

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“The comparison between life in the United States and life in Denmark is not just polemical. Musk-Trump treat Europe as though it were some decadent abyss… But Europe is not only home to our traditional allies; it is an enviable zone of democracy, wealth and prosperity with which it benefits us to have good relations, and from which we can sometimes learn.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#vance #trump #usa #denmark #europe

2025-03-29 19:52:43

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“Hans Christian Andersen told the unforgettable tale of the naked emperor. In Greenland what we saw was American imperialism with no clothes. Naked and vain.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#vance #trump #usa #denmark #greenland

2025-03-29 19:51:02

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“Musk-Trump are creating the bloodily moronic situation in which the United States will have to fight wars to get the things that, just a few weeks ago, were there for the asking. And of course wars rarely turn out the way one expects.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#musk #trump #usa

2025-03-29 19:49:08

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“The American imperialism directed towards Denmark and Canada is not just morally wrong. It is strategically disastrous. The United States has nothing to gain from it, and much to lose.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#musk #trump #usa #denmark #canada

2025-03-29 19:46:59

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“As with everything Musk-Trump does, however, the cui bono question about imperialism in Greenland is easy to answer: Russia benefits. Putin cannot contain his delight with American imperialism over Greenland. In generating artificial crises in relations with both Denmark and Canada, …the Trump people cut America loose from security gains and create a chaos in which Russia benefits.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#musk #trump #usa #denmark #greenland #canada #russia

2025-03-29 19:42:46

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“We really do have a problem taking responsibility. The United States has fallen well behind its allies and its rivals in the Arctic, in part because members of Vance’s political party denied for decades the reality of global warming…”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
https://snyder.substack.com/p/vance-in-greenland
#vance #trump #usa #denmark #greenland #arctic #climatechange

2025-03-29 19:40:00

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“There are only a couple hundred Americans at Pituffik where once there were ten thousand; there is only that one US base on the island [Greenland] where once there were a dozen; but that is American policy, not Denmark’s fault.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#vance #trump #usa #denmark #greenland #nato

2025-03-29 19:38:38

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“Greenland, Denmark, and the United States have been enmeshed in complex and effective security arrangements…for the better part of a century. Arctic security, an issue discovered by Trump and Vance very recently, was a preoccuption for decades during and after the cold war.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#vance #trump #usa #denmark #greenland #nato

2025-03-29 19:33:02

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”…Vance opposes helping Ukraine, spreads Russian propaganda…, and is best known for yelling at Ukraine’s president in the Oval Office. …the response of Musk-Trump has been to ignore this larger reality completely while allowing Biden-era aid to Ukraine to come to an end. Denmark meanwhile has given more than four times as much aid to Ukraine, per capita, as does the United States.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
#musk #trump #vance #usa #russia #ukraine

2025-03-29 19:26:35

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”It takes some patience to unwind all of the nonsense… When Vance says that Denmark is not protecting Greenland…, he is wishing away generations of cooperation, as well as the NATO alliance itself. … The threat in the Arctic…is Russia… But right now the United States is supporting Russia… No one is doing more to contain the Russian threat than Ukraine.”
—Timothy Snyder, The Imperialism Has no Clothes
https://snyder.substack.com/p/vance-in-greenland
#vance #usa #denmark #greenland #nato #russia #ukraine

2025-03-29 19:24:14

“Musk-Trump inherited a state with unprecedented power and functionality, and are taking it apart. They also inherited a set of alliances and relationships that underpinned the largest economy in world history. This too they are breaking.”
—Timothy Snyder
https://snyder.substack.com/p/vance-in-greenland
#musk #trump #usa

2025-03-23 08:08:31

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“I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear… I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. … It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
—Senator Margaret Chase Smith, 1950

2025-03-23 08:00:11

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“In a similar moment, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, of Skowhegan, Maine, stood up to Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025

2025-03-23 07:57:51

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“While Trump’s demand that Mills make a “full throated apology” to him is in keeping with his habitual attempts to dominate women, Mills follows in a tradition of women from Maine who stood up for the principles of American democracy against bullies who would destroy it.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump vs #mills

2025-03-23 07:55:44

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“He has worked to deny women and girls access to health care, including the right not to die needlessly from a miscarriage. He has undermined women’s right to control their own bodies and defunded or stopped the programs that protect their right to be safe from domestic violence and sexual assault. He has ended programs designed to protect women’s employment and has fired women from positions of authority.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

