#Lessons from Ukraine War

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Why Drone Manufacturers in Taiwan Are Being Cyber-Targeted: A Technologist’s Perspective

Why Drone Manufacturers in Taiwan Are Being Cyber-Targeted: A Technologist’s Perspective

This story explores the intersection of technology and geopolitics. It covers the cyberattacks targeting Taiwan’s drone manufacturers and what they reveal about global power struggles and technological vulnerabilities. Taiwan drone manufacturers under siege: Technology meets geopolitics In the world of technology and defense, Taiwan has become a central player, particularly in the field of…

[snovyda]

[...] A major international media outlet asked me recently to join its educational platform. I had to record a video message in English and talk about my experience of serving in the armed forces of Ukraine, so children around the world could learn English from these videos and accompanying materials. I recorded it and did everything according to their instructions.

I got a cheerful message the other day from the editorial office, saying: “We’ve launched!” I opened the presentation and had a panic attack. The lesson was structured around eight speakers, each talking about their war experience: four Ukrainians (including me) and four Russians. A Russian journalist and armed forces “deserter”. A Russian teacher. A Russian medical director. Another Russian journalist. The lesson ended with a slide. The Russian flag was at the top. The Ukrainian flag at the bottom. The question proposed for discussion: “What similarities and differences did you notice when listening to the experiences of people from Russia and Ukraine?”

The emotional negligence of this makes me want to scream. [...] I am sickened by how my story has become an ideological tool to equalise the experience of the defender and the attacker. [...]

I’ve been living with the acute feeling that the world is tired of restraining its unquenchable love of Russia. The west wants to believe in the Cinderella story, that one day the dictatorship will fall and a wonderful democratic world will emerge.

Instead of imposing further sanctions and restrictions on Russia, the west is ready to crown the film Anora with all the awards, despite the fact that the Russian actor Yura Borisov, who appears in the film, also starred in a biopic of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47, which was partly filmed in Crimea after its annexation.

The world is ready to listen to Russia again: a UK television channel last year released the film Ukraine’s War: The Other Side by Sean Langan. The film doesn’t just give the other side a voice; it gives a human dimension to the stories of the occupiers and repeats the narratives of Russian propaganda. This is as consistent with journalistic standards as asking an executioner, how are you feeling as you do this, and do you miss your family who are waiting for you at home?[...]

[...] If during the first term of Trump’s presidency we talked of the post-truth era, now we find ourselves in a world in which the truth is taken out, tortured and shot. This means that there will be no justice. This means that anything goes.[...]

[...] The world is looking at the body of truth that is dying and bleeding before our eyes. I beg you, if you can’t stop the bleeding, at least don’t turn away from the sight of blood.[...]

[afloweroutofstone]

Years of US-led warfare in Fallujah, Iraq created a tremendous amount of chemical pollution in the city, so much so that 100% of locals tested for this research project had lead in their bone tissue

Based on interdisciplinary biological, environmental, and anthropological research in Fallujah, Iraq, this report finds that people who have returned to bombarded homes and neighborhoods may face increased risk of negative health impacts from heavy metal exposure, both for themselves and for future generations. The findings support prior research which has demonstrated that those who are first at the scenes of war-damaged areas may be at a higher risk of reproductive health harms, and that Fallujah’s population faced a 17-fold increase in birth anomalies and myriad other health problems linked with the 2003 U.S. invasion. This study found that exposure to remnants of war, amplified by vitamin deficiencies, may play a role in these health outcomes.

The authors' bone sampling research detected uranium in the bones of 29% of study participants in Fallujah and lead was detected in 100% of participants’ bone samples. The amount of lead detected in participants’ bones was 600% higher than averages from similarly aged populations in the U.S. The authors' environmental sampling detected higher levels of heavy metals in the soils of more heavily bombarded neighborhoods, indicating the enduring distribution of heavy metals linked with military activity.

Additionally, the research found that in the process of being displaced, returning, and re-establishing households, nutritional gaps can compound reproductive health risks for returnees.

Returnees to bombarded cities in places such as Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, and Lebanon likely face negative long-term health impacts from heavy metal exposure, both for themselves and for future generations. Returnees can limit negative health impacts by wearing personal protective equipment and prioritizing certain nutritional practices, such as vitamin protocols.

[maidservant-hecubus]

