Why can't corporate civil disobedience occur in the US? Why don't oil companies just restart their closed down production? Why don't the pipeline companies start rebuilding? Why don't the frackers restart fracking? And tell Biden to "jump in the lake". Maybe start up again in a Republican state where any Washington led suppression can be countered by state and county forces. The US should not be a "tail between thee legs" nation. Some people have to stand up to those who have sold out to Russia and who are equally disastrous, desperate to sell out to Iran. Action must happen now!
Michael... lots of that country (drilling) is Fed Gov owned, Nev is 80% Fed owned, same with most western states. Cost lots just to set up, greenies want you shut down...so you sit.
Not that you didn't know...
You can see what or courts system is doing to the Jan 6th people. And a few might have gone too far...but NO trial?...sick.
I've wondered the same thing about border security. Why don't they just enforce it to the fullest and film the whole thing. Then if the Biden admin tries to stop them from enforcing the law they can do it live in front of the world.
A charming idea. Unfortunately, that would require part of the professional managerial class to actually be loyal to something other than themselves and their class. I'm afraid there's no chance at all of it even being attempted unless there is some oil production capacity in the hands of privately held companies, and only then if the owners have a sense that something is more important than their corporate bottom line.
Thank you for these “on the ground” reports. War is hell. I am proud of these Ukrainians fighting for their country. I believe I would fight just as hard for mine. I pray for peace, soon
But idiot Biden is still funding Putin’s war. So we aren’t taking Russian oil but someone else is. And he’s getting $120 plus a barrel. The way to defund Putin is to open the oil spigots in America to get that price down. Even saying ANWAR is open and the keystone pipeline will restart and the rules for federal lands will be eased would get the price down.
When you have a US president that is denied a phone call to Saudi or the UAE, you know you have an incredibly weak disastrous US president.
Not only is he suppressing American energy production, he is lying about it to our faces. How much longer do we put up with this confederacy of dunces and grifters who disgrace our proud nation?
I hope everyone realizes this runs until 2024 because Biden will veto everything even with a red wave. That is more than enough time for the economic catastrophe they need.
Remember, they want global equity. It’s not over until we are equal with Honduras.
And Venezuela. I guess all the Venezuelan migrants aren't clueing them in to how bad their version of society is. Last year ATT sent someone to fix my satellite dish. The guy sent told me he was a recently arrived Venezuelan DENTIST and he didn't know how to fix sat dishes. Dentists are sneaking over because it's so bad there.
Peter Doocey needs to reframe his next question about opening our own spigots by specifically mentioning getting the EPA and other agencies to stand down.
In this situation, we should all agree that we support Ukraine's defense of their nation. Whereas the "in this house" sign was obviously silly. Having said that, I guess the point is just that there always has to be some cause for leftists to signal.
The Ukrainian people have not been served well by their government. Putin is a nasty guy, and NATO and the Ukrainian government have backed that nasty guy into a corner. And as always in war, all combatants are spinning their narratives through the media with War Propaganda:
I'm listening to all viewpoints and frankly I don't know what is, and what is not, propaganda much of the time. But...I firmly believe if Trump was in office Putin would have backed off and not attacked Ukraine. Putin reads Biden. Biden disabled the USA energy production and put billions into Putin's pocket. Oil has gone from $36/barrel to well over $130 at this time and is climbing higher. This is funding not only Putin's dreams of a new Russian empire but Iran, Venezuela and all other despots around the world. Thank you Joe Biden for massively destabilizing the world and impoverishing the American middle class.
I have to tell you, I am unconvinced that this is a "war of good versus evil." I don't trust the media, and as an amateur student of history, I harken back to the pre-WWII days, when the Treaty of Versailles was so onerous to Germany that it virtually guaranteed a Hitler, and sanctions against Japan made Pearl Harbor inevitable. Attempting to bring Ukraine into NATO was a horrific blunder on our part; what would the U.S. do if Russia brought Mexico into the Warsaw Pact, which meant subsequently bringing missiles to our border? What did we do when the Russians brought missiles into Cuba? Ukraine is large, and it is on Russia's border. What were they supposed to do? I'm no fan of Vladimir Putin, but the Russians have a side, too, and the first thing I think of is that the Titular President Biden administration is in such deep sh_t politically that it is willing to risk anything - including playing wag-the-dog with a nuclear power - to distract us from their utter, abject failures. I may not know exactly what's going on over there, but I don't think it's as cut-and-dried as our own warmongers in Congress say.
I agree with everything you said BUT.......with his war on civilians Putin has forfeited any claim to a hearing on his grievances. He is a war criminal. Might we have to deal with him to end this madness? Yes. But he will never again, nor should he, be given the respect he craves.
The world buys almost all manufactured goods from an empire that oppresses its own people and practices literal genocide on a Muslim ethnic minority. And is now threatening to invade and conquer an independent democracy off its shores. Where's the outrage? I'll bet you use a Chinese-made device to type your postings. And will happily upgrade to the next China-made device when it comes out.
It's similar to the hypocrisy of Woke kids wearing Nikes denouncing capitalism on their Apple iPhones while they drink their Starbucks lattes. Except that China practices all the human rights violations that the Woke claim to abhor. Those Nikes and iPhones were made by slave labor, but as long as its nominally communist slave labor, it's all good with the Woke.
This circles back to the "would you defend or would you run?" poll. As long as they can have their toys, these Leftists don't give a damn.
Im not taking Putin’s side, but I am criticizing the West for relentlessly claiming war crimes.
Zelensky urged civilians to throw molotov cocktails at well armed soldiers. I have a father who openly weeps remembering Vietnam when children or civilians ran up and he didnt know if they were hiding hand grenades. Do nothing and your best friend standing next to you dies. React and you risk killing a civilian. But, if that civilian is armed, per laws of war, they are no longer a civilian.
Zelensky urging civilians to attack soldiers and hiding his soldiers in civilian areas genuinely blurs “war crimes” and puts responsibility on Ukraine.
Everyone urging the glory of fighting needs to remember that war is the crime. Especially when the issues to avoid war were so minor and should have been mediated by two prior peace accords.
Throw the current lot of idiots out and bring in people who understand Kennan, Kissinger, etc.
The era of unipolar American hegemony is done. We are back to a multipolar world and a Cold War. The foreign policy of this country needs to reflect that or the result will be tragedy on a massive scale.
China has already told the US that under no circumstances will they except a Pacific arm of NATO or NATO in Taiwan. As we met their declaration with silence, Im interpreting we replied, “That sounds utterly reasonable. No worries.”
Sanctions on oil and steel exports to Japan were in retaliation to Japan's invasion and horrific treatment of China and Manchuria, lest we forget. China and Russia are forming alliances now with Cuba, Venezuela and others. China is using its Belt and Road program very effectively in our hemisphere.
I agree that making Ukraine a NATO country was threatening to Putin, but somehow Putin could have gotten his point across without leveling the country, don't you think? Don't forget he took Crimea in 2014 when Obama was president and got away with it. What was the excuse then?
The excuse then was that the vast majority of Crimeans are Russians who wished to be part of the Russian Federation. Also, Crimea is the location of a huge Russian naval base. Crimea was, at one time, part of Russia, until Stalin reassigned it to Ukraine for some reason. Putin is doing what he sees as necessary to reconstitute a greater Russia that includes ethnic Russians in the border regions. You and I may not agree with his tactics, but we need to at least understand them rather than just characterize Putin as an insane Hitler-like figure.
I don't think Putin is insane or a Hitler wannabe. Putin can be and has been murderous to gain his ends. That's all well documented. The Soviet Union posted large numbers of its military in the East bloc countries directly on its borders (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine). These military people married and settled down in these countries constituting an ethnic minority. When Hitler moved into Czechoslovakia he also claimed he was rescuing a German ethnic minority. Putin would make those same claims on any of these countries. It would have been interesting to poll the residents of Crimea before Russia reclaimed it and ask them if they wanted to be absorbed back into Mother Russia. Hmmm? Wonder how they would have chosen?
Perhaps you're not aware, but there was a substantial population of Tatar Muslims in Crimea prior to their banishment to Uzbekistan during the Stalin era (punishment for allegedly siding with Germany). Some of that population has been trickling back to Crimea, and it's highly likely that one of Putin's aims was to preserve a Russian Christian majority. As to what the Crimeans themselves think... if you can believe Wikipedia and polls, 90% of them in 2014 wanted to reunify with Russia, but the pro-Ukraine elements boycotted the poll.
The pro-Putin (but duly elected) president was overthrown (not impeached) in 2014 by U.S.-backed rebels. Rebels who were largely led by Far-Right unreformed Nazis (unlike neo-Nazis, they never stopped being Nazis after they helped Germany fight Russia in WWII).