2025-03-23 07:54:26

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“At the White House, Governor Mills was not only reinforcing the rule of law in the face of an authoritarian who is working to shatter that principle; she was standing up to a bully who claims to be protecting women and girls but who has bragged about sexual assault, been found guilty of sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll, and barged in on teenaged girls dressing in the Miss Teen USA changing room.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

2025-03-23 07:50:59

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“Exactly what she is [the Governor] supposed to be apologizing to him [the President] for is unclear, unless it is that she stood up to him, a rare enough event…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

2025-03-23 07:44:44

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“This morning, the president posted on social media: “…we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
Always challenge Unlawful #Trump

2025-03-23 07:39:33

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“On March 11 the Department of Education abolished more than half of the offices in its Civil Rights Division, getting rid of more than half of the division's employees.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump #civilrights #usa

2025-03-23 07:36:10

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“Trump asked if the governor of Maine was in the room.
“Yeah, I’m here,” replied Governor Mills.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” she said.
“We are the federal law,” Trump said. …
“We’re going to follow the law,” she said.
“You’d better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” he said.
Mills answered: “See you in court.””
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025

2025-03-23 07:33:07

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“Trump’s habit of deflection might explain last night's statement, and his habit of distraction might explain today’s social media post, in which the president returned to an exchange of words between him and Maine governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, more than three weeks ago…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump #deflection #distraction

2025-03-23 07:28:14

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“…on Friday White House communications director Steven Cheung said Trump personally signed the proclamation, and his signature appears on the document in the Federal Register of official government documents.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

2025-03-23 07:26:30

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“When asked when he signed the proclamation invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, by which Trump claimed that Venezuela is invading the United States…, Trump answered: “I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it.” … “But Marco Rubio’s done a great job. And he wanted them out, and we go along with that. …””
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump #donaldtrump #rubio #marcorubio

2025-03-23 07:21:37

“Perhaps in response to the growing outcry over last weekend’s rendition of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador … Trump last night told reporters that he didn’t sign the proclamation that set that legal process in motion.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-22-2025
#trump #usa

2025-03-23 05:02:30

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“What surprises me most is how the political press generally fails to inform the public that Musk is taking a systematic approach, one that has been outlined in public forums for years. (Some press outlets…are owned by billionaires keenly interested in kowtowing to Musk and Trump.)”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #press #journalism

2025-03-23 04:59:38

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“Undermining the credibility of the federal government, downplaying legal oversight, and defying regulatory authorities. Dismantling government agencies and functions with no plan for their replacement.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #doge

2025-03-23 04:56:48

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“DOGE is gutting teams, demanding mass resignations, locking employees out of offices, and threatening mass layoffs in federal government. Meanwhile, DOGE is recruiting inexperienced young men who owe their loyalty to Musk/Thiel.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#doge #musk #teal

2025-03-23 04:55:24

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“Acts as federal CEO, demands unilateral control over sensitive government programs, positioning himself as an unelected decision-maker…”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #elonmusk

2025-03-23 04:53:34

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“What once seemed like a fringe theory is now being carried out by the corporate powers that have wholly captured our government.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #oligarchy #broligarchy #techbros

2025-03-23 04:50:35

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“…the plot to destroy the federal bureaucracy also has a partner in the far-right Heritage Foundation. Project 2025…calls for a purging and dismantling of government as well.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #doge

2025-03-23 04:48:20

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“[The] core idea…is a corporate takeover of governments, which will afterward be run like tech companies… Just as Musk took over Twitter…, he will now defrock civil servants, experts, and anyone who is loyal to democracy instead of the current regime.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #doge

2025-03-23 04:44:13

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“He [Vance] added that Trump should defy any court orders designed to stop his purge.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#vance #jdvance #trump

2025-03-23 04:42:08

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“…Vance compared the federal government to a conquered enemy…”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#vance #jdvance #doge

2025-03-23 04:39:32

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“…Musk's chief lieutenants at DOGE (Destruction of Government by Elon) are very young men with no experience in government.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #doge

2025-03-23 04:37:20

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“Government isn't the only target for this hostile takeover…”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #doge #journalism #academia #socialmedia

2025-03-23 04:27:59

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“…the core idea: Run the government as a rogue corporation rather than a public institution beholden to the rules of democracy.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
#musk #doge

2025-03-23 04:23:40

“Elon Musk’s DOGE is just a rebranded version of RAGE [Retire All Government Employees]. He demands mass resignations, locks career employees out of their offices, threatens to delete entire departments, and seizes total control of sensitive government systems and programs. DOGE = RAGE, masked in the bland language of “efficiency.”
—Gil Duran, 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-doge/
#musk #doge

