`4e06` Phillips O'Brien: "Are the lines stabilising?"
Readings & Musings [2024 e 06]
Hello possums!
Phillips O’Brien, Professor of Strategic Studies at St Andrews, was not one of the commentators who predicted Russia’s swift subjugation of Ukraine in 2022. And he opposes imperial conquest.
So we’re partial to him and recommend:—
☼¶ ☼Phillips P. O’Brien: Weekend Update 79: The Lines are Stabilizing What the big story (stories) of the last 4 months might actually be.
There is also a growing chorus in the analytical community, as always led by those who believed the Russians would decimate Ukraine in a few days or weeks at the start of the full-scale invasion, that Ukraine must start negotiating and prepare to give up its territory. / In this way, the narrative since January 1 has been pretty well set—and widely accepted. Russia is strong, getting stronger, Ukraine is in real trouble, and Ukrainian victory is all but impossible while a Ukrainian collapse is definitely a possibility. / It certainly sounds dramatic and would get clicks—from those with a macabre sense at least. However—what have we seen on the ground [?]
Cheers dears!
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☼¶ ☼Persuasion: Eboo Patel on Pluralism Yascha Mounk and Eboo Patel discuss how interfaith work can serve as a model for engaging productively across differences. (The transcript and conversation have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.)
[Patel:] Once you lock yourself into an explanatory framework or a paradigm, well, now you're in the situation of kind of twisting the facts of the world to fit your worldview, which, by the way, I think is the cardinal sin of an intellectual. But actually what's happened is in some places it became even worse than a paradigm; it became a regime.
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☼¶ _The Guardian_
‘In the US they think we’re communists!’ The 70,000 workers showing the world another way to earn a living The Basque Country’s Mondragón Corporation is the globe’s largest industrial co-operative, with workers paying for the right to share in its profits – and its losses. In return for giving more to their employer, they expect more back
Father Frans van der Hoff obituary Dutch missionary who co-founded the Fairtrade movement through guaranteeing prices for coffee farmers in Mexico
+Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union+
☼☼ (Mostly material from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group)
Russians abduct and torture former Ukrainian policeman for fake ‘terrorism trial’ 29.04.2024
To see the light in the darkness: Psychologist’s office as part of human rights activity 29.04.2024
Two years of unrelenting Russian torture of Ukrainian civic journalist Iryna Danilovich 01.05.2024
'There was a cemetery here' — a resident of the village of Zahaltsi 01.05.2024
‘There were people screaming in the destroyed houses and nobody was allowed to help them’ 03.05.2024
Approximately 28,000 Ukrainians have disappeared under special circumstances 05.05.2024
+Toots etcetera+
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki@mastodon.social
1/ In the latest of many incidents of official paranoia about colours linked to Ukraine, a man with hair dyed blue, yellow and green was ordered by Moscow police to go and fight in Ukraine after he reported being beaten up and robbed on the street.
1/ Konrad Muzyka of Rochan Consulting has published an excellent if rather gloomy thread on the current situation in Ukraine. In the interests of helping it to reach a wider audience, I thought an English translation would be useful. https://twitter.com/konrad_muzyka/stat
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Alone with God
It is really important that there is a moment in your life that you are alone with God. Some days it can be five minutes. It can be ten minutes. But is it anywhere? Is there any place in your busy day that you stop, and you say, “Here I am, this needy, lonely, anguished, confused person in front of you. And I want to hear again that you love me. Otherwise, I may lose it.” And if I lose it, then I will go all over the place. “You are my Shepherd. And there’s nothing I shall want (though I want all those things!), but you are my Shepherd. So I want to claim that truth. And the truth is that in the deepest sense, all that I need is given to me.”
Henri J. M. Nouwen ~ Plough
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☼¶ ☼Church Life Journal, a Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame
Teaching for Intellectual Conversion: Introductory Theology at the Level of Our Times
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 6:00 AM — Roberto De La Noval on students.
Monday, April 8, 2024 6:00 AM — Holly Taylor Coolman on recent history.
Extending Lent: Porosity in a Post-Secular Age
Friday, April 5, 2024 6:00 AM — Cyrus Olsen on solidarity.
The Myths of Dopamine Fasting, Debunked
Thursday, April 4, 2024 6:00 AM — Sofia Carozza on neurocentrism.
Why Teach Atheism at a Catholic University?
Tuesday, April 16, 2024 6:00 AM — Paul Heck on dialogue.
Monday, April 15, 2024 6:00 AM — Angela Franks on music.
Inside Out: Loss in Light of the Last Things
Friday, April 12, 2024 6:00 AM — Matthew Tan on Critical Theory.
