MES_more notes 9 is on #SoundCloud on.soundcloud.com/cYZpxreokk…

To już nie jest świadomość niszowa. Dzięki głupiej decyzji Andrzeja Dudy, arogancji i ignorancji ekipy Zełenskiego oraz zwróceniu uwagi na problem przez prezydenta Karola Nawrockiego, nawet poprawni politycznie liberałowie już wiedzą: Ukraina buduje swoją tożsamość na tradycji siekier i wideł UPA ociekających polską krwią. Jako jedna z osób prześladowanych w Polsce na zlecenie bezpieczniaków z neobanderowskiej SBU czekam na wnioski polityczne. Może na początek jasna deklaracja: tożsamościowo obecna wersja Ukrainy jest nie tylko realizacją projektu anty-Rosja, ale również projektem anty-Polska. Ergo - działanie na jej korzyść jest działaniem antypolskim, działanie na rzecz jej debanderyzacji - działaniem propolskim. Proste i oczywiste. Wyjątkowo polecam lekturę tekstu w "Gazecie Wyborczej" autorstwa socjolog z PAN, prof. Anny Wylegały.

Two vessels carrying 25 Azerbaijani nationals were attacked by drones in the Sea of Azov, leaving five dead, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said. They finally pushed it too far.

Xarici İşlər Nazirliyinin Mətbuat xidməti idarəsinin rəisi Ayxan Hacızadənin Azov dənizində Azərbaycan vətəndaşlarının olduğu gəmilərin vurulması ilə bağlı yerli medianın sualına cavabı ⬇️⬇️⬇️ mfa.gov.az/az/news/no24226

Alan Bates and Oliver Reed: Women In Love. Films and Filming, December 1969.

If you wonder why Zelensky bothered with the reburial and glorification of Andrii Melnyk, the leader of the more Nazi‑collaborationist wing of the OUN, to the right of Bandera's wing – a seemingly unnecessary symbolic move, predictably harmful for Ukraine’s fading international sympathies and already provoking scandal with Poland and Israel – here's the answer. When the majority does not want to fight, you have to sustain the mobilized minority, who must be constantly reassured that they are fighting not just for this corrupt government. Delivering something substantial on integration into EU and other Western transnational structures is much harder, often impossible, and cuts against powerful vested interests in Ukraine, as the permanent conflicts around IMF and EU requirements show. Delivering to ethnonationalists and the far right is much easier: glorify collaborationists, eradicate everything Russian and Soviet from public space, rewrite history, rename streets, dismantle the remaining monuments. This does not necessarily respond to direct pressure or concrete demands. In a situation where the majority will not fight even for higher pay (this is not Russia), there is a need to reassure – and to keep raising the stakes for – those who are ready to fight that their sacrifices are not in vain, but for “the Ukraine of their dreams.”

Michelangelo Antonioni on Blow-Up (1966): "In my other films, I have tried to probe the relationship between one person and another—most often, their love relationship, the fragility of their feelings, and so on. But in this film, none of these themes matters. Here, the relationship is between an individual and reality—those things that are around him. There are no love stories in this film, even though we see relations between men and women. The experience of the protagonist is not a sentimental nor an amorous one but rather, one regarding his relationship with the world, with the things he finds in front of him. He is a photographer. One day, he photographs two people in a park, an element of reality that appears real. And it is. But reality has a quality of freedom about it that is hard to explain. This film, perhaps, is like Zen; the moment you explain it, you betray it. I mean, a film you can explain in words, is not a real film." — Michelangelo Antonioni, interviewed by Playboy Magazine (November 1967)

To nie przypadek. To pewna reguła, obejmująca prawie wszystkie opcje polityczne III / IV RP. 11 kwietnia 2005 roku Aleksander Kwaśniewski odznaczył Orderem Orła Białego Wiktora Juszczenkę. W październiku 2006 roku i w styczniu 2010 roku Juszczenko wydał dekrety o uznaniu UPA za „bohaterów walczących o niepodległość Ukrainy”. 22 stycznia 2010 roku nadał Stiepanowi Banderze tytuł „Bohatera Ukrainy”. 16 grudnia 2014 roku Bronisław Komorowski zdecydował o nadaniu Orderu Orła Białego Piotrowi Poroszence. W grudniu 2018 roku Poroszenko uznał członków UPA za bojowników i kombatantów walki o niepodległość, nadając im przywileje i publicznie chwaląc ich czyny zbrojne. 11 kwietnia 2022 roku Andrzej Duda odznaczył Orderem Orła Białego Władimira Zełenskiego. Kapituła Orderu Orła Białego powinna zastanowić się nad odebraniem odznaczenia nie tylko Zełenskiemu, ale wszystkim uhonorowanym w ten sposób prezydentom Ukrainy, może poza Leonidem Kuczmą, za czasów którego gloryfikowanie zbrodniarzy jeszcze nie było częścią kodu politycznego obowiązującego w Kijowie.