We obviously read different accounts. Doesn’t matter to me, though. As much as I despise the current U.S. administration—which I voted against, to the cancelling dismay of all my loved ones—the idea that Ukraine has some fascist elements and has historically does not make me support the resistance any less (Zelensky is Jewish, after all). Innocence is not the issue for me. No human being is innocent, much less any country. What I strive—and no doubt fail at times to do—is consistently support personal freedom and national sovereignty and to help protect those subjected to invasion, especially by a man driven by his own failed fantasies to the continued detriment of the Russian people.
Poroshenko was president before Zelensky. He is supporting Zelensky and has taken up arms with other Ukrainians to defend against the Russians. Are you sure he was pro-Putin?
You’re absolutely right. Zelensky, if I’m correct, didn’t win the presidency until 2019. Yanukovych is the pro-Russia (i.e., Putin) president who was impeached in early 2014, a move (I believe this is true) that he and Putin called a “coup.” Thanks for the correction.
I have been reading that as much as NATO being on his border was the threat of the EU being next door. That it would have greatly undermined Russia's already struggling economy.
James, the whole thing is a sham. The Ukrainians could have forestalled this...and could end it today...by simply giving autonomy to the eastern provinces and guaranteeing neutrality and no NATO on their soil. They previously did agree to this, but changed their minds in 2014 when the regime changed. All this tears and sympathy for Ukraine is ominously similar to other such campaigns to drum up public support for yet another war that we have no business wading into, and that will cost us dearly.
You are so right. No excuse for what Putin is doing by bombing civilians. Ukraine is probably deeply regretting voluntarily giving up its nuclear weapons.
Attacks on civilians are not forgivable. I am withholding judgement, however, because of the many fabricated reports coming out of the conflict zone. Obviously real people are being hurt, as this article takes pains to illustrate. But there's also heavy propaganda efforts on both sides. The fog of war. It's important to avoid being manipulated.
You are spot on. And, in addition to antagonizing Putin with the idiotic Nov 10th joint memo encouraging NATO membership for Ukraine, Biden, at the same time, slow-walked providing Ukraine with the lethal weapons they would need to repel the invasion he made more likely. Truly, an imbecile. Or a deliberate saobteur.
When you consider all the money Hunter got from Ukraine, Biden and company may have deep interests going on here. It may be decades before we truly know. One thing seems apparent, the policies Biden deliberately put in place since taking office have been designed to weaken the USA, strengthen Putin, China, and Iran, and advance their ambitions.
It is IMHO a real travesty that a hoax (Russia, Russia, Russia!) caused so much damage to a presidency and nobody was or will be held accountable, while the current Titular President and his family are up to their nostrils in corruption and payoffs and all you hear is the sound of crickets. This double-tiered system is doing more damage to the nation than anything I can ever remember. When will there be equal justice under the law?
There isn't now. That much is patently obvious. Compare the way Antifa and BLM rioters were handled as opposed to the people who walked through the Capital on Jan. 6th.
How many times have we heard the expression: "Freedom isn't Free?" Ukrainians by the millions are living and dying today to keep their freedom. A recent Quinnipiac poll that asked whether Americans would stay and fight were America to be attacked was quite revealing. It was broken down by political party, group identity and age. I am not sure if it measured on part of the country versus another. I will not rehash the results here but it is obvious that younger Americans are less likely to defend this country than older Americans, a fact that comes as no surprise given the priorities and prejudices of our schools. Bari, I hope you will look further into this and have a roundtable or series of commentaries addressing this issue and if the polling is accurate what can and should be done going forward.
Kindly explain how Ukraine was free prior to the Russian invasion. They're a corrupt kleptocracy, dominated by oligarchs and led by an actor. Anyone who could was fleeing the country for better horizons. This is not a country I wish to send my children to fight and die for, sorry.
Two things: 1) freedom is the perception of the individual and it is relative - these people view themselves as freer than they were under the USSR and freer than modern Russians; 2) we need to address our own corruption and impending oligarchy before we criticize others.
What just happened in Canada gives me chills and I wish Americans would look up and see the similarities. No one in the current admin condemned it. They encouraged it and took notes.
Lynne...an absolute, tively. Uks are looking good and with some anti tank arms, they might find freedom. We, along with others, asked them to disarm, we now owe them.
I think so too. Of course I thought we owed (at least some of) the Afghans too. I hear and see a lot about "isolationists". My position is if you are going to be involved do so when we have a legitimate national interest and then be up front about it. I am vehemently opposed to the backroom skullduggery because anything on the down low is by definition sketchy. And that erodes confidence in our actions. And who knows what has been done and by whom. I keep thinking about that old sci-fi book about a middle eastern discontented state duping the U.S and Russia into a nuclear showdown. I do not know about you but I know I know very little about this event or its causes. And I know I have great sympathy for the every day Ukrainian forced to reckon with it.
The U.S. is just as, if not more, corrupt and we certainly have our fair share of oligarchs. And Republicans favorite president of all time was...an actor.
Let's not pretend they are much different than us, our sh*t stinks just the same as theirs.
The issue I raised was not Americans fighting for Ukraine but rather would they fight for America. See Bruce Miller's post about 15 minutes ago with the stats
So what if they’re led by an actor? That actor has bigger balls than half our government. Explain how Ukraine WASN’T free prior to the Russian invasion.
That actor, and more to the point his oligarch controllers, bungled the Russia border situation. If you have the power to resist, you can be defiant. If you're just a small dog that yaps very loudly, you will be stomped on. This guy yaps pretty loudly, and has put on a great show for the Western audience, but in the end he's a fool who has played a large part in bringing disaster on his people. Now he's urging us to start World War Three on his behalf. Are you on board with that???
That small dog was been encouraged to yap by NATO since 2008. It's Putin's fault in the end, but the West has their share of the blame. A bunch of people called that out and Putin was clear back in 2008...
Sadly it's Ukrainian people paying the heaviest bill for West errors and Putin "craziness", and the rest of the World that will stay on the edge for a long time.
The guy has balls bigger than your head and is fighting for his people to have freedom. WWIII is what happens when Putin gets free reign to do what he wants. That’s what you’re advocating for.
I wonder if Bari is aware of the folks emboldened in the comments in these posts. The number of pro-dictator, pro-"Let's Start a Civil War in the US", conspiracy-drunk people on this feed is shocking.
So Terry, you don’t mind watching the carpet bombing of civilians, hospitals, schools or mining “safe passage” evacuation roads where the Red Cross is trying to evacuate women and children (the men are staying to fight for their sovereign land) ? Is there ANY amount of slaughter and war crimes that warrant intervention to stop (or for heaven’s sake have taken competent action to defer since the West’s “intelligence “ knew this plan so well that they could brag about it ) ?
The US, UK, signed a pact in Budapest with Russia that they would defend Ukraine if they were attacked without provocation in return for giving their nuclear weapons back to Russia. This carnage is another Afghanistan W/D for Biden. Taiwan is next in line.
This “actor” is just about the only one on the world stage showing Leadership. (hint: Ukraine can’t make weapons that can compete with the super powers).
Certainly this attack is on Putin’s hands. The lame response is the West’s shame that’s telling others (Xi) “go ahead and do what you want, we’ll just watch and wish it wasn’t slaughtering so many people who were just trying to live their lives”.
Not trying to defend Russia's actions, but our reactions are gross and stupid and will likely draw us into a devastating conflict that could kill hundreds of millions of people. The invasion of Ukraine could have been forestalled by some diplomatic intervention and perhaps not giving the Ukraine regime the false impression that NATO and the U.S. would come to their defense.
You are absolutely defending Russia’s actions. No one gave Ukraine that impression. They are a sovereign country. They want to join NATO? They’re allowed.
Only psychopaths would not care about the suffering of Ukranians. This is not what it is about and people need to get real.
It's about strategic interest and there simply not (yet) enough strategic interest to risk a full open war between NATO and Russia by a more direct interference on this war, which is precisely why NATO should never have made a move to include Ukraine into NATO to begin with (back in 2008, where this whole mess started). To Putin, NATO move in 2008 is already a break in Budapest pact.
China is the best reason to why we should have avoided (again, back in 2008) to polarize with Russia. Instead "we" thrown Russia in China arms. Tell me about stupid international strategy and policy.
So, we can care as much as we want about Ukrainians suffering, but we need to see what we helped to cause the situation and a full blown war between NATO and Russia is worse and should still be avoided. We put ourselves in a difficult situation, now we need to show Russia they need to stop without going in a full war with them, a new cold war, that was totally avoidable.
