For Putin, ammunition costs money, and the dead cost nothing

Written on 27 March 2025.

It is obvious that we Europeans will have to look for new friends in the wake of Trump's anti-European policy. There is little choice: the only possible future allies are Russia, China and the BRICS states.
Russia has excluded itself due to the war in Ukraine. The BRICS countries, which include Russia and China, are too heterogeneous and undisciplined to serve as partners for Europe. That leaves China.
Why not a partnership with China? China does not have a disputed border with Europe. We are protected from China's expansionism by the existence of Russia, which is big enough to make China's drive for conquest come to nothing.
Competition with China for the role of the world's largest economic and military power is America's problem, not Europe's. Our sole aim is to reorganize the ailing European economy so as not to fall by the wayside in the competition with China and the USA.
American sawing at the roots of NATO has already led to the formation of a new coalition of the willing focused on Europe. This alliance should be in a position to negotiate with China on equal footing and discuss cooperating not only on climate issues, but also on armaments.

The aim could be to purchase US-free armaments: Chinese jets instead of US jets, for example. Why not?

They are obviously good and modern and could complement France's and Sweden's models.

Beijing would of course try to influence how we govern Europe. Chinese technicians would work at European air bases, Chinese military personnel stay at European command posts: Beijing would know everything without having to spy. Washington would be forced to cut all ties to Europe for fear of Beijing's espionage. Sad, but: Tu l'as voulu, Donald Dandin.

Written on 24 March 2025.

Who is helping Ukraine? Who is ignoring its struggle? Who is harming Ukraine?

Questions to which there are no clear answers. Since March 13, the USA is again supplying war materiel to Ukraine, although it is urging Ukraine -- currently at negotiations in Riyadh -- to yield in "peace" talks with Russia.

Europe's Ukraine policy is mixed: the further east a country is located, the more vigorously it supports Ukraine (with the exception of Hungary and Slovakia). Italy and Spain apparently do not feel threatened by Russian boots and provide little beyond verbal support. Who is harming Ukraine? Mainly the USA:

By talking to Russia over Ukraine's (and Europe's) head. Secondly, by having blocked materiel deliveries during some time before March 13 and also temporarily shutting down satellite imagery information.

This was a warning to Kiev of what could happen if Ukraine did not obey President Trump's wishes.

Europe's assistance to Kiev is also affected: since a large part of the war materiel supplied by Europe to Ukraine is of American origin, Washington can block the delivery of spare parts and servicing at any time and thus render the equipment useless. Even if Europe were prepared (which it is at best partially) to tread in America's footsteps, it would only be able to supply Ukraine with suitable materiel if America is benevolently acquiescent. But that is only half of the problem.

The other half is the predictable reaction of the American arms industry. Europe has been a large and patient customer for them for decades. Donald Trump has shattered this practice with a powerful blow. Europe is shocked and, under France's leadership, wants to separate itself from American armaments and US satellite imagery (which is suspected to have helped Russia in regaining Kursk).

This new policy is doubly dangerous for the US armaments industry, the world's largest: not only is it losing what were probably its most important international customers, but it is also facing new competition.

For many years, European armaments companies had kept their concepts for new and better weapons in drawers; weapons that were never built because US industry products dominated the market, served as NATO standard, and were relatively inexpensive due to mass production.

Now the European arms industries are being cuddled and rewarded with exclusivity by a range of furious and frightened governments. Europe's armaments' companies -- already growing explosively due to the Ukraine war demand -- will not restrict themselves to serving the local market.

Just as Europe's initially small aviation conglomerate Airbus managed to successfully compete with America's giants Boeing & Co, Europe's companies  Rheinmetall, Leonardo & Co could wrest major global market shares from US arms manufacturers. President Trump had obviously not understood this possibility.

By urging Europe that it should massively rearm to protect itself without US support, he probably thought he would create a bonanza for the US arms industry. Instead, he created a headache for them. 

Written on 26 March 2025.

Summary

Key Bullet Points:

• Mass Voter Suppression: Over 3.5 million voters, primarily people of color and youth, were disenfranchised in 2024 through purges, rejected mail-in ballots, and provisional ballot disqualifications.

• Vigilante Challenges: Right-wing operatives, under groups like True the Vote, individually challenged hundreds of thousands of voters without evidence, reviving tactics used by the Ku Klux Klan.

• Racial Targeting: African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and young voters were disproportionately targeted, with Black mail-in ballots four times more likely to be rejected.

• Systemic Failures: Palast criticizes the Justice Department’s inaction and highlights bipartisan silence on these systemic abuses of voting rights.

• Call to Action: If possible, voters must check their registration, avoid mail-in ballots, and support grassroots voting rights organizations to protect democracy.