Zelensky & his government reburied fascist OUN leader & Nazi collaborator. Melnyk OUN organized with Nazis police, SD battalion & SS Galicia Division which perpetrated mass murder of Jews, Poles & Ukrainians. Zelensky standing ovation to SS Galicia Division veteran in Canadian parliament was not accident. He called Melnyk, who praised Hitler, "Ukrainian hero."

I dalszy ciąg. Wiedziałem, że będą jaja, ale nie wiedziałem, że aż takie.

Journalism in 2026

Lata temu napisałem reportaż dla Gazety Wyborczej o ludziach, którzy po Akcji Wisła zostali w swoich wsiach. I żyli w Beskidach. W chałupach z drewna, dzieci nie miały zeszytów. Żałowali, że ich nie wyświetliło. A to był 1998 rok...

obszar "Operacji Wisła" był strasznie zacofany, długo wierzono tam np. w róże gusła i zabobony. z jednej strony, kulturowej-antropologicznej, to ciekawe, ale jednak dobrze, że dano tym ludziom możliwość normalnego rozwoju. ps. gratka dla fanów Beksińskiego youtu.be/JqIdr4Pyugg?t=1

problem był opisywany przez prasę lokalną, tu: Nowiny Rzeszowskie z 14/15 listopada 1959 r., nr 274 (3244).

RT @TomaszPiasecki: Prowokacyjnie i świadomie w rocznicę majowego zamachu: Wojciech Jaruzelski był lepszym przywódcą państwa polskiego niż…