PS: I am not stating my desire. I would love nothing more than to see NATO helping Ukraine and kicking Russia ass out of there, but this will not happen until there is enough strategic interest vs the risk. I am also stating there is good cause to avoid that open war with Russia and there is still a way out of this mess.
what you would do if it might happen and what you did do when it did happen are often quite different. The Israelis are very aware of this distinction because it did happen many times. In America we have the good fortune to think about our responses to what might happen as the stylist pierces our umbilicus whose possible infection poses more of a risk than an attack from an aggressive country.
The point (mine and the quinnipiac poll) was not what someone would actually do (fight or flee) but rather the attitudes that exist today especially among those who have been schooled to look negatively at America. All of this comes back to how America is now viewed by our citizens. A great debate worth having to help educate Americans many of whom are in the dark about this subject.
In contrast to the nationalism and courage of the Ukrainian people, ponder this (from Charles Cooke in NR: "As part of a recent survey of attitudes toward Russia’s execrable invasion of Ukraine, the polling firm Quinnipiac asked Americans whether they would stay and fight if the United States were invaded by Russia. The results make sobering — and often disgraceful — reading. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans said that they would “stay and fight,” with 25 percent indicating that they’d run away. Among independents, those numbers are 57–36. Among Democrats, they’re in negative territory, at 40–52. Among 50- to 64-year-old men and women, the stay/leave numbers are 66/28. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, they are 45/48." Sad, but unsurprising. Of course, what one says (or hopes) one would do is not always the case when faced with test but when only 40% of Democrats would even contemplate staying and defending their nation, it speaks volumes. And explains our deep and growing revulsion of them and their principles.
How do we know the Russians aren't here already? They could walk an entire division across the Mexico border and Biden's cronies would hand them bus tickets to wherever they'd like to go.
They 100% can and have. It is wide open down on the southern border. I've said it here before...one dumpster dive at the border reveals evidence of crossers from around the world. Fox News interviewed and broadcasted all last year. They and independent journalists are the only media down there for some reason. (unless it can be construed with a racial lens like horses) I distinctly remember Russians specifically. Psaki, CNN and MSNBC name check Fox all the time. They watch and they know and they do nothing. Why is that?
After 9/11, my best friend's lesbian aunt felt that we should not fight Islamic terrorists, should they attempt to take over the U.S., because it was "wrong" to fight wars. Her theory was that she would be put in a harem where she could get it on with the other ladies.
That--with variations adapted to suit the individual--seems to be the mindset of Leftists: freedom is not worth fighting for, as long as you can get what you want under the new management.
It is a funny contrast seeing these hard working blue collar Ukrainians fighting for their country that they love being hero-exploited by the American big city coastal elite bluechecks as those same American bluechecks work on denigrating and destroying American hard working blue collar Americans that would be relied upon to defend their country.
Our elite bluechecks are terrified to death of a virus. How do you think they would do in real war?
100%. The leftists are cheering when AK's are handed out to UKR citizens. Look, they're making Molotov cocktails <clicks 'like'>! Meanwhile they despise the sort of Americans that were, are and would be grunts in any US war.
The fact is, the leftists of the U.S. and western Europe are polar opposite of the average person in Ukraine, where wokeness has not yet overcome their schools and workplaces.
Heroizing the Ukrainians is a feel-good bit of pseudo-journalism that is nice clickbait, but does not do justice to the stupidity of Zelenskyy and his controllers. This cheap piece makes me question why I paid for a subscription.
The Ukrainian leadership could have avoided this whole situation by simply adhering to the Minsk2 agreement: do not join Nato, and grant autonomy to two eastern provinces which are majority Russian. These are concessions, obviously, but the reality is that they are the close neighbor and former territory of a vast empire next door. It's the geopolitical reality. In fact, they could still halt the war by agreeing to those conditions; the Russian foreign minister stated this just yesterday.
Nato was supposed to be a bulwark for the western democracies against the Soviet Union, and it should have stuck to that job. "Liberating" Libya from Qaddafi, at Obama's behest, was a deviation from that mission, and led to tremendous instability in northern Africa that has come back to haunt Europe.
Now wading into what is basically a border dispute between two neighbors in the far east of Europe is an ill-advised mission. It's highly unlikely that supplying the Ukrainians with massive amounts of arms and jets will cause the Russians to back down; it can only lead to a wider conflict, with vastly more bloodshed mostly on Ukrainian territory, and greater chances of escalating into a nuclear war that will kill us all.
Domestically, the feckless and stupid actions of the Biden Administration will surely lead to an electoral backlash in November, and probably again in 2024, but unfortunately the opposition's stance will likely be one of a stronger military posture versus Russia.
Meanwhile, our real nemesis, the Chinese Communist Party, wins in the end. They get all the Russian energy and mineral commodities, while the West collapses. The longer the conflict is prolonged, the better for China. Stop and think about that, before printing off another Ukrainian flag and pasting it to your car window, and boycotting Smirnoff vodka (no relation to Russia) other empty gestures.
This is not a “border dispute”—as V. Putin’s own rhetoric attests. His objective is not to “liberate” ethnic Russians—a despotic goon like Putin is incapable of liberating anyone—but to destroy Ukraine or, at a minimum, to reduce it to the status of a vassal state. And, boiling down its verbosity, your idea is that the Ukrainian should just lie down and be trampled by the conqueror. Easy for you to say…
No, but they should probably guarantee neutrality and not try to join Nato, which the Russians have stated is unacceptable. It would be like China setting up major military bases in Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja.
Lots of things are “unacceptable” to V. Putin, it seems. And the only reason he opposed Ukrainian membership in NATO was that it would have scotched his plan to extinguish that country’s independence and turn it into a vassal state. His claims that NATO threatens Russia’s security are pure garbage.
That's an assertion contrary to fact. The Russians have been pretty clear for a long time that NATO expansion was an unacceptable threat. Obviously if Ukraine "falls" to NATO, Georgia might be next, and Russia would find itself with NATO bases on its western and southern flanks. If you study a little Russian history, you will notice that they are a deeply anxious people after centuries of invasions. They will never accept NATO on their border. The Baltic nations that joined NATO are probably in their sights when this Ukraine thing is over. Assuming there's still a Russia and a Europe left to fight.
No. isn't. NATO is a defensive alliance that would never launch an attack on Russia, as everybody knows quite well, V. Putin's claims to the contrary are, as I said, garbage—propaganda designed for domestic consumption and, in this case, to justify his blatant act of aggression. Putin's intention is to recreate the defunct Russian imperium, and NATO stands in his way.
In retrospect, NATO expansion in the post-Cold War period was a wise move. It protects much of his prey from renewed Russian domination and I fail to see why that's such a terrible thing. Russia has no "historic right" to dominate the Baltic States, Poland or the other former Soviet satellites, not does Russian paranoia justify such domination. It's really disgusting to find so many people in the West parroting Putin's false and lying claims.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what "NATO" thinks. If you keep poking a dangerous entity that repeatedly tells you to back off, and then finally has enough, and decides to teach you a lesson, don't act surprised. It doesn't matter AT ALL if the whole world think it's wrong (which it obviously doesn't)--you were warned, and chose to take your chances.
As one of the world's pre-eminent bullies, the U.S. can cancel any poor bastard who can't fight back with zero consequences. People shouldn't make the mistake of thinking everyone is so easy to push around. That's one of the big problems with bullies: you think they have your back because you kiss their ass--then they throw you under the bus anyway...
Putin’s honesty or lack thereof notwithstanding, are you willing to go and fight for Ukraine? Are you willing to sacrifice your children for the cause?
A war between Russia and NATO would likely mean both.
Yes, Putin and his nationalists want to reconstitute a Greater Russia, at the cost of alienating the liberal democracies of the West.
They also don’t trust the West. The West is obligingly feeding that distrust through increasingly bellicose rhetoric and actions.
Wake up! This is a march to war, a war none of us need or will possibly benefit from.
Yep, this is another one of those comment threads with a Lunatic Fringe Right Wing Group Self Esteem Therapy Marching Circle twisting through the pages.. Substack hosts a lot of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with it. When I'm looking for an argument, I know where to find one.
They're a self-selecting group, and their most effective tactic appears to be one adapted from Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had his troop column march in circles around a mountain to give the observers from the opposition the impression that they were watching a never-ending line of enemy soldiers. The Lunatic Fringe Marching Circles comprise a disproportionate number of the Superusers of social media political comment sections.
The largest LFMC is Right Wing, but there's a Left Wing variant, too- roughly the same group as the politi-bots I refer to as Wokists. From the reports I've heard, the Left Wing LFMC is most prominent on Twitter (I'm a nonuser). But I've had my run-ins with them on sites like Rawstory and Salon (before Salon got rid of their original comment sections in the process of shifting comments to Facebook; now they've dumped and wiped all of those comments, too.)
