Ryan J. Phillips: The Ukrainian resistance is an example of positive nationalism - The Hub - "The ongoing Ukrainian resistance (and global support thereof) against Russian imperialism offers us a contemporary example of how nationalism can be used as a positive force for social good... The prevailing narrative is that Putin assumed his invasion of Ukraine would be a straightforward military operation, met with little or no real resistance. What Putin almost certainly didn’t account for, however, was the resolve of the Ukrainian people... We need to recognize and name this ongoing phenomenon as Ukrainian nationalism. Nationalism can be negative and used as a weapon against the “Other”, but it can also be a positive tool to help resist imperialism, as well as foster social cohesion and civility during times of peace. In recent decades, many young progressives have become critical of anything that smells nationalistic. Nationalism, after all, has been blamed for giving us Brexit, Trump, and an unravelling liberal world order. But as someone who self-identifies as (relatively) young and (typically) progressive, I feel compelled to warn others that we demonize nationalism, writ large, at our own peril. Nationalism is purely emotional and ultimately unavoidable—national symbols and sentiments will always be used to rally people around causes. Indeed, the ongoing Ukrainian resistance (and the ideologically diverse support thereof) offers us a chance to rethink what nationalism means, as well as how we can harness it for positive social purposes. If we fail to do so, and continue to write off nationalism as inherently problematic or always wicked, then we cede an incredibly powerful political tool to some very dangerous groups... nationalism can also be a constructive force for social good—what John Ralston Saul called “positive nationalism”. As political commentator David Frum has pointed out, whenever natural disasters occur in any part of Canada (like wildfires out west, or floods in the Ottawa Valley), nationalism can be used to help mobilize support and raise funds to help those in need. When serious wildfires were ravaging Alberta a couple of years ago, people from all over Canada donated money and volunteered their time to help with disaster relief for those in need. A big reason they did so was because of some sense of nationalism—they felt connected to their fellow Canadians. Realistically, it would make much more sense for someone from, say, Seattle to care about and want to help people suffering from wildfires in Alberta than it would for someone from New Brunswick or PEI to want to do so, given Seattle’s relative geographic proximity to Alberta. And yet, people from New Brunswick and PEI were much more likely to help their fellow Canadians during these times—an undeniably positive manifestation of nationalism... Another way in which nationalism can be used for social good is by helping to overcome social or political cleavages. If Canadians become too politically divided along lines of class, wealth, education, geography, language, ethnicity, religion, or any other social identity, they can still be made to recognize each other as fellow Canadians and potentially quell any rising tensions or social unrest. Historically, this has been the case—people might not like a particular politician, political party, premier, or prime minister, but they still tend to respect these people’s commitments to Canadian society—even if they disagree on particular policies or perspectives. We can (and should) still work towards resolving other political divisions based on class, race, gender, etc., but a baseline sense of nationalism can ensure that these divisions don’t threaten the stability of our society in the short run. With rising populism though, particularly in the age of social media and outrage politics, we’re increasingly seeing people abandon these sorts of mutual respect and civility for each other as members of the same nation"
Maybe liberals dislike nationalism because they want to divide people with identity politics, and nationalism works against that
Nemo - Russian Amerikan on Twitter - "National Gallery in London renamed Degas Russian Dancers into Ukrainian Dancers. No, not April 1 joke."
shannon sharpe on Twitter - "I’d rather pay 20 bucks a gallon than have Trump in office. Hope that answers your question"
Glenn Greenwald on Twitter - "Extremely rich people continue to announce that they are bravely willing to endure higher gas prices."
