I find it amazing and sad that Poland is just now fortifying their border with Russia.
https://mstdn.social/@noelreports/113406674653446870
https://mstdn.social/@noelreports/113406674653446870
NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@noelreports@mstdn.social)
Attached: 1 image 🇵🇱 Poland has begun building fortifications on its border with Russia under the "Eastern Shield" initiative, confirms Prime Minister Donald Tusk.Mastodon 🐘
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to Kevin Leecaster • • •Better late than never.
Kevin Leecaster
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •It is sad to me that they have trusted the Kremlin until now since I would think that the Polish should know better is all.
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to Kevin Leecaster • • •#Polish #Defense spending
(1/n)
Ah, now I understand.
I think you're not doing the #Poles justice, Kevin.
They have seen the signs in contrast to most European and GQP party members as well:
Among #NATO member states, #Poland is now outspending all others, even the #US, measured fairly, as a share of GDP. 1) (see screenshot)
What is more, they're the only member state to have adjusted that target to 4.7% of GDP in...
1)
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2024/6/pdf/240617-def-exp-2024-en.pdf
2)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-leads-nato-defence-spend-can-it-afford-it-2024-10-23/?origin=serp_auto
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •#Polish #Defense spending
(2/n)
...2025 2) (apparently revised downwards from 5% of #Polish GDP as of July, 2024.
You might reply that a budget dies not equal actual spending, however in a democracy, such huge building projects take time.
IMO, the delay is chiefly to to the fact that the "Moscow friendly" #Polish version of the #GOP, the "Law and Jusice Party", was in power until the brave #Poles voted them out of office in December,...
3)
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/poland-spend-5-gdp-defence-2025-says-foreign-minister-2024-07-13/?origin=serp_auto
Kevin Leecaster
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •@northernlights And us Americans have been dealing with a pro-Putin Republican Party for eight years too.
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to Kevin Leecaster • • •Yes, insane, like a #SciFi dystopia.
@northernlights
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •2023. 4)
Let's hope American make the same decision when they head to the poles until Nov. 5th.
//
4)
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/11/europe/poland-pis-confidence-vote-tusk-intl/index.html?origin=serp_auto
Kevin Leecaster
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •We will. I'm not sure how we're going to deal with our corrupt courts though if they decide to end democracy in the USA.
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to Kevin Leecaster • • •Me neither, so true!
Did you see Nonilex's @Nonilex interesting analysis re/ the #US Court system and the judiciary yesterday?
https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/113402157045142296
Nonilex
2024-10-31 12:59:53
Kevin Leecaster
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •@HistoPol
It is ridiculous to compare how much the USA has spent to help defend Europe in terms of spending on Ukraine as a proportion of GDP since America has to defend international rules and norms all around the globe.
We are not able to just focus on one crisis the way most countries are able to.
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to Kevin Leecaster • • •#Polish #Defense spending
(1/n)
While the latter is true, you might look at the source:
This is the way #NATO military 🪖 economists compare defense spending. 😉
Besides, your assumption is incorrect:
This is not spending for #Ukraine, but *total* military spending, as a share of GDP.
This is the customary (and methodically) correct way for economists to compare national expenditures for FDI, education, you name it, across borders.
The bottom line is:
Even though US military..
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •#Polish #Defense spending
(2/n)
...spending has been ever more insane in comparison to other expenditures, in particular climate change* and healthcare, for instance, 👉#Poland still spends even more than the US on defense (now.)
So, clearly, they are, apart from the #Baltic states that have been warning ⚠️ of the #Kremlin threat for years, *the* country in Europe, that has started to prepare against an...
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •#Polish #Defense spending
(3/3)
...eventual #Russian invasion the most, apart from, obviously, #Ukraine.
//
*#Biden was the first POTUS to seriously tackle the #ClimateCrises. #TFG even withdrew from the Paris accords and Obama chiefly made pledges.
//
ItsDoctorNotMrs
in reply to Kevin Leecaster • • •@HistoPol
Remember, as well, that only relatively recently has the Polish govt stopped being women-hating right-wingers. I expect the previous govt might not have been as opposed to Ruzzia as the current govt.
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to ItsDoctorNotMrs • • •Exactly my point.
Re/ women's rights and abortion, I saw an interesting analysis piece (The Atlantic?) in about 2022 that stated that #Poland had become a "testing ground" for right-wing laws like extreme limits on #abortion for the international right, chiefly dominated by GQP "think tanks" aka pressure groups like the #FederalistSociety.
(Possibly this article;
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/poland-democracy-authoritarian-government/674324/?origin=serp_auto
Full text:
https://archive.is/mSmnY
@GreenFire
Poland’s Experiment in Illiberal Democracy
Yascha Mounk (The Atlantic)Kevin Leecaster
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •Yes, sadly because of our long relationship with Poland, they have suffered from the same Kremlin funded efforts by the far-right to help topple democracy for sure with even worse outcomes because of how close they are to Moscow.
Which probably pretty much explains why their border has gone unfortified for so long too.
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •@northernlights
#Democracy #Poland
(1/2)
Alas, this is only part of the story I remembered, but it holds important, excellent phrased truths:
"#Poland [alternative read: 👉"the #US under #Trump,] in short, may be poised to turn into a Potemkin democracy, an empty simulacrum of genuine self-government. And that once again reveals the alarming brittleness of democracy, with even the most vaunted democratic success stories deeply vulnerable to authoritarian capture.👈
"To...
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 • • •@northernlights
#Democracy #Poland #USA #USpol #GeoPol #Politics
...understand the developments in #Poland—and similar ones in such countries as #Turkey, #India, and *#America*—👉the simple binary of democracy and dictatorship will not do.👈
#Poland, like so many other countries 👉[the #US], is evolving into an embattled system that political scientists have described by such names as “*illiberal democracy*” and “competitive authoritarian regime.”👈
Read on!
https://archive.is/mSmnY