Encounters with the Counter-Cultural Power of Silence
Thursday, April 11, 2024 6:00 AM — Hibbs and Moore on students.
We, the Ordinary People of the Streets
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 6:00 AM — Madeleine Delbrêl on spirituality.
Being Happy in an Endless Universe: Descartes, Spinoza, and Pascal
Monday, April 22, 2024 6:00 AM — Frederick Bauerschmidt on early modernity.
Eugene Vodolazkin on the Puppeteering of History
Friday, April 19, 2024 6:00 AM — Joshua Hren on chroniclers.
Thursday, April 18, 2024 6:00 AM — Cyril O'Regan on voice, vision, witness, and gratitude
The Resurrection of the Bodies We Have
For the heart, life is simple: it beats for as long as it can. Then it stops. Sooner or later, one day, this pounding action will cease of its own accord, and the blood will begin to run towards the body’s lowest point, where it will collect in a small pool, visible from the outside as
…
Adrienne von Speyr on love.
Cabrini's Question: Where Do Women Belong in the Church Today?
LuElla D'Amico on belonging.
Research and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
John Cavadini on the university.
☼¶ ☼Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University — Public Orthodoxy
When Theology Fuels the War: False Prophecy and State Policy in "The Present and Future of the Russian World" Document
by Paul L. Gavrilyuk
On "Heresy" and the Commemoration of Patriarch Kirill
by Sister Vassa Larin
Stepping Up to Jesus in Paradise
by VK McCarty
The ROCOR and "Western Values"
by Sister Vassa Larin
Casting the First Stone of Heresy - Let's Leave God Out of This!
by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis
Who Guards the Guardians? Who Speaks for the Church?
by Very Rev. Dr. John Behr
Embryohood, Childhood, Personhood
by Gayle Woloschak
☼¶ ☼Profiles in Catholicism
The April 15 issue of Profiles in Catholicism has a special focus on Evangelism
The May 1 issue of Profiles in Catholicism will have a special focus on Autism
☼¶ ☼Psephizo
☼The Cass report, children, and the Church of England
☼How can we read the Book of Revelation well today?
Gender identity and the Christian vision of humanity
May 1, 2024 by Ian Paul
==
☼¶ ☼ ψ The Kyiv Independent group, including Ukraine Daily, Belarus Weekly
The Witness: Season 1. Thursday, April 18, 2024
His call sign was "Casper." A tall guy with red hair. A marine and a professional athlete. A defender of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city captured by Russians in the first months of the full-scale war after a brutal siege. / "Casper" survived the siege but was beaten to death by Russian prison guards.
War Notes - Friday, April 19, 2024; Francis Farrel
☼Collective action works: We advocated for the aid package at the Ukraine Action Summit
☼☼ Some interesting or worthy items are marked with some combination of the banner with the strange device [εξηλσιορ*ψ]
+Tl;dr — From many sources+
☼¶ _The Atlantic_
☼¶ The Atlantic Council
[εξηλσιορ*ψ]
Ukraine pleads for Patriot air defense systems as Russia destroys power grid
By Peter Dickinson
[εξηλσιορ*ψ]
Western weakness in Ukraine could provoke a far bigger war with Russia
By Oleksiy Goncharenko. Oleksiy Goncharenko is a Ukrainian member of parliament with the European Solidarity party.
By Ben Hodges
Western fear of escalation will hand Putin an historic victory in Ukraine
By Mykola Bielieskov
Putin’s plan to depopulate Ukraine
By Peter Dickinson
‘A bad day for Putin’: US aid vote gives Ukrainians renewed hope
By Peter Dickinson
New US aid package is not enough to prevent Russian victory in Ukraine
By Peter Dickinson
Bombs and disinformation: Russia’s campaign to depopulate Kharkiv
By Maria Avdeeva
NATO chief urges long-term Ukraine aid as Russian army advances
By Peter Dickinson
☼¶ Axel Springer SE (_Politico, Bild, Die Welt, Fact_)
☼¶ The BBC, ABC, CBC, NZBC &c.
☼¶ Bellingcat
Strike That Killed World Central Kitchen Workers Bears Hallmarks of Israeli Precision Strike
From Crimea to Iran: Two More Ships Join Russia’s Grain-Smuggling Fleet
☼¶ _The Bulwark_
☼¶ Carnegie (_politica, Russia Eurasia_)
Can Energy Ties Prevent an Azerbaijan–EU Rift?
April 08, 2024 | Shujaat Ahmadzada — While Baku appears inclined to pursue a “business only” arrangement with the European Union, it’s unclear whether that would be acceptable for Brussels.
Western Sanctions on Russia Should Be More Pragmatic and Less Punitive
April 08, 2024 | Alexander Kolyandr — The ideas of economist Adam Smith could help the West to come up with more effective ways to limit Russia’s military capabilities.