Glenn Greenwald on Twitter - "Wimbledon continues to threaten to ban the world's #2 male tennis player @DaniilMedwed of Russia, and the world's #6 female player @SabalenkaA of Belarus, unless they "sign an anti-Putin form" (all while Western elites say Putin kills all dissidents)
(In an alternate world: Wimbledon threatens to ban all American and British players from participating in the tournament unless they sign a form condemning their country's leaders for arming and funding the Saudis' destruction of Yemen)"
Meme - "WAR IS COMING. Adopt a Ukrainian before it's too late. *beautiful blonde*"
Russian fast-food chain backed by parliament to replace McDonald’s reveals near-identical branding
The Russian military is begging China for MREs - "it’s not just that they may not have any MREs, but the ones they do have seem to be years old. At least one video circulating online appears to show a Ukrainian soldier holding up a Russian MRE that expired in 2015... “The Russian military is not as good as we thought it was”... Russia “likely counted on the shock of its invasion to rapidly overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses.” But that hasn’t been the case... one popular YouTube channel which reviews MREs from around the world called China’s MREs “substandard,” and said one meal specifically was “one of the worst quality rations for a large military in the world.”... Is this going to be a situation where Russian soldiers are “killing each other, clamoring to freaking get a Chinese MRE?” Weintraub asked. Not to mention the question of if the Russians soldiers will even be able to read the instructions on how to prepare the MRE if it’s written in Chinese, and could end up just “chewing on raw ramen noodles”... In World War II, as Cancian pointed out, American troops were given “hard to get” items such as chocolate and cigarettes in their rations in an effort to increase morale. And troops implicitly felt they were being prioritized. That stands in stark contrast with the Russian troops receiving rations that expired years ago. “It gives a message that the nation is not behind them”"
Opinion: Gen. Petraeus: Invasion reveals a host of weaknesses in Russia's military - "Retired Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded US forces in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, says the Russians are facing a Ukraine military that is exceptionally determined, surprisingly capable and innovative, and one that is fighting on its home territory for its very survival. In contrast, the Russian invaders have displayed a host of weaknesses: flawed planning; overly optimistic intelligence projections about how the conflict would play out; underestimation of the Ukrainian forces and people; inadequate maintenance and logistics; unimpressive equipment; a reliance on conscripts and an inability to mount effective cyberwarfare... He is skeptical that the Russians have enough forces to take, much less to control, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and some of the other major cities, saying that continued urban warfare generally will favor the Ukrainians. Nonetheless, he also notes that the Russians have enormous capacity for -- and history of -- destroying cities, civilian facilities and critical infrastructure, and they will "rubble" urban areas in an effort to take control... They clearly have very poor standards when it comes to performing basic tactical tasks such as achieving combined arms operations, involving armor, infantry, engineers, artillery and mortars. They are very poor at maintaining their vehicles and weapon systems and have abandoned many of them. They are also poor at resupply and logistical tasks. We have known for decades that the Soviet system, now the Russian system, has always lacked one of the key strengths of US and Western militaries, which is a strong, professional noncommissioned officer corps. And part of the problem is that the Russian military has a fairly substantial percentage of conscripts. It's very hard to determine how many of them are in Ukraine. We know in the Russian military overall, probably in the range of 20 to 25% are conscripts. And there are particularly large numbers of conscripts in a critical area, which is logistics -- including drivers of trucks and fuel tankers and soldiers in maintenance units. The Russians also have found it difficult to go off-road. Their wheeled vehicles get mired in mud very quickly. The ground is not frozen the way they had hoped it would be. Even tracked vehicles seem to be getting mired in mud. And the Russians are just not performing sufficient preventive maintenance on their equipment. I've served in mechanized units, with a mix of tanks and armored personnel carriers. And every single time you stop, the driver and the crew members are outside checking road wheels and final drives, pumping grease, topping off fluid levels. If you don't do preventive maintenance, then you will end up with such vehicles breaking down. Beyond that, the Russians just have relatively unimpressive equipment, given the investment supposedly made over the past decade or so. They certainly don't have equipment comparable to what the United States has. Their precision munitions aren't very precise: This was underlined by the fact that they didn't