11:44
Sweden is at war and above all, the entire West is exposed to enormous subversive activity from Russia, which is a state-prioritized function for them.
Russia is smart – to get a democratic country to lock up, you only need to control a couple in the parliaments or alternatively a smaller party. Around Brexit, it is now accepted that the leader of Ukip had contacts with Russia. He probably pushed a cause he thought was important but would likely not have gotten far if it weren’t for Russia’s subversive activities. Do you remember what happened just before the BREXIT vote in 2016? Yes, the migration crisis of 2015 which has Russia’s fingerprints all over it and what was one of UKIP’s most important issues – to curb migration. Good push from Russia.
I note that in the larger debate’s attempt to nuance issues that are not at all controversial and where heavy authorities oppose, it is often automatically classified as right-wing forces. It is always difficult to remain objective and especially to remain objective when one’s own group is up for discussion but the majority society is the nurturing group that pays the whole bill regardless of ethnicity or gender and is also the group that, if they become intolerant, can pose a threat to minority groups. It is therefore smart to pursue a policy they are satisfied with as elected representatives. Now today in 2024, the majority society is not ethnically homogeneous which reduces the risk of ethnic conflict which is good but in more and more countries in Europe, populist parties are advancing strongly and at least create deadlocks for important decisions.
The Cold War and how Russian subversive activity went, we know that it is very broad and the purpose is to destabilize, pacify and topple democracies if possible and everything that works is good, and that the security services make big money from crime.
The task for our elected representatives is to pursue policies regarding; school, healthcare, elderly care, childcare, basic research, taxes, electricity prices, security and safety, and joint defense and one shall follow traditions and practices – quite boring issues and predictable actions. The state fundamentally has a mandate to carry out its core mission and beyond that, there should be no tax levies except for those with broad acceptance. One should also not have strong opinions as an elected official far outside one’s role with the platform as leverage – one should simply pursue the issues one is paid for just as you and I are expected to do in our jobs – they work for us citizens. It is damn boring but it is stable, right? A country is different groups where the elected constantly prioritize who should get what of the available resources, if some get too much others get too little, so a framework has been set up to make it as fair as possible.
This is how a Scot in the 18th century reasoned about democracy.
https://x.com/thinkingwest/status/1781328910161969520?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
I also like Thomas Sowell – quotes from him are so clear that you have to sit down and have a beer.
In a larger perspective, it also does no harm if a country’s citizens feel trust and a sense of belonging so they do their little extra for the country – what Sweden has always been known for – the Scandinavian miracle. What I tried to exemplify with the Pripps Blue commercial that did not turn out too well because apparently no one likes beer in the thread 😐
We should look at what happens and not what is said – below are a couple of issues that have led to bigger debates in Sweden (and also in the entire West) and what consequences these issues have actually had in hindsight.
Everything was supposed to make it better for us but did we get better?
In Germany, there is a scandal unfolding where an official concealed the negatives of shutting down nuclear power for the good purpose of shutting down nuclear power.
https://x.com/aydstedt/status/1783877465422639136?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
We start with the Climate Crisis, or as it was called when I went to university – the greenhouse effect or global warming.
Here you see how the news have changed the coloring of the map over time, some risk that it is manipulated perhaps but I grabbed it.
https://x.com/nocontexthumans/status/1775508554926928270?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The EU Court of Human Rights has just ruled in favor of a couple of Portuguese who sued the West (not China, India, and Russia) for ruining their lives – the West now has court rulings that they must do more. The same just happened in Switzerland and the Supreme Court in England is failing the government on environmental issues
https://x.com/dorfman_p/status/1786341841580830729
I often think about how in Sweden we go from +30°C to -30°C within a year and animals, humans, and plants survive. I also grew up with the concept of “April weather,” which my parents grew up with from their parents and so on, one day +20°C and sunny and then snow the next morning. Not to mention the seasons in the Serengeti where the hippos eventually crowd into a small waterhole, half-baked by the sun before the rains come.
For Sweden, our competitiveness against the rest of the world was dirt-cheap electricity for our electricity-intensive industry so we could sell our products at a reasonable price despite high wages. Cheap electricity has simply been a cornerstone of our country’s prosperity.
