Monthly Archives: December 2025

“His team”? This is a new way of speaking about the United States bombing a country.

Branko Milanović in Agenda Pública: When income and wealth become highly concentrated, political power tends to move toward those who have money, and the system becomes hypocritical: it is an ostensible democracy but such that the rich rule. I really … Continue reading →

From the Bundeswehr questionnaire 18-year-old German men are required to fill out indicating their qualifications for and interest in induction into the military. Benedikt Bierhoff, Am Sportplatz 9. This is the organization protecting western European civilization from the ravages of … Continue reading →

On 7 December 1988, in New York, Gorbachev addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. He announced the withdrawal of half a million Soviet troops from the countries of Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union also released almost all of … Continue reading →

Is it possible for someone to review Bundeswehr, US military, and Russian military recruiting collateral, and still take the Bundeswehr halfway seriously? How? 🤔 I mean this in all seriousness: in Russia I regularly photograph recruiting posters. The difference between … Continue reading →

This morning I am musing over Tony Benn’s five questions to people in power. “If you can’t get rid of the people who govern you, you don’t live in a democratic system.” I am finding I can’t even talk about … Continue reading →

The problem, contrary to customary Western claims, lay not in the “crushing” defense outlays. The Soviet military, the military-industrial complex (MIC), and R&D were remarkably cost-effective; according to the best available estimates, they never exceeded 15 percent of GDP. A … Continue reading →