I admit, I'm a long-time Superuser myself. But I don't foist ignorance on people, repeat lies, or indulge in scareposting conspiracy insinuations, extremist fearmongering, and propagandizing for civil war, usually attached to name-checking the same small set of political arch-enemies.
I never once got involved in a Facebook political discussion (my page is now "dormant"), but obviously a lot of people use it for the same purpose as other political comment pages. I think the pattern described by the statistical research findings in the Atlantic article is similar to what's happened in online political discussions in other venues; the only difference is that the Facebook algorithm functions to empower trolling, baiting, extremist drama, and lunatic fringe opinions in general. Quoting from the Atlantic article:
"...The most alarming aspect of our findings is that people like John, Michelle, and Calvin aren’t merely fringe trolls, or a distraction from what really matters on the platform. They are part of an elite, previously unreported class of users that produce more likes, shares, reactions, comments, and posts than 99 percent of Facebook users in America.
They’re superusers. And because Facebook’s algorithm rewards engagement, these superusers have enormous influence over which posts are seen first in other users’ feeds, and which are never seen at all. Even more shocking is just how nasty most of these hyper-influential users are. The most abusive people on Facebook, it turns out, are given the most power to shape what Facebook is...."
"Our data suggests that a majority of MSI ("meaningful social interactions"; more details in the article. ed.) on top U.S. pages came from about 700,000 users out of the more than 230 million users that Facebook claims to have in America..."
"...So who are these people? To answer that question, we looked at a random sample of 30,000 users, out of the more than 52 million users we observed participating on these pages and public groups. We focused on the most active 300 by total interactions, those in the top percentile in their total likes, shares, reactions, comments, and group posts. Our review of these accounts, based on their public profile information and pictures, shows that these top users skew white, older, and—especially among abusive users—male. Under-30 users are largely absent.
Because the top 300 were all heavy users, three-quarters of them left at least 20 public comments over our two-month period, and some left thousands. We read as many of their comments as we could, more than 80,000 total.
Of the 219 accounts with at least 25 public comments, 68 percent spread misinformation, reposted in spammy ways, published comments that were racist or sexist or anti-Semitic or anti-gay, wished violence on their perceived enemies, or, in most cases, several of the above. Even with a 6 percent margin of error, it is clear that a supermajority of the most active users are toxic..."
"...In addition to the torrent of vile posts, dozens of top users behaved in spammy ways. We don’t see large-scale evidence of bot or nonhuman accounts in our data, and comments have traditionally been the hardest activity to fake at scale. But we do see many accounts that copy and paste identical rants across many posts on different pages. Other accounts posted repeated links to the same misinformation videos or fake news sites. Many accounts also repeated one- or two-word comments—often as simple as “yes” or “YES !!”—dozens and dozens of times, an unusual behavior for most users. Whether this behavior was coordinated or not, these throwaway comments gave a huge boost to MSI, and signaled to Facebook’s algorithm that this is what users want to see..."
Ukraine ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. The reality is perhaps more complex than what described today, including oppression of ethnic Russians there. That said, there is no justification for the invasion and ongoing, heartbreaking onslaught.
It's so crazy how people in the comments can read what's happening and see the videos and photos of the people of Ukraine and make comments like "the Biden Administration and the US media are worse than Putin."
Not morally. But in terms of simple competence in foreign policy? The WSJ is reporting that Saudi Arabia and the UAE refused to take calls from Biden at the same time that they were talking to Putin.
Help Ukraine do what? This is precisely what I'm talking about: US foreign policy is incoherent. Is the end goal for Ukraine to win somehow? Russia has every advantage militarily. For the Ukraine to prevail would take a miracle or massive US intervention. That would include a no-fly zone that would involve shooting down Russian aircraft. That is a line that nobody in NATO is willing to cross.
If the expectation is that the Russians will eventually emerge victorious then what are the parameters for continued aid to the Ukrainians? Biden needs to speak up because right now there is a total vacuum of leadership.
So, wait ... you have more knowledge of what's going on with the diplomats, boots on the ground in Ukraine, and the complexity of international law than the people in the State Department? Interesting.
Where in the Ukraine are the Ukrainians winning? The consensus among US intelligence before the war was that Putin would emerge victorious in the event of an invasion. Has that projection changed? If Biden seriously thinks that the Ukrainians stand any chance whatsoever then he should go in front of the country and make that clear.
They're not working to help Ukraine. They're working to help themselves. And pay Ukraine back for its corrupt payouts to the Biden family. And to exonerate themselves from the huge criminal investigations that are coming, as soon as the Democrats are knocked from power.
Not to worry. Hunter and the Big Guy, and many other US and Western decision makers are still spending their ill gotten lucre. They will have to use some of it on lawyers for sure. But they'll have plenty left. The elites only rarely go to jail and only after their minions. I get that they supported all the benefactors and their schemes all over the world in exchange for remuneration. This is an old story. But what do their supporters and defenders get out of it? I guess it's like someone wearing the jersey of the winning team in some infantile sport. A tiny bit of glory must be absorbed somehow satiating and exhilarating them. I never experienced this with either sports or politics so I'm a little like the virgin scold. I wish someone would explain why so many worship these false G_D's.
This should be required reading for everyone. If we've learned anything over the past two years, it's that way too many Americans lack perspective. We're soft. When it rains in Los Angeles, people act like the end is nigh. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, women and children walk around with Kalashnikovs slung on their backs.
Putin is transitioning to what's basically total war. Butchering civilians. Firing at residential housing areas, deliberately terrorizing the people stuck inside this hellscape. Hungry, cold, and scared out of their minds. No water or electricity.
In Mariupol, Russia did this for a week. Then they promised a safe passage, a humanitarian corridor so civilians could evacuate. Ukrainians walked into a trap, took mortar and sniper fire and had to go back. After 11 days, Russia again promised safe passage. And then the Ukrainians walked into a butterfly mine field.
Butterfly mines are small, about the size of your hand, and they look like toys. You know what that means. They're plastic, pressure activated, very sensitive. And they're nasty. Butterfly mines are meant to maim, not kill. The logic is to force at least one other soldier to attend to the maimed one, have him put a tourniquet on - essentially taking 2 out of the fight.
In Afghanistan, Putin maimed around 30,000 people this way, many of them kids. And he did the same exact thing in the Chechen War, in the siege of Grozny. Same ploy. It's a cruel method of psychological warfare, and it's devastatingly effective. The point is to suffocate hope.
Sorry, you can't believe every bit of news coming out of the war zone. Some of it has been shown to be fabricated. The Ukrainians are playing you like a fiddle. In fact, the only honest brokers so far are the Russians. They said what they were going to do, and now they're doing it. We may not like it, but it's not like we weren't warned.
No, just a skeptic and a realist. And I stand by what I said. The "Ghost of Kiev" for example... totally fabricated. Many videos circulating on media like tiktok and youtube... totally fabricated. They literally used video game footage and dumb people thought they were scenes of carnage from southern Ukraine... 24 million views on tiktok. We are witnessing a media war of lies and exaggerations, and the Ukraine side is winning.
Ease up on the Black/White and the insults if you want people to pay attention. Terry is right about deceptive propaganda, which has been turned up to 11 on this clusterfuck. It's possible to simultaneously think Putin is an asshole, but that Ukraine has plenty of problems of its own.
Oh so the Ukrainians invaded themselves and are destroying their cities and displacing and d killing their own people? Okay.
When the nukes fly from the madman because he says he’s going to use them, will you be okay with that? Or will you still be posting from some safe space inside the kremlin.
Okay - first prove that this hospital was actually bombed, deliberately, by the Russians. There have been reports of false flags, and staged bombings, and fake events propagated to a naive international online audience. It's hard to believe what's true and what isn't.
Is Ukraine not somewhat at fault for "total war"? Russia has already destroyed most of the military infrastructure. The only avenue left for Ukraine is (1) surrender and negotiate terms, or (2) turn their nation into Fallujah by hiding the army and armory in the middle of the cities, using the civilians as shields. #2 is not a heroic decision.
The Ukraine has made abominable decisions in this war. First, any male from 16-60 (or so) is not allowed to leave. So, basically slavery. Second, it is far more likely that Ukraine is the one firing on the humanitarian corridors (why would Russia?). Third, arming 10,000 civilians with Kalashinovs has lead to widespread looting and plenty of citizen-on-citizen murder and gang infighting. What a surprise!
I'm waiting to hear from a Ukrainian with a modicum of introspection that maybe the central government in Kiev doesn't have innocent lives at heart, but rather its own power. Mind you, this is the same government that was largely installed in a coup-de-tat, disenfranchising everyone in Odessa, the Donbass, etc.