crater the runways in Ukraine in the first hour of combat the way we did in Iraq in 2003 to completely deny the Iraqi Air Force any opportunities to take off. In fact, the Ukrainian Air Force is still flying. As modest as it is and as many losses as it has sustained, it's still up in flight. So Russian precision munitions are lacking. We can also see this with the sheer frequency of the Russians hitting civilian infrastructure, like the hospital in Mariupol, other medical facilities and the government center in Kharkiv -- unless they truly meant to hit those targets, which obviously would be nothing short of horrific. They also have problems in very basic tasks such as staying dispersed. A column never closes up on a major highway where it can be spotted by a drone and hit by artillery, as was seen recently. The 40-mile traffic jam we saw outside of Kyiv -- this is just incompetent movement control for which normally there is doctrine and organizational structures and procedures. And then it took them days just to disperse that 40-mile column into the tree cover as opposed to being out in the open. They've also been incapable of combining what should have been a huge advantage for them, which is integrating air and ground operations together. They're not really doing true close air support, just ahead of their ground formations. Rather, they're just doing air attacks. Russian cyberwarfare has also been unimpressive, perhaps because they overused it in the past and the Ukrainians, possibly with some help, learned how to deal with it... Much of the population also hate the Russians, and that hatred is being deepened with every strike on civilian infrastructure. Not only are the Russians not winning hearts and minds, they are alienating hearts and minds... Usually, the rule of thumb for urban warfare is that it requires at least five attackers to every defender. In this case, I'd argue it may be more than that because the Ukrainians are so resourceful. They will work together to prevent the Russians from taking urban areas the way that infantry and combined arms normally would do, such as the way the United States military cleared and then held cities during the Iraq War in, e.g., Ramadi and Fallujah as well as parts of Baghdad and other cities... there's a huge limiting factor, and that is the apparent inability of Putin to replace the forces that are presently fighting. How and when does he replace his forces? It's not apparent to me. In fact, the Russian conscripts are only on 1-year rotations, so it's no wonder that they demonstrate very poor standards of everything, given that they barely made it through basic and advanced training and then unit integration and now they are in combat (and their tours were supposed to have ended in April, until Putin extended them).
BERGEN: US officials say that Russia is asking China for military and other forms of aid. What do you make of this?
PETRAEUS: The report by US officials is interesting in several respects. First, if accurate, it indicates that Russia is running out of certain weapons systems and munitions -- another reflection of how Russia seriously miscalculated so many aspects of the war they launched.
Second, this presents a very difficult issue for China. It was one thing for China to abstain from the UN General Assembly vote in which 141 countries condemned Russia for its unprovoked aggression. It would be a very different matter if China was to accede to Russia's request and thus actively side with a country that is truly becoming the evil empire, the target of unprecedented sanctions and experiencing a decoupling from the global economy. It also might result in some sanctions on China. Third, beyond those issues, President Xi Jinping clearly has to be irritated with Russia's invasion, as Ukraine's largest trading partner was China. Finally, Xi, having gotten through the Olympics had likely hoped for no drama in the months leading up to the Communist Party gathering in the fall during which he undoubtedly will be reelected for an unprecedented third term as President, while retaining his leadership of the Party and the Military Council. Putin could thus put Xi in a very awkward position. So, it has not been a complete surprise that both Russia and China have stated that no such Russian request for aid was issued... I think you must give credit to the US and to NATO and to the EU. I think that the Biden administration has performed impressively, and I say this as someone who publicly criticized the administration for the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and the conduct of the withdrawal in August 2021... instead of Making Russia Great Again, what Putin has done is to Make NATO Great Again... You can't dismiss what the [Biden] administration is saying is possible, given that so much of what they said about Putin's plans for and goals in Ukraine, which was either initially dismissed or seen as unlikely, has now come to pass... It appears that they have taken more fatalities in the first two weeks of the war than the US took in 20 years in Iraq; somewhere around 5,000 or so by most accounts, which is just stunning... No one can predict what the results of the sanctions, frozen assets, corporate decoupling and other actions will be on Russia and the Russian people."