2025-03-22 06:39:40

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“Those angry at Musk and the cuts his Department of Government Efficiency team has made to the government have demonstrated their anger by launching a grassroots movement called “TeslaTakedown” that protests peacefully at Tesla dealerships. …experts in domestic extremism say they have found no evidence that acts of vandalism against cars, charging stations, and dealerships…are coordinated.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 21, 2025
#doge #musk #tesla #teslatakedown

2025-03-22 06:36:09

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“A senior Federal Aviation Administration official said, referring to Musk, “He IS A LEAKER. When you put hard drives on data systems at government agencies you are creating the biggest security breaches we have seen in years and years. Possibly ever.””
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 21, 2025
#musk #faa #security

2025-03-22 06:04:50

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““We are public servants, not Elon’s servants,” one Food and Drug Administration employee told the reporters, adding, “[t]he public deserves to know how dysfunctional, destructive, and deceptive all of this has been and continues to be.””
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 21, 2025
#musk ‘s #dysfunctional #destructive #deception

2025-03-22 06:02:24

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“…one can’t “leak” a false story… Musk’s threat has backfired.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 21, 2025
#musk

2025-03-22 05:58:19

“…it seems we are seeing what happens when members of an administration believe they can shape not just perceptions but reality itself, and discover that reality is stubborn.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 21, 2025
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-21-2025
#trump #musk #reality

2025-03-19 16:01:46

Started reading #books
https://media.mastodon.nu/media_attachments/files/114/189/932/665/192/812/original/c9c3bd82fd69e16c.jpeg

2025-03-19 06:31:23

The level of incompetence is staggering

2025-03-15 07:06:33

”Regeringen verkar alltså inte bara ha utnyttjat den opolitiska säkerhetsavdelningen på Regeringskansliet för egna syften. Den har också vilselett i en fråga där svensk säkerhet ligger i potten. Ulf Kristersson – hans stab – valde att sätta barndomsvännens anställning före rikets säkerhet.”
—Amanda Sokolnicki (DN 20250315)
https://www.dn.se/ledare/amanda-sokolnicki-kristersson-och-hans-kompisar-kan-tala-sig-ur-det-mesta-men-sapo/
#regeringen #kristersson #landerholm

2025-03-13 19:21:10

Russia cannot become stronger, so it must make others weaker. The simplest way to make others weaker is to make them more like Russia.
—Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
#russia

2025-03-13 10:15:52

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“In 2025 the Republicans in charge of the United States of America are not the conservatives they call themselves… They are abruptly dismantling a government that has kept the United States relatively prosperous, secure, and healthy for the past 80 years. In its place, they are trying to impose a government based in the idea that a few men should rule.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 12, 2025
#trump #republicans #usa

2025-03-13 10:05:05

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“With the stock market falling and business leaders begging Trump to stop the trade machinations that are creating the volatility that is wrenching the economy downward, Trump said yesterday to reporters: “[L]ong-term, what I’m doing is making our country strong again.””
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 12, 2025
#trump #tariffs

2025-03-13 10:03:15

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“The U.S. administration is once again inserting disruption and disorder into an incredibly successful trading partnership and raising the costs of everyday goods for Canadians and American households alike.”
—François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's minister of innovation, science, and industry
#trump #tariffs #usa #canada

2025-03-13 10:03:02

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“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy.”
—Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President
#trump #tariffs #usa #eu

2025-03-13 09:57:00

“Trump’s 25% tariffs on all aluminum and steel imported into the U.S. went into effect today, prompting retaliatory tariffs from the European Union and Canada.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 12, 2025
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-12-2025
#trump #usa #eu #canada #tariffs

2025-03-12 01:40:51

A Russian oligarch bought a house from Trump for $55 million more than Trump had paid for it. The buyer, Dmitry Rybolovlev, never showed any interest in the property and never lived there—but later, when Trump ran for president, Rybolovlev appeared in places where Trump was campaigning.
—Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018)
#trump #rybolovlev

2025-03-10 19:09:35

”…Wozniak has soured on Tesla and CEO Elon Musk… “Coming from Apple, the user interface, the way you deal with technology, is the most important thing in the world to me,” Wozniak said… “And Tesla is the worst in the world at that.” “Every step up, where they changed a thing in the car, it got worse and worse and worse.””
https://fortune.com/2025/03/07/steve-wozniak-says-tesla-is-worst-at-improving-driver-tech/
#tesla #musk

