"SBU Drones Destroyed $100 Million Russian Radar System in Crimea
Sources from Ukraine’s special services told Kyiv Post about the latest successful SBU operation, which has rendered Russian air defenses in Crimea “blind.”"
1/ Okay, while the Trump verdict has been very riveting, I'd like to talk about failure states in democracies for a bit.
Any stable democracy needs peaceful transfers of power. If a ruling government loses in an election and thus loses power, they are free to moan about it - but in the end, they should leave office without violence because (unless they screwed up bigly) they realize that they will likely return to power one day. They are invested in the system, and do not want to overthrow the basic democratic order of their country - because it works for them.
Thus, a country needs multiple parties with an investment in democracy, who are willing to form a government - but who are also willing to leave peacefully. If this is not the case, then the democracy in question is in a failure state.
An good (or rather, very very bad) example of a "proportional representation" democracy in a failure state was the late Weimar Republic. Starting in 1932, the NSDAP (Nazis) and the KDP (Communists) received a majority of the vote and thus representatives. Both wanted to overthrow the Republic and its democracy in its own way, and thus it became impossible to form a democratic government - let alone switch between different ones. But the Weimar Republic had problems in this regard even earlier, since there were numerous miniscule parties with only a very small number of candidates. They only cared about a small number of issues, had no motivation to compromise, and thus were not willing to join a working government.
4/ We are seeing what this means in the #USA (I don't follow #UK politics as closely, but my impression is that it's not quite that bad yet). The #Republicans have fully committed to #fascism . The #Democrats are the only viable non-fascist voting option, and thus must not lose power if whatever democracy the USA has left is to survive. In a healthy democracy, voters could voice their dissatisfaction with the ruling party by voting for another party - but that's no longer possible in the USA, because if they do that in sufficiently large numbers, the USA will no longer have a democracy.
Thus, the only hopes the USA have of surviving this is for the Democrats to hold out until either (a) the Republicans reform themselves and purge their fascists (which seems exceedingly unlikely), or (b) collapse and are replaced by a party that is committed to democracy and the peaceful transform of power. Which also seems exceedingly unlikely.
The whole situation in the USA is horrible, and I feel for all Americans who suffer under it - although if the USA becomes a fully fascist nation, no person on Earth will ultimately be safe. But I feel that this whole mess is also a searing condemnation of the "First Past the Post" voting system, since it makes reaching such a failure state fairly easy.
Each page yesterday took him just a little more than a minute, so this will take >30 mins.
Between that & the testimony readbacks, also expected to take >30 mins, there will likely be >1 hour this morning w/the jury in the courtroom, not actively deliberating.
#Trump allies are demanding #retribution, & calling on #Republican prosecutors to go after #Democrats. One of Trump’s close allies, the influential #RightWing#ChristianNationalist#CharlieKirk, wondered on X how many Republican AGs & DAs “have stones.” “We aren’t a serious political movement until we are ready to fight fire with fire,” Kirk wrote. “Indict the left, or lose America.”
#GOP elected ofcls are at it too. Rep Mike Collins of Georgia: “Time for Red State AGs & DAs to get busy.”
"Kyiv launches major attack on Crimea naval base using Western weapons
The early-morning attack in Crimea was carried out with weapons from Kyiv's allies - which were "extremely effective", a Ukrainian military source said. Meanwhile, the Russian foreign minister has said he hopes nuclear drills will "knock sense" into the West after jets were pledged."
Verdicts in Hong Kong’s biggest trial against democratic opposition come >3 yrs after police arrested 47 #democrats in raids at homes across the city. They were charged w/ #conspiracy to commit subversion under a #NationalSecurity law imposed by #China.
…The defendants are accused of a "vicious plot" to paralyse #government in the fmr British colony & to force the city's leader to resign through a pre-selection ballot in a July 2020 citywide election. The #democrats maintain it was an unofficial attempt to select the strongest candidates in a bid to win a historic majority in #HongKong's legislature.
Beijing in 2020 imposed the sweeping #NationalSecurity#law that led to a spate of #arrests of democratic campaigners as well as closures of #liberal#media outlets & #NGOs. Hong Kong's democratic opposition had sought for decades to pressure Beijing to allow full #democracy in the city.
Both Lauren Ashley Simmons, who trounced four-term incumbent Shawn Thierry, and Molly Cook, who narrowly beat House Representative Jarvis Johnson, drew upon the community they helped organize to turn out votes leading up to yesterday’s runoff election. It paid off.