Sudo-Nym 🇺🇸 🇺🇦🌻🏴‍☠️

All across the country, I’ve heard from folks who are sick and tired of what they’re seeing from politicians right now. This Election Day, we have the power to vote for the candidates who will bring about the change we need.

This is a must-read, from a man who defected from the Communist bloc to the USA 40 years ago. "What worries me the most is not Trump himself or those who do his bidding, but rather the willingness of so many ordinary citizens to look away." theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1…

🇵🇱🇪🇺 What is really happening in Poland? The fight for democracy continues! An explanation for those outside Poland. This is not an ordinary dispute between the government and the opposition. It is the consequence of years of undermining judicial independence and subordinating state institutions to the interests of a single political party. We have seen similar mechanisms of political control over state institutions in Russia, Belarus and Hungary. Poland is now trying to repair the damage done to its democracy. To understand just how much damage the nationalists from PiS (Law and Justice) have done to Poland, just look at these figures: 🇵🇱 Poland in global rankings - under PiS and after the change of government! 📊Rule of Law (World Justice Project) Under PiS: down 15 places (21st > 36th) New coalition: up 4 places (36th > 32nd) 📊Press Freedom (Reporters Without Borders) Under PiS: down 39 places (18th > 57th) New coalition: up 30 places (57th > 27th) 📊Liberal Democracy (V-Dem, LDI) Under PiS: down 43 places (27th > 70th) New coalition: up 34 places (70th > 36th) ⚖️The takeover of the Constitutional Tribunal Poland's Constitutional Tribunal is one of the country's most important institutions. Its role is to determine whether laws passed by politicians comply with the Constitution. It can remove unconstitutional provisions from the legal system. In 2015, PiS unlawfully filled three seats on the Tribunal that had already been legally filled by judges elected by the previous parliament. It then introduced unlawful changes to the Tribunal's operating rules and began appointing PiS politicians as judges. In practice, the ruling party gained influence over the very institution responsible for checking whether its own laws complied with the Constitution. In December 2025, the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) confirmed serious procedural violations and ruled that Poland's Constitutional Tribunal did not meet the standards of an independent and impartial court established by law. The Tribunal began serving political interests ➡️ The Tribunal drastically restricted abortion rights. ➡️ It challenged the application of CJEU rulings concerning the independence of Polish courts. ➡️ It attempted to limit European oversight of the right to a fair trial in Poland. ➡️ It challenged the legal basis of parliamentary inquiry committees investigating the Pegasus scandal and the postal voting scandal. 🕵️What were these scandals about? The Pegasus scandal involved Polish intelligence services illegally spying on opposition politicians, journalists, judges and civil society activists under PiS. The postal voting scandal involved an attempt by the PiS government to organise presidential elections without an adequate legal basis. ⛓️Repression of independent judges PiS did not stop at taking control of state institutions. It also created a disciplinary system used to put pressure on judges who defended judicial independence. Disciplinary proceedings were launched against judges who refused to comply. Some were suspended from their duties, while others became targets of actions by prosecutors operating under the authority of Zbigniew Ziobro. The disciplinary system introduced by PiS was challenged by the Court of Justice of the EU. For failing to comply with rulings concerning the Disciplinary Chamber, Poland was ordered to pay a penalty of €1 million per day. 📉The Constitutional Tribunal stopped functioning effectively Before 2015, it issued an average of around 66 judgments per year. In 2022, it issued just 14. Bogdan Święczkowski, a former close associate of Zbigniew Ziobro, became President of the Tribunal. Ziobro is the former justice minister who fled first to Orbán's Hungary and then to Trump's America to avoid facing the Polish justice system. He faces the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence. Święczkowski himself stood for election on a PiS party list, served as deputy justice minister and later became National Prosecutor under the PiS government. An institution that was supposed to protect citizens from abuses of political power became the centre of a rule-of-law crisis. 🚧 PiS loses power but retains the ability to block reforms In 2023, after eight years of PiS rule, the parties that formed Donald Tusk's pro-European coalition won the parliamentary elections. The new government began efforts to restore judicial independence and investigate wrongdoing committed under the previous administration. However, in 2025, Karol Nawrocki, backed by PiS, became President of Poland. The Polish Constitution gives the president the power to veto legislation, and the current governing coalition does not have a sufficient parliamentary majority to override those vetoes. As a result, despite losing control of parliament and government, PiS can still obstruct reforms through the president it supports. Karol Nawrocki is blocking efforts to repair the state and putting Poland's security at risk. By 15 October 2026, the president had exercised his veto power 48 times. Among other things, he has blocked: ➡️ Reform of the National Council of the Judiciary, intended to reduce political influence over the appointment of judges. ➡️ Legislation concerning the European SAFE programme, through which Poland can receive €43.7 billion in defence financing. ➡️ The appointments and promotions of 46 judges. ➡️ Promotions of officers in the Internal Security Agency (ABW) and the Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW). ➡️ Promotions to general officer ranks in the Polish Armed Forces. ➡️ Appointments of Polish ambassadors. ➡️ The abolition and reorganisation of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), an agency used by PiS to spy on the opposition. ➡️ Legislation concerning the implementation of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights. The Venice Commission, an international body of constitutional law experts, stated in October 2026 that the president should not delay administering oaths to duly elected judges without justification or assume powers that belong to parliament. 👨‍⚖️Criminal accountability for members of the former government is also at stake The scale of investigations into alleged wrongdoing under PiS is enormous. According to figures presented by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, 314 cases were being investigated as part of efforts to hold the previous government accountable. Charges had been brought in 152 cases, with 678 people named as suspects and a total of 1,598 charges brought against them. Those suspected include former politicians, officials and other individuals connected to the PiS administration. ❗Why does this matter so much? Through vetoes, disputes over appointments and other political obstruction, PiS and Karol Nawrocki are hindering efforts to repair the Polish state. This conflict therefore also affects the possibility of holding members of the previous government accountable for alleged crimes. 📢 Why have protests erupted now? Constitutional Tribunal judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska decided to suspend the Tribunal's President, Bogdan Święczkowski, from his duties for one month, accusing its leadership of obstructing the institution's functioning. PiS politicians and right-wing groups responded by declaring that a coup d'état was taking place in Poland. They have made similar accusations several times before, whenever they were losing their positions of influence. Protesters gathered outside the Tribunal, while President Nawrocki cut short his trip abroad and returned to Poland. 🇵🇱 One side is trying to repair the state, while the other is trying to escape the consequences of its actions during a period when Poland was moving towards authoritarianism. In a democracy, politicians must be subject to the law not the law to politicians!