My father is an Ashkenazi Jew. His parents were first generation Americans. Their parents escaped the pogroms in Russia and Ukraine and came to find their American dream. They fought in wars and opened businesses and assimilated and my generation barely has a few words of Yiddish between us. My mother is as much of a WASP as it gets. American Revolutionaries and Signers and some household name civil war feature players. Not old money, but old America and undoubtedly white. I'm patrilineal. Not a Jew to a lot of Jews. Not a Jew to a lot of my Jewish family. Even though i was raised Jewish. Even though I look like my father. Even though i got enough of something in my DNA to get asked "What are you?" more often than not. More often than I'm just accepted at face value as "white". When i was little we lived in an Irish Catholic neighborhood. Like the 5-10 kids in every family sort of Irish catholic neighborhood. The kids calling me a christ killer and refusing to play with me because they heard it from their parents sort of irish catholic neighborhood. For some reason my parents tried to send me to the catholic school down the street. I lasted less than a week because i didn't understand their rituals and their language and they found out my father was a Jew and they couldn't have a christ killer in their midst. I was just sad i didn't get to wear the cute plaid skirt anymore. So i went to the public school and my well meaning shiksa mother who never converted but learned the Chanukah prayers and helped cook Seder dinners came to the school to teach the class about Chanukah. She taught them songs and all the kids got dreidels and had so much fun spinning the top for chocolate coins. It was nice to feel normal. A few weeks later a boy in a higher grade attacked me on the way to the bus and smashed my art project (we had made pig noses from solo cups to celebrate reading charlotte's web) into my face and called me a filthy jew. I didn't understand, i was more upset to lose the project i was so proud of. Other things happened. Things I wont talk about because putting them in context would doxx me. But a million reminders that i wasn't one of them. I wasn't welcome because i was Jewish. My parents divorced. My mother left. Far away so I'd only see her a handful of times growing up. And I went to live with my Dad in a city that seemed like it was overflowing with Jews. Everyone knew my holidays! In public school the teachers looked like my family and had familiar sounding names. We had the high holy days off just like christmas or easter. We sang Chanukah songs in the winter recital and nobody's mom had to come teach them to the class. Finally I belonged! My friends and cousins started planning for their b mitzvah celebrations and i asked for my own. I asked to go to hebrew school so i could be more like the people i belonged with and celebrate the things i loved about myself and them. "But you're not jewish." My father would say. This was news to me. The christ killer. The filthy jew. But a 10 year old has little power over their lives. So i didn't go. I didn't have a bat mitzva while my cousins had theirs. It was okay because i still belonged more than i ever had. But i was still jewish enough to keep the holidays and pray and fast and get sent with a box of matzo to my WASP grandmothers for easter, and have matzo packed in my lunch to eat in AP algebra in 7th grade and get asked if I'm a "Yid" by the teacher. And still to this day not know if it was endearment or insult but by then I knew even in this magical city being a Jew wasn't always safe. in highschool I tried to take hebrew lessons with a friend in a similar situation as me. She was also hungry to reconnect. I don't remember why the classes or the friendship fell through, but they did. My next "friend", a goy raised catholic from another neighborhood, liked to accuse me of being money driven when i picked up a penny on the sidewalk or tried to ask who was going to pay for the zine's she wanted to publish.

 "What are you?" I'd get asked a lot on the street by curious strangers, "Where are you from?" "Are you Italian?" Always Italian. I never really understood that, but its become code in my head for "You look like you're white but something about you is very not white and I just can't place it, so Italian seems safe and polite." I'm not here to unpack the Italian part of all that. I don't even know what I'm unpacking for myself by writing this except I've been sick for days and I'm so tired and this is all that my foggy brain can wrap itself around. Later I'm an adult and on my own and getting bloodwork done. The Nurse is a black woman and so sweet to me. She can tell I'm nervous about the needles because I've already stumbled through my apologies for my herd to find veins. So she distracts me with small talk. Where do i live? I tell her. She looks worried for me. Tells me that it used to be a nice neighborhood before white people took it over and she warns me like she's my own mother to be careful because they aren't safe. I doublecheck the skin she's putting a needle into. Whatever she sees isn't white. I love her for it. For a moment I belong there with her. She doesn't ask what I am or where i'm from, but she knows what i'm not. I'm the only one keeping the holidays with my family. We celebrate Passover because I go home to my fathers and cook the dinner and print out the Haggadah and lead the Seder to the tune of my drunk catholic stepmother eating my food and telling me i'll never be a jew. She's more of a jew than I'll ever be because she grew up in a jewish neighborhood and her friends were all jews and she married a jew and i was just playing pretend. I stopped going home for holidays and they stopped observing anything except Christmas. I marry a goy. "Is he a jew?" is the first thing my father asks and he's disappointed when i say no. He's abusive, i run. I end up living in the attic of this older old money WASP couple who need a live in house sitter. They're pillars of their church and they know someone from the WASP side of my family very well and its a funny coincidence and they think i belong there. I know from their divest from Israel bumper stickers that i don't. Then they find out I consider myself Jewish and i see the light in their eyes die and its replaced by something hard and disappointed. Now, while writing this, i can laugh about being the jew in someone's attic. But then, it was only a few months after that they started coming up with excuses for why I needed to move out. I did, their excuses never manifested into reality. I got married again. A jew this time! a Jewish medical professional liek grandma always wanted. She's a convert and her ex was a rabbinical student. I think maybe i'm home finally. She has to understand. I'm not Jewish enough for her. We don't keep holidays at home because i'm not a jew. I cry every year when pesach comes and goes and i haven't recited the plagues or eaten matzo piled high with horseradish. She insists on putting up a christmas tree. She turns abusive. I run.

I'm alone now and no longer in that magic jewish city. I'm far away and surrounded by mega churches and cows and the bagels suck and people quote the bible at me like some call and response that i don't have the cheat code for and I don't belong here at all but i'm finally finally free to light my menorah and recite the plagues and study torah with the group i found here on tumblr who love and accept me even though i'm patrilineal. Oct. 7th happened a few weeks after I moved here. I worry about my family back home and i think no one will look for Jews here among the cows and mega churches, so I can be a safe place for them to run if things get bad again. But i still don't fit in here. I don't look right. The last name I have now is common here and too white for whatever people see when they look in my face. I get interrogated about it a lot. But i learned quickly how to smile and say "have a blessed day". I hide my menorah when maintenance comes to work on my apartment. I flew home last month. Just for a visit. I've never been away from home this far or this long. And I'm the type that covers nerves and anxiety with chattiness, so at the airport i made a for-now-friend while we both waited for the plane to board. She's Puerto Rican. We talk about our lives. Our families. Her twin sister and i go by the same nickname and so we're family now. We talk about food. So much food and how much we love cooking and how important food was at home. "Are you Italian?" she asks as we're stepping through the hatch into the plane. Why always Italian? I wonder for the millionth time in my life. And I freeze up for a moment between fighting my carry-on over the gap and terror that I'm about to see the light go out behind her eyes and i'll lose this for-now friend. "No," i laugh but its not a real laugh and i see the concern in her face as we squeeze through the aisle because she can hear the apprehension in my voice, "I'm Jewish." And something strange happened because her face lit up and she smiled and said "No way?! You guys have GREAT food!"

