David Sauter 🟨🟦
@davidsauter.bsky.social
Progressive centrist. Pro territorial integrity. Pro rule-based order. Based in Zurich 🇨🇭
It is astonishing that @TheEconomist expects us to believe this interview wasn’t pre-approved by the Kremlin. Also, “Russia’s most enigmatic oligarch”? Really? Melnichenko is a key member of the Kremlin-linked business elite, not some mysterious outsider. Stop romanticizing him.
It’s so interesting Many people just prefer to rule over a tiny pie than share a huge pie
What's worth noting really strongly here, however, is that humans have - by our own genius and/or providence - effectively escaped this trap in fact and now must escape it in mind. We can produce enough resources for every tribe to live well and cooperation between tribes beats fighting now!
I feel like the winner of this war may be known before we know the winner of the men's soccer world cup.
This is the autocrat's dilemma, when you don't care about building consent, you can do whatever you want, but you have no backstop when things go badly.
Speaking in Madrid yesterday, Pope Leo XIV stated: "I encourage you to nurture the process of the European Union, which is not merely a counterweight to other powers, but a gift to humanity."
This is going into history. Putin denied Zelensky's letter,and called it rude. But it was his last opportunity to end the war.
US hard power (forcing compliance) is going to remain formidable. US soft power (attracting collaboration) is withering before our eyes. The challenge for the US is going to be how expensive, dangerous, and exhausting it is to extort everything from everyone, everywhere, all the time.
Judah Grunstein@judah-grunstein.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe popular narrative of American decline is predicated on the idea that US power will somehow disappear. But as much damage as Trump is doing, that's not going to happen. Instead, US power will become more erratic, with no consistent long-term domestic consensus to guide its application.
Yes, the world is not black and white. But actions are. You either do or you don't. So, analyse the shades of grey and decide on an action. Inaction is cowardice.
In the real world, cultures change constantly - they cannot help but do so - and people change their individual cultural blend all of the time. What matters is values and it turns out some of the values that are better for human flourishing are pluralism and a high degree of individualism.
When it comes to write the history of the last 16 months it will be about the weakness of US institutions to stand up to Trump, but the growing willingness of other states to do so. Trump’s major mistake was thinking the rest of the world was as craven as the GOP.
Indeed, losing for others is Trump’s superpower. His magic is that his people stick to him like gamblers, thinking that somehow each loss signals the next win. (11/14)
Stop calling him a master strategist. He may have wrecked his economy, failed to change a regime and had to make a massive "goodwill gesture", but he has NOT taken 1.3 million casualties doing it. 😤
If that's not worth nuclear war then nothing is
Read “we have degraded Iranian forces” as “we have converted them into the kind of force that we have lost to in every war since 1945”
It is frustrating to be at this point, where we have all been warning, for the past *decade* that the presidency was not a TV show and Trump's foolish bullshit was eventually going to cause a problem he could not fix or TACO out of and now we are here, the place we all knew we were going.
Respect please.That man: stopped wars you never heard of or had even began; got the Nobel medal without getting the prize; won 3 elections in a row while you can only be elected twice; fights windmills all over the world; speaks as a toddler without anyone leaving the room; ...
Oh yes and I missed " Let us encourage as many plagues as possible and reduce any defences we have against them ". It's like they are trying to check off every box of reasons why Empires collapsed.
The media is missing the biggest story in the Epstein emails. The emails prove Epstein helped Russia blackmail Donald Trump. He was advising Putin's circle on how to control the President. Trump is compromised. We need to make sure everyone sees this:
1/ Immer wieder heisst es, die USA hätten 1990 versprochen, es werde keine NATO-Osterweiterung geben. Und ihr Versprechen dann gebrochen. Stimmt das? Nein. Das ist ein Mythos, der 100% falsch ist. Nicht 80% oder 90%. 100% falsch.🧵
1/ Musk und Weidel sind sich einig, dass Hitler in Wahrheit ein Kommunist war. Könnte sein. Lasst uns dieser Behauptung ernsthaft und ergebnisoffen nachgehen. 🧵
End of Year Fundraising Report! Our incredible YouTube community has fundraised $3,553,210 in support of Ukraine from 43,751 donations. These funds have purchased and fixed up exactly 100 vehicles for Ukrainian units as well has several thousand drones. Thank you everyone for supporting Ukraine!
Fellas, I don’t post here a lot but you should absolutely know this // help me spread the word! Violent crackdowns are happening in Tbilisi, Georgia. We are fighting for our lives here. Please, please, please help us spread the word.
Evacuating a wounded soldier even amidst enemy strikes just a few meters away. Place and time unknown.
"The lesson for Ukraine is clear: Whatever gives Ukraine the best chance for survival in a long war, not foreign impatience, should dictate the pace of operations." warontherocks.com/2024/02/lear...
Learning Lessons from the Prussian Past? - War on the Rocks
The past, famously, is a foreign country. Unfortunately, it often seems that “foreign wars” fought before 1900 are too distant to find their way into our
warontherocks.com