Why President Zelensky Is Purging His Inner Circle
April 14, 2024 | Konstantin Skorkin
Is Western Apathy Trapping Belarus in Russia's Embrace?
April 16, 2024 | Artyom Shraibman, Alexander Gabuev
April 16, 2024 | Andrei Kolesnikov. The formation in Russia of a new concept of “fairness” is testament to how long the war in Ukraine is expected to continue. The “special military operation” is fast approaching a way of life.
Personnel Stagnation to Splinter Putin Elite With Battle of Lost Generations
April 19, 2024 | Andrey Pertsev
Wartime Boom: Which Regions and Industries Are Profiting From Russia’s War?
April 30, 2024 | Ekaterina Kurbangaleeva
“The Russia Contingency With Michael Kofman” Michael Kofman, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program, discusses the impact of delayed Congressional approval of a $61 billion aid package on Ukraine’s ability to defend against continuing Russian attacks.
How Will the Kremlin Respond to the Ukraine Aid Package? Following the long-awaited release of the U.S. aid package for Ukraine, the best-case scenario for Kyiv in 2024 appears to entail minimizing Russia’s gains to incremental advancements, particularly at the height of its defense spending. But what if Russia’s military expenditure has not yet peaked? By ALEXANDRA PROKOPENKO
☼¶ CNN
[εξηλσιορ*ψ]
Opinion: Congress must let Ukraine win, say Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Imagine Dragons, Timothy Snyder and other luminaries
☼¶ Conversation, CEPA, CSIS, CftNI &c.
☼Across the broad sweep of history, it's usually overly simplistic to talk about a single event as a "turning point".
☼¶ _Daily Kos_
☼¶ Deutsche Welle
☼¶ _Engelsberg Ideas_
The music critic and philosopher Michael Tanner, who recently died at the age of 88, was a life force, writes Richard Bratby.
William Reynolds examines the prospect of Japan joining AUKUS, an important moment in the country's relationship with its Western allies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception heralded an interest in psychedelics that peaked in the 1960s. A new generation of researchers, inspired by his writings, are exploring what may be new worlds beyond material reality. Christopher Harding investigates.
☼¶ The European Council / Council of the European Union
Think Tank reports on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine
☼¶ _European Council on Foreign Relations Update_
☼¶ _Forbes_
☼¶ _Foreign Affairs_ (The Council on Foreign Relations [US])
☼Brave New Ukraine — How the World’s Most Besieged Democracy Is Adjusting to Permanent War
☼Putin’s Brittle Regime. Like the Soviet One That Preceded It, His System Is Always on the Brink of Collapse
☼¶ _The Guardian_
[εξηλσιορ*]
‘In the US they think we’re communists!’ The 70,000 workers showing the world another way to earn a living The Basque Country’s Mondragón Corporation is the globe’s largest industrial co-operative, with workers paying for the right to share in its profits – and its losses. In return for giving more to their employer, they expect more back
[εξηλσιορ*]
Father Frans van der Hoff obituary Dutch missionary who co-founded the Fairtrade movement through guaranteeing prices for coffee farmers in Mexico
☼¶ Institute for the Study of War
Special Report: Why You Can’t be an Iran Hawk and a Russia Dove
Frederick W. Kagan, Ashka Jhaveri, Annika Ganzeveld, Nicholas Carl, and George Barros — April 18, 2024
¶ Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment
2024 d 14
Israel’s success in defending against large-scale Iranian missile and drone strikes from Iranian territory on April 13 underscores the vulnerabilities that Ukrainian geography and the continued degradation of Ukraine’s air defense umbrella pose for Ukrainian efforts to defend against regular Russian missile and drone strikes. / The exhaustion of US-provided air defenses resulting from delays in the resumption of US military assistance to Ukraine combined with improvements in Russian strike tactics have led to increasing effectiveness of the Russian strike campaign in Ukraine. / Russia’s strike campaign against Ukraine demonstrates that even a limited number of successful ballistic or cruise missile strikes can cause significant and likely long-term damage to energy and other infrastructure, highlighting the need for an effective and well-provisioned air defense umbrella capable of a sustained high rate of interception.
America’s Stark Choice in Ukraine and the Cost of Letting Russia Win
By Fredrick W. Kagan
☼¶ Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Institute for Human Sciences)
☼¶ _The Intercept_
☼¶ _The Interpreter_ (Lowy Institute)
☼As warfare changes, so does Australian strategy: The National Defence Strategy is not as new as the government claims, but comes with welcome capability investments.