[contemplatingoutlander]

The bully gets punched in the nose

More and more Americans are summoning the courage to fight back against President Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump makes his way to Marine One at the White House on Thursday. (Demetrius Freeman/For The Washington Post)

Dana Milbank is a gifted opinion writer. His May 30th column sums up all the ways that the Trump administration has recently been unraveling. He also makes the case that as a bully, Trump might only respond to a figurative "punch in the nose." This is a gift 🎁 link, so there is no paywall. Below are some excerpts from the article.

The various components of Trump’s rapid, unscheduled disassembly tumbled into the Oval Office Wednesday during an antic Q&A session with reporters.

Was Russia being disrespectful in calling him emotional?

What does his “playing with fire” threat mean?

Could he really have prevented the Ukraine invasion, given that Putin “doesn’t seem willing to do anything that you want him to do”?

What’s his reaction to Musk criticizing his “big, beautiful bill” of tax cuts?

And, from CNBC’s Megan Cassella: “Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO trade. They’re saying Trump Always Chickens Out on your tariff threats, and that’s why markets are higher this week. What’s your response to that?”

“I kick out?” Trump inquired.

“Chicken out,” Cassella repeated.

“Oh, isn’t that — I chicken out. I’ve never heard that,” Trump said, before launching into a rambling explanation of why he is not a barnyard bird. “Six months ago, this country was stone-cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country — people didn’t think it was going to survive, and you ask a nasty question like that.”

He admitted his 145 percent tariff against China had been “a ridiculous high number” before returning to scolding Cassella. “Don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question. To me, that’s the nastiest question.” The reporters moved to other topics, but Trump, clearly ruffled, went on squawking about the fowl insult.

“Now, when I make a deal …. They’ll say, ‘oh, he was chicken, he was chicken.’ That’s unbelievable,” Trump protested. “I usually have the opposite problem. They say, you’re too tough.”

It was the classic case of the bully getting punched in the nose. Trump had imposed outrageous tariffs on much of the world, and his treasury secretary warned trading partners, “Do not retaliate.” But they did retaliate. China imposed steep tariffs against the U.S., and the E.U. was preparing to do the same. Trump folded — and now he’s squealing about the unfairness of it all.

In the case of the trade war, it’s a blessing for the U.S. economy that Trump retreated. In the case of Putin, it’s a disaster that Trump won’t back up his threats. In all cases, though, the lesson is clear: The targets of Trump’s bullying rarely win him over with obeisance; he simply demands more. The better course is to do (metaphorically speaking, of course) what Musk described to his biographer, Walter Isaacson: “They might beat the s**t out of me, but if I had punched them hard in the nose, they wouldn’t come after me again.”

Try it, and the president might just serve up another TACO.

[edited]

[mesetacadre]

Is the belief at all valid that ultimately there is nothing much we in the imperial core can do for the global south (i.e palestine) and that liberation is largely in their hands only? Was there any time historically where that wasn't the case?

Maybe I am just doom and glooming but it really doesn't feel like there is much we can affect (though I still attend protest and do whatever my party tells me to, I don't air out these thoughts because I don't think they are productive)

Primarly I feel like building a base here for when shit goes south is the only thing we can do

My friend, we can't forget that, while imperialism is committed outside of our reach, it is fueled, supported, and justified in our countries. National liberation movements fight in their own frontlines, and we fight in the rearguard. If you have the impression that any real progress is impossible from our position, that is a product of the very limited development of the subjective conditions in your country. You and I have seen a myriad of protests and encampments this last year, which have had overwhelmingly no material effects on the genocide, but this is not inescapable.

In Greece, where the KKE is a legitimate communist party in the eyes of a significant portion of the Greek working class, their organization in and out of the workplace is very capable. In the 17th of October they, co-organizing with the relevant union and other entities (small note because when this happened some tumblr users seemed to misspeak, this action would have been impossible without the help and involvement of the KKE, take a look at the US to see what trade unions do without communist influence), blocked a shipment of bullets to Israel:

And merely a week ago, they blocked another shipment of ammunition meant to further fuel the imperialist war in Ukraine:

The differentiating factor in Greece that is not present arguably anywhere else in Europe and North America is their strong and established communist party, even their presence exerts an indirect influence in the broader working class, communist or not.

So are the rest of us meant to sit in our milquetoast protests and watch on with envy at the Greeks? No, because these are subjective conditions, and we have control over them. Even if most actions we do don't achieve anything materially, we gain experience, and the base for a proper organization of our class is built up. It's not just building that base for when something goes wrong in our countries, it's building a better base for the very next mobilization, the next action, the next imperialist aggression. The student movement of the imperial core is better off now in terms of lessons to be learned after the encampments than if they hadn't done anything (and the utility of the encampments wasn't completely null anyway, some unis in Spain have ceased all economic and academic relations with Israel).

