Lol

Earlier this week the government used its majority to strip out an amendment to require a plebiscite of the Chagossians before the deal can go through. It is beyond disgusting for a supposedly progressive party and government to deny the Chagossians' right to self-determination.

Old joke truer then ever ​A large russian patrol is marching through the snowy woods near the border when they hear a voice shouting from behind a nearby snowbank: "One Finnish soldier is better than ten russians!"

For reasons unknown, my first book, British Grand Strategy in the Age of American Hegemony, is on sale for £28.99 on Amazon UK - a 62% reduction in price! It would be rude not to at that discount! H/T to @jfb1066.bsky.social www.amazon.co.uk/British-Gran...

NATO did not "stay a little back, off the front lines." Danish, British and Estonian troops served in Helmand, and Canadian forces in Kandahar - the two most dangerous Afghan provinces. Denmark, UK, Estonia & Canada suffered amongst the highest per‑capita soldier death rates when defending the US.

The Times: Chagossians "are owed at least as much respect as the Greenlandic Inuit, whose rights Sir Keir claims to champion. But again, Britain is preparing to fail them." www.thetimes.com/article/95a4...

OTD in 1932 the Soviet Union signed a non aggression pact with Finland. We preferred one with the Nazis that had a secret clause cos 7 years later we invaded Finland. But please trust us over treaties now. We've honored them all since then, just ask Ukraine, Georgia & Moldova.

The stupidity is annoying but it’s the lack of historical understanding that I find especially inexcusable. The USA’s successes have all come with allies, nor despite them. Even Reagan’s victory in the Cold War during the 80s was not a US success alone but built on the strength of its alliances

Listening to Trump presser for 40 mins. Rambling, repetitive stream of consciousness. Narcissistic in extreme. Every thought linked back to whether the person or entity voted for or likes Trump. If Biden had delivered this there would have been serious concern about his health.

FWIW, the one and only time Article 5 has formally been invoked was following 9/11 -- by NATO and on behalf of the United States, without it having to make any request.

A great speech by Carney in Davos on the transformation of the international system, which is primarily if not exclusively driven by the radical remaking of America grand strategy. The United States over the post-War and post-Cold War period pursued an overarching grand strategy of liberal hegemony.

I think a good strategy for your non-leftist social media presence (ie everywhere but here) is to give this photo - the remains of Danish soldiers returning in coffins after being killed in America's war in Afghanistan - as wide an audience as possible. Remind people who we're betraying

Not the sort of letter committed to paper by a well man. "Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace"

2026 is seeing that the U.S. Army is mobilizing a unit specialized for winter conditions, but not knowing if the intended mission is violent repression of an American city or stealing territory from a U.S. treaty ally.

Well I'm convinced. In this case we thus need a new theory to explain why the USSR shot a man for rescuing Jews, just as the Nazis did. Although our excuse was he collaborated with western intel to do it. As comrade *no doubt* knew. Lol.

Trump's latest tantrum is a sign he knows he can't actually invade Greenland - as he doesn't have support from the Senate or the military. Obviously Europe can't trade Greenland away so they'll have to try and mollify him some other way or take the hit.

A thought, looking forward, at the strategy of the anti-Trump coalition, given the pattern we've seen, DHS will begin probably soon, drawing down forces in Minneapolis and going to harass some other place. It'll be useful to frame this as 'ICE defeated' and a 'retreat' - they are 'fleeing.'

I have thoughts about the recent announcement that the US Navy will build battleships once more. @warontherocks.bsky.social was kind enough to publish them. warontherocks.com/2026/01/why-...

The House of Lords has voted a regret motion to the Chagos Islands surrender bill. The House of Commons has another chance of doing the right thing and to reject this horrid deal, which betrays the national interest solely for the sake of making the prime minister's friend happy.

Given that the policy initiative on “islands under UK oversight” that the current British government is pushing through with the greatest determination is to ignore the rightful inhabitants and pay Mauritius to own them instead, I’m not sure that this obliviousness is quite such a surprise.

Trump ‘winning’ this by obtaining agreement to something the US already has and spending vast amounts of political capital to do so, quite unnecessarily, would actually be a very Trumpy thing to do.

Extraordinary press conference from Donald Trump tonight in which he appears to blame Ukraine for Russia’s invasion and the inability to negotiate peace. All the latest on News at Ten shortly.