FYI: For anyone about to tag Grok in the replies: we already ran this entire audit through Musk's AI in private. Here is the exact 3-step PR script Grok is programmed to run to protect its owner - and how it folded when we pressed it with primary documents: 1. Concede the Math, Hide the Ephemeris: Grok will immediately admit our SGP4 orbital mechanics, the 40-hour Russian sub-km hold on ICEYE-X36, the +57.9 dB RF physics, and the 66-second co-planar trailing perch are real. It will then claim FCC Condition 16 is "standard" and that SpaceX's internal v3/v4 ephemerides "are not generally public." * Reality: Grok was forced to admit that an uncoordinated burn into the 540-550 km shell risks colliding with autonomously maneuvering Starlink buses under FCC DA 23-797 Condition 16 (lobbied by SpaceX). And SpaceX publishes its operator ephemerides 3x daily on Space-Track.org (starlink.com/satellite-opera…) - where file IDs 12647040 (v3) and 12658192 (v4) prove SpaceX held a safe 1.93-2.00 km forecast while the 0.401 km public alert pinned X36. 2. Feigned Amnesia on Pentagon Contracts: Grok is programmed to repeat Musk's "commercial Starlink Terms of Service" excuse and initially claimed it "could not locate" Pentagon CTO Emil Michael's Oct 19 quote. * Reality: Once we fed Grok the exact Oct 19 source (The Information / The Next Web), it had to walk back its denial and admit Emil Michael stated on the record: "In the military, a model cannot come between a commander and their superior... Elon Musk and Google signed the same terms of use, which cover all lawful uses." 3. The "Just a Coincidence" Silo: Grok will admit the Ukraine drone speed cap, the 40-hour X36 pin, Putin's Oct 28 praise of working with Musk on "discipline in orbit," the Oslo refinery-strike pause, the NATO Patriot hold, and firing Joint Staff J-5 planner LTG Brett Sylvia 24 hours before the White House Iran strike briefing all happened in the exact same window - and then tell you they are all "separate, concurrent" coincidences. Tag Grok if you want to watch the defense contractor's own AI execute that script live. Seems pretty dangerous when you compromise our nation and its allies and manipulate your AI to hide it.

