Interests: Authoritarian regimes and their victims. Principles that should never be for sale.
Latin adage “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (updated 2023)
“If you want peace, try disempowering dictators; when others *empower* them nevertheless, prepare for war”
ℹ️ The account icon is an ambigram which, when flipped, means either "police" or "violence". Ever since the 2019 protests when the previously respected police helped the 🇨🇳☭ CCP crush Hongkong's pro-democracy civil society those things are synonymous.
Why Europe should hijack #Nato for its own purposes
Opinion by Paul Taylor
With a US president who disregards the interests of his allies and casts doubt on the collective commitments of the alliance, Rutte has plotted a path through the minefield to keep Nato in business and working to support #Ukraine despite the looming expiry of US arms supplies to Kyiv.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/18/europe-hijack-nato-trump-administration-china
@kravietz Ukraine should smuggle a million barrels of the absolute cheapest stuff across the front to humanely eliminate large number of invading russians.
They should also leave barrels of the stuff in front of their positions...
russian oil and wheeler-dealing: Indian nationals behind shadow tanker involved in Frontline collision
Directors at management company flipped ships between Navi Mumbai firms
@thejapantimes Great.
And as during the murderous Pol Pot dictatorship, the Cambodian Hun dynasty now has the Chinese CCP's army backing them.
What does the Vietnamese communist party think?
@w7voa It has been sad to see successive British governments — a long string of hapless tories, but apparently now even Starmer's Labour — endlessly reducing funding for the BBC. The World Service was probably the most respected source for news (and UK's 'soft power') on otherwise dark undemocratic regions of the world until repeated budget cuts esp. to BBC's language reach while players like the PRC and russia began gearing up their propaganda channels basically taking over the messaging market. Think "global south" now following a piper called "the Axis of despots". 🤷♂️
Belatedly both the german Deutsche Welle (DW) and the french France 24 have increased their anglophone services (both recommended!) but gaining ground in today's intertubes-manipulated market is beyond hard and the hostile dictatorship have built a strangehold of satellite services esp. in Asia and Africa. Priorities, priorities...
Of course meanwhile (certain) Americans have also deliberately fucked up their domestic news 'market' possibly beyond repair, turning it into a murdochian MAGA bubble not dissimilar to those chinese and russian echo chambers dominating other continents.
While I wish the European or Canadian news services reached more Americans, I'm afraid the Chinese tiktok is more focused on its given project...
@kravietz This putin zoo of tyrants and scoundrels concept reminds me of another fictional place imagined by certain #rogerwaters, The Fletcher Memorial Home...
Having once railed against incurable despots, Roger Dubya later turned into a firebrand supporter of the likes of assad and putin so he might be incapable of recognizing the deep irony here; that Roger himself would feel most at home at the very table...
https://www.songtell.com/pink-floyd/the-fletcher-memorial-home
So, confession time: I was recently helping a new client get set up on the Fediverse—guiding them through their first steps into our glorious decentralized galaxy. And seeing it all again through fresh eyes? Reader, it was brutal. So much of what should be table stakes for any social media UX in the year of our Lord 2025 still is missing or deeply broken still. I know progress has been made and a good fight, fought.
@kravietz I want nothing to do with AI slop crap (every use should be behind 'content' warning!) but I did find this amusing.
Eugene McParland 🇺🇦
Heidi Li Feldman
Tim Chambers
George Takei 
🏳️🌈🖖🏽