Good point - yet, it's even worse than that, because Putin started his invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Exactly.

Leaving the regime in place and forcing them to become a puppet government, or else. What could go wrong?

So, if Maduro is found guilty of 34 felonies, he gets returned to the presidency, right?

Greenland next?

"Donald Trump has gone from fawning over Vladimir Putin and seeking his favor and support to actively emulating him in almost every possible way." www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-illeg...

Trump can't even run his own country, and now he thinks he can run Venezuela? www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

To wage war for oil in 2026 is like fighting over carbon paper in the age of photocopies.

Plus the forbidding of the production of solar, renewables, etc

Using US taxpayer dollars to bomb people and steal another country’s oil for oligarchs to sell to US taxpayers. Taxpayers pay twice, the rich get richer, and climate change from burning fossil fuels gets worse, spreading disasters globally. Murder, corruption, theft, terrorism, climate destruction.

Don't get what the issue is here either way. As overall commander of Russian armed forces, Putin is a legitimate target in this war.

Christmas attack on civilians in Kyiv. Sure, the Russians want peace

"Fromm argued that the rise of fascism could be explained in part by people preferring to surrender their freedom in exchange for the reassuring certainty of subordination. AI offers a new way of surrendering that burden of having to think & decide for yourself" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The banality of evil.

"Only the bullies & petty fascists of the Trump administration could miss the irony of decrying 'speech suppression' while using state power to silence critics engaging in protected speech." Indeed. The Trump regime is in a haze, drunk on abusing power. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

A must watch - particularly because they tried to censor it. The Trump regime is sending people to be tortured.

If you attend a performance here, if you perform here - you are collaborating in the establishment of authoritarianism in the US. edition.cnn.com/2025/12/19/p...

Understandable. It's not just a matter of doing a find-and-replace for "Trump" to change it to "Redacted". There are email addresses and photos and all sorts of things that need fixing. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Nostalgia for past dictators is strange - but explained well here: www.spectator.com.au/2025/12/a-la...

Is anyone on Monnett ?

Right or left, right or wrong, whatever you thought of the USA over the past few decades, you surely thought it was at least a serious country with a serious government. That’s all gone now. And all the wolves waiting in the wings see that clearly, too.

Sycophants wreck decency and democracy. The level of national embarrassment is off the chart. www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is disturbing. A foreign power - cough, cough, Russia - was trying to get remote control of a huge ferry? www.rfi.fr/en/internati...

In Memory of Gyula Balog (1959-2025), an inspiring housing rights and anti-poverty activist Here is a brief reflection on behalf of @hrw.org to express our condolences, as Gyula’s friends and colleagues lay him to rest today in Budapest. Rest in power, Gyula bacsi! www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

"...authors [of the new US security strategy] focus on one enemy ideology. ...not Chinese communism, Russian autocracy, or Islamic extremism but rather European liberal democracy ... people who talk about transparency, accountability, civil rights, & rule of law" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

“When they compare notes, everyone analysing a country develops a similar mindset. The status quo seems unshakable. Regimes seem firm, not fragile. And then, they fall apart.” Another great read from Andrew. Although I never get anything wrong, so…

OTD in 2021 Russian MFA denied any preparations against Ukraine or aggressive intentions. She was half right. We weren’t prepared.

Why do experts in international affairs sometimes fail to see big changes coming? www.internationalaffairsfornormalpeople.eu/what-experts...

Is this a real commitment? Or is it a worthless Trump promise? www.politico.eu/article/volo...

Bizarre, yet fully in line with the absurd distraction and other-blaming the Trump regime is well-known for. The idea that undocumented immigrants - people who can't even vote - are responsible for the fact that the US has the worst healthcare system in the industrialized world... Who buys this?

"Americans, especially those in positions of power, must find the courage to stand up for what is right, even when doing so carries personal risk." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interesting summary of the "Palmoli affair" in Italy - a look at "the political utility of moral panic." translatormag.substack.com/p/dispatch-4...

"I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate & division. They are given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness & empathy seem to be scarcer & scarcer. I felt I couldn’t pamper myself with the luxury of silence.” www.theguardian.com/media/2025/d...

"...19 photos, some of which have been seen before, represent a small number of the almost 100,000 images released to the House oversight committee looking into actions & connections of Epstein..." And this is the so-called "opposition party"? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

You cannot "out far-right" the far-right: 🧵

This - or maybe like thinking, if I just let the croc rip my leg off, it may not eat the rest of me.

“Those who protest that human rights have gone too far often do not like human rights in the first place,” writes @davidallengreen.bsky.social.

Some worry this might set a precedent. I hope it does. Every regime that invades another country, committing countless mass atrocities, should have their foreign assets taken & handed to their victims. This might get all would-be invaders to think twice. www.euractiv.com/news/eu-gree...

Every article about Musk in every media outlet should be accompanied by this photo. He did this twice at the biggest political event of 2025. It's not a secret. He never apologized. Why is this not the standard file photo?

"What Elon Musk has said about the EU over the past week has been a non-stop string of lies." davekeating.substack.com/p/musk-is-pr...

"...severe beatings, stress positions, sleep deprivation, mock executions... electric shocks... attacks by dogs... ...sexual violence, including rape..." Stop Putin's sadistic forces now, before he invades another European country. www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

So this week shall I write about how killing unarmed civilians is murder or about how unwise it would be to limit the human right against torture. Western liberal democracies in 2025.

This thread 💯 👇

5 minutes. I never have seen people vote for “leftwing” parties *for* adopting far right views. I *have* seen lots of far right people feel *justified* in voting for the far right, by hearing *even* leftwing politicians “admit the far right were right (pardon the pun) all along”

Can confirm. And indeed, same today.

"Criminal." Says the convicted felon.

Trump’s foreign policy isn’t “noninterventionism,” it is a kind of neo neo conservatism devoted to imposing authoritarian ethnonationalism abroad instead of democracy (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

We are only days away from the nutjob-in-chief announcing that he's changing the names of the days and months. 2026 will start on Trumpuary 1st.

12 is only less than 44 in that system of woke "math" taught at radical left schools. I expect Trump to soon threaten research funding for universities that don't confirm in public that 12 equals 44.