Greg Palast’s investigation is a blistering indictment of a system that claims to be democratic while actively silencing millions of its most vulnerable citizens. Through meticulous research and a fearless commitment to truth, Palast exposes how the GOP, with complicity and indifference from key institutions, weaponizes bureaucracy and racism to suppress the vote. For progressives, the message is clear: the right to vote is under siege, and without a relentless defense of it, every other progressive cause—from healthcare to climate justice—is imperiled

Palast, best known for his work with The Guardian and the bestselling The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, has long sounded the alarm about attacks on voting rights. In his latest film, Vigilantes Inc: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitman, narrated by Rosario Dawson and produced by Martin Sheen with support from Leonardo DiCaprio, he reveals the chilling extent of the manipulation used to undercut democracy. His evidence is not speculative but backed by forensic analysis, federal court proceedings, and fieldwork conducted in partnership with civil rights organizations like Black Voters Matter, Rainbow/PUSH, the NAACP, and the ACLU.

Palast asserts that had no voter suppression in the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris would have defeated Trump by 3.56 million votes—enough to win both the popular vote and a decisive Electoral College majority. That’s not hyperbole; it’s math. Drawing from data supplied by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) and verified by professional analysts, Palast tracks the disenfranchisement of voters—primarily Black, Brown, Indigenous, and young people—through purges, rejected mail-in ballots and discriminatory voter ID laws.

One of the most egregious tactics Palast exposes is the return of “vigilante” voter challenges, a method resurrected from Ku Klux Klan playbooks of the 1940s. In 2024, a right-wing group named True the Vote launched a campaign to challenge the eligibility of over 363,000 voters—often targeting people of color—without any governmental authority. Palast details how Major Gamaliel Turner, a Black military officer stationed in California, was among those wrongly challenged. Despite being a legal Georgia voter with a right to cast an absentee ballot, Turner’s vote was denied unless he physically traveled 2,700 miles to prove his citizenship and residency. He did—but thousands of others couldn’t.

This is not an isolated story. According to the EAC, 43% of all provisional ballots—typically given to voters facing registration issues—are rejected. The rejection rate for mail-in ballots is shockingly high: Black voters are 400% more likely to have their mail-in ballots disqualified than white voters. These numbers should be headline news, but instead, they are buried in obscure databases and ignored by mainstream narratives obsessed with political horse races.

Palast’s work shows that modern vote suppression is systemic, racially targeted, and executed with both high-tech precision and legal cover. Voter rolls are purged en masse based on flawed data. Ballots are disqualified for technicalities. Voters are misled or unaware they’ve been challenged until it’s too late. While Republicans frame these efforts as protecting “election integrity,” the actual result is the disenfranchisement of millions of legal voters.

Perhaps most infuriating is that this war on voting rights is openly supported—or at least tolerated—by Republican-controlled legislatures and secretaries of state. In Georgia, for instance, Palast and his team verified that 63% of the nearly 5 million voters purged from the rolls had not moved and were still eligible. These purges disproportionately affected Black voters, the Democratic base, and communities least likely to have the resources to fight back.

The film Vigilantes Inc. doesn’t merely diagnose the problem—it prescribes action. Palast urges voters to check their registration status months before any election. He recommends voting early in person if possible to avoid the pitfalls of mail-in ballots. Most crucially, he calls on Americans to support grassroots voting rights organizations that are doing the heavy lifting to inform, register, and protect marginalized voters.

At its core, Palast’s investigation reveals a disturbing truth: the United States does not suffer from voter fraud; it suffers from voter suppression. This isn’t a fringe theory. As legal scholars, civil rights advocates, and election data analysts consistently affirm, these tactics are deliberate, racialized, and antithetical to democracy. If left unchecked, they will continue to warp elections, silence communities, and keep power in the hands of those who fear a truly representative electorate.

The progressive movement must recognize that voting rights are not simply a civil rights issue—they are the linchpin of every other cause, from climate justice to economic equity. Without the vote, the people have no power to chart a different future. That is why exposing the crimes detailed in Vigilantes Inc. is not just important—it is urgent.

You can stream Vigilantes Inc for free at gregpalast.com and share the film widely. As Palast puts it, “It’s time to fight like democracy depends on it—because it does.”

Egberto Willies

Written on 22 March 2025.

Wladimir Putin ist vieles zugleich: Präsident, Freund von Donald Trump, Beinahe-Diktator. Vor allem aber ist er eines: ein begnadeter Schauspieler. Die Großen der Welt fallen seinem Charme und seinem überzeugenden Gutmenschentum zum Opfer. Sein jüngster Erfolg: Steve Witkoff, der aus Moskau zurückgekehrte Sondergesandte von Präsident Trump, beschrieb Putin in einem Gespräch mit dem umstrittenen TV-Star Tucker Carlson in „glühenden Farben“. "Ich mochte ihn. Ich denke, er war ehrlich zu mir."

Carlson, der sich nicht lumpen lässt, sekundierte; "Diese Einschätzung wird von allen Präsidenten der Welt geteilt. Selbst wenn sie mit Russlands Verhalten nicht einverstanden sind, sagen sie doch: Wissen Sie, Putin ist ein offener Mensch."