Your Mariupol story strikes me as probably being the opposite -- Ukrainians mined their own civilians. They don't want their human shields to leave.
Mere references to two local conflicts does not an argument make. Those nations are neighbors of Russia and the only two examples you can come up with during Putin's tenure. And, both have complex backstories that, even if those conflicts weren't justified (I am no expert), they pale in comparison to the chicanery and bloodshed that Ukraine has committed in the Donbass, or say, NATO/US powers have undertaken since the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
Ukraine is openly using civilians as human shields. Don't be their propagandist. Their regime is evil and stupid. They are all young, because they eschew and discriminate against the older guard that was more sympathetic to Russia and knowledgeable of its history, the good and the bad.
Edit: There is literally video on Twitter and Telegram of Ukrainian forces (Azov, SBU, whoever) putting boobytraps on playgrounds, and firing shots at civilians as they enter the humanitarian corridor. I know you are stuck on your narrative, but really, consider looking at other sources before you dismissively demonize one side. I'm highly sympathetic to Ukrainian fighters in resistance, but I believe their leaders have failed them (and their voters--which aren't much counted in that corrupt nation--are naive).
Have you not seen the pictures of Ukrainian battalions using schools and apartment buildings as hideouts and fortresses? Dude! Think for a second, why are they even there???
They are using the city and the civilians as human shields! The US is playing puppet master with the Ukrainian puppet leaders and advising/pushing them to turn the war into a Fallujah-like insurgency. The Russia MoD is screaming about this but you would just ignore it as "propaganda".
If your inclination is to ignore thoughtful comments here rather than debate, your mind is closed like an Idaho potato. Ironic for someone who considers him/herself as "unwoke"!
In 2014, one group of "insurrectionists" was firing indiscriminately at people on both sides of the conflict. Their aim was to cause harm and chaos, to further their goals.
Poland announces new fighters for Ukraine via US air base in Germany, and a few hours later the Pentagon denies. Not that I thought it was a good idea but this is another fiasco, US under this administration are a mess.
And, if you're going to do something like that, why talk about it? This is what happens when we have egg-headed lawyers and academics such as Avril Haines as National Security Director or social workers such as Wendy Ruth Sherman playing diplomat.
Why can't corporate civil disobedience occur in the US? Why don't oil companies just restart their closed down production? Why don't the pipeline companies start rebuilding? Why don't the frackers restart fracking? And tell Biden to "jump in the lake". Maybe start up again in a Republican state where any Washington led suppression can be countered by state and county forces. The US should not be a "tail between thee legs" nation. Some people have to stand up to those who have sold out to Russia and who are equally disastrous, desperate to sell out to Iran. Action must happen now!
Michael... lots of that country (drilling) is Fed Gov owned, Nev is 80% Fed owned, same with most western states. Cost lots just to set up, greenies want you shut down...so you sit.
Not that you didn't know...
You can see what or courts system is doing to the Jan 6th people. And a few might have gone too far...but NO trial?...sick.
Because the moment they do their credit cards and bank accounts stop working.
Thats probably the most accurate answer right there JD. And maybe all your friend's too.
Michael, are you oblivious to the fact that the United States is the world’s largest oil and natural gas producer?
I've wondered the same thing about border security. Why don't they just enforce it to the fullest and film the whole thing. Then if the Biden admin tries to stop them from enforcing the law they can do it live in front of the world.
Sked...my thought here, gotta fight the courts (judges) along with the Media, so you sit and wait for a Trumpty, maybe.
A charming idea. Unfortunately, that would require part of the professional managerial class to actually be loyal to something other than themselves and their class. I'm afraid there's no chance at all of it even being attempted unless there is some oil production capacity in the hands of privately held companies, and only then if the owners have a sense that something is more important than their corporate bottom line.
Thank you for these “on the ground” reports. War is hell. I am proud of these Ukrainians fighting for their country. I believe I would fight just as hard for mine. I pray for peace, soon
That's an interesting question--I think the answer is far from settled...
Such bravery in the face of a madman.
But idiot Biden is still funding Putin’s war. So we aren’t taking Russian oil but someone else is. And he’s getting $120 plus a barrel. The way to defund Putin is to open the oil spigots in America to get that price down. Even saying ANWAR is open and the keystone pipeline will restart and the rules for federal lands will be eased would get the price down.
When you have a US president that is denied a phone call to Saudi or the UAE, you know you have an incredibly weak disastrous US president.
Not only is he suppressing American energy production, he is lying about it to our faces. How much longer do we put up with this confederacy of dunces and grifters who disgrace our proud nation?
I hope everyone realizes this runs until 2024 because Biden will veto everything even with a red wave. That is more than enough time for the economic catastrophe they need.
Remember, they want global equity. It’s not over until we are equal with Honduras.
And Venezuela. I guess all the Venezuelan migrants aren't clueing them in to how bad their version of society is. Last year ATT sent someone to fix my satellite dish. The guy sent told me he was a recently arrived Venezuelan DENTIST and he didn't know how to fix sat dishes. Dentists are sneaking over because it's so bad there.
Skep..not so bad, my Dentist was a Truck Driver, i made the mistake, ashed him to Fill er up.$$
You think I'm kidding but I'm not. This actually happened.
Actually, Russia will get there first.
Until the next election. As Naomi suggests, we need to get involved.
Sea...even before that, we Do have the "Convention of States" trying to move forward, which would release "Rights" back to the States...not easy, but.
Peter Doocey needs to reframe his next question about opening our own spigots by specifically mentioning getting the EPA and other agencies to stand down.
Re your last paragraph, so, so, right. Nothing like that has happened in my lifetime, and I am not young...
Excellent post.
Breaking news from Los Angeles: My woke neighbor has replaced her faded “In this house…” yard sign with the Ukrainian flag.
The left has found a shiny new platform from which to broadcast their virtue.
I found the "In this house" yard signs to be the most offensive of all, and I don't know why others haven't commented on this.
I just threw up a little bit, in the back of my mouth...
In this situation, we should all agree that we support Ukraine's defense of their nation. Whereas the "in this house" sign was obviously silly. Having said that, I guess the point is just that there always has to be some cause for leftists to signal.
Thanks for letting Ukrainian voices be heard.
The Ukrainian people have not been served well by their government. Putin is a nasty guy, and NATO and the Ukrainian government have backed that nasty guy into a corner. And as always in war, all combatants are spinning their narratives through the media with War Propaganda:
https://jeffcuttler.substack.com/p/war-propaganda?s=w
I'm listening to all viewpoints and frankly I don't know what is, and what is not, propaganda much of the time. But...I firmly believe if Trump was in office Putin would have backed off and not attacked Ukraine. Putin reads Biden. Biden disabled the USA energy production and put billions into Putin's pocket. Oil has gone from $36/barrel to well over $130 at this time and is climbing higher. This is funding not only Putin's dreams of a new Russian empire but Iran, Venezuela and all other despots around the world. Thank you Joe Biden for massively destabilizing the world and impoverishing the American middle class.
I have to tell you, I am unconvinced that this is a "war of good versus evil." I don't trust the media, and as an amateur student of history, I harken back to the pre-WWII days, when the Treaty of Versailles was so onerous to Germany that it virtually guaranteed a Hitler, and sanctions against Japan made Pearl Harbor inevitable. Attempting to bring Ukraine into NATO was a horrific blunder on our part; what would the U.S. do if Russia brought Mexico into the Warsaw Pact, which meant subsequently bringing missiles to our border? What did we do when the Russians brought missiles into Cuba? Ukraine is large, and it is on Russia's border. What were they supposed to do? I'm no fan of Vladimir Putin, but the Russians have a side, too, and the first thing I think of is that the Titular President Biden administration is in such deep sh_t politically that it is willing to risk anything - including playing wag-the-dog with a nuclear power - to distract us from their utter, abject failures. I may not know exactly what's going on over there, but I don't think it's as cut-and-dried as our own warmongers in Congress say.
I agree with everything you said BUT.......with his war on civilians Putin has forfeited any claim to a hearing on his grievances. He is a war criminal. Might we have to deal with him to end this madness? Yes. But he will never again, nor should he, be given the respect he craves.
The world buys almost all manufactured goods from an empire that oppresses its own people and practices literal genocide on a Muslim ethnic minority. And is now threatening to invade and conquer an independent democracy off its shores. Where's the outrage? I'll bet you use a Chinese-made device to type your postings. And will happily upgrade to the next China-made device when it comes out.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
It's similar to the hypocrisy of Woke kids wearing Nikes denouncing capitalism on their Apple iPhones while they drink their Starbucks lattes. Except that China practices all the human rights violations that the Woke claim to abhor. Those Nikes and iPhones were made by slave labor, but as long as its nominally communist slave labor, it's all good with the Woke.