No country in the world has high prosperity and little energy.
https://x.com/alecstapp/status/1781744044638445750?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
I also understand that countries that become 100% self-sufficient in stable renewable energy are absolute winners, but that is not the same as shutting down electricity production before we have reasonable alternatives and hoping for the best. The consequence analysis is conspicuously absent, and if one were to guess, China is very pleased with the development since they are stealing market shares in exports from the West every year without any counter-performance.
Seven countries that are 100% renewable energy, not the countries you might think but progress is being made.
https://x.com/mzjacobson/status/1780259050514706649?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Here you have a warning from German industry
https://x.com/javierblas/status/1778669924740690060?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
https://x.com/love4meat/status/1778004197734007019?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Swedish agriculture is under pressure, green transition brings new more expensive requirements, high electricity prices, and high diesel prices.
https://x.com/edward_norden_/status/1778070407561777631?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
And here a warning from the business sector.
https://x.com/ericson_ubbhult/status/1777841670765121812?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The cost of reaching “net-zero,” which some want to legislate to make mandatory (for the West), will crash the West. The cost is simply unreasonable.
https://x.com/chrismartzwx/status/1777722289930322175?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The position on CO2 (which is the cause of the climate crisis and which must be reduced by shutting down, for example, electricity production in the West) is not uncontroversial, but in today’s debate climate, those who take the opposite position against a better world can be completely dismissed or silenced.
Below is information, true or not, that does not fit into the picture I receive daily about the climate crisis.
-CO2 is the basis of our plant life, and CO2 levels have never been this low; some believe that plant life will be negatively affected.
https://x.com/_climatecraze/status/1778998972083732568?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
-Others link the sun’s strong periods to periods of warming since the Middle Ages, lost the link.
-And others believe there is no connection between CO2 and the climate at all
https://x.com/dawntj90/status/1777974427747303812?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
-Then this is interesting, several temperature records were broken in the 1800s and before 1950.
https://x.com/chrismartzwx/status/1776845948733321383?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
https://x.com/chrismartzwx/status/1781110842970247243?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
-The ice in the Arctic has not decreased since 1996
https://x.com/chrismartzwx/status/1778287983734513981?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
-Since 1750, humans have only contributed 10% of the CO2 increase according to this.
https://x.com/junkscience/status/1781743933015339340?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
A guy in the USA goes and looks for temperature gauges, some have been removed but are still used, others are placed near warm air outlets, and generally, temperature was previously taken 2m above the ground but today at ground level, which apparently results in a change of several degrees warmer? Then many gauges are in cities, but it is colder in the countryside – according to the links below.
https://x.com/_climatecraze/status/1784363948130570646?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
https://x.com/BjuhrEva/status/1787389739919696027
Greenland was apparently ice-free when CO2 was lower than today.
https://x.com/robinmonotti/status/1790733299272368407?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The poles are colder than they have been in a long time apparently
https://x.com/noturbine/status/1784997656000925728?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
I think this one is relevant – every degree of temperature increase increases “precipitation” by 7%. Increased cloudiness and rain lower surface temperature.
https://x.com/hausfath/status/1780645360677065065?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
In 1999, I was told at the University of Edinburgh that sea levels would rise within 10 years so much that the Netherlands would be underwater by 2018, which did not happen. I wonder what the same professor says today in that course.
This thing about making the EU climate neutral at an astronomical cost while China, India, and Russia, which account for the absolute majority of emissions, get some kind of free pass is something I personally am starting to think is wrong. There is zero logic in that reasoning because it does not affect the total, and you do not have to be a climate scientist to understand that the total is what matters. I would have understood if the focus had been on these countries instead, but it is not, and to my knowledge, that reason has not been discussed at all – what is the purpose of this strategy?
Possible wave of bankruptcies in the wind power sector
https://x.com/ericson_ubbhult/status/1762747611902025779?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The EU now has an electricity cost that is 2 times higher than in the USA and 3 times higher than in China – how are we supposed to manufacture products at a reasonable price and sell them on the world market?
https://x.com/bjornlomborg/status/1780181879590699340?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
My thoughts instead of wind power are to expand hydropower in Sweden and invest in the next generation of solar cells paired with storage capacity.
Did you know that some pro-Russian accounts that have pushed for wind power and against Ukraine are also negative towards solar power?