Facebook - "If you want to watch an unbelievably sniveling piece of American left propaganda, I highly recommend “Ukraine on fire“, produced by Oliver Stone.  Among the things the documentary thinks is pertinent is how the Ukrainians sided with Sweden in military conflict between Russia and Sweden in the late 1700s, as well as speculation that virtually all of the prominent victims of the Maidan revolution faked their own beatings or their own deaths.  Also definitely pushes the line that everyone involved is a Nazi, forgetting that the right wing parties combined have a total of one seat in Parliament, down from about a total of 10 in 2012. The sycophantic interviews with Putin where Putin talks about his concern for the people’s will with no pushback from Oliver Stone are just disgusting. "
Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 on Twitter - "Did Jen Psaki and the White House provoke Russia by deliberately lying about them for years about Hunter? Did they ever stop once to consider that the Kremlin might take it as a threat?"
4D chess. Lying about Hunter to get Russia to invade Ukraine
Meme - "Ever since DUMPf's stupid tariffs, I've had to pay $0.25 more for avocados and a $1.00 more for guac!"
"What do you mean paying $10.00 per gallon of gasoline isn't worth it to stop Putin, TRAITOR?!"
Forum: Ukraine war highlights importance of not allowing sovereignty to be trampled on - "I am intrigued by the view, expressed by learned professionals, that Russia invaded Ukraine because Ukraine wanted to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato)... That Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to invade Ukraine before it had actually joined Nato suggests that Nato is not the real cause. In Mr Putin's mind, Ukraine does not historically deserve to be a nation and has to be reined in by force... Some Singaporeans, having heard Russia's version of why it is invading Ukraine, may conclude that Russia-Ukraine history is indeed complex and that Russia may well have a point in claiming that Ukraine has always been part of Russia. I would remind them that Singapore-Malaysia history is no less complex and that by this logic, Malaysia may also have a point in claiming that Singapore has always been part of Malaysia. History is history. What matters is that today, both Ukraine and Singapore are UN members with internationally recognised sovereignty that must not be trampled on with impunity."
The China shills didn't get the memo about ancient history being irrelevant
Facebook - "The speed with which the populist right is becoming as irrational, superstitious and outright dumb as the woke left has impressed me."
Facebook - "What happens when a civilisation that believes "Diversity is Our Strength" meets a civilisation that believes "Strength is Our Strength"?"
Reported Deaths Of 5 Generals Is Evidence That Russia's In Trouble, Warns Gen. David Petraeus - "Petraeus said four of the deaths have been confirmed. “I think the fifth we’ll hear today,” he added. Petraeus attributed the deaths to a variety of factors, including Ukrainians jamming Russian communications, skilled snipers and a Russian military structure that keeps decisions in very few hands. “The bottom line is that their command and control has broken down. Their communications have been jammed by the Ukrainians,” Petraeus said. “Their secure coms didn’t work. They had to go to a single channel that’s jammable ― and that’s exactly what the Ukrainians have been doing to that.” Without communication options, the military column gets stopped. And when an impatient general heads to the front to find out what’s going on, he’s shot and killed... Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, also said the Russians were in trouble in Ukraine. “Russian generals are running out of time, ammunition and manpower,” Hodges wrote in an assessment last week for the Center for European Policy Analysis. “That’s not based on any inside intelligence — it’s clear from open source information and my own experience.” In the latest blow to Russian military leadership, officials confirmed Sunday that navy commander Andrei Paly was killed in fighting in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Agence France-Presse reported. Paly, 51, was the deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet."
British volunteer fighters may have triggered deadly strike on Ukrainian base after their phones were detected - "It has raised fears that the hired guns were able to use their own scanning equipment to intercept the numbers and pass them to Russian intelligence, which linked the details to former British military personnel and immediately ordered an attack... Russia is thought to have access to a vast trove of phone numbers linked to elite British units, compiled through secretive surveillance operations near military bases in the UK... There is also concern that the burgeoning volunteer force that responded to the call to arms of Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has been easily infiltrated by Russian spies... British volunteers who, by a stroke of fortune, left the base just hours before the attack told the Telegraph earlier this week that they were alarmed at the chaotic nature of the operation to prepare foreign recruits... A “small number” of serving soldiers are known to have gone absent without leave to try to enter the battlefield, the British Army admitted earlier this month... The Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, warned any troops who leave to fight in Ukraine will face prosecution on their return."