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Rubin at The Contrarian:

Are we in a “constitutional crisis”? You have likely heard that question innumerable times over the past three months, followed by a discussion as to whether our president has actually, explicitly, openly violated a court order (make that a Supreme Court order). When a question is so pervasive, it is safe to assume that yes, we are already there. When does the combo of authoritarian bullying, revenge seeking, stooge-nominating, retaliatory prosecuting, contemptuous litigating, and lawless usurpation of congressional power become a “crisis”? The word is defined by Merriam-Webster as “an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending…especially one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome.” Frankly, we have been in that “crisis” since the first day of the Trump presidency.

When a Republican Congress allows the president to seize the power of the purse and does nothing, when the secretary of defense commits the worst breach of national security protocols in memory (and evidently doesn’t learn his lesson), or when Republicans refuse to reclaim the power to lay tariffs—despite a recession-inducing presidential trade war—the question is not if we are in a constitutional crisis, but just how bad it is. For Kilmar Ábrego García, Rümeysa Öztürk, Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and scores of others who are legally present in the United States have been snatched up, incarcerated (or are facing incarceration) in a foreign gulag, and are deprived of their right to contest their confinement and visa revocation, the “constitutional crisis” is well underway. When the Supreme Court convenes “literally in the middle of the night” to stop the government from spiriting away Venezuelans in apparent contradiction of their instruction to give every individual a meaningful opportunity to oppose their deportation, the “constitutional crisis” has arrived.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) knows a constitutional crisis. When asked explicitly whether we were in one on Meet the Press, he affirmed, “Yes, we are.” He had to fly down to El Salvador to see for himself Ábrego García’s condition, and upon his return, called out the president and his flacks for abject lies, even revealing the clumsy attempt to stage a scene suggesting he and Kilmar were tossing down margaritas on a tropical holiday. When such steps are required to confirm whether or not a lawful American resident is alive, we know this is not only the least trustworthy White House in modern history, but one seemingly eager to foment a constitutional crisis.

[...]

For the thousands of government workers fired, the law firms and universities bullied, the millions of Americans harmed by illegal cuts and firings, the charitable organizations living under the cloud of a possible IRS dragnet, and the former Trump officials and assorted Trump nemeses targeted for persecution, the “constitutional crisis” is here. When Trump betrays Ukraine, cozies up to the evil aggressor Russia, wrecks the international trading system, stokes inflation, and sends us hurling into a recession, that crisis extends beyond the Constitution. [...]

Media, politicians, activists, and courts must stop waiting for a checkered flag to start responding. We need every person, every officeholder, and every facet of society to tell Trump: “NO.” No obeying in advance, No bullying, No court defiance, No executive overreach, No betrayal of allies, and No gaslighting. Then, voters must defeat any MAGA enablers, henchmen, and cowering politicians who are encouraging or complicit in these unprecedented assaults on our democracy. And when Democrats (because, let’s be honest: there is no critical mass of Republicans prepared to return to democratic norms) regain power, they will need to rebuild government and erect a series of reforms (e.g., Supreme Court term limits or expansion; serious civil and criminal penalties for abrogating others’ constitutional rights or blocking congressionally appropriated funds; bright red lines on private citizens assuming governmental powers; complete divestiture of presidents’ business interests while in office) to secure our democracy.

Jennifer Rubin wrote a solid column on why Americans should stop waiting for a formal declaration of a constitutional crisis, as we’re already in one.

[mariacallous]

...

In Zaporizhzhia, on the mainland, I met my favorite Europeans at a history lesson. I had been invited to join in the opening ceremonies of a new, underground school in the city. The school is underground not in some metaphorical sense, but physically. Russian missiles take about forty seconds to reach Zaporizhzhia, which is not enough time to get to shelter. And the Russians target schools.

Some of the children of Zaporizhzhia have departed for other places in Ukraine. At the same time, many children now in Zaporizhzhia have fled from nearby cities under Russian occupation, such as Melitopol. So that they can be schooled, basements of schools have to be used full-time, and new entirely-underground schools are constructed. The underground school that I visited was cheerful, well-lit, and generally a delight.

It was in that school that I met my favorite Europeans.

For the previous three weeks, I had been meeting Europeans in universities, government departments, and cafés. And I was glad to do so and enjoyed the discussions. I kept having to answer some of the same questions, though. What will Trump do? And what will Putin do? What about the fascists? And the chaos they bring?

And, of course, I did my best to answer, although in some sense the line if questioning was itself the problem. Russia has gone the way it has gone, and America is going the way that it is going. Europeans have to act. To sit and wait for Putin or for Trump is to choose a passivity that itself has consequences. Europe's connections to Ukraine should be obvious enough, and not just from the past. Ukraine is Europe's chance to act, a chance that has to be taken.

I have a video of favorite Europeans that I wish I could show you. The kids were beautiful in their Ukrainian embroidered shirts (vyshyvanky); one freshly crewcutted boy was wearing a suit. Their parents had treated this day as a special occasion.

This was the first time in their lives, I realized, that these boys and girls had been in an actual classroom. The Russian invasion began right as covid was ending. Two years of covid seclusion had been followed directly by three years of war. The kids were buoyant. For me, it was the first time during a long trip when I could pose the questions.

