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Some thoughts on Twitter of 2024.
I refuse to be a flying monkey.
jaanus.substack.com/p/i-refu…
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
Elon Musk's statement about needing to have pity for Russian conscripts is the ultimate act of cynicism and hypocrisy.
If Elon wants the war to stop and Russian conscripts not to die, the thing to do is help Ukraine win as quickly as possible, rather than forcing Ukraine to sacrifice itself.
A Ukrainian victory is the only way to save the lives of the Russians Musk sympathizes with so deeply.
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
Any talks/negotiations about a post-war security arrangement for Europe need to start from the indisputable fact that Russia’s neighbours have an acute need of protection from Russia whereas Russia has no demonstrable need for protection (and it already has nukes for that).
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
“Communism is great in theory, but doesn’t work in practice.”
Still hear that a lot.
But it’s like saying: “Well, the recipe is great but every time we bake a cake from it we end up poisoning everyone.”
Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a great recipe actually.
After many tens of millions dead, we should acknowledge that communism is bad in theory and bad in practice.
It’s economic illiteracy combined with horrific ideas about establishing a dictatorship (oh, temporarily sure) and persecuting an ever expanding list of enemies, which will eventually include everyone who points out that it’s not working.
The fact that it’s dressed up in sanctimonious, self-aggrandising rhetoric about freeing workers (who a lot of Marxists would shudder to have a conversation with) doesn’t make any of that better. It just provides an excuse to commit atrocities for the supposed great good - with that post-dictatorship utopia always at least one more murder away.
If it can reach the point of justifying the Nazi-Soviet Pact and persecuting entire nationalities then there is no low to which it cannot sink.
You know what is great in theory?
Democratic institutions and norms, checks and balances, independent civil societies, freedom of speech and assembly, human rights, etc, etc.
Those things are superior in theory, superior in practice, and there’s nothing remotely redeeming about those who would throw them away no matter where on the political spectrum they put themselves.
“russia fundamentally believes it is their God given right to rule over Eastern Europe & its people”
Yes 💯
That is all there is to it
That is the root cause of everything
And the fix is obvious and simple. Punch russia in the face so it stands down
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
Too many in the West don't understand the *actual* root cause of this war:
Russia fundamentally believes it is their God given right to rule over Eastern Europe & its people.
It's not that complicated.
🚨 Putin plans to use Ukraine peace talks to push NATO back to its 1997 military posture
According to The Telegraph, the Kremlin wants to force NATO to scale back its military presence in Europe to levels seen before Eastern European countries joined the Alliance.
This could mean demanding the withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland.
That is why Moscow is pushing for European countries to participate in negotiations over Ukraine. Diplomatic sources cited by The Telegraph say Putin wants to turn talks about ending the war into negotiations over the entire European security architecture.
The issue may also have been discussed during Putin's three-hour meeting with Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in St. Petersburg.
However, European countries have previously rejected the Kremlin's demands to reduce NATO's military presence on its eastern flank.
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
Радвам се за промените в Сърбия, обаче слагаме конят пред каруцата. Платформата им е предимно вътрешно-политическа - борба с корупция и т.н. Геополитическата ориентация все още не е ясна и ако се наложи да правят коалиционно правителство - ще се види накъде отиват. Засега, студентското движение е обявило следните външни политики:
- ЕС: кооперацията е необходима, за членство - не се знае, по-скоро референдум;
- Русия: против санкциите
- Украйна: нищо не казват, но нямам надежди
- Косово: част от Сърбия, не го признават.
- НАТО: нищо, но предполагам - категорично НЕ
- Китай: мълчат.
Така че не е ясно колко са избрали Европа. Все пак - крачка в правилната посока.
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
Okay Fella's. Just found a smol French account
I noticed them sending the Storm Shadow Video smashing into Russia and posting it on every single one of 'Sasha Meets Russia's' posts
Only 138 Followers. You know what to do: @TheodoseT
This is their profile picture ... Legend⭐️
Who wants to hear a joke?
Trump Administration has advocated Viktor Orbán for UN Secretary-General
🤣
I can’t even
New: Sources from three countries confirm that the Trump Administration has advocated Viktor Orbán for UN Secretary-General.
The US has encouraged Orbán to enter the race, even bringing him the initial idea of a joint U.S.-Russia-China candidacy.
WSJ:
wsj.com/opinion/viktor-orban…
Whenever russia conquers a country, it is impoverished, polluted and destroyed
Exactly this. Whenever Moscow conquers a country, it is impoverished, polluted and destroyed. This is what happened to Estonia's economy (compared to Finland) during the Soviet Occupation. Estonia was wealthier than Finland in 1938, the Soviet occupation (1944-1991) turned it 10 times poorer. Since freedom from the Russians was achieved, it's back on track.
