Today marks ten years of war in Ukraine and I thought I’d write a commentary piece about that:

→ Eye on The Press: Ten Years of War

Reflecting on ten years of war in Ukraine and our reaction to it in the West

I watched the Putin interview so you don’t have to:

→ Eye on The Press: The Interview

What Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin says about the war in Ukraine, the US government and Putin himself

My writings about the Hopkins case have solicited quite a few reader comments. I felt it was necessary to address some of them:

→ Eye on The Press: A Note to Readers on the C.J. Hopkins Case

Misinterpreting the law, being outraged at prosecution and misunderstanding the criminal courts system

I went to Berlin yesterday to report on the C.J. Hopkins case. Turns out that, aside from The Epoch Times, I was the only journalist writing about the proceedings.

→ Eye on The Press: C.J. Hopkins Acquitted in Berlin

Court finds satirist’s use of a swastika to criticise anti-pandemic measures legally justified

Something quite bizarre happened to me on Substack over the holidays. I’ve written a recap of the incident for Eye on The Press, which also includes what I inted to do about it:

→ Eye on The Press: C.J. Hopkins and the Swastika

How I got called a “fascist German creep” for defending tenets of the German constitution I don’t even like much

So I’ve been watching Taylor Sheridan on The Joe Rogan Experience and those guys say a lot of smart things on that episode. As is usual with Rogan, they also say some dumb shit. But the dumbest thing is something that I’ve heard a lot and it just baffles me.

What is it with Americans saying “our country is a republic, not a democracy”? And it’s always Americans saying this. Is it something about their school system where they’re just not educated about this stuff? Of course your country is a democracy. A republic is a way of running a government, usually a democratic one. Your whole nation was founded on the same ideal than the French Republic, in the same era of revolutional upheaval. And that idea was chiefly that a country should be run by its people instead of a king and a class of privileged individuals that pass on their privilege to their children. So a republic, in contrast to a monarchy, is a government by the people, for the people. And how do you decide who is in that government? Guess what? Democracy.

“Republic” and “democracy” aren’t mutually exclusive terms. On the contrary. One (republic) is a practical means of achieving an idea (democracy). They can theoretically exist without one another, and sometimes do. One example of this is the United Kingdom, which is a democratic state that isn’t a republic. If anything, the US republic is more democratic than the constitutional monarchy in Britain. You can also have a republic that isn’t democratic. The Italian fascist, for example, founded such a state when Mussolini was dismissed by the king.

All this should demonstrate that the terms certainly aren’t exclusive. And why would you think they are? Aside from studying history — the Roman Republic is a good start — you could just look these words up in a dictionary. People saying this just drives me nuts. Especially when they are from a country that has quite often invaded other countries on the pretext of enlightening them about democracy.

The US presidential election is less than a year out. High time to call it, I think. Unless a lot of things change in the next year, you don’t have to be a genius to predict this one, I feel:

→ Eye on The Press: Trump is Going to Win Again

While I don’t agree with the conclusion of this piece — nothing will change, I fear — and some of the more flowery language not withstanding, there’s some very sharp analysis on display here.

Under the direction of our ruling class and the educators who rely on its largesse for their tenure and their grants most recent activism has been confined to the realm of manners, microaggressions, and most of all, an endless litigation of the past. Because nothing can truly be done about it. You can’t free slaves that have been dead for 150 some-odd years, unlike the victims of today’s slave markets, which are far more numerous and also have the benefit of still being savable by virtue of still being alive. But you don’t hear very much about them. To focus on them would create a demand for meaningful action. The kind of action that could upset corporate relationships, manufacturing deals, international geopolitics, the price of labor; in short, profits. Much better to hunt down racism in the human heart, which, like the hunt for sin, can never really be concluded, and like the war on terror, can make its proselytizers a fuck ton of money.

→ It’s Alive! Social Justice Movement Turns On Its Creators, Russell Dobular, Due Dissidence

Over on Substack, I’ve just published my analysis of last night’s explosive local election results here in Germany:

→ Eye on The Press: Our Shit’s All Fucked Up