And so I asked them: "Is coming here better than remote school at home?" And they all started talking at once. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” The teachers got them to raise their hands. Then the answers came in beautiful, fully-rounded Ukrainian sentences. I am watching the video again right now... "You can meet with your friends... If you don't understand something you can raise your hand and ask... The teacher can make sure you understand… You can be together..."

The underground school was built in half a year. That would be impressive under any circumstances, let alone those of an active war. Leaving Zaporizhzhia, heading back on the main boulevard in the direction of the the train station, I appreciated again the brickwork of the buildings. In many buildings there are two colors, because some bricks are older and some are newer.

My favorite Europeans take matters in to their own hands. This is what Europeans in general will have to do.

Tomorrow will mark the end of the third year of Russia’s war against Ukraine and its people. If you wish to help Ukrainians, consider supporting Come Back Alive (Ukrainian NGO that supports soldiers), United 24 (the Ukrainian state platform for donations, with many excellent projects), RAZOM (an American NGO, tax-deductible for US citizens, which cooperates with Ukrainian NGOS to support civilians), or Documenting Ukraine (a project I help run that helps to give Ukrainians a voice, also tax-deductible for Americans).

[qqueenofhades]

Regarding "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956", would you say you were consciously reading it with an eye to reviewing its technical merits, ie reliable sources, and analysing them well, or was it more reading for pleasure - or indeed, are the two one and the same? Or is it something completely different to any of those?

I read it for a couple reasons, first being that I am currently focusing on Eastern European history, politics, and international relations in the new degree, and second that it is something I am genuinely interested in both on its own behalf and for present-day resonances. So I am reading it as a trained historian but also because I am interested in the subject and want to learn more, so it's not like I'm just confirming stuff that I already know. On which, a few quick points on how to read like a historian:

I admire Anne Applebaum's stuff a lot, and it has earned external acclaim: for example her previous book Gulag won the Pulitzer Prize. This is a good indication that an author has legitimate credentials and strong research about the topic at hand, and that it has been recognized by multiple international experts and prize bodies. Obviously, not every book needs to have won the Pulitzer to prove its usefulness, but it does mean that it comes from a historian who has received thorough and positive peer review on the highest level. I also recommend her book Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine.

Next, she is upfront about how she approached her sources, where she found them, and the language and access logistics. She is based in Warsaw, speaks Polish and Russian, and was able to directly translate sources in those languages; for Iron Curtain, she names her research assistants/translators in Hungarian and German and which archives they were working in. She notes that it took six years to write the book because of the necessity of consulting these far-flung document archives in different places; she has also conducted some in-person interviews. There is an extensive bibliography and direction for future reading. As well, despite the complexity of her subject, she is a very clear and easy-to-follow writer; someone who was approaching the book and knew relatively little about the regions or the major research questions would be able to follow along. I have recently read several history books where I was interested in the topic and wanted to follow along, but the writing was unnecessarily murky, unclear, or convoluted, and which made it difficult to keep up, even in those books written and published by a popular press.

Next, while she obviously wants to explore the problems of these societies and the phenomenon of totalitarian government in detail, she attempts to present both perspectives: both why these societies were initially attractive, the social and political factors of destroyed postwar Europe that enabled their implementation, and what ordinary people thought and experienced in response. While she is very clear that this was a Soviet effort based in Moscow and based on Stalinist principles, she also underlines that it was not just a situation of one-way agency where totalitarian principles were being unilaterally imposed on a hapless population without any local collaboration or support. She explores the reasons why local East German/Polish/Hungarian authorities decided to cooperate (or not cooperate) with the occupying authoritarian power, how people in each of those places did the same, and the fact that the totalitarian project was indeed made possible largely because of this collaboration (and when the collaboration was revoked, it instantly ran into major difficulties). That is an important lesson for the present day when we are looking at those organizations, corporations, and individuals that have already pre-emptively offered their support to a fascist government, and are acting in happy accordance with it.

As such, in short-ish summary, there are several ways to read a popular-press history book: for the analysis of technical/historical skills, to consider how the narrative is presented and the conclusions that are drawn, the bibliography and resources that are offered, simply because I am interested in the topic and want to learn more, and because it has important lessons for the present day. So yes.

[youzicha]

18, 11

18. Is the physicists' sought-for "theory of everything" a chimera?

You really should ask a physicist about this! As I understand it, the basic fact that makes it debatable is that there is some technical issue which means you can't handle gravity in the same mathematical framework as the other forces. But what lesson should we draw from that? I guess we should be less confident that they got the description of the other forces right. But even before gravity people were unhappy with renormalization theory ("it is what I would call a dippy process"—Feynman), and meanwhile, supposedly there are formalisms like string theory that can accommodate gravity, it's just that it's impossible to make progress without a particle accelerator the size of the solar system. From my layman's point of view, it seems like there's not so much philosophical lessons to be drawn from the fact that renormalization failed. In some alternative history some other mathematical approach could have been popular, but everything would still be underconstrained just from lack of experimental data...

Conversely, I guess there were physicists in the 1980s who thought they would recognize the ToE just by its mathematical elegance and solve fundamental physics in their lifetime, and that hope seems very chimerical now.

11. Is hip-hop/rap more political than the Eurovision Song Contest?

This question feels like a throwback to 2015! Like, the reason hip-hop is considered political is that it's associated with Blackness, and hence with questions of race which (along with sexuality) is the most contested political issue; meanwhile the Eurovision is avowedly "apolitical", and as we all know "to be neutral is to be complicit". But now in the 2020s with wars in Ukraine and around Israel, nationalism seems less harmless, so maybe even the stupid Eurovision pop music can become controversial again.