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
Watching Elon bros swarm this by regurgitating Elon’s evasive bullshit excuses about TOS violations and Kremlin propaganda about hacking is truly a sight to behold. The slavish devotion of idiots to their idol is quite on par with the useful idiots’ to the Kremlin.
I am particularly fond of the “Elon saved Ukraine” bit — as if 85% of the terminals SpaceX donated in 2022 were not eventually paid for by US, Poland, and Germany, and as if the Europeans haven’t been paying millions for contracts since, substantially boosting the company’s revenue with income that far exceeds whatever it donated back then.
The TOS violation allegation is particularly egregious since Ukraine does use a lot of whitelisted terminals on Starlink for non-military purposes and does not violate the TOS of the commercial service. What got throttled is the Starshield service, which is specifically designed for ministry use and which the company provides under contract, with its usual geofencing. Musk knows this, which is why he initially tried to deflect the blame to the White House.
But then Rubio claimed Starshield isn’t available to Ukraine, which was another deliberate obfuscation — there’s another thing under the same moniker, which is available only to DoD and which does include other satellites in partnership with SpaceX , which is indeed not available to Ukraine. But it’s not the Starshield service, and Rubio must know this. But of course he’s also busy deflecting back to Elon.
Trump tried to pretend it does not matter who did what but the facts are clear enough: the service was throttled, it was kept so until public outcry and threats from Congress caused Trump to tell Elon to lift the cap, which he did.
But now Elon is in hot water because Congress will certainly have to take a closer look as to how he was able to run his own foreign policy over existing contract terms. It’s going to be bad for SpaceX for sure because there will be questions about Pentagon’s own relationship with the company and its future contracts around the world.
Elon bros are fuming and imagine that Starlink is irreplaceable but the fact is that it is very much replaceable. In the shorter term by tech that is worse and less capable, but over time certainly with a decent equivalent. The Europeans are well positioned to do this and are now quite motivated. Expect serious competition that the tech bros here dismiss only because they are fucking clueless about Europe’s industrial might and native talent.
Nobody in their right mind would trust a system that a billionaire can flip with a switch on a whim. We shouldn’t, and the Europeans won’t. The big question is whether they will trust the American government not to abuse that power if they yanked it away from Musk (which was the reason for the damn Starshield contracts in the first place). Magic 8-ball says Nyet. These idiots might have single-handedly kneecapped our defense industry and its export viability.
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
The blanket pardon for crimes that have not been charged recalls Johann Tetzl, the Dominican friar who sold indulgences in the 16th Century.
Martin Luther related the probably apocryphal story of how a nobleman asked for an indulgence for a future crime, which Tetzl granted.
Later the nobleman later robbed Tetzl himself, justifying it with Tetzl's indulgence for a future crime.
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
The daughter of a key Russian Shahed drone producer is reportedly living comfortably in Toronto, having attended Humber Polytechnic and now working as an online influencer.
Canada must sanction him and investigate her status.
newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/osin…
Jaanus K 🇪🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 retweeted
This is our favourite Soviet joke. 👇
The 1991 Soviet referendum was very deliberately very badly worded as basically:
- “Yes, I consider it necessary to keep a reformed USSR that *will* provide freedoms and rights for all nations”
OR
- “No, I consider it necessary to keep the USSR as it is right now”.
😂
In the Soviet Union, you were often genuinely free to vote for any given option …because the Soviet Union only gave pro-Soviet options.
The ‘yes’ vote that people pretend was to “save the Soviet Union” was the vote in favour of reforms and therefore arguably the closest thing to an anti-status quo vote.
It was an offer written in the future tense about new rights and freedoms, hence why a lot of anti-Soviet people voted yes, if they voted at all.
Despite Soviet occupation, the Baltic countries made sure to boycott this whole nonsense.
The referendum question was also altered in some places where it wasn’t boycotted, adding even more confusion to what everyone was meant to be voting on.
Most notably, in Ukraine an additional question on Ukrainian sovereignty was added and that passed by a much higher percentage.
Later that same year, Ukrainians held a clear unambiguous referendum on full independence and that passed with over 90% in favour nationally and majority support in every Ukrainian region - including, for example, the Ukrainian region of Crimea, the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the Ukrainian region of Luhansk, the Ukrainian region of Kherson, and the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia.
Thank you @wostokrobert for reminding us all of this. 😘
The majority of us Soviets were in favor of the USSR ❤️ – proof: the 1991 referendum 😘
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_S…