☼¶ LGB
☼¶ Meduza
2024 d 19 Hello, and welcome back to The Beet! / I’m Eilish Hart, the editor of this weekly newsletter from Meduza that brings you feature stories from across Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here to receive a new issue of The Beet every Thursday. And be sure to check out our special report on Poland’s environmental movement. / This week, journalist and author Aliide Naylor is back with a dispatch from Tallinn, where she had a chance to sit down with Estonian artist Dolores Hoffmann.
[εξηλσιορ*ψ]
Watch your language — How Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan resist Russia’s linguistic influence
By Bektour Iskender
☼¶ MIT Review
Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment?
Researchers are using generative AI and other techniques to teach robots new skills—including tasks they could perform in homes.
☼¶ _Moscow Times_ [εξηλσιορ*ψ]
A Russian activist who helped Ukrainian refugees and deportees in Russia return to Kyiv-held territory has died in police custody in Belgorod.
A court upheld the four-year sentence of Fayil Alsynov, a Bashkir activist whose arrest sparked large protests in Bashkortostan in January.
Washington has accused Russia of using chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. In addition to the chemical agent chloropicrin, the U.S. authorities claimed Moscow also employed “riot control agents as a method of warfare in Ukraine.” The Kremlin has rejected the allegations, calling them “completely baseless and unsubstantiated.”
The EU condemned the Georgian government’s response to protests against a controversial “foreign influence” bill being considered in the South Caucasian nation’s parliament.
☼¶ News Ltd
☼¶ _New Yorker_
☼¶ _New York Times_
☼¶ _openDemocracy_
☼¶ OVD-Info and the _Dissident Digest_
Belgorod is a regional capital city, right at the border with Ukraine. Before the full-scale invasion, life there was quiet and closely connected to Ukraine. I personally recall how, while I was reporting in wartime Kharkiv, locals reminisced to me of how they would drive over to Belgorod for cheaper petrol. Belgorod and Kharkiv have been intrinsically linked by infrastructure dating back to Soviet and Tsarist times. It felt like a quiet provincial town, with over a thousand years of history.
2024 d 24 Hello and welcome back to the Digest. And a special warm welcome to those we met in Perugia! First, some housekeeping — next week the Digest will be off as we will be celebrating Russia’s many May holidays. Today we will be looking at two terms / trends important to understanding Russia — prison pressure and simulated popularity.
☼¶ _Pearls & Irritations_
☼¶ _People & Nature_ [εξηλσιορ*ψ]
Palestine, Ukraine and the crisis of empires. — By Simon Pirani. ‘Putin’s regime is a frankenstein monster that has turned against the American empire that once fostered it. Netanyahu’s government is a different kind of monster, highly dependent on its American master, that protects it as it lays waste to Gaza.’
No path to peace in Ukraine through this fantasy world. — ‘The “campist” case is made by literally ignoring what is actually going on in Ukraine, and Russia, and focusing – often exclusively – on the political and diplomatic shenanigans in western countries.’
☼Wheat as a weapon: European farmers’ protests and the Ukraine war. By Eva Gelinsky. “All these complexities – EU policy to transform agriculture into industrial capitalism, imperialist conflicts waged in the economic sphere and with propaganda, social polarisation, advance of fascism – bring difficult times to farmers. And not only to them.”
☼¶ 'Perun' - YouTube
☼¶ _Project Syndicate_, George Soros &c.
☼¶ Reuters
☼¶ Riddle Russia
☼¶ RUSI
☼¶ _Der Spiegel_
☼¶ Nine Entertainment, _Sydney Morning Herald_ &c
Plea to divert ‘dirty money’ to Ukraine
Billions of dollars in Russian assets frozen by Australian authorities should be confiscated and put towards financial support for Ukraine, a group of prominent Australians say. The Supporters of Ukraine Network, which includes former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott as well as business, union and military leaders and former diplomats, has written to Treasurer Jim Chalmers urging him to divert “dirty money” held in Australia since it sanctioned Russian oligarchs and others deemed to have supported the invasion of Ukraine.
☼¶ _Tempest_
☼¶ United to Protect Democracy [USA]
☼¶ _Vanity Fair_
☼¶ War on the Rocks
[εξηλσιορ*ψ]
In from the Cold: Rebuilding Sweden’s Civil Defense for the NATO Era
☼¶ War Translated
☼¶ _The Washington Post_
☼¶ _Die Zeit_
Good-bye & bless you!
*_* Хай живе вільна Україна *_* "L’Ukraine a toujours aspiré à être libre" - Voltaire *_* Няхай жыве вольная Украіна *_* Larga vida a Ucrania libre *_* Да здравствует свободная Украина *_* Long live free Ukraine *_* 自由乌克兰万岁 *_* Bandera rossonera la trionferà! *_* تحي أوكرانيا حرة *_*