I think ultimately rap is an artistic form, not an ideology or a movement, so you can't really say that it's politically significant in itself. Otherwise we again end up in 2015 when everyone was briefly convinced that Hamilton had achieved the great unified theory of politics and music...

[savage-daughter-of-nikitie]

This French Senator's fiery speech on the collapse of the American Empire is required reading.

Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ministers, my dear colleagues. Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is crumbling, Ukraine risks being abandoned, Russia strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero, a fiery emperor, submissive courtiers and a ketamine-fueled jester in charge of purging the civil service.

This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will impose more customs and duties on you than on his enemies and will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you.

The king of the deal is showing what the art of the deal is all about. He thinks he will intimidate China by lying down before Putin, but Xi Jinping, faced with such a shipwreck, is probably accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.

Never in history has a President of the United States capitulated to the enemy. Never has anyone supported an aggressor against an ally. Never has anyone trampled on the American Constitution, issued so many illegal decrees, dismissed judges who could have prevented him from doing so, dismissed the military general staff in one fell swoop, weakened all checks and balances, and taken control of social media.

This is not an illiberal drift, it is the beginning of the confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution. I have faith in the strength of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency.

We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor. Eight days ago, at the very moment that Trump was rubbing Macron’s back in the White House, the United States voted at the UN with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops. Two days later, in the Oval Office, the military service shirker was giving war hero Zelensky lessons in morality and strategy before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to submit or resign. Tonight, he took another step into infamy by stopping the delivery of weapons that had been promised.

What to do in the face of this betrayal? The answer is simple: face it. And first of all, let’s not be mistaken. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.

The countries of the South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe or whether they are now free to trample on it. What Putin wants is the end of the order put in place by the United States and its allies 80 years ago, with its first principle being the prohibition of acquiring territory by force. This idea is at the very source of the UN, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the attacked, because the Trumpian vision coincides with that of Putin: a return to spheres of influence, the great powers dictating the fate of small countries.

Mine is Greenland, Panama and Canada, you are Ukraine, the Baltics and Eastern Europe, he is Taiwan and the China Sea. At the parties of the oligarchs of the Gulf of Mar-a-Lago, this is called “diplomatic realism.” So we are alone. But the talk that Putin cannot be resisted is false. Contrary to the Kremlin’s propaganda, Russia is in bad shape. In three years, the so-called second largest army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country three times less populated. Interest rates at 25%, the collapse of foreign exchange and gold reserves, the demographic collapse show that it is on the brink of the abyss. The American helping hand to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made in a war.

The shock is violent, but it has a virtue. Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in one day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands and that they have three imperatives.

Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that it holds, and of course to impose its presence and that of Europe in any negotiation. This will be expensive. It will be necessary to end the taboo of the use of frozen Russian assets. It will be necessary to circumvent Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself by a coalition of only the willing countries, with of course the United Kingdom.

Second, demand that any agreement be accompanied by the return of kidnapped children, and prisoners, and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk, we know what agreements with Putin are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.

Finally, and this is the most urgent, because it is what will take the most time, we must build the neglected European defense, to the benefit of the American umbrella since 1945 and scuttled since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a Herculean task, but it is on its success or failure that the leaders of today’s democratic Europe will be judged in the history books.

Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is to recognize that France has been right for decades in arguing for strategic autonomy. It remains to be built. It will be necessary to invest massively, to strengthen the European Defense Fund outside the Maastricht debt criteria, to harmonize weapons and munitions systems, to accelerate the entry into the Union of Ukraine, which is today the leading European army, to rethink the place and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, to relaunch the anti-missile shield and satellite programs.

The plan announced yesterday by Ursula von der Leyen is a very good starting point. And much more will be needed. Europe will only become a military power again by becoming an industrial power again. In a word, the Draghi report will have to be implemented. For good.

But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament. We must convince public opinion in the face of war weariness and fear, and especially in the face of Putin’s cronies, the extreme right and the extreme left. They argued again yesterday in the National Assembly, Mr. Prime Minister, before you, against European unity, against European defense. They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump say is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of de Gaulle Zelensky by a Ukrainian Pétain at the beck and call of Putin. Peace for the collaborators who have refused any aid to the Ukrainians for three years.

Is this the end of the Atlantic Alliance? The risk is great. But in the last few days, the public humiliation of Zelensky and all the crazy decisions taken in the last month have finally made the Americans react. Polls are falling. Republican lawmakers are being greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.

The Trumpists are no longer in their majesty. They control the executive, the Congress, the Supreme Court and social networks. But in American history, the freedom fighters have always prevailed. They are beginning to raise their heads.

The fate of Ukraine is being played out in the trenches, but it also depends on those in the United States who want to defend democracy, and here on our ability to unite Europeans, to find the means for their common defense, and to make Europe the power that it once was in history and that it hesitates to become again.

Our parents defeated fascism and communism at great cost. The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.

Claude Malhuret is a French physician, lawyer and politician who has served as a member of the French Senate since 2014, representing the department of Allier. A member of Horizons, a center-right party that was created to attract support for Emmanuel Marcron in the 2022 French presidential election, he has presided over the The Independents – Republic and Territories (LIRT) parliamentary group in the Senate since 2017.