This circles back to the "would you defend or would you run?" poll. As long as they can have their toys, these Leftists don't give a damn.
Im not taking Putin’s side, but I am criticizing the West for relentlessly claiming war crimes.
Zelensky urged civilians to throw molotov cocktails at well armed soldiers. I have a father who openly weeps remembering Vietnam when children or civilians ran up and he didnt know if they were hiding hand grenades. Do nothing and your best friend standing next to you dies. React and you risk killing a civilian. But, if that civilian is armed, per laws of war, they are no longer a civilian.
Zelensky urging civilians to attack soldiers and hiding his soldiers in civilian areas genuinely blurs “war crimes” and puts responsibility on Ukraine.
Everyone urging the glory of fighting needs to remember that war is the crime. Especially when the issues to avoid war were so minor and should have been mediated by two prior peace accords.
China may give us the same "choices" Russia gave Ukraine. Wonder how we will feel about that and what we will do?
Throw the current lot of idiots out and bring in people who understand Kennan, Kissinger, etc.
The era of unipolar American hegemony is done. We are back to a multipolar world and a Cold War. The foreign policy of this country needs to reflect that or the result will be tragedy on a massive scale.
China has already told the US that under no circumstances will they except a Pacific arm of NATO or NATO in Taiwan. As we met their declaration with silence, Im interpreting we replied, “That sounds utterly reasonable. No worries.”
The sad fact is the world forgets, and if they are getting their oil from him, forgives.
Point well made. HT to you.
Sanctions on oil and steel exports to Japan were in retaliation to Japan's invasion and horrific treatment of China and Manchuria, lest we forget. China and Russia are forming alliances now with Cuba, Venezuela and others. China is using its Belt and Road program very effectively in our hemisphere.
I agree that making Ukraine a NATO country was threatening to Putin, but somehow Putin could have gotten his point across without leveling the country, don't you think? Don't forget he took Crimea in 2014 when Obama was president and got away with it. What was the excuse then?
Yes but Biden was so doddering with the sanctions that the Putin and his circle had ample time to adjust/hedge before they were instituted.
The excuse then was that the vast majority of Crimeans are Russians who wished to be part of the Russian Federation. Also, Crimea is the location of a huge Russian naval base. Crimea was, at one time, part of Russia, until Stalin reassigned it to Ukraine for some reason. Putin is doing what he sees as necessary to reconstitute a greater Russia that includes ethnic Russians in the border regions. You and I may not agree with his tactics, but we need to at least understand them rather than just characterize Putin as an insane Hitler-like figure.
I don't think Putin is insane or a Hitler wannabe. Putin can be and has been murderous to gain his ends. That's all well documented. The Soviet Union posted large numbers of its military in the East bloc countries directly on its borders (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine). These military people married and settled down in these countries constituting an ethnic minority. When Hitler moved into Czechoslovakia he also claimed he was rescuing a German ethnic minority. Putin would make those same claims on any of these countries. It would have been interesting to poll the residents of Crimea before Russia reclaimed it and ask them if they wanted to be absorbed back into Mother Russia. Hmmm? Wonder how they would have chosen?
A majority of the population in the Crimea speaks Russian as their first language.
Perhaps you're not aware, but there was a substantial population of Tatar Muslims in Crimea prior to their banishment to Uzbekistan during the Stalin era (punishment for allegedly siding with Germany). Some of that population has been trickling back to Crimea, and it's highly likely that one of Putin's aims was to preserve a Russian Christian majority. As to what the Crimeans themselves think... if you can believe Wikipedia and polls, 90% of them in 2014 wanted to reunify with Russia, but the pro-Ukraine elements boycotted the poll.
I believe it was the election in which Zelensky outed the pro-Putin president.
The pro-Putin (but duly elected) president was overthrown (not impeached) in 2014 by U.S.-backed rebels. Rebels who were largely led by Far-Right unreformed Nazis (unlike neo-Nazis, they never stopped being Nazis after they helped Germany fight Russia in WWII).
We obviously read different accounts. Doesn’t matter to me, though. As much as I despise the current U.S. administration—which I voted against, to the cancelling dismay of all my loved ones—the idea that Ukraine has some fascist elements and has historically does not make me support the resistance any less (Zelensky is Jewish, after all). Innocence is not the issue for me. No human being is innocent, much less any country. What I strive—and no doubt fail at times to do—is consistently support personal freedom and national sovereignty and to help protect those subjected to invasion, especially by a man driven by his own failed fantasies to the continued detriment of the Russian people.
Wow...those Nazis would be pretty darn old by now. Must be some hardy stock to still be that scary into their 70's and 80's.
Poroshenko was president before Zelensky. He is supporting Zelensky and has taken up arms with other Ukrainians to defend against the Russians. Are you sure he was pro-Putin?
Wasn't Yanukovich the one Putin had poisoned?
You’re absolutely right. Zelensky, if I’m correct, didn’t win the presidency until 2019. Yanukovych is the pro-Russia (i.e., Putin) president who was impeached in early 2014, a move (I believe this is true) that he and Putin called a “coup.” Thanks for the correction.
I have been reading that as much as NATO being on his border was the threat of the EU being next door. That it would have greatly undermined Russia's already struggling economy.
James, the whole thing is a sham. The Ukrainians could have forestalled this...and could end it today...by simply giving autonomy to the eastern provinces and guaranteeing neutrality and no NATO on their soil. They previously did agree to this, but changed their minds in 2014 when the regime changed. All this tears and sympathy for Ukraine is ominously similar to other such campaigns to drum up public support for yet another war that we have no business wading into, and that will cost us dearly.
Sorry but that doesn't excuse Putin's attacks on civilian targets. I would have agreed with you before that. Not now.
You are so right. No excuse for what Putin is doing by bombing civilians. Ukraine is probably deeply regretting voluntarily giving up its nuclear weapons.
And trusting the United States to protect its borders. This is a disaster all around for US influence abroad.
Attacks on civilians are not forgivable. I am withholding judgement, however, because of the many fabricated reports coming out of the conflict zone. Obviously real people are being hurt, as this article takes pains to illustrate. But there's also heavy propaganda efforts on both sides. The fog of war. It's important to avoid being manipulated.
And, why should they refuse to join NATO. They’re a sovereign country. They have the right. You’re just a fascist mouth piece.
What they were supposed to do was mind their own business and let other countries be free.
You are spot on. And, in addition to antagonizing Putin with the idiotic Nov 10th joint memo encouraging NATO membership for Ukraine, Biden, at the same time, slow-walked providing Ukraine with the lethal weapons they would need to repel the invasion he made more likely. Truly, an imbecile. Or a deliberate saobteur.
When you consider all the money Hunter got from Ukraine, Biden and company may have deep interests going on here. It may be decades before we truly know. One thing seems apparent, the policies Biden deliberately put in place since taking office have been designed to weaken the USA, strengthen Putin, China, and Iran, and advance their ambitions.
It is IMHO a real travesty that a hoax (Russia, Russia, Russia!) caused so much damage to a presidency and nobody was or will be held accountable, while the current Titular President and his family are up to their nostrils in corruption and payoffs and all you hear is the sound of crickets. This double-tiered system is doing more damage to the nation than anything I can ever remember. When will there be equal justice under the law?
There isn't now. That much is patently obvious. Compare the way Antifa and BLM rioters were handled as opposed to the people who walked through the Capital on Jan. 6th.
Antifa continues to menace federal buildings in Portland but you have to go local to hear about it. Why?
Big tech censored all stories and canceled actual newspapers that attempted to cover it. Why is everyone ok with that?
As John Harington wrote way back in the 1600s...."for if treason doth prosper, none dare call it treason."
I completely agree with you.
I agree. I would give a lot to know how deeply various administrations meddled in Ukraine.
How many times have we heard the expression: "Freedom isn't Free?" Ukrainians by the millions are living and dying today to keep their freedom. A recent Quinnipiac poll that asked whether Americans would stay and fight were America to be attacked was quite revealing. It was broken down by political party, group identity and age. I am not sure if it measured on part of the country versus another. I will not rehash the results here but it is obvious that younger Americans are less likely to defend this country than older Americans, a fact that comes as no surprise given the priorities and prejudices of our schools. Bari, I hope you will look further into this and have a roundtable or series of commentaries addressing this issue and if the polling is accurate what can and should be done going forward.
Kindly explain how Ukraine was free prior to the Russian invasion. They're a corrupt kleptocracy, dominated by oligarchs and led by an actor. Anyone who could was fleeing the country for better horizons. This is not a country I wish to send my children to fight and die for, sorry.
