Half-Brick McCurdy

Flavio will join Alexandre Ramagen, the Brazilian spy chief sentenced to 16 years for helping Jair Bolsonaro’s attempted coup, who also fled to the US to avoid prison. So the US is establishing itself as a bolthole/staging ground for Far-Right, authoritarians supported by US techbros. Heck, place

Europe bypassing the corrupt, American clown show (and associated "peace talk" reporting) helpfully provides a clear view of what Russia wants, and it reads a lot like their demands from 2021 (see next tweet for an example)

Introduced in 2022 in response to the collapse of the Russian car market, the most straightforward subsidy discounted the vehicle purchase price of locally produced cars by 20%. Inflation concerns saw the central bank gain the power to cap total subsidy spending in Apr 2025 and impose additional

schemes favouring the right sort of Russians (employed and credit worthy with kids), the Kremlin now appears willing to accept an initial downturn/chosen guns over butter, presumably in the hope of economic conditions normalising as quickly as the US can oblige.

Introduced in 2022 in response to the collapse of the Russian car market, the most straightforward subsidy discounted the vehicle purchase price of locally produced cars by 20%. Inflation concerns saw the central bank gain the power to cap total subsidy spending in Apr 2025 and impose additional

Good read with some additional context below

Pretending you’re throwing a ball for a dog and the dog eagerly bounding away until it realises there’s no ball, is a good analogy for the relationship between the Whitehouse and political correspondents when it comes to Ukraine. From Sept to Nov last year, the US sending Ukraine tomahawk missiles

Zelensky announced in Sep permission had been granted. Except this month we learned there was no permission. These 2 examples alone total 9 mths of coverage pretending there was a ball. They matter because they help inform the myth of Trump pivoting between Russia/Ukraine, that contrasts with

Pretending you’re throwing a ball for a dog and the dog eagerly bounding away until it realises there’s no ball, is a good analogy for the relationship between the Whitehouse and political correspondents when it comes to Ukraine. From Sept to Nov last year, the US sending Ukraine tomahawk missiles

Worth a repost given the Trump chat below. And again, no pivot or swing, rather a calculated strategy complete with baby steps forward, to ease pressure on Russia/bring it back into the mainstream

So there's been no Trump pivot or swing to Russia. Rather, there's been consistent misreporting of America's actual position since January 2025, fostered and indulged by the US admin, and pandered to by leaders elsewhere for obvious, pragmatic reasons.

Explaining America's Ukraine policy exclusively in terms of the Trump/Zelensky relationship is a bad thing. Its childish and unavoidably apportions at least some of the blame to Ukraine, prioritizes the latest Trump outburst over actual steps taken, and forgets Trump is dictating American policy,

The US is the world's largest producer of oil and gas, the EU not so much (see graphs below). The US has profited massively from the EU turning away from Russian gas and quadrupling it's US imports (and paying the consequent price "burden"). The EU has approved 6 sanction packages since Jan 2025,

Mainstream American commentators typically memory hole the multiple pro-Russian steps taken by the current US admin. But, whereas pro-Russian UN votes and G20 invites are mere faux pas best viewed in isolation, if considered at all, the (3rd *) starlink switch-off is too gratuitous and touches too

With repayments prioritized over govt spending, the consequent reduction in funding for health, etc, would have done sustained, demographic damage. Accompanying negotiations, the US temporarily switched off Ukrainian F16 defensive systems and froze arms deliveries and intelligence sharing, go figure

Mainstream American commentators typically memory hole the multiple pro-Russian steps taken by the current US admin. But, whereas pro-Russian UN votes and G20 invites are mere faux pas best viewed in isolation, if considered at all, the (3rd *) starlink switch-off is too gratuitous and touches too

many media sweet spots - Elon Musk, Trump, drones - to ignore. Hence, pieces like this stating “The United States appears to have just effectively switched sides in Russia’s war against Ukraine”.

Temporarily throttling Starlink made headlines, but the US lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports and now potentially easing sanctions on Russia's shadow fleet, would be of longer term benefit to a Russia contending with record debt levels and record borrowing costs.