Finally, be alert for the MAGA/Czar/Stalin/Putin playbook: If there is any discussion that might divide people and sow PUD, a Moscow bot will amplify it. On BluSky, it might purport to have progressive credentials. I see faux indignation in Telegram and YouTube comments on Ukraine topics a lot.

Look for pro-Putin, subtle “expert” arguments with alleged Western provenance, such as that because Ukraine attacked a “strategic” nuclear missile defense radar (used tactically in targeting Ukrainian cities), that Ukraine has put the West at risk of legitimate nuclear retaliation.

Moscow BS evolves: Great Russian tropes, such that Moscow is the defender of Slavs or Christianity, from Kyiv to Serbia, are now claims to being the anti-imperialist friend of the Global South, when Russia is a pirate, mercenary and agent of chaos, and friend of bestial regimes like Assad’s.

More “tells” of Kremlin agit-prop: 4) The imperial colonialist notion that Ukraine is not a separate people, with no separate language or culture, or legitimate state; 5) The mirror-pointing slander that Ukraine, led by a Jew who spoke Russian, is Nazi. Russian-speakers defend Ukraine willingly.

Spot common Kremlin talking points: 1) The false notion that Russia is winning, invincible; 2) The ahistorical notion that NATO expansion preceded bloody post-Soviet reactionary militarism ; 3) Nuclear saber-rattling and the existence of Kremlin “red lines” (that have been serially crossed).

With the decline of X, Russian propaganda is migrating to BluSky. Counter and balance with commentary and reporting from scholar Timothy Snyder blueskydirectory.com/profiles/tim..., the Ukrainian press such as the Kyiv Post, military bloggers on Telegram. More guidance to follow.

PUTIN'S RUSSIA WILL FALL themilitaryanalyst.com/2024/12/14/p...

Not only are movements that include and empower women more likely to succeed — they also build better democracies, ones that are more egalitarian and resilient. NEW from Erica Newland, @kristyparker.bsky.social, and Michael Angeloni. www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/how-democr...

Clinton is insightful, as usual.
Since Reagan, the GOP has worked to increase citizens' cynicism about government, and then campaigned against government.
Now, under Trump, the GOP is working to increase citizens' cynicism about democracy, and then campaigning against democracy.

More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm RFK Jr.

The letter marks the first time in recent memory that Nobel laureates have banded together against a Cabinet choice. But Kennedy is a threat they could not ignore, one said. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/h...

Russia has had some famous mutinies: Earlier in the war, Prigozhin’s takeover of Rostov and abortive push to Moscow. Hopefully these mutinies in Kursk’s “Black Mile” aren’t ephemeral, and will spread across the front. Its how the Russian Revolution started during WW1. You might’ve read about it.

Repeated failed assaults and the forcing of injured and sick troops into frontline attacks seems to have finally reached the point soldiers have had enough. Ukraine reports that offensive actions from the Russian side have virtually stopped as a result.