Dave Dalton
@DaveDalton42
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Political economist. PhD from UCL SSEES. My book, “The Ukrainian Oligarchy After the Euromaidan”, is out in Feb 2023 (https://t.co/VBx6l52drU). Personal account.
Joined April 2011
1/5. My book is out this week, I think, both in the US ( & Europe (. It’s on the #Ukrainian #oligarchy as mode of #governance reproducing itself across crises via customary practices. Has been a key fetter on Ukraine's development.
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But: criticism of Hale & North: ignores historically specific structural, property holding context in which informal elite networks/ anti-competitive, exclusive institutions are able to reproduce.
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Interesting experiment going on in the US on the rupture in continuity of key state institution for information handling and administration, national security and 'soft power'.
⚡️Trump to lay off nearly all USAID staff worldwide, NYT reports. The cuts will reduce the agency from 10,000 staff around the world to just 290, three sources with knowledge of the layoffs said.
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I asked AI to compare Trump's actions with Project 25, to see if it's useful for what to expect. Best to expect more attacks on checks and balances, rule of law, civil liberties, academic freedom, & attempts to neutralise alternative institutional sources of authority, I'd say.
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5/x Ukraine's survival depends greatly, but not only, on external support.
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It's probably a bit dishonest, but what I would do is promise exceptionally favourable deals on extraction of rare earth metal in the occupied territories, in exchange for helping to liberate them from Russia. Then renegotiate when the Trumpists fall.
Трамп прагне контролю над рідкісноземельними металами України: що про них відомо? Україна має великі запаси кольорових і рідкісноземельних металів, зокрема берилію, цирконію, танталу та фосфорних руд. За оцінкою Forbes за 2023 рік, сукупна вартість корисних копалин країни сягає до $15 трлн. Основні поклади розташовані в межах Українського щита, зокрема у Волинському, Подільському, Центральному, Криворізько-Кременчуцькому та Приазовському районах. За словами міністерки економіки Юлії Свириденко, Україна також має найбільші в Європі запаси літію, який є ключовим для виробництва різних товарів, від смартфонів до винищувачів. Однак його видобуток потребує значних ресурсів.
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Complex modern societies need specialists, including knowledge specialists, to function well. That doesn’t mean they should be treated as priests, of course. But a society that trashes knowledge and venerates ignorance is not going to do well.
Right-wing populism’s disdain for the opinions of experts can be mistaken for the Left’s scorn for technocracy. But democratic principles and mass politics are the real antidote to the appropriation of power by experts.
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He doesn’t need to be smart, or good looking, or athletic, or good at video games, or a sharp businessman. His money can do that for him, through buying services, surgery, hair replacement, hiring good games players and business specials. PR people to create a superman myth.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Elon Musk is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires I've ever met, or seen, or witnessed. You can probably glean this from watching these people on TV. They don't do their homework. This dude is not smart. The danger in the lack of intelligence that Elon has - this guy is one of the most morally vacant, but also, just, least-knowledgeable about these systems that we really know of. What that means is that they will hit a button and things can go sideways.
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US seemingly undoing key institutions of a modern state, including intelligence, the bureaucracy (which performs key informational functions), and education.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) today offered all roughly 22,000 of its Employees the the same “Buyout” offered last week to Millions of other Federal Employees, which would include 8 Months of Full Pay and Benefits in exchange for their Resignation; but originally did not include Employees deemed vital to National Security such as the CIA or Military. This comes as U.S. President Trump hopes to reduce to the Federal Workforce by up to 10% before the start of 2026, with over 20,000 Federal Employees having already accepted their own Buyouts; all Employees have until Thursday at 11:59pm to accept the Buyout.
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Talking about who might be a better/ a worse leader, & handing out biscuits at protests is not how political and social revolutions happen. If you think this is true, you have to show mechanisms--eg evidence of Lenin handing out Bourbons to soldiers to storm the Winter Palace.
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Spatial rep of Ukraine air/ drone attacks in Russia (2022-about now), according to ACLED: overwhelmingly concentrated in Belgorod & Kursk; but up to the Baltic ports in the north-west, down to Sochi and the North Caucasus in the south-west, and (looks like) Orenburg in the east.
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Donetsk and Crimea have minerals!
⚡️Trump seeks Ukrainian rare earths in exchange for aid, Kyiv keen to agree. "But for this, (Ukrainian) security must be guaranteed so that the Russians do not occupy this Ukrainian land with minerals," the source told the Kyiv Independent.
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