Sodium batteries in China seem to work as storage for the power grid and they are cheap.
https://x.com/jessejenkins/status/1790693083836715459?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The cost of batteries has also dropped by 90% over 15 years, so the development suggests that battery storage is the future, which China seems to have understood.
https://x.com/dorfman_p/status/1790331043024605628?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
We then keep the existing nuclear power as long as it is practically possible and look at how we will complement it with something additional.
Then to make the world better – Sweden takes on plastic recycling from the 10 rivers that account for 95% of the plastic in the world’s oceans and invests in projects to clean the world’s oceans of plastic, there are many good projects. Then the plastic is recycled so there is business in it too.
https://x.com/simongerman600/status/1779124890945171495?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Then we plant forests in the world’s deserts with the money we had planned to build mechanical CO2 capture devices with, like this one in Helsingborg. Replanting deserts is entirely possible but costs money.
https://x.com/ericson_ubbhult/status/1780452459124560202?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
11:40
The Lions
https://x.com/ukrainiansquad/status/1791822464512672080?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The French are the first country to go out and vote in parliament that their weapons should be allowed to be used on Russian territory – high-level signal politics posted by the thread’s own France expert Fram i Natten the day before yesterday.
Macron has certainly taken the lead in this race. The Germans are still arguing about Taurus and now Scalp and the French version of JDAMS are hitting targets in Russia at a furious pace.
Until the turn of the year, I considered Macron a somewhat slippery career politician who would have sold his mother for the right price, but during 2024 France has delivered both signal politics, red lines, weapons, and ammunition, and it is hard to find any downside to this.
Reading between the lines, Zelensky is seriously pissed off now and unfortunately that probably means that not enough material will come, which will push any larger offensive into the future.
He goes as far as to say that the West does not want Ukraine to win
https://x.com/mylovanov/status/1792196563432874006?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
We also know that the West put heavy pressure on Ukraine last autumn to negotiate while simultaneously withdrawing all support 🤬
But unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how France votes – the USA has now come out and twisted Zelensky’s arm and said that if they use French or British weapons on Russian soil, the USA will stop all support 🤬
https://x.com/arturrehi/status/1792668126271926371?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
https://x.com/thestudyofwar/status/1792752767666373049?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
https://x.com/colbybadhwar/status/1792621200268460525?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Practically speaking, is there any difference if ATACMS sinks two Russian warships or if they take out an airfield just on the Russian side of the border? I don’t think so, but then again, I’m sitting in my parents’ basement playing Rise of Nations.
I really become completely resigned when I read this, now Zelensky has spoken frankly and explained to us how the discussions have gone – we guessed completely right when we thought that the West pressured the West to negotiate last autumn and also that the USA does not allow its weapons on Russian soil.
But that the USA has the audacity to demand that Ukraine do as they say even though parliaments in the EU vote to help Ukraine is absolutely astonishing – there they have made exceptions to democratic principles.
Until 2024, the West also did not allow Ukraine to use their weapons against legitimate targets inside Russia 🤬
The thread has been well-calibrated, I think, and intuitively understood how things have been.
Then we have the absolute MADNESS with too few air defense systems, Ukraine shot down 95% when they had air defense missiles, but when they ran out, their entire power infrastructure was knocked out. In autumn 2023, grain exports were knocked out and earlier they also targeted the power infrastructure.
Ukraine has received 4 Patriots and there are 500 in stockpiles in some Western countries including the USA.
https://x.com/euromaidanpress/status/1792691862202941841?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Has it occurred to you that Russia has already lost control over Crimea?
The fleet is hiding in Novorossiysk, and “hiding” is a good description since they have their submarines in stealth mode in the harbor basin to avoid being taken out.
Air defense is completely incapable of protecting Crimea and even slow drones hit their targets.
In the near future, Russia will also empty the airfields, a few ATACMS strikes later.
Ukraine has taken over all the oil platforms west of Crimea so they have several bases to conduct raids from and there is no shortage of suitable vessels now. Jet ski raids were 2023, the new black is Combat Boat 90.
Since the Russian technical platform is completely inferior to the West, their air defense shield has now collapsed, they never managed to handle Western missiles but now they barely even shoot down slow drones over the prioritized defense area Crimea.
The air defense line that is supposed to encase Ukraine has such large holes that Ukraine gets drones through daily and at depth there is no defense at all.
Russia is wide open to having its valuable infrastructure bombed to pieces.
Ukraine shoots down all Shaheds always and if they have air defense ammunition, 95% of the missiles. Russia can no longer retaliate today – it is a one-way street.