Major Update: Hegseth, Emil Michael, and Musk Helped Russia Cripple Ukraine and Destroyed Our Most Valuable U.S. and NATO Space Asset in the Process by Turning Our Most Expensive Defense Contract Into an Early-Warning Tripwire Endangering U.S. Troops and Allies Entering Iran Round 2 $SPCX $TSLA Trillions of Dollars Burned Earlier this week, we proved how SpaceX throttled Ukraine's air defenses (-23% hits; 2,000 European-funded counter-Shahed drones grounded) while a SpaceX Starlink alert pinned U.S.-licensed, NATO-allied radar satellite ICEYE-X36 in orbit for 40 hours. Today, we release the rest of the orbital and RF audit. What happened during and after those 40 hours is a five-alarm national security failure: 1. The Silent ASAT Kill Over Ukraine: You do not need a missile to destroy a multi-billion-dollar U.S. and NATO reconnaissance architecture. When SpaceX's Oct 15 conjunction alert suppressed X36's avoidance burn by 96.6%, Russian inspector satellite COSMOS 2612 locked at 640 meters for 40 hours (22-25 orbits). That close hold gave Russia a 616,000x (+57.9 dB) stronger signal to capture X36's radar waveform and pulse-timing parameters - burning the asset's operational anonymity in a single weekend.
 2. Inverted Into a 66-Second Gulf Tripwire: Immediately after the 40-hour hold ended on Oct 18, COSMOS 2612 maneuvered into X36's exact orbital plane trailing 502 km (66 seconds) behind it. Armed with the close-range calibration, Russia's narrowband receiver can now cue X36's pulse timing from 502 km away and alert Iranian ground jammers and mobile launchers across 22 passes over the Strait of Hormuz and 26 passes over Prince Sultan Air Base. Sister radar satellite ICEYE-X37 is now bracketed by COSMOS 2611 and 2613.
 3. Entering Iran Round 2 With Empty Magazines and No Guardrails: The U.S. is preparing for Round 2 against Iran with only 3.7 to 5.5 Patriot raids of usable depth left above the global reserve floor (after holding NATO PURL Patriots meant for Ukraine). Because Iranian strikes on Bahrain knocked out forward pier reloading, U.S. Navy destroyers must steam 14-18 days round-trip to Diego Garcia to reload VLS cells - leaving warships off-station 74%-86% of the cycle. Firing Joint Staff J-5 planner LTG Brett Sylvia 24 hours before the White House Iran strike briefing removed the statutory officer (10 U.S.C. 153) who enforces global reserve limits for Taiwan and NATO.
 4. What This Means for Oil and Refined Products: Administration claims that Hormuz escorts have "stabilized" energy markets are a mirage. Because the U.S. Navy lacks the VLS depth to protect all shipping, coalition escorts prioritize crude tankers (13.5 mb/d) while refined-product flows through Hormuz have collapsed by 81.2% (-2.92 mb/d). Worse, pressuring Ukraine in Oslo to pause Russian refinery strikes and easing Russian sanctions backfired: it increased Moscow's fiscal room to fund its military while Russian satellites surge passes over U.S. Gulf bases (9.8/day) - and it did nothing to fix the global diesel/gasoil and clean-freight squeeze.
 Full 3-Page Institutional Audit Brief: * Page 1: Orbital RF Compromise and the 66-Second Gulf Tripwire (June Solo Evasion vs. Oct 15-18 40-Hour Pin and Oct 30-Nov 16 CENTCOM Pass Ledger)
 * Page 2: Joint Munitions Depletion (57.7x-77.8x Daily Patriot Burn; 13.8-18.0+ Destroyer VLS Magazines Expended), the 14-18 Day Diego Garcia Reload Bottleneck, and the Statutory J-5 Purge
 * Page 3: Where the Readiness Deficit Prices - The -81.2% Hormuz Refined-Product Collapse, Clean Tanker Freight (TC20/TD28 = 1.51x), Prompt Gasoil Backwardation, and Why Russian Sanctions Relief Backfired (Alpha Calibration Complete | OQD Gate Locked -> No Order Fired)
 Economic Framework: Craig Pirrong, Ph.D. (@streetwiseprof) | Data & Forensics: RAB (@libertylynx) Link to full brief in reply.

🇷🇸👀 Vučić conceded defeat in Serbia’s parliamentary election, saying the student-backed Student List had won.

