Jan Smoleński, PhD
@jansmolenski.bsky.social
Assistant professor at ASC UW, PhD in Politics from NSSR, alumnus of PolSci at CEU and of Philosophy at UW. #politics #society repost≠endorsement
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
Seems like a good time to repost what @jansmolenski.bsky.social and I wrote about Mearsheimer and his moronic ilk back in 2022:
newrepublic.com/article/1656...
newrepublic.com/article/1656...
March 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Seems like a good time to repost what @jansmolenski.bsky.social and I wrote about Mearsheimer and his moronic ilk back in 2022:
newrepublic.com/article/1656...
newrepublic.com/article/1656...
Well... bsky.app/profile/umla...
The berating of Zelenskyy in the White House is perhaps the final defeat of the pro-atlanticist faction in the Republican Party. MAGA with its strange blend of isolationist rhetoric and extortionist actions won. It is not inconceivable that the whole thing was staged Vance for just this purpose.
March 1, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Well... bsky.app/profile/umla...
So much support! This is really pathetic.
March 1, 2025 at 9:44 AM
So much support! This is really pathetic.
The berating of Zelenskyy in the White House is perhaps the final defeat of the pro-atlanticist faction in the Republican Party. MAGA with its strange blend of isolationist rhetoric and extortionist actions won. It is not inconceivable that the whole thing was staged Vance for just this purpose.
March 1, 2025 at 9:41 AM
The berating of Zelenskyy in the White House is perhaps the final defeat of the pro-atlanticist faction in the Republican Party. MAGA with its strange blend of isolationist rhetoric and extortionist actions won. It is not inconceivable that the whole thing was staged Vance for just this purpose.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably IS a duck.
An admin throwing away all its leverage. "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, according to three people familiar with the matter." therecord.media/hegseth-orde...
Exclusive: Hegseth orders Cyber Command to stand down on Russia planning
The secretary of Defense has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, sources tell Recorded Future News.
therecord.media
February 28, 2025 at 11:46 PM
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably IS a duck.
Who is the teacher? Trump or Putin?
V*nce is like that kid in school horrendously desperate for the teacher’s validation that everybody hates
February 28, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Who is the teacher? Trump or Putin?
Lindsey Graham repeating Putin's talking points is the new low even for the Republican Party.
Lindsay Graham said Zelensky needs to resign. Putin has wanted Zelensky gone from Day 1. Another sign that the Trump administration wants to align with russia, not just walk away from helping Ukraine.
February 28, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Lindsey Graham repeating Putin's talking points is the new low even for the Republican Party.
This is the message that Europeans have been receiving for some time. And we need to act accordingly.
Remember: the televised punishment & humiliation meted out to Zelensky just now could be done to any NATO ally facing similar aggression. The sense of sneering hostility & contempt by Trump & Vance isn’t specific to Ukraine.
February 28, 2025 at 11:40 PM
This is the message that Europeans have been receiving for some time. And we need to act accordingly.
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
Vance blew up that meeting on purpose
February 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Vance blew up that meeting on purpose
Lindsey Graham sucking up to Trump on Fox News is embarrassing. No, Senator, Putin watching Trump defending him is not scared of Trump, he is happy he has his fanboy in the White House.
February 28, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Lindsey Graham sucking up to Trump on Fox News is embarrassing. No, Senator, Putin watching Trump defending him is not scared of Trump, he is happy he has his fanboy in the White House.
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
Presidency-ending scandals for any POTUS from Truman to Obama, massively endangering US national security, now happening on a daily basis, while Congress sits on its hands & does nothing. Total, comprehensive failure of Article I of the Constitution.
FT Exclusive: Peter Navarro, one of the US president’s closest advisers, is pushing for the US to remove Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network — which also includes the UK, Australia and New Zealand. www.ft.com/content/2dfa...
February 25, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Presidency-ending scandals for any POTUS from Truman to Obama, massively endangering US national security, now happening on a daily basis, while Congress sits on its hands & does nothing. Total, comprehensive failure of Article I of the Constitution.
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
Putin’s lifelong dream was to somehow separate the US from NATO. But how to break up a strong alliance that stood for 80 years and continued to expand? There really was only one way to do it, he figured it out a decade ago, and played the long game. Now his guy will do it.
February 25, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Putin’s lifelong dream was to somehow separate the US from NATO. But how to break up a strong alliance that stood for 80 years and continued to expand? There really was only one way to do it, he figured it out a decade ago, and played the long game. Now his guy will do it.
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
Keep this in mind as House Republicans vote for a budget framework that would gut Medicaid (relied on by 72 million) and food stamp programs (relied on by 42 million people).
February 25, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Keep this in mind as House Republicans vote for a budget framework that would gut Medicaid (relied on by 72 million) and food stamp programs (relied on by 42 million people).
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
Perhaps Nikki wants to consult a mirror?
February 25, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Perhaps Nikki wants to consult a mirror?
Removing "your" people from the reach of the law is one of the traits of authoritarianism. It rests on providing favors in exchange for loyalty. And favors in the form of temporary exemption from criminal prosecution are the best, because they guarantee control.