By the way, Iran’s police chief was shot dead the day after the president died in a helicopter crash.
In Iran, there was spontaneous partying.
And at the UN Security Council, they held a moment of silence for the mass murderer – if anyone doubted that the UN has tilted, you have the proof in the link below. Obsolete!
https://x.com/darrengrimes_/status/1792650780366741759?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The same UN that condemned the USA’s handling of university protests.
https://x.com/senfettermanpa/status/1785308146795196737?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
And Saudi Arabia is to become chair of the committee for women’s rights at the UN
https://x.com/kvartalet/status/1775901238191681540?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The fact is that Iran is interesting, they have already had huge demonstrations in the country so the people are tired of this.
They are also tired of political Islam, mosques are closing
https://x.com/azzatalsaalem/status/1791061040458777023?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Some are secular and ignore Ramadan in some cases
https://x.com/NiohBerg/status/1786353377414148544
Iranian woman gets tired of the West
https://x.com/elicalebon/status/1786258251774111905?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
I have been thinking for a while whether the country might have a reversed revolution and free itself from political Islam. That could perhaps lead the way towards de-Islamization in MENA?
Georgia should reasonably have its popular revolution soon?
Armenia is moving towards the West?
Slovakia was approaching Ukraine in the months before Fico died?
The Russian empire is creaking and what remains is that the minority peoples have had enough and demand their statutory freedom.
By the way, Ukraine will become an electricity supplier to Serbia, Hungary, the Balkans, Slovakia, and some other countries and that may well be why they are converting under duress now when they will get nothing from Russia.
Orban has plundered Hungary and his family are probably billionaires by now so Orban will fall eventually.
When this war is over, the EU will presumably strengthen our eastern border that runs through Finland, the Baltics, Belarus’s eastern border, and Ukraine. We help finance a bulwark against the barbarians and have rapid response brigades training together on site. Then we must maintain that capability over time, the countries in the buffer zone get paid so they don’t overburden their economies with a disproportionately large defense force, which is what is needed.
After that, it is about finding a balance with China and it may very well be that tariffs and trade barriers are required so that the EU and USA do not fall behind. It is not a natural law that one should be allowed to steal all technology and then produce cheaper through state aid that companies in the West cannot get. China also has practices and agreements to adhere to and if they do not, there will be consequences. China should have understood this when they see what happened to Russia and Iran but you never know.
As is well known, I have worked a bit in Africa and the land is absolutely packed with natural resources on a level that is incomprehensible, and then the map is quite misleading, the African continent is absolutely ENORMOUSLY larger than what we are used to on world maps.
If the EU has any self-preservation instinct, they try to find sensible countries and give them fair trade agreements because this continent is the market of the future and the future very much so. Similar to the US oil agreements perhaps?
Here is everything you need to know about the Ukrainian drones buzzing past the Russian air defense.
https://x.com/ukraine_map/status/1775424155564847187?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Russia thought that the attacks on refineries on April 2 came from somewhere random.
https://x.com/gerashchenko_en/status/1775158844995285031?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The Russian kamikaze drone factory has been carpet bombed
https://x.com/julianroepcke/status/1775046533156684245?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Read the comments below, lots of shrapnel protection.
https://x.com/secretsqrl123/status/1775738798225428597?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Truth Social has received a loan from a Russian
https://x.com/jayinkyiv/status/1775558692965941332?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Now that we know that Crimea is unable to protect itself against threats from the air, we can assume that they will also have difficulty defending against naval raids.
The Dnipro front overall is poorly manned with second-rate troops.
Do you know where it is also weak – up at the northern front. There it is poorly mined and right now they are exhausting the defense while Ukraine is significantly reinforcing. If it was a hard bite a few days ago, it is a shark’s mouth now.
Russia seems to be pulling units from northern Luhansk.
As is well known, I believe it was to create a buffer zone but Russia has made a tactical mistake that possibly gives Ukraine a good position. If nothing else, Russia must lock down units up there now.
If it was a diversion as some seem to think – where is the main attack then?
Now it’s grill chips, ranch dip, and Mariestad for a week. Or it will be strictly non-alcoholic to rest the system but some worry that it will become like a museum piece in alcohol when pouring out the alcohol from the animals in a glass jar. Equilibrium is maintained with a high constant blood alcohol level.