Space Conference Censors Name of First Human in Space Because He Was Russian - "Whipping themselves into a Freedom Fries-esque fit of censoriousness, a space industry conference has removed the name of celebrated Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel into space, from an event. The nonprofit Space Foundation announced in a now-deleted note that “in light of current world events” it would be changing the name of a fundraiser from “Yuri’s Night” to “A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next” at its Space Symposium conference... It’s a rather dubious show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, especially considering that Gagarin worked for the USSR, a completely different country from modern day Russia. And the icing on the cake? Ukraine actually appears to be rather fond of Gagarin and his monumental achievement... a 2011 Ukraine stamp commemorated the 50th anniversary of his pioneering space flight. And the recently-bombed Chernihiv Stadium was renamed by the Soviets as the “Yuri Gagarin Stadium” back in the 1960s, and is also still referred to as such by fans despite a new official name."
Cardiff Philharmonic removes Tchaikovsky from programme in light of Russian invasion of Ukraine
National Mustard Museum returns Russian mustards to display after removing them - "Mustard should bring people together, not drive them apart. The National Mustard Museum recently went viral when visitors noticed a sign near one of the displays explaining the Russian mustards had been removed in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. After the initial response, however, the museum has decided to return the innocent mustards back to the display... The museum made headlines when a visitor noticed that a sign had been placed near a mustard display that read, “The Russian mustards have been temporarily removed. They will return once the invasion of Ukraine is over and Russia recognizes and respects the sovereign nation of Ukraine.” Levenson confirmed that the sign has been replaced with a new one that reads, “We know that the makers of the Russian mustards are not responsible for the war in Ukraine. That is why these Russian mustards are still on display. We ask you to consider a donation to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a non-governmental organization that provides much needed humanitarian support to the refugees who are fleeing Ukraine.”"
Pianist Alexander Malofeev speaks out against Russian invasion's impact on musicians - "After his concert in Vancouver was cancelled, Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev has spoken out against the impact the Russian invasion of Ukraine is having on Russian music. The 20-year-old pianist’s concert with the Vancouver Recital Society was cancelled due to the ongoing conflict in Kyiv. The society’s founder and artistic director Leila Getz explained that the decision had been made because the society could not ‘present a concert by any Russian artist at this moment in time unless they are prepared to speak out publicly against this war.’... In reference to the Vancouver Recital Society’s claims that he had been asked to speak out publicly against the Russian invasion, Malofeev described having been contacted by journalists, asking for statements, but that he had felt ‘uncomfortable’ about how it could ‘affect [his] family in Russia.’"
Univ. of Florida changes name of study room dedicated to Karl Marx following criticism - "The University of Florida told The National Desk that given the current events in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world it determined it was appropriate to remove Karl Marx's name, which was placed on the group study room in 2014."
Meme - Democratic Party: "Make no mistake-this is Putin's gas price hike. And President Biden is taking every step within his power to minimize its impact on Americans."
Spike Cohen: "Any particular reason why Putin's gas price hike started last year?
As always, you can safely ignore the opinions of anyone who responds by calling me a Republican or Trump supporter, as they've already demonstrated that they don't spend 10 seconds figuring out what they're talking about before going off. Have a great day everyone"
Facebook - "Hear me out: Antifa has an unprecedented opportunity to put their money where their mouth is by volunteering in Ukraine. Of course they won't."