2025-03-10 14:16:43

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“Putin’s track record shows a clear pattern of using intimidation and physically eliminating those who fail to comply with his agenda. If Trump opposed Russia, the Kremlin might not just release salacious but harmless kompromat. Polonium-laced tea or Novichok-infused underwear is always on the table.”
—Zarina Zabrisky, Fear and Favour: What Does Trump Owe Putin? Maybe His Life
#putin #trump #russia

2025-03-10 14:12:45

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“In the 1980s, the KGB allegedly targeted him as a potential asset. After a 1987 Moscow visit, he paid for anti-NATO ads. His first wife, Ivana, may have aided KGB profiling. In 1996, he negotiated $250 million in Russian investments. A 2017 Reuters review found that 63 Russians spent $98.4 million on Trump-branded Florida properties. …65 Trump World condos in Manhattan went to Russian buyers, including criminals linked to money laundering”
—Zarina Zabrisky, Fear and Favour
#trump #putin #russia

2025-03-10 13:58:09

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“…to achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them… the election campaign is over, and in January 2025, it will be time for the specific actions of the elected president…”
—Nikolai Patrushev, Putin’s aide and a former FSB director (20241111)
#trump #putin #patrushev #usa #russia

2025-03-10 13:57:15

“…Trump’s alleged long history of business ties with Russian mafia-linked figures and authorities has been widely reported. The Kremlin’s political playbook is built on blackmail, coercion, and assassination. If Trump fails to serve Putin’s interests, could he become the next target?”
—Zarina Zabrisky
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/28/fear-and-favour-what-does-trump-owe-putin-maybe-his-life/
#trump #putin #russia #kremlin

2025-03-10 08:36:37

”Trump is following Putin’s, Xi’s, and Orban’s playbook. First, take over military and intelligence operations by purging career officers… Next, subdue the courts by ignoring or threatening to ignore court rulings… Intimidate legislators… (Make sure they also worry about…their families.) Then focus on independent sources of information…and block their access to news conferences and interviews. Then go after the universities”
—Robert Reich, The universities are next
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-universities-are-next
#trump

2025-03-09 17:18:22

”Trump’s rejection of 80 years of U.S. foreign policy in order to prop up Russia’s Vladimir Putin has left many Americans as well as allies aghast. Trump’s claims that Putin wants peace were belied when Russia launched massive strikes at Ukraine as soon as Trump stopped sharing intelligence with Ukrainian forces that enabled them to shoot down incoming fire.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 8, 2025
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-8-2025
#trump #putin #usa #russia #ukraine

2025-03-09 03:52:34

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Deep empathy is the ability to enter the “mind space” of another person. The separateness between you and them fades away. In a sense, your identity merges with theirs, which enables you to feel what they are experiencing. In other words, deep empathy is an experience of connection.
—Steve Taylor, DisConnected: The Roots of Human Cruelty and How Connection Can Heal the World
#empathy

2025-03-09 03:52:04

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…empathy is more than just a cognitive or imaginative ability. It’s also the ability to feel what other people are experiencing. Here we could think in terms of “shallow” and “deep” empathy. Shallow empathy is when we guess or read other people’s feelings, whereas deep empathy is when we actually sense their feelings.
—Steve Taylor, DisConnected: The Roots of Human Cruelty and How Connection Can Heal the World
#empathy

2025-03-09 03:49:26

With their strong desire for power, it’s inevitable that hyper-disconnected people feel attracted to politics… Their ruthlessness and lack of empathy make it relatively easy for them to attain political power.
—Steve Taylor, DisConnected: The Roots of Human Cruelty and How Connection Can Heal the World
#empathy

2025-03-09 01:20:56

After the mass killing, Yanukovych was abandoned by the parliamentary deputies who had supported him and the policemen who had protected him. He fled his garish residence, leaving behind a trove of documents—including records of large cash payments to his advisor Paul Manafort, who two years later surfaced as the campaign manager of Donald Trump.
—Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
#russia #putin #yanukovych #ukraine #manafort #trump #usa

2025-03-08 05:59:05

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“…in just his first month in office, Trump spent about $10.7 million in taxpayer money playing golf.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#trump #golf #taxpayermoney

2025-03-08 05:57:06

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“Trump claimed that the DOGE team had found “$8 million for making mice transgender,” and added: “This is real.”
Except it’s not. The mice…were “transgenic”…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#trump #musk #doge #incompetence