There’s no overstating how extraordinary this Atlantic article is, given the author and the outlet. As a reminder Bob Kagan is: - The co-founder of Project for the New American Century, probably the single most imperialist Think Tank in Washington (which is quite a feat) - A man who spent his entire life advocating for American military interventions, especially in the Middle East, and a vocal advocate of the Iraq war. He started advocating for intervention in Iraq before 9/11, which speaks for itself... - The husband of Victoria Nuland, an extremely hawkish former senior U.S. official (a key architect of U.S. policy in Ukraine, with the consequences we all witness today) - The brother of Frederick Kagan, one of the key architects of the Iraq surge In other words, we ain’t exactly looking at some sort of anti-imperialist peacenik. This is quite literally the guy Dick Cheney called when he needed a pep talk. And the man is writing in The Atlantic, the most reliably pro-war mainstream media outlet in the U.S. (also quite a feat). So when HE writes that the U.S. “suffered a total defeat” in Iran that has no precedent in U.S. history and can “neither be repaired nor ignored,” it’s the functional equivalent of Ronald McDonald telling you the burgers aren’t great: it means the burgers really, really aren't great. Extraordinarily (and somewhat worryingly, for me), his arguments for why this is such a defeat are virtually the same as those I laid out in my article “The First Multipolar War” last month (open.substack.com/pub/arnaud…). Here they are 👇 1) Vietnam/Afghanistan were survivable, this isn't He agrees that this war - and the U.S. defeat - is fundamentally different in nature from previous U.S. interventions. Where I wrote that the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan didn’t change the equation much in terms of power dynamics (“in the grand scheme of things, the giant walked away with little more than a bruised ego”), Kagan writes that “the defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan were costly but did not do lasting damage to America's overall position in the world.” And when I wrote that “it’s painfully obvious that the Iran war is of a qualitatively different nature” from these, he writes that “defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character.” Same point. 2) Iran will never relinquish Hormuz and uses it as selective leverage When I wrote that Iran has turned “freedom of navigation” on its head by establishing “a permission-based regime” through the Strait of Hormuz, Kagan arrives at the same conclusion: “Iran will be able not only to demand tolls for passage, but to limit transit to those nations with which it has good relations.” He also agrees that “Iran has no interest in returning to the status quo ante,” when I myself cited Iran’s parliament speaker Ghalibaf in my article, saying: “The Strait of Hormuz situation won’t return to its pre-war status.” Same point and virtually the same words. 3) Gulf states will have to accommodate Iran He agrees that most Gulf states will have no choice but to accommodate Iran, effectively making Iran into a, if not THE, dominant regional power. Kagan writes “the United States will have proved itself a paper tiger, forcing the Gulf and other Arab states to accommodate Iran.” On my end, I wrote that “the Gulf monarchies will eventually have to choose between two security propositions. One where they stay aligned with a distant superpower that [can’t protect them]. The other proposition being: make peace with the regional power that just proved it can hit [them] whenever it wants.” Which is not much of a choice… 4) Military impossibility to reopen Hormuz Kagan writes that “if the United States with its mighty Navy can't or won't open the strait, no coalition of forces with just a fraction of the Americans' capability will be able to, either.” On my end, in my article I cited Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius: “What does Trump expect a handful of European frigates to do that the powerful US Navy cannot?” The exact same argument. 5) Global chain reaction Kagan agrees that this is a global strategic failure that fundamentally changes the U.S.’s position in the world. As he puts it: “America's once-dominant position in the Gulf is just the first of many casualties… America's allies in East Asia and Europe must wonder about American staying power in the event of future conflicts.” You’ll have guessed it, I wrote essentially the same thing: “Think about what it says if you’re Saudi Arabia, quietly watching your American-built defenses fail to protect your own refineries. Or any European country now facing the worst energy shock since 1973, caused not by your enemy but by your ally, and realizing that said ‘ally,’ supposedly in charge of ‘protecting’ you, couldn’t even protect Israel’s most strategic sites - when it’s the country with which it’s joined at the hip. I’m not even speaking about China or Russia who are seeing their worldview being validated on almost every axis simultaneously.” 6) Weapons stocks depleted, credibility shattered Kagan: “just a few weeks of war with a second-rank power have reduced American weapons stocks to perilously low levels, with no quick remedy in sight.” Me: “America’s most advanced weapons systems are much more vulnerable than previously thought - not theoretically, but in actual combat.” Kagan: “America's allies… must wonder about American staying power in the event of future conflicts.” Me: “The U.S. security guarantee has been empirically falsified in real time.” ----------- So, yup, Bob Kagan and I agree on nearly everything. I need a shower 🤢 Reassuringly though, we still differ on a few fundamental aspects. First of all, arguably the most important one, the moral aspect. In typical neocon fashion, his article contains not a word about the human cost of this war - not the 165 schoolgirls, not the devastation inflicted on Iranians during 37 days of bombing, not the toll this war is taking on the entire world through its devastating economic consequences (the economic devastation on ordinary people worldwide is referenced only as a political problem for Trump). For him, this is purely a strategic chess problem, morality and people don’t figure in his mental map. For me, the moral bankruptcy of this war isn't separate from the strategic failure - it is the strategic failure. Much like Gaza can only be a failure because of its sheer abjectness. Secondly, there is not an instant of reflection in the article on how we got there. Which is unsurprising because he personally, alongside his wife, his brother, and every co-signatory of every PNAC letter, spent a generation pushing for exactly this kind of confrontation. The man spend 30 years advocating for military dominance in the Middle East and hostility towards Iran, thereby forging them as an adversary and facilitating this very war that he now says has “checkmated” America. I know introspection has never been the neocon forte but at some point you have to stop setting houses on fire and then writing op-eds about how surprising the smoke is. Last but not least, we differ on what should be done. This is the funniest part of Kagan’s article - showing that the man is decidedly beyond salvation. On one hand he calls this a “checkmate” by Iran, and a U.S. defeat that can “neither be repaired nor ignored,” yet an the other hand his solution for it is… surprise, surprise… a bigger war still! He writes that what’s to be done is “engage in a full-scale ground and naval war to remove the current Iranian regime, and then to occupy Iran until a new government can take hold.” The arsonist's solution to the fire is a bigger fire ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For my end, this was the conclusion of my previous article: "There is almost a Greek tragedy quality to U.S. actions lately where every move taken to escape one’s fate becomes the mechanism that delivers it. The U.S. went to war to reassert dominance - and proved it could no longer dominate. It demanded allies send warships - and revealed it had no real allies. It waged forty years of maximum pressure to break Iran before this moment came - and instead forged the very adversary now capable of meeting it. It started the war in part to have additional leverage over China - and handed the world the spectacle of begging China for help. The prophecy was multipolarity. Every American action to prevent it reveals it instead." I wouldn’t change a word. The only thing that's changed since I wrote it is that even the arsonists now smell the smoke. Src for the Atlantic article: theatlantic.com/internationa…

RT @TomaszPiasecki: Szczerze polecam Wam zajrzeć na Facebooka Katarzyny Szumlewicz @KatarzynaSzuml2. W związku z wczorajszym wpisem Autorki…

Today Berlin police made German communists cover up the hammer and sickle on the photo of the Soviet flag being hoisted on the Reichstag after the defeat of Nazism in Germany, a symbol of the victory over fascism. @DKPBerlin

"We in Central Europe live under the eyes of the Russians. For a century their psychological gaze has seen through our great words and institutions. Their vitality is strong enough to seize our knowledge and technology as weapons. Their prowess in rationalism and its opposite, as well as their potential for good and evil in orthodoxy, is overwhelming. They have realized the union of Socialism and Slavism, which already in 1848 Donoso Cortés said would be the decisive event of the next century." Carl Schmitt, The Age of Neutralizations and Depoliticizations

RT @TomaszPiasecki: Wkrótce Dzień Zwycięstwa. Albo za dwa dni albo za trzy. Co nie zmienia faktu, że było to zwycięstwo, dzięki któremu Po…