[world-of-wales]

THE PRINCE DIARIES ♚

20 MARCH 2025 | ESTONIA : TALLINN (2/4) - VABADUSE KOOL

Following his meeting with the President, The Prince of Wales visited the Vabaduse Kool (Freedom School) in Tallinn.

The Freedom School which founded by the Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia in May 2022 to respond to the war in Ukraine.

During his visit, William met and spent time with teachers from Ukraine to hear about their experiences at the school and how they have helped students settle in Tallinn and look after their mental wellbeing. He received a friendship bracelet in the colours of Ukraine made by the younger students during the chat.

He also played a round of basketball with the older students before joining a group of 16 to 18-year-old students for a Ukrainian language lesson.

[veylia]

Time for a history lesson!

A friend commented on this picture on my Facebook:

In the US, we learn that World War II ended when we stormed the beaches of Normandy and when we dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I also learned that the war had been going on for so long and wasn't anywhere near its end until you "awoken the sleeping giant" that was the US.

My reply:

First, I just want to say that I'm not dismissing the help we got from the US. What's frustrating is that the general idea is that you did everything, and we basically did nothing.

The Netherlands, for example, was liberated by Canada in 1944, which had been with us from the beginning, 10th of September 1939. The royal house of the Netherlands took refuge in Canada, and the Queen even gave birth during that time. The bonds between Canada and the Netherlands are very strong to this day. They send thousands of tulips to Canada each year, and Canada holds a tulip festival once a year. And Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviets.

So, not to mention that we didn't just have WW2, but also the Holocaust. And the problems in Europe didn't start with WW2 either.

The Nazi party was formed as early as 1921, 18 years before WW2. Hitler fought in WW1, and since the Germans lost that war, Hitler became obsessed with "making Germany great again" (sounds familiar?) and he blamed the Jews for how bad things were, and the Great depression only helped his cause. In 2 years, they went from having just 3% of the vote to a sizable 18%. Hitler ran for president in 1932, and in 1933, the Nazi party gained three ministerial positions, with Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. He started planning for the Holocaust, the first concentration camp, Dachau, was created as early as March 22nd, 1933. And the short version is that WW2 started because Hitler needed people distracted, for his "final solution" to work.

So, now that you know it all started, let me continue by saying that the attitude of the US president at the time, as well as the US people, was the same as it is today when it comes to Ukraine: "it has nothing to do with us, not our problem". You were forced into the war by Japan when they attacked Pearl Harbor, and shortly, Hitler also declared war against you, since he was allied with Japan. Your president, along with the other two major powers at the time, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and even countries from Latin America, signed the Washington agreement.

In 1942, Germany started a devastating operation (for them) called Barbarossa. The attack is considered to be the biggest one in history, with over 3 million German soldiers along with their allies, 4000 planes, and 3000 tanks. But their downfall was the winter. They thought the whole thing would only take a few months, so they had no winter equipment. By that point, they were outside of Moscow. At the same time, Germany attacked the city of Stalingrad, one of the toughest battles in WW2, and they had to surrender. That was a big turning point in the war, and many began to doubt a German victory. After that battle, the Soviets began to win on almost every front and take back their lands. By 1943-1944, the Germans had been pushed back to the Polish border.

The Germans and Italians surrendered in North Africa to British and American soldiers in May 1943. In July of the same year, the two also liberated Italy from Mussolini. In September, the forces reached the mainland of Europe.

By 1944, hardly anyone believed Hitler would be able to win, and in January, the Soviets drove the Germans even across the Polish border. In June that same year, the allies (as in, not just American soldiers, but British and Canadian as well) stormed Normandie from the West side, soon liberating Paris as well as Belgium. It got more intense with the Soviets from the East.

After that, it was basically defeat after defeat for Hitler and the Germans until he offed himself and lost the war.

So, while I don't dismiss the help we got from the United States, it was a joint effort to end it, with a LOT of help from the Soviet Union. (Personally, that's why my own feelings about Russia are very complicated.) That's why, over here, it feels like America is that kid at school that you need to do a group project with, everyone does an equal part, and then they take full credit. That's why this post is so insulting. Because even though America did lose a lot of soldiers, it's nowhere NEAR what Europe and the Soviet Union lost.

---

I can understand why Americans are the way they are if what they are taught is so far from the truth.

[bruceburgdorf]

Soldiers willing to commit suicide to kill Hitler

Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff

Alex von dem Bussche-Streithorst

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin

Eberhard von Breitenbuch

That it had been difficult to recruit people within the resistance willing to sacrifice their life in a one on one assassination attempt on Hitler’s life was a culmination of a number of reasons.

Firstly, it had been concluded long before the plotting of the events of 20th July 1944 that to remove Hitler from power would require persons in key positions to seize control of the German government in Germany and the territories it controlled. Given this would be such a huge undertaking for a relatively small number of conspirators, hardly anyone could be considered dispensable.

A second point was the difficulty in getting within close proximity of Hitler; despite mass public support, Hitler knew he had opposition within Germany and the army and had been weary of assassination for several years. By the 1940’s his plans for travel were known only by his inner circle and those on a need to know basis.

A third point to consider was the risk it imposed to family members; the Sippenhaft guilt clause imposed by the Nazis could see close family members arrested of those who committed crimes against the state. Those fighting at the front were particularly vulnerable.

—

Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff was an intelligence officer based at Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front along with key conspirators Henning von Tresckow and Fabian von Schlabrendorff. The three men had lobbied their group commander Fedor von Bock to persuade him to act against Hitler over the Commissar Order; the orders to kill the Communist officials within the Soviet army.