2025-03-08 05:53:54

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“Instead of showing great savings, DOGE’s claims reveal just how poorly Musk and his team understand the work of the federal government. After forcing employees out of their positions, they have had to hire back individuals who are…crucial to the nation…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#musk #doge #incompetence

2025-03-08 05:50:54

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“Musk has claimed to have found billions of dollars of waste or fraud in the government, and Trump and the White House have touted those statements. But their claims to have found massive savings have been full of errors, and most of their claims have been disproved.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#musk #trump #doge #deception

2025-03-08 05:44:56

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“Trump’s turn of the U.S. toward Russia also means that allies are concerned he or members of his administration will share classified intelligence with Russia, thus exposing the identities of their operatives.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#putin couldn’t be happier with #trump

2025-03-08 05:41:46

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“Shutting embassies will hamper not just the process of fostering goodwill, but also U.S. intelligence…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#trump #usa

2025-03-08 05:38:59

- reply

“As the U.S. retreats from its engagement with the world, China has been working to forge greater ties. China now has more global diplomatic posts than the U.S. and plays a stronger role in international organizations.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#usa vs #china

2025-03-08 05:36:19

- reply

“…Trump wants to “radically shrink” the State Department and to change its mission from diplomacy and soft power initiatives that advance democracy and human rights to focusing on transactional agreements…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#trump #usa #oligarchy #kleptocracy

2025-03-08 05:33:40

- reply

“The Trump administration’s turn away from traditional European alliances and toward Russia will have profound effects on U.S. standing in the world.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
#trump #putin #usa #russia #alliance

2025-03-08 05:28:08

“…the Trump administration is preparing to deport the 240,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and have temporary legal status in the United States.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-6-2025
#ukraine #usa #trump #cruelty

2025-03-08 00:33:19

“We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.”
—Claude Malhuret
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/french-senator-speech-trump-ukraine-russia_n_67ca0a83e4b0404dff3019c7
#putin #trump

2025-03-07 15:45:22

”The attempt to humiliate Volodymyr Zelens'kyi in the Oval Office a week ago was an American strategic collapse. … The encounter in the White House was antisemitic. I am historian of the Holocaust. I was trained by a survivor.”
—Timothy Snyder
https://snyder.substack.com/p/antisemitism-in-the-oval-office
#zelenskyj #zelenskyi #zelenskyy #zelensky #trump #vance #jdvance #antisemitism

2025-03-05 19:49:06

- reply

“Lie: …“We've spent perhaps $350 billion… and they [Europe] have spent $100 billion.”
Fact: …Europe as a whole spent $138.7 billion on Ukraine, while the US spent $119.7 billion.
Why: Trump needs to justify his plan to end all forms of aid… …he needs to keep the lie going so that American voters feel aggrieved and go along with pulling the plug.”
—Jay Kuo, Trumpster Fire
#trump #ukraine

2025-03-05 19:43:14

- reply

“Lie: Trump claimed that DOGE had identified “hundreds of billions of fraud in federal spending.”
Fact: … It has only shown evidence of $18.6 billion in savings… So far, it has actually not identified any fraud…
Why: …the downsides to slashing and burning through the federal government are considerable and are costing him politically.”
—Jay Kuo, Trumpster Fire
#trump #doge

2025-03-05 19:38:51

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“Lie: Trump inherited an “economic catastrophe”…
Fact: Biden oversaw the best economic record of any president in recent memory…
Why: … He is worried, with good reason, that he will be blamed for the coming downturn.”
—Jay Kuo, Trumpster Fire
#trump #economy

2025-03-05 19:36:30

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“It’s important not only to respond to as many of them as we can with the truth, but also to see what he is lying bigly about, as there is always a purpose behind his lies.”
—Jay Kuo, Trumpster Fire
#trump

2025-03-05 19:34:40

”It wouldn’t be a Trump speech without a number of outrageous lies for the press to fact check, and I’ll discuss some whoppers below. …Trump’s address was notably devoid of any substantive ideas…”
—Jay Kuo, Trumpster Fire
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/trumpster-fire
#trump

2025-03-05 19:11:19

- reply

Så är det! Och frågan är om det ens är möjligt? Det är en sak att fippla med hårväxten på en mus, en annan att göra om en hel elefant?