Two things: 1) freedom is the perception of the individual and it is relative - these people view themselves as freer than they were under the USSR and freer than modern Russians; 2) we need to address our own corruption and impending oligarchy before we criticize others.
What just happened in Canada gives me chills and I wish Americans would look up and see the similarities. No one in the current admin condemned it. They encouraged it and took notes.
They encouraged it. The WEF is represented in the Trudeau administration as well as Biden’s.
Lynne...an absolute, tively. Uks are looking good and with some anti tank arms, they might find freedom. We, along with others, asked them to disarm, we now owe them.
I think so too. Of course I thought we owed (at least some of) the Afghans too. I hear and see a lot about "isolationists". My position is if you are going to be involved do so when we have a legitimate national interest and then be up front about it. I am vehemently opposed to the backroom skullduggery because anything on the down low is by definition sketchy. And that erodes confidence in our actions. And who knows what has been done and by whom. I keep thinking about that old sci-fi book about a middle eastern discontented state duping the U.S and Russia into a nuclear showdown. I do not know about you but I know I know very little about this event or its causes. And I know I have great sympathy for the every day Ukrainian forced to reckon with it.
The U.S. is just as, if not more, corrupt and we certainly have our fair share of oligarchs. And Republicans favorite president of all time was...an actor.
Let's not pretend they are much different than us, our sh*t stinks just the same as theirs.
Elliot...good point
Nonsensical post.
The issue I raised was not Americans fighting for Ukraine but rather would they fight for America. See Bruce Miller's post about 15 minutes ago with the stats
So what if they’re led by an actor? That actor has bigger balls than half our government. Explain how Ukraine WASN’T free prior to the Russian invasion.
That actor, and more to the point his oligarch controllers, bungled the Russia border situation. If you have the power to resist, you can be defiant. If you're just a small dog that yaps very loudly, you will be stomped on. This guy yaps pretty loudly, and has put on a great show for the Western audience, but in the end he's a fool who has played a large part in bringing disaster on his people. Now he's urging us to start World War Three on his behalf. Are you on board with that???
That small dog was been encouraged to yap by NATO since 2008. It's Putin's fault in the end, but the West has their share of the blame. A bunch of people called that out and Putin was clear back in 2008...
Sadly it's Ukrainian people paying the heaviest bill for West errors and Putin "craziness", and the rest of the World that will stay on the edge for a long time.
The West always has their share of blame.
The guy has balls bigger than your head and is fighting for his people to have freedom. WWIII is what happens when Putin gets free reign to do what he wants. That’s what you’re advocating for.
I wonder if Bari is aware of the folks emboldened in the comments in these posts. The number of pro-dictator, pro-"Let's Start a Civil War in the US", conspiracy-drunk people on this feed is shocking.
Someone should show them Ukraine over the last few years. Pretty good example of a country on its way to civil war. Nothing to emulate.
So Terry, you don’t mind watching the carpet bombing of civilians, hospitals, schools or mining “safe passage” evacuation roads where the Red Cross is trying to evacuate women and children (the men are staying to fight for their sovereign land) ? Is there ANY amount of slaughter and war crimes that warrant intervention to stop (or for heaven’s sake have taken competent action to defer since the West’s “intelligence “ knew this plan so well that they could brag about it ) ?
The US, UK, signed a pact in Budapest with Russia that they would defend Ukraine if they were attacked without provocation in return for giving their nuclear weapons back to Russia. This carnage is another Afghanistan W/D for Biden. Taiwan is next in line.
This “actor” is just about the only one on the world stage showing Leadership. (hint: Ukraine can’t make weapons that can compete with the super powers).
Certainly this attack is on Putin’s hands. The lame response is the West’s shame that’s telling others (Xi) “go ahead and do what you want, we’ll just watch and wish it wasn’t slaughtering so many people who were just trying to live their lives”.
Not trying to defend Russia's actions, but our reactions are gross and stupid and will likely draw us into a devastating conflict that could kill hundreds of millions of people. The invasion of Ukraine could have been forestalled by some diplomatic intervention and perhaps not giving the Ukraine regime the false impression that NATO and the U.S. would come to their defense.
You are absolutely defending Russia’s actions. No one gave Ukraine that impression. They are a sovereign country. They want to join NATO? They’re allowed.
Only psychopaths would not care about the suffering of Ukranians. This is not what it is about and people need to get real.
It's about strategic interest and there simply not (yet) enough strategic interest to risk a full open war between NATO and Russia by a more direct interference on this war, which is precisely why NATO should never have made a move to include Ukraine into NATO to begin with (back in 2008, where this whole mess started). To Putin, NATO move in 2008 is already a break in Budapest pact.
China is the best reason to why we should have avoided (again, back in 2008) to polarize with Russia. Instead "we" thrown Russia in China arms. Tell me about stupid international strategy and policy.
So, we can care as much as we want about Ukrainians suffering, but we need to see what we helped to cause the situation and a full blown war between NATO and Russia is worse and should still be avoided. We put ourselves in a difficult situation, now we need to show Russia they need to stop without going in a full war with them, a new cold war, that was totally avoidable.
PS: I am not stating my desire. I would love nothing more than to see NATO helping Ukraine and kicking Russia ass out of there, but this will not happen until there is enough strategic interest vs the risk. I am also stating there is good cause to avoid that open war with Russia and there is still a way out of this mess.
Jeff...someone would have to be very thick if they could not get your message, nice.
on board
Simple enough, even for me...thanks.
How bout if that actor was Jimmy Stewart?...might
It was also interesting to see the breakdowns by income.
Sorry, but where is this data you folks are discussing?
I did rehash the results, above, and they are deeply disturbing. And revealing.
what you would do if it might happen and what you did do when it did happen are often quite different. The Israelis are very aware of this distinction because it did happen many times. In America we have the good fortune to think about our responses to what might happen as the stylist pierces our umbilicus whose possible infection poses more of a risk than an attack from an aggressive country.
The point (mine and the quinnipiac poll) was not what someone would actually do (fight or flee) but rather the attitudes that exist today especially among those who have been schooled to look negatively at America. All of this comes back to how America is now viewed by our citizens. A great debate worth having to help educate Americans many of whom are in the dark about this subject.
In contrast to the nationalism and courage of the Ukrainian people, ponder this (from Charles Cooke in NR: "As part of a recent survey of attitudes toward Russia’s execrable invasion of Ukraine, the polling firm Quinnipiac asked Americans whether they would stay and fight if the United States were invaded by Russia. The results make sobering — and often disgraceful — reading. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans said that they would “stay and fight,” with 25 percent indicating that they’d run away. Among independents, those numbers are 57–36. Among Democrats, they’re in negative territory, at 40–52. Among 50- to 64-year-old men and women, the stay/leave numbers are 66/28. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, they are 45/48." Sad, but unsurprising. Of course, what one says (or hopes) one would do is not always the case when faced with test but when only 40% of Democrats would even contemplate staying and defending their nation, it speaks volumes. And explains our deep and growing revulsion of them and their principles.
I do not know why this surprises you. They are the party of letting everyone else do the work. They just want to provide the (misbegotten) leadership.
It doesn't surprise me, Lynne. It saddens and terrifies me.
I knew you knew. I meant no offense. I am worried too.
None taken. The offenses are against the nation we both love.
How do we know the Russians aren't here already? They could walk an entire division across the Mexico border and Biden's cronies would hand them bus tickets to wherever they'd like to go.
They 100% can and have. It is wide open down on the southern border. I've said it here before...one dumpster dive at the border reveals evidence of crossers from around the world. Fox News interviewed and broadcasted all last year. They and independent journalists are the only media down there for some reason. (unless it can be construed with a racial lens like horses) I distinctly remember Russians specifically. Psaki, CNN and MSNBC name check Fox all the time. They watch and they know and they do nothing. Why is that?
After 9/11, my best friend's lesbian aunt felt that we should not fight Islamic terrorists, should they attempt to take over the U.S., because it was "wrong" to fight wars. Her theory was that she would be put in a harem where she could get it on with the other ladies.
That--with variations adapted to suit the individual--seems to be the mindset of Leftists: freedom is not worth fighting for, as long as you can get what you want under the new management.
Wow! Well, she can always apply to become an ISIS bride.
I guess that is an example of finding the good in things. But my understanding is that homosexuality is frowned upon by the Muslim faith.
You only get the country you fight for.
If they had only listened...
https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/07/donald-trump-warned-united-nation-relying-russian-oil-german-delegation-laughed/
Exactly.
It is a funny contrast seeing these hard working blue collar Ukrainians fighting for their country that they love being hero-exploited by the American big city coastal elite bluechecks as those same American bluechecks work on denigrating and destroying American hard working blue collar Americans that would be relied upon to defend their country.
