RUS has no state humility. The only way out of all this mess runs through a comprehensive tribunal system that transparently convicts and sentences Putin and his enablers. >>> Russian leadership chose not to take that path, preferring instead to align with the Soviet version of events.... <<<

Chinese PLA and Chinese firm release satellite images showing US military build-up around Iran – SCMP: ‘It is unusual for such sensitive intelligence to be released by either the Chinese military or Chinese commercial entities’

Wasn't long ago I was worried about a dithering NATO fracturing in the face of Russia firing a low-yield ☢️ at some reindeer. Hah! Do not pay any attention to me. I'm just a rank crypto-optimist.

President Stubb: an American president can't order us to not fight against Russia should it attack more European countries.

👏 Ukraine regains over 200 sq km in five days – AFP

Orbán’s rival Péter Magyar said that his government would extradite Polish fugitives—former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro and his ex-deputy Marcin Romanowski—both sheltered by Orbán—on day one in office. Magyar added they may attempt to flee to Minsk or Moscow, hinting Orbán could, too.

Sultan Osman the Young scapegoated his officers for losing his disastrous, ill-advised attack on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, & decided to purge the ones who weren’t happy about it. To prevent them plotting against him, he shut the coffee-shops…which tipped them off he was about to purge them

>>> The main [lessons] are: think about your command and control procedures, don't keep your nuclear forces on hair-trigger alert, don't move nuclear weapons around. Ideally, just put them in some bunker under lock and key, but we are probably rather far from this solution. <<<

President Nawrocki: I'm a huge advocate of Poland having our own nuclear project, while respecting all international regulations. We're a country on the brink of armed conflict. It's clear what the aggressive, imperial Russian Federation's attitude toward Poland is.

This is partly to unite left and see off Greens, Lib Dems. Starmer wants to join SAFE €150bn defence program despite previous dispute over £££ & French doubts. I suspect he will now find a way to make this happen ENDS

"[T]he International Olympic Committee should probably disqualify some Ukrainian Paralympians too, since some lost limbs as a result of the Russian invasion. And, apparently, the mere presence of these Ukrainian athletes would count as a "political expression at competition venues."" ---Paper Skies

Sorry, IOC, host cities, athletes, etc. Neutrality has fallen out of fashion. C'est la guerre.

An incredible shift. Goes to show, structural assumptions about China need to be revised every few years -- versus every few decades for Western countries.

Fundamentally incoherent, as much as one might wishcast Europe carrying more of the conventional burden. This is essentially saying “we’ll increase the odds of conventional deterrence failures that might lead to nuclear deterrence failure, but then we’ll fight a nuclear war for you.”

The anti-Olympics gets under way.

“Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron.” - Peter Thiel

I don’t think enough people know that the GOP’s “Save America Act” would establish voter purge programs using data systems that experts say are unreliable. These systems reek of DOGE & thus of Elon Musk who is *heavily* promoting the Act. Thread.

I just heard that Switzerland is voting on a population cap?! 🤦

Everything that resulted in the brief and sudden closure of El Paso’s airspace this morning can be chalked up to our government now being run by absolute morons from top to bottom. bsky.app/profile/fain...

Media moved on because for one hour Trump pinky-swore he was going to do his genocide in a nicer way, and every day since the people in Minnesota are showing us it looks like a war zone

If Orban loses the election, will the US government question the result, with US Big Tech pushing that claim? This is what war in the 21st century looks like.

Plenty of discussion about the US attempting to bring far-right parties to power across Europe, but if they can’t keep the vanguard in Hungary in April’s election it would probably make that goal much more difficult elsewhere

Van Hollen said Lutnick "misled." No. Lutnick lied, unequivocally. "But lying goes to intention, and we can't know---." Yeah? And? Disgusting dereliction of duty on Van Hollen's part to seemingly try to soften any of this.

Also, have you MET us? We're barely governable as it is. Usually that is a big problem, now it's a huge benefit.

>>> But the plan [for a Euro army] never took off. Despite the idea’s French origins, the French parliament blocked ratification of the treaty in 1954 after General Charles de Gaulle decried the prospect of ceding French sovereignty. <<< Reminder that US encouraged Eur self-defense ASAP post-WWII.

‼️ Russia: “Regions are significantly increasing the key tax on small businesses due to record budget deficits.” 🍿 ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/09/r...

big things are afoot in japan www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The "Scientist Hunt" in Russia continues apace. AMAP restored ties to Russia in 2024 in a naive attempt to depoliticize science. The outcome was as sad as it was predictable.

Gone with the wind.

After a certain point the sanity of Palantir's leadership does matter to the national security of the UK and other European states buying its software

Gone with the wind.

The story here isn't the racist post from Trump, or Leavitt's defense of it. The story isn't Tim Scott's floppy umbrage, or that the WH ultimately deleted the post. Literally none of that is new or news. The story here is that there is no story.

Going to bring down the British government, it's slicing Norway's elite to bits, but in the US? Not a goddamned consequence to be found anywhere. Not even shame, because shame just isn't a thing anymore.

@russianforces.org is pretty spot-on here. New START's probable expiry reflects the broader state of relations between Russia, the US, and China. Those poor relations are the fundamental source of nuclear risk, rather than the existence or not of a specific treaty. www.ft.com/content/fd1d...

Not subcritical booms, but actual nuke booms. Huge, if true. Hurls us into a new era of kinetic testing. Join the Church of They Would Never and get your sanctified blinkers for a small donation, before it's too late. Send your personal integrity and a SASE to PO Box 23, Pueblo, Colorado 81001.

Arms control is dead, long live arms control

Swear to god, ICE could just announce they're leaving a city but not leave and the media will just stop covering that city completely even though ICE never left. It's what ICE and the media did with LA and they're doing it with Minneapolis too

Roger Stone recently posted a pic w/ Vance & published an article the same day recycling the baseless claim that VZ stole the 2020 election. Will Trump pressure Maduro to “admit” stealing that election as a pretext for Trump to cancel or f#ck with 2026? Is this why Tulsi seized machines from PR? 1/

Trump has until November 3rd to completely resolve Iran to his domestic political upside. Well, October, really. 8 or 9 months. That is a hard deadline for him. In every sense. This is the staff you write your notes on. 🎼

How it started, how it's going.

Problem with fiat money is you just keep on kicking the can and reinflating the bubble and sooner or later, a few centuries and a couple of industrial revolutions later, the bill comes due

"As America gears up for talks, then, the prevailing view in Washington is that those talks will fail. The question is not whether Mr Trump will strike Iran, but what he will strike and when." www.economist.com/middle-east-...

You can make this shit up … … but unfortunately in this timeline you don't have to 😬 [original reel @ IG alecwithpen]

If you campaigned for the presidency on a promise to destroy these assholes, you would win a landslide the size of FDR in 1936, when he campaigned on a promise to destroy these assholes.

Trump has until November 3rd to completely resolve Iran to his domestic political upside. Well, October, really. 8 or 9 months. That is a hard deadline for him. In every sense. This is the staff you write your notes on. 🎼

17th time's the charm?

Conversely, everything we are currently living may need a Cicero commentary