The laws don't apply to the president's friends in corrupt Russian-aligned authoritarian states
February 25, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Removing "your" people from the reach of the law is one of the traits of authoritarianism. It rests on providing favors in exchange for loyalty. And favors in the form of temporary exemption from criminal prosecution are the best, because they guarantee control.
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
The new American government: protecting... (checks notes) poor loan sharks against their scammed victims. And no, this is not a joke nor The Onion, as much as I'd wish it were.
My capacity to be shocked is getting severely tested, but this managed it with aplomb.
February 24, 2025 at 8:47 AM
The new American government: protecting... (checks notes) poor loan sharks against their scammed victims. And no, this is not a joke nor The Onion, as much as I'd wish it were.
Serious question I do not have enough time to answer myself: how many of these incompetent people have crypto investments and can be controlled through them?
How? Against Trump's political opponents. This is not about the effective use of the power of the state but about its use against specific people. Here the competence is not needed. What is needed is blind loyalty.
“The choice of Mr. Bongino is a radical and abrupt departure from that practice and raises startling questions about how two people who have never served as F.B.I. agents will oversee the vast surveillance and investigative powers of an agency of 38,000 people…”
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/u...
February 24, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Serious question I do not have enough time to answer myself: how many of these incompetent people have crypto investments and can be controlled through them?
How? Against Trump's political opponents. This is not about the effective use of the power of the state but about its use against specific people. Here the competence is not needed. What is needed is blind loyalty.
“The choice of Mr. Bongino is a radical and abrupt departure from that practice and raises startling questions about how two people who have never served as F.B.I. agents will oversee the vast surveillance and investigative powers of an agency of 38,000 people…”
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/u...
Right-Wing Commentator Named F.B.I. Deputy Director (Gift Article)
The choice of Dan Bongino is a radical departure from the bureau’s history of having a veteran agent serve in the key role that oversees operations.
www.nytimes.com
February 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
How? Against Trump's political opponents. This is not about the effective use of the power of the state but about its use against specific people. Here the competence is not needed. What is needed is blind loyalty.
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
Time for this I think.
Every new signal from the White House says they’re abandoning Ukraine and actually want to ally with Russia.
Worse than even just the pessimistic prediction of simple abandonment.
Every new signal from the White House says they’re abandoning Ukraine and actually want to ally with Russia.
Worse than even just the pessimistic prediction of simple abandonment.
I obviously understand why Zelenskyy has been soft on Trump and maybe he should remain so for now, but I have to wonder what the political cost of Z doing a big sad public speech lamenting American betrayal and Trump's (weak) surrender to Putin.
Might not topple Trump but it'd surely cause trouble.
Might not topple Trump but it'd surely cause trouble.
*TRUMP CALLS ZELENSKIY A DICTATOR WITHOUT ELECTIONS
February 22, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Time for this I think.
Every new signal from the White House says they’re abandoning Ukraine and actually want to ally with Russia.
Worse than even just the pessimistic prediction of simple abandonment.
Every new signal from the White House says they’re abandoning Ukraine and actually want to ally with Russia.
Worse than even just the pessimistic prediction of simple abandonment.
So far the US elites did next to nothing…
Question: what will the remaining service chiefs do?
Friday Night Purge: Trump fires 6 Pentagon officials, including Gen. Charles Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and
Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy
So many thoughts about this, most of them unprintable
Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy
So many thoughts about this, most of them unprintable
February 23, 2025 at 12:27 PM
So far the US elites did next to nothing…
Reposted by Jan Smoleński, PhD
"...expectations vis-à-vis the parties are asymmetrical: Democrats must be the adults in the room; the Republican party has license to feature Marjorie Taylor Greene... Accepting this...asymmetry – and...politicians never facing consequences...– is part of what has brought us to this moment."
Lessons for the resistance 2.0 on how to fight back against Trump | Jan-Werner Müller
Defeatism and demoralisation are rampant in Trump’s second term. But we cannot give up
www.theguardian.com
February 22, 2025 at 11:13 PM
"...expectations vis-à-vis the parties are asymmetrical: Democrats must be the adults in the room; the Republican party has license to feature Marjorie Taylor Greene... Accepting this...asymmetry – and...politicians never facing consequences...– is part of what has brought us to this moment."
9 tweets per hour if he didn’t sleep. Too much k🐎💉?
Musk has tweeted more than 220 times in last 24 hrs.
That's not counting the replies.
That's not counting the replies.
February 23, 2025 at 11:44 AM
9 tweets per hour if he didn’t sleep. Too much k🐎💉?
Looks like Democrats stopped censoring themselves. Maybe this is the way to mobilize and capitalize on people’s anger at DOGE
This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.
February 23, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Looks like Democrats stopped censoring themselves. Maybe this is the way to mobilize and capitalize on people’s anger at DOGE
No one should full themselves. It is not about not being advantage of anymore. It is about exploiting vulnerability. This is not a behavior of an ally but of a predator.
He can use the exact same argument for any European country attacked by russia or for any other American ally attacked by another aggressor.
Trump on Ukraine: "I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up and I'm gonna try and get the war settled and I'm try and get all that death ended. We're asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get. But we feel so stupid. It affects Europe. It doesn't really affect us"
February 23, 2025 at 11:36 AM
No one should full themselves. It is not about not being advantage of anymore. It is about exploiting vulnerability. This is not a behavior of an ally but of a predator.