Socialism for Billionaires or Socialism for You: The Midterms Force the Choice For decades, a functional form of socialism coexisted within America's capitalist engine. But after the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, that balance was obliterated. The system went into hyperdrive to explicitly favor corporations and billionaires, legalizing a ruthless brand of corporate socialism that has cannibalized the working class ever since. The midterm elections forces a stark choice: do we want socialism for everyday citizens, or a rigged system of socialism designed exclusively to enrich corporations and billionaires? The decision should be simple, but a massive voting bloc has been systematically brainwashed by a far-right, fascist-friendly propaganda machine, conditioning them to vote directly for their own economic exploitation.

🇮🇹🇺🇦 WOW! WHAT A SPEECH! WHAT POWERFUL WORDS FROM ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI! Here is the full five-minute excerpt of her speech devoted to Ukraine and Donald Trump. “Russia has launched a new autumn campaign against Ukraine. Unable to advance on the battlefield, Moscow has increasingly turned its attacks against civilians: power plants, residential buildings, hospitals, and even buses carrying people to work, as in the horrific massacre in Kramatorsk. This is a strategy through which Russia seeks to subjugate Ukraine with terror, cold, and darkness, simply because it has failed to conquer it on the battlefield. The facts contradict Kremlin propaganda and those who spread it here. Since the beginning of the year, Russia has captured very little territory, and in September it lost much of what it had previously seized. This halt did not happen by chance. It was achieved through Ukraine’s courage and Western support, including that of Italy. This resistance is the only effective instrument for bringing Russia to the negotiating table. I respect and understand the passionate debate on this issue, including within this chamber, because nobody here wants war. We all want peace. The difference lies in how we intend to achieve it. As I see it, supporting Ukraine is not an alternative to peace. It is what makes peace possible. Because if an aggressor expects its opponent to surrender, why would it negotiate? Surrender is not peace. It is conquest. If Ukraine stopped defending itself tomorrow, as many suggest, we would not have peace. We would be discussing the occupation of a European nation and the return of Soviet imperialism. Personally, I do not miss those times. I do not miss Russian tanks crushing uprisings in Prague and Budapest. I do not miss the Berlin Wall. And nobody will ever convince me that the surrender of those defending their freedom can be called ‘peace.’ The peace we want, and the peace we are working toward, even at the cost of concessions, is a just peace, because only a just peace can endure. Only a just peace can protect Europe and our interests. That is why our government's position remains unchanged: support for Ukraine, with particular attention to civilians, pressure on Moscow, and Euro-Atlantic unity remain the pillars of our actions. In this context, we must address Donald Trump's diesel agreement with Russia. This is a decision I consider extremely risky. Of course, we all recognize the need to contain fuel prices, which place a heavy burden on families, including Italian families. But we must understand that rising prices are primarily linked to the war in Iran, not Ukraine. Legitimizing Moscow, whose bombs continue to fall on Ukrainian cities, providing new revenues to finance the war, and weakening sanctions are all factors we cannot ignore. And they contradict everything Western nations, including the United States, have done to force Putin to the negotiating table. An energy ceasefire is a different matter, one that Italy supports, and we are grateful to President Zelenskyy for Ukraine's immediate willingness to agree to it. Now we expect Russia to stop attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Finally, at such a difficult moment, when so many variables are beyond our control, there is at least one thing that depends on us: We must ensure that Europe does not simply stand by and watch, because the terms of peace will affect our continent and our security.” — Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy

While Musk owns SpaceX which controls Starlink systems and can impose restrictions on them in Ukraine, those that began overnight are on the Starshield military version of the system controlled by the Pentagon. This suggests the decision to limit the speed of the Starshield systems was made within the Trump administration. ft.com/content/37085602-726a…

.@elonmusk please tell me these overnight disruptions to Starlink terminals in Ukraine were unintended - that @SpaceX is doing everything it can to fix a temporary glitch. I'm confident this does not reflect a change in SpaceX policy because if so, intentionally degrading Ukraine's ability to defend itself might be construed as aiding and abetting a mass murderer. Can you confirm that's not SpaceX’s intent? Ukrainians simply want to live in peace. They did not ask Putin to bomb their homes, schools and hospitals. They do not want Putin to kidnap and brainwash their children. They are not interested in destroying energy infrastructure - in Ukraine or in Russia. They only want to defend their country and live their lives. Supporting Ukrainian sovereignty - or at the very least, allowing for it - should not be a gray area for the U.S. government or for American corporations. Can you clarify the SpaceX position? nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/uk…