2025-03-05 17:13:28

Mastodon Mice
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/04/science/woolly-mouse-mammoth-resurrection-colossal/index.html

2025-03-04 20:52:58

”…Musk is a bullshit artist who pretends to know a lot of things that he doesn’t.”
—Gary Marcus
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/is-elon-musk-dumb
#musk

2025-03-04 06:28:43

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“In Sudan and Ethiopia, warehouses full of food cannot reach 150,000 starving mothers and children because DOGE stopped the process. It’s hard to fathom how one individual so wealthy that he could feed millions of starving people, is instead bragging about withholding all that food from those who need it in order to survive.”
—Marianne Williamson, How Rich, How Smart, How Brazen They Are
#musk #doge #usa #sudan #ethiopia

2025-03-04 06:27:05

- reply

“Weather forecasting is being stymied, which will drastically diminish the capacity of local governments to serve their communities. Public lands are being sapped of the professionals who cared for them, all the easier to allow bad actors to sell off our precious national resources.”
—Marianne Williamson, How Rich, How Smart, How Brazen They Are
#musk #trump #vance #doge #usa

2025-03-04 06:25:00

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“Elon Musk and DOGE…are simply - with no knowledge of how government works or even what it does - taking a hammer to our federal agencies. They are causing all manner of trauma…, which, according to their ally Russ Vought at the Office of Management and Budget, is precisely their intent.”
—Marianne Williamson, How Rich, How Smart, How Brazen They Are
#musk #trump #vance #vought #doge #usa

2025-03-04 06:21:59

“There has never been in the history of our country a direct assault on our government like this. It isn’t a military assault by land, or air, or sea. It’s a political and economic assault by a small group of people who for deeply nefarious purposes are gutting the U.S. government.”
—Marianne Williamson
https://www.transformarticles.com/p/how-rich-how-smart-how-brazen-they
#musk #trump #vance #usa

2025-03-03 13:29:29

”Marie fick lämna jobbet på Energimyndigheten, efter att ha sjungit och stickat med klimatgruppen Rebellmammorna. Nu stämmer fackförbundet ST staten för brott mot grundlagen.” (DN 20250303)
https://www.dn.se/sverige/rebellmamman-marie-forlorade-jobbet-nu-stammer-facket-staten/

2025-03-03 00:58:06

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”The world owes another debt of thanks to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Not only has Ukraine been fighting to hold back Russia’s aggression on behalf of us all, the spectacle of Donald Trump and JD Vance acting like mafia mob bosses has done what previously seemed impossible. The seismic shockwaves … have now finally caused the first real earthquake.”
—Carole Cadwalladr, The United States is Your Enemy
#ukraine #zelensky #zelenskyy #usa #trump #vance #jdvance

2025-03-03 00:44:12

”…the coming together of European nations (and Canada) in response to the emergence of the United States as a rogue state now aligned with Russia is the first real sign of any adequate response to the autocratic coup taking place in the world’s biggest superpower.”
—Carole Cadwalladr
https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-united-states-is-your-enemy
#eu #canada #ukraine v #usa #russia

2025-03-02 18:34:12

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”The main way that Russia engages the United States is through constant attempts to destabilize American society, for example through unceasing cyberwar. (It is telling that yesterday the news also broke that the United States has lowered its guard against Russian cyber attacks.) Russian television is full of fantasies of the destruction of the United States.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#russia #usa #trump

2025-03-02 18:29:11

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”Yesterday Vance and Trump repeated familiar Russian propaganda. One example was Trump's claim that it was the Ukrainians who, by resisting Russia, were risking "World War Three." The truth is exactly the opposite. By abandoning Ukraine, Trump is risking a terrible escalation and, indeed, a world war.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#russia #trump #vance #ukraine #ww3

2025-03-02 18:25:31

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”…it is illogical, to say the least, for Americans not to thank Ukrainians, or to treat their courageous president as an object of contempt.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#ukraine #usa #zelensky #zelenskyy #trump #vance #jdvance

2025-03-02 18:23:05

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”The courage of Ukrainians made possible an American and European policy to hold back Russian aggression. That same Zelens'kyi, the man who was brave enough to stay and lead his country when the Russians were approaching the capital and the assassination squads were already there, was yesterday made the subject of a public attempt at humiliation by Americans.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#ukraine #russia #usa #eu #zelensky #zelenskyy #trump #vance #jdvance

2025-03-02 18:15:22

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”Perhaps sensing the awkwardness of his position, Vance then shifted to yelling at Zelens'kyi that he needed to thank President Trump. … In this setting, the compulsive demand for ceaseless gratitude on demand is not only unreasonable: it shifts into the abuser's need to be portrayed by the victim as the great benefactor.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #vance #jdvance #zelensky #zelenskyy