Identity politics is eroding the values which set the West apart from Putin - "Between 1933 and 1945, Ukraine had the highest mortality rate on Earth. Again and again, its people suffered indiscriminate slaughter at the hands of the authorities: the liquidation of the kulaks, the campaigns against supposed Polish and Ukrainian nationalists, the starvation of Soviet and German POWs, the Einsatzgruppen massacres, the NKVD executions, the reprisal killings... It might seem a trivial thing, but look at how quickly we have extended our quarrel with Putin to all Russians. An orchestra in Montreal cancels a Russian pianist, despite his opposition to the invasion; Tchaikovsky is dropped from programmes; Russian paintings are removed from exhibitions. My tribe good, your tribe bad. These cancellations are happening in a culture newly primed to categorise and condemn. We damn institutions for some ancient benefaction. We stop publishing authors because of opinions that had nothing to do with their work. We teach identity politics, encouraging people to believe that they have grievances or obligations purely on grounds of their physiognomy. Can we still rely on Pinker’s thesis, derived ultimately from the Australian philosopher Peter Singer, of expanding moral circles? The publication of his book in 2011 was followed by the Syrian war – another enormity in which Putin had a bloody hand – which reversed some of some of the graphs showing declining violence. The second decade of this century saw the global trend towards law-based democracy thrown into reverse. The lockdowns revealed a terrifying appetite for authoritarian rule, even in traditionally liberal societies. Perhaps we have passed the uplands and are back in the shadows. Yet there are signs of hope. Ukraine’s war is, in effect, a struggle for Western values... Still, are we clear about what it is we are defending? Do we continue to believe that individuals trump groups and that laws must be general, equal and certain? Or are we sliding into our own version of collectivism, where group rights are what count, where we are treated differently according to our physical characteristics, and where the greatest achievement of the West – the dissemination of science, law, and the Enlightenment – is regarded as contemptible imperialism?"
The woke wars have sapped the West of its ability to fight true evil - "As a new battle of civilisations rages in Ukraine, the culture war continues to rip the West apart. One might have hoped that Vladimir Putin’s neo-fascism would have put the West’s descent into pointless arguments over “woke” trivialities into perspective. With liberty now so openly pitted against authoritarianism, our squabbles over statues and gender pronouns seem grotesquely self-indulgent. In short, this should have been the moment when we rallied around the values that make Western civilisation unique: freedom, individualism, sovereignty, democracy, and the rule of law. Instead the West remains tormented by ideological schisms and self-loathing... On both sides of the Atlantic, the far-Left either rails against Nato “imperialism” or calls out Western sympathy for Ukrainian refugees as racist (apparently our solidarity suspiciously exceeds that with victims of war in other countries.) Activists remain more energised by what they see as truly Manichean moral fights: against trans-prejudice, structural racism, and the perils of selfish individualism. The anti-woke Right has become equally muddled on what Western civilisation stands for – and whether it is even worth defending anymore... I can’t buy the narrative that Ukraine has saved the West from its self-inflicted existential crisis – one that has left us divided over what we stand for and what makes our societies distinct. No wonder, given how our core values are routinely denounced or degraded. Covid has led many to regard liberty as a selfish and dangerous impulse that must be controlled. The progressive optimism that once inspired and propelled our civilisation has disintegrated into nihilistic fatalism. Our intellectual commitment to pluralism has collapsed into a vapid obsession with diversity. The woke preoccupation with slavery and the supposedly unique “crime” of British colonialism even makes it more difficult for us to frame the West’s conflict with Russia in the most obvious way: between sovereignty and empire. How can we convincingly tell ourselves a story that pits the UK and its allies against the evils of empire so long as we remain trapped in a one-sided and ideological debate that dictates that the West has to atone for its history? On this, as on so many of the other fronts of the culture war, politicians who should be standing up bravely for Western values run scared... The challenge for Western civilisation is not to beg forgiveness for the sins of the past, but to construct a new system that can deliver progress and freedom to all within it, not just a privileged few (without sliding into impoverishing welfarism). This is what neoliberalism tried and failed to do with its universalist utopia of free market globalised freedom. And so here we are, filling the vacuum with a culture war. Ukraine may look to the West as a beacon of liberty but in truth, we are fast losing our sense of ourselves, consumed by victimhood, tortured by history, foreboding about the future, and possessed with a greater hatred for our internal opponents than our external enemies. This is much to the delight of not just Putin, who has declared liberalism “obsolete” but also to Xi Jinping, as he seeks to prove that the top-down Chinese model is superior to the “chaos” of democracy. Unless the West wins its internal struggle, it simply will not be able to weather a long existential confrontation with authoritarian civilisation states like Russia (and also China). The tragedy is that the stakes are higher than ever for the West, but we have never been more uncertain about what it takes to triumph."