Our elite bluechecks are terrified to death of a virus. How do you think they would do in real war?
100%. The leftists are cheering when AK's are handed out to UKR citizens. Look, they're making Molotov cocktails <clicks 'like'>! Meanwhile they despise the sort of Americans that were, are and would be grunts in any US war.
The fact is, the leftists of the U.S. and western Europe are polar opposite of the average person in Ukraine, where wokeness has not yet overcome their schools and workplaces.
Exactly!
Heroizing the Ukrainians is a feel-good bit of pseudo-journalism that is nice clickbait, but does not do justice to the stupidity of Zelenskyy and his controllers. This cheap piece makes me question why I paid for a subscription.
The Ukrainian leadership could have avoided this whole situation by simply adhering to the Minsk2 agreement: do not join Nato, and grant autonomy to two eastern provinces which are majority Russian. These are concessions, obviously, but the reality is that they are the close neighbor and former territory of a vast empire next door. It's the geopolitical reality. In fact, they could still halt the war by agreeing to those conditions; the Russian foreign minister stated this just yesterday.
Nato was supposed to be a bulwark for the western democracies against the Soviet Union, and it should have stuck to that job. "Liberating" Libya from Qaddafi, at Obama's behest, was a deviation from that mission, and led to tremendous instability in northern Africa that has come back to haunt Europe.
Now wading into what is basically a border dispute between two neighbors in the far east of Europe is an ill-advised mission. It's highly unlikely that supplying the Ukrainians with massive amounts of arms and jets will cause the Russians to back down; it can only lead to a wider conflict, with vastly more bloodshed mostly on Ukrainian territory, and greater chances of escalating into a nuclear war that will kill us all.
Domestically, the feckless and stupid actions of the Biden Administration will surely lead to an electoral backlash in November, and probably again in 2024, but unfortunately the opposition's stance will likely be one of a stronger military posture versus Russia.
Meanwhile, our real nemesis, the Chinese Communist Party, wins in the end. They get all the Russian energy and mineral commodities, while the West collapses. The longer the conflict is prolonged, the better for China. Stop and think about that, before printing off another Ukrainian flag and pasting it to your car window, and boycotting Smirnoff vodka (no relation to Russia) other empty gestures.
This is not a “border dispute”—as V. Putin’s own rhetoric attests. His objective is not to “liberate” ethnic Russians—a despotic goon like Putin is incapable of liberating anyone—but to destroy Ukraine or, at a minimum, to reduce it to the status of a vassal state. And, boiling down its verbosity, your idea is that the Ukrainian should just lie down and be trampled by the conqueror. Easy for you to say…
No, but they should probably guarantee neutrality and not try to join Nato, which the Russians have stated is unacceptable. It would be like China setting up major military bases in Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja.
Lots of things are “unacceptable” to V. Putin, it seems. And the only reason he opposed Ukrainian membership in NATO was that it would have scotched his plan to extinguish that country’s independence and turn it into a vassal state. His claims that NATO threatens Russia’s security are pure garbage.
That's an assertion contrary to fact. The Russians have been pretty clear for a long time that NATO expansion was an unacceptable threat. Obviously if Ukraine "falls" to NATO, Georgia might be next, and Russia would find itself with NATO bases on its western and southern flanks. If you study a little Russian history, you will notice that they are a deeply anxious people after centuries of invasions. They will never accept NATO on their border. The Baltic nations that joined NATO are probably in their sights when this Ukraine thing is over. Assuming there's still a Russia and a Europe left to fight.
No. isn't. NATO is a defensive alliance that would never launch an attack on Russia, as everybody knows quite well, V. Putin's claims to the contrary are, as I said, garbage—propaganda designed for domestic consumption and, in this case, to justify his blatant act of aggression. Putin's intention is to recreate the defunct Russian imperium, and NATO stands in his way.
In retrospect, NATO expansion in the post-Cold War period was a wise move. It protects much of his prey from renewed Russian domination and I fail to see why that's such a terrible thing. Russia has no "historic right" to dominate the Baltic States, Poland or the other former Soviet satellites, not does Russian paranoia justify such domination. It's really disgusting to find so many people in the West parroting Putin's false and lying claims.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what "NATO" thinks. If you keep poking a dangerous entity that repeatedly tells you to back off, and then finally has enough, and decides to teach you a lesson, don't act surprised. It doesn't matter AT ALL if the whole world think it's wrong (which it obviously doesn't)--you were warned, and chose to take your chances.
As one of the world's pre-eminent bullies, the U.S. can cancel any poor bastard who can't fight back with zero consequences. People shouldn't make the mistake of thinking everyone is so easy to push around. That's one of the big problems with bullies: you think they have your back because you kiss their ass--then they throw you under the bus anyway...
--Realpolitik 101
Putin’s honesty or lack thereof notwithstanding, are you willing to go and fight for Ukraine? Are you willing to sacrifice your children for the cause?
A war between Russia and NATO would likely mean both.
Yes, Putin and his nationalists want to reconstitute a Greater Russia, at the cost of alienating the liberal democracies of the West.
They also don’t trust the West. The West is obligingly feeding that distrust through increasingly bellicose rhetoric and actions.
Wake up! This is a march to war, a war none of us need or will possibly benefit from.
At last someone with common sense on this website. Thank you
The comments on here are a dumpster fire.
Thank you, Bari, for giving a voice to these people. Pray for peace; pray for miracles.
Yep, this is another one of those comment threads with a Lunatic Fringe Right Wing Group Self Esteem Therapy Marching Circle twisting through the pages.. Substack hosts a lot of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with it. When I'm looking for an argument, I know where to find one.
They're a self-selecting group, and their most effective tactic appears to be one adapted from Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had his troop column march in circles around a mountain to give the observers from the opposition the impression that they were watching a never-ending line of enemy soldiers. The Lunatic Fringe Marching Circles comprise a disproportionate number of the Superusers of social media political comment sections.
The largest LFMC is Right Wing, but there's a Left Wing variant, too- roughly the same group as the politi-bots I refer to as Wokists. From the reports I've heard, the Left Wing LFMC is most prominent on Twitter (I'm a nonuser). But I've had my run-ins with them on sites like Rawstory and Salon (before Salon got rid of their original comment sections in the process of shifting comments to Facebook; now they've dumped and wiped all of those comments, too.)
I admit, I'm a long-time Superuser myself. But I don't foist ignorance on people, repeat lies, or indulge in scareposting conspiracy insinuations, extremist fearmongering, and propagandizing for civil war, usually attached to name-checking the same small set of political arch-enemies.
Here's a recent article in the Atlantic, on the Superusers of Facebook, and the power of obnoxiousness that they leverage through the FB algorithm https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/02/facebook-hate-speech-misinformation-superusers/621617/
I never once got involved in a Facebook political discussion (my page is now "dormant"), but obviously a lot of people use it for the same purpose as other political comment pages. I think the pattern described by the statistical research findings in the Atlantic article is similar to what's happened in online political discussions in other venues; the only difference is that the Facebook algorithm functions to empower trolling, baiting, extremist drama, and lunatic fringe opinions in general. Quoting from the Atlantic article:
"...The most alarming aspect of our findings is that people like John, Michelle, and Calvin aren’t merely fringe trolls, or a distraction from what really matters on the platform. They are part of an elite, previously unreported class of users that produce more likes, shares, reactions, comments, and posts than 99 percent of Facebook users in America.
They’re superusers. And because Facebook’s algorithm rewards engagement, these superusers have enormous influence over which posts are seen first in other users’ feeds, and which are never seen at all. Even more shocking is just how nasty most of these hyper-influential users are. The most abusive people on Facebook, it turns out, are given the most power to shape what Facebook is...."
"Our data suggests that a majority of MSI ("meaningful social interactions"; more details in the article. ed.) on top U.S. pages came from about 700,000 users out of the more than 230 million users that Facebook claims to have in America..."
"...So who are these people? To answer that question, we looked at a random sample of 30,000 users, out of the more than 52 million users we observed participating on these pages and public groups. We focused on the most active 300 by total interactions, those in the top percentile in their total likes, shares, reactions, comments, and group posts. Our review of these accounts, based on their public profile information and pictures, shows that these top users skew white, older, and—especially among abusive users—male. Under-30 users are largely absent.
Because the top 300 were all heavy users, three-quarters of them left at least 20 public comments over our two-month period, and some left thousands. We read as many of their comments as we could, more than 80,000 total.
Of the 219 accounts with at least 25 public comments, 68 percent spread misinformation, reposted in spammy ways, published comments that were racist or sexist or anti-Semitic or anti-gay, wished violence on their