Gersdorff was due to attend a display of captured weaponry on Heroes Memorial Day at the Zeughaus Armoury in Berlin on 21st March 1943. The event would be attended by Hitler, Himmler, Göring, Keitel and Dönitz. Tresckow asked Gersdorff if he would be willing to kill Hitler with a bomb during the exhibition and he agreed.

Gersdorff had obtained a substantial amount of fuses and explosives through the Abwehr captured from the British. British fuses were used in preference to German fuses because they were small and silent but unfortunately took longer to detonate.

Gersdorff had planned to accompany Hitler around the display where the bomb would explode and kill those in close proximity including himself. On the day of the exhibition, Gersdorff primed the bomb inside his pocket but Hitler arrived that day very distracted and was completely uninterested in the display, leaving the building after just two minutes and Gersdorff was left to rush off and diffuse the bomb.

He unfortunately would never have a similar opportunity although the explosives would be used in later assassination attempts over the following year. Gersdorff managed to escape detection after the July plot and his involvement was unknown until after the war of which he survived.

After the war he was shunned by not only his fellow officers but also by his US captors, being told that his willingness to follow his own conscience presented a danger to them and was held until 1947 whereas other officers who had simply followed orders were released sooner.

—

A second suicide bombing attempt was planned later in 1943 with the resistance having learned lessons from the failings of the previous attempt. Alex von dem Bussche-Streithorst was a young officer, who after witnessing the mass murder of Jews in Ukraine, was happy to give his life to kill Hitler.

Bussche was to model proto-types of new uniforms in front of Hitler and the new plan would involve Bussche embracing Hitler, then holding him in position until the bomb exploded. What couldn’t have been predicted was that the new uniforms would be destroyed in an allied bombing raid and the event would be postponed until January 1944.

Frustratingly, Bussche was by this point prohibited from taking part by in the event by his commanding officer and just a few days later he would lose his leg in the war, removing him from further involvement in the conspiracy.

—

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to kill Hitler at the display of new uniforms, the conspirators searched for a replacement for Bussche and another young officer, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, son of conspirator Count Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, volunteered to shoot Hitler while he was in close proximity for which he knew his fate would have been instant death by Hitler’s bodyguard. When he asked his father whether he thought he should take the opportunity he was told yes. Kleist-Schmenzin would wait on standby for several weeks but Hitler kept postponing the event and therefore the assassination attempt with it.

Kleist-Schmenzin would play an active role on 20th July 1944, assisting in the arrest of the traitor to the plot, Friedrich Fromm. He was imprisoned but later had the charges dropped against him for lack of evidence (Fromm had been executed himself on 21st July). His father however would be tried and executed in April 1945.

—

A forth opportunity arose a few weeks later, by now March 1944, when another officer and conspirator at Army Group Centre, Eberhard von Breitenbuch, was due to travel to Hitler’s Berghof with their commanding officer, who he was aide to. Breitenbuch planned to use the opportunity to shoot Hitler there.

Knowing he would need to follow the standard procedure of removing his belt and pistol holster, he would conceal a second pistol in his pocket. The event began as planned but in yet another turndown for the resistance, aides on that day were not permitted into the room with Hitler and the opportunity was one again lost.

Breitenbuch also went undetected as a conspirator but was still based at Army Group Centre where Tresckow would take his own life on 21st July 1944.

These would not be the last of the assassination attempts made before the 20th July of that year and during that time the conspirators including Claus von Stauffenberg were working tirelessly to recruit as many people as they could.

[yourreddancer]

The terrifying perils of appeasing a warlike Russia

THE ECONOMIST

Finland’s cold-war past offers urgent lessons for Ukraine’s future

Nov 16th 2024

IN BARRACKS SQUARE in old Helsinki stands an unusual monument to a war. A towering sculpture of a soldier’s winter snowsuit, its polished steel body is pierced with large round holes, as if still standing after a strafing by cannon fire. It is Finland’s national memorial to the winter war of 1939-40. During that conflict, Finnish troops withstood a huge Soviet force for 105 days, inflicting heavy casualties on the invaders before succumbing to the Red Army’s larger numbers. The Soviet Union imposed harsh terms, taking 10% of its neighbour’s territory. Peace proved fragile, and Finland was soon swept up into the second world war, fighting with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Red Army from 1941-44.

Unveiled in 2017, the memorial’s message is more timely than ever. The winter war has new resonance for Finns. Their country has known 80 years of peace. It boasts one of Europe’s most capable armies, backed by extensive military service for young men and large reserves. Yet even after ditching decades of neutrality to join NATO in April 2023, Finland remains haunted by Russia, its former imperial ruler and neighbour along a 1,340km shared border. “When Russia attacked Ukraine it was as if Finland’s wars were happening yesterday,” says a member of Finland’s tight-knit establishment. Indeed, this old hand worries about younger Finns being “too bold” in denouncing Russia. Membership of the European Union and NATO is all very well. But Finland is a small country whose fate has often been decided by great powers, and Russia will always be there. “We know that the big guys can always agree things above our head. We can always be alone.”

This is a moment for all Europe to ponder that memorial in a Helsinki square. For that battered, but still-recognisable uniform—hollow and headless, with the sky visible through its many holes—presents an important question. What can a country afford to lose, and what must it preserve, and still be true to itself? …