Meme - "come to turkey
meet with me
turkey supports russia"
"I'm from Ukraine"
"turkey supports ukraine"
Trump was right, Merkel was wrong – and it’s made it harder to save Ukraine - "He said that the Germans (and other Europeans) were getting over-reliant on Russia for energy; and that they weren’t spending enough on their own defence. Goodness, how we mocked his boorish ways, his undiplomatic language and crude analysis; yet Germany and the EU ought to have heeded his warnings. For now we can’t slap an embargo on Russian oil and gas – and stop funding Putin’s war machine – because we’d crash the European economy... At home and abroad, governments could subsidise basic food costs, and they could boost the incomes of the poorest via cutting taxes and increasing benefits for those at the bottom of the income scale. The rich would face higher taxes on their spending on luxury items (via new VAT bands, a post-Brexit freedom) and on their incomes... Longer term, the solution both to the energy crisis and the climate crisis is to build more renewable energy sources – wind, solar, hydro and wave, as appropriate. We all know there’s a problem when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, but the scientists and engineers ought to able to crack that with enough time and investment – who thought the electric car had a viable future a few years ago?"
Good luck. The poorest already pay little/no income tax, and exempting whole categories of goods from VAT will reduce tax takes. But of course to liberals, money is unlimited. Not to mention the fantasy that renewables can cover base load (at least he acknowledges it's a fantasy as far as we know)
The woke EU is too decadent to fight for European civilisation - "“We even suggested that the European Union Army could be a good solution, but it doesn't happen. It didn't happen for years, so I do not believe in the European army. It's not a good idea," he tells me. “I prefer Nato. The role of the USA and Great Britain is more important to me, so [talk of a European army is] not stabilising the situation.” Mr Gliński, who regularly works late into the night closely tracking the situation in Ukraine, is clearly concerned not just about the future of his own country, but that of the whole of Europe. “As we can see in Ukraine, [the will to fight] is something which is absolutely the most important factor," he says. “Because even if you have weapons, if you have technologies, you could be very weak if you have not got this ability to sacrifice your life, to defend your values, your family, your nation. And I'm not sure if contemporary Europe is ready for such a confrontation.”... He describes dreams of a European superstate as “utopian”, and Poland knows better than most where utopian ideologies end up. “[Utopian thinking] caused a lot of victims and a lot of, really, really horrible things, like communism; one hundred million victims," he says. "This utopia of European culture and European society is ... politically motivated because a lot of interest groups are interested to introduce it." The Polish approach is to look back to tradition and to build on history. "Of course, we are for those institutions which are effective economically and culturally," he explains. "What we observed in Ukraine … if we can say about conclusions after three weeks, it proved that real character of values and priorities based on stabilised basic social institutions like family, like nations… These are something which is most effective not only for satisfying people's needs but also for surviving and for defending our sovereignty and independence. “These experiences from the Ukraine war support our vision, not the vision of something which is artificial, which is ineffective and is naive in its assumptions.” A professor of sociology specialising in culture and civil society before entering professional politics, Mr Gliński serves not only as Deputy Prime Minister but as a Minister within the Department of Culture and National Heritage... Is Europe woke? “Yes,” says Mr Gliński. “They lost the feeling of what is important really in the life of nations. They have lost it years ago. The first visible crisis was probably after the war, when they were so focused on Leftist or communist ideas, of course, they were still in the Christian tradition to some extent ... but there were [signs of] the first pro-decadent changes. “There was post-modernistic thinking or ideas and these different kinds of Marxism were very popular amongst intellectuals in Europe. The weakness of Europe is stemming from this tradition, generally speaking. European institutions are not ready to build any effective opposition to the danger from the East.”... Before Putin’s invasion, Britain, Poland and Ukraine signed a trilateral cooperation agreement, and all three have worked closely together in preparing Ukraine’s defences. There have been some who have suggested that Brexit has diminished Britain’s influence in Europe and around the world. According to Mr Gliński, the exact opposite is true. “There is a new coalition [between] London, Warsaw and Kyiv. This is because Great Britain is now independent from the European Union and so it's easier for us… in some respects to build a coalition with Britain, that's for sure.”"