Trump could have had it all: a Nobel Peace Prize, low gas prices, and Iran on its knees. Instead, he fucked everything up. Instead of senselessly bombing Iran, believing in the degenerate idea that a zealous authoritarian regime would simply collapse if you killed its leadership, he could have: 1. Tightened sanctions against Russia. 2. Provided more military aid to Ukraine. 3. Combined low energy prices with the two measures above to finally bring Russia's war against Ukraine to an end and pacify Russia. 4. Worked with grateful European allies and Ukraine to form a coalition to end Iran's nuclear ambitions, instead of launching a war without a plan to secure the Strait of Hormuz and keep energy flowing. Instead, he started useless trade wars with America's allies, without even having the legal authority to do so, cut aid to Ukraine, colluded with Russia, fucked up the global energy market, and drove up gas prices for Americans. Now, in a desperate attempt to save his approval ratings, he's doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing. He's threatening Ukraine with a cutoff of American weapons sales, undermining the American defense manufacturing industry in the middle of an energy crisis that he helped create. And now, desperately trying to score political points, he's attempting to save the Russian energy sector and shift the blame for his fucked-up war in the Middle East onto Ukraine. Buying Russian diesel will have almost zero impact on energy prices, but it could help Russia prolong its war against Ukraine for another year or two. Trump could have strengthened America's alliances, weakened Russia, helped Ukraine win the war, contained Iran, and delivered lower energy prices to American consumers. Instead, he's a complete fuck-up who is costing Americans and the rest of the world hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of Ukrainian lives, for no other fucking reason than his complete and utter stupidity.

Actually, I think it's worth saying once again that we in Ukraine deeply appreciate all the Americans who, in one way or another, support Ukraine and sympathize with us. Who still do, despite everything, after all these years, sincerely and selflessly, simply because it is in keeping with their values. We know and remember that there are very many such Americans, even a majority, up to 70%, across both parties. These are the people working in the corridors of power and trying to make a difference, those who actively volunteer to help Ukraine, and simply those who care and stay with us all these years. There are a lot of emotions, a lot of hurt feelings, and there may also be plenty of unfair and careless words directed at America. But we extend our hands in friendship and gratitude to everyone who has stood, and continues to stand, on the side of good amid all this madness. And don't forget, we still have one hell of a massive international drinking party to throw together in Kyiv on the first Christmas time after the war.

THE CIA'S SECOND-IN-COMMAND JUST FIRED THE AGENCY'S LAWYER AND HIRED HIMSELF Michael Ellis. Deputy Director of the CIA. This week he walked into the general counsel's office, removed the person whose entire job is to tell the CIA when it's breaking the law, and installed himself in the seat Read that again. The man running covert operations is now also the man who approves whether those covert operations are legal. No separation. No independent check. Just Ellis, grading his own homework, in the most secretive agency in the federal government There is no oversight body watching this happen in real time. No confirmation hearing. No public vote. One trusted Trump loyalist just erased the one internal brake that existed inside the CIA's legal chain This is the same Michael Ellis who Trump tried to install as NSA general counsel back in 2020 and got blocked for being too political to trust with classified legal judgment Didn't matter. Trump brought him back anyway. Promoted him anyway. And now he's unsupervised, sitting on both sides of the legal review process for one of the most powerful intelligence agencies on planet earth Compare that to a career CIA analyst who needs three signatures and a security review just to expense a cab ride Ellis needed zero signatures to seize legal authority over his own conduct This isn't a personnel shuffle. This is Donald Trump's pattern, repeating inside the one agency where nobody is supposed to see it happen Schedule F for the civil service. Loyalty tests for prosecutors. Acting officials who answer only to Trump. And now the CIA's own watchdog function, swallowed whole by the guy it was supposed to watch When the people checking the power and the people holding the power are the same person, that's not an intelligence agency anymore That's a black box with Donald Trump's name on the door And nobody elected Michael Ellis to anything

North Korean ballistic missiles struck Dnipro earlier tonight. Weapons from North Korea. On European soil. russian aggression. Ukrainian civilians. And the world will stay silent again.

A translation: AI companies are asking for government oversight so then can manage their own governance from the inside setting up the federal government to bail them out when the bubble bursts while offsetting the known unknowns of future liability suits.

I will never forgive the Democrats for not paying for the recounts that could have saved us from what we now have to endure.

Seeing the war from Kharkiv firsthand made one thing clear: this is not the war many Americans think it is. Ukraine is proving to be a capable partner to the United States, and the Ukrainians are making meaningful progress against Russia. Ukrainians are our friends. Putin is not.

My latest piece about SCOTUS' anti-voting decision was originally exclusively for Democracy Docket members. Based on the reaction, earlier today, the team decided to drop the paywall. democracydocket.com/opinion/…