Amount of blood US has expended defending Greenland: zero. Amount of blood Denmark has expended defending the US: 43 Danish soldiers gave their lives in Afghanistan, responding to a US appeal under article 5 of NATO. Ogles has no idea about any of this, because he's an incompetent buffoon.

Yesterday’s military action seems quintessentially 21st century American: a spectacular, professionally executed operation the tactical details of which will be endlessly fapped over in the press, all in the service of a grand strategy best summed up as 🤷‍♂️.

Putin has been famously reticient about targeting Zelensky or breaking international law till now of course.

Comparison of tweets from comrade @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social on Ukraine & Venezuela. -Russia "enters", USA makes "illegal attack" -Russia actions excused cos of NATO. USA accused of wanting oil -Russia created a "crisis" & offered diplomacy. USA "should be condemned by everyone"

Trump openly frames military force as a commercial acquisition tool. You can’t credibly argue limited self defense, LE action, narrow authorization, or emergency necessity while simultaneously describing infrastructure takeover, profit generation, corporate involvement, and follow-on strikes.

In Hegseth's view, a general giving and honest and accurate account of Russia's threat to Europe when testifying to our legislative branch is a fireable offense. If I were in Congress I might be a bit upset about this if I wanted to continue to receive reliable information.

Yet more evidence in the NYT long read on Ukraine that JD Vance, a heartbeat away from the US presidency and probable 2028 Republican presidential nominee, would be a disaster for European security. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I don't begrudge Vance et al seeking to prioritise Asia over Europe. I'd make same choice in their shoes. But what's happened is not a prioritisation (we see a new chimerical long war in the Americas), it's a chaotic & short-termist approach to Ukraine, and a needles diplomatic war on Euro allies.

Pu's cheap lying stunt exposed the uselessness of any US security guarantees to Ukraine (or to NATO members fwiw). If Trump believes the aggressor immediately and unconditionally without any evidence, Pu can accuse Ukraine of violating the terms of any peace settlement and voila, no help from the US

Remember this idiot Prez mocked for getting one of the funniest community notes of all time? Well, instead of just taking the L, he got community noted again...

Russian troops invading Ukraine are "main obstacle" to peace in Ukraine, says mostly everyone else

Denmark lost more troops per capita in the post 9/11 war on Afghanistan. Saying they “are not a good ally” because they won’t surrender their territories to the US is lunacy. We are betraying our allies to satisfy the whims of a would-be Emperor for whom the US is not enough.

Calculators existed - teachers still didn't let me use them when I was learning basic maths. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON DISPUTED THIS STATE OF THINGS.

The more I think about this battleship the more I think it’s a shiny distraction to keep attention away from the LSM and the frigate, both of which can be built in the near term. Some of these weapons don’t exist yet except on paper. No ship ever built could power all of these.

You'd think the fact that the Russian constitution already says invading countries is illegal would mean we have no need to sign yet another treaty promising we won't invade countries. But you would be wrong.

There seems to be some sort of logical fallacy at work here. I'm going to call it "transcriptionism"... it's as if some people think all the knowledge is already out there in some sort of grand transcript and all that's needed is better indexing and reading tools to look it all up.

Russia violates: UN Charter Nuclear NPT Helsinki Accords Belovezha Accords Paris Charter Budapest Memo Black Sea Fleet Treaty Ukr-Ru Friendship Treaty Treaty on Azov Sea & Kerch Strait Karkiv pact Etc But Russia we will sign a legal document that we won't attack EU...

How do these two things relate? This is dumb, as well as being wrong on policy and mechanism. We have shipped precious little actual money to Ukraine, the bulk has paid American companies for their goods. (Plus more for Allied purchases.) Second, the sum has been modest, especially compared to --

And please also, AGAIN, never forget that they are inherently unethical to use because no one gave permission for their research or writing to be used in it. It is all stolen, and if you're using the plagiarism machine, please keep that in mind.

This is a dumbfounding guideline. Absolutely a destructive and incompetent recommendation that was clearly made by people not qualified to judge such decisions.

I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.

Americans - take that superfluous "s" that you add to Lego, and put it rightfully onto the end of Maths.

TL;DR: Russia has decided that the UK is Russia's enemy, and there's nothing we can do to change that as long as Putin is in power. The choice is whether to be an undefeated enemy or a defeated one. That's all the choice we get.

“The United States, according to the New York Times, has a Maginot Line problem. The problem is that Monsieur Maginot’s infamous namesake fortification has little to do with what really happened in 1940.” Me in Foreign Policy (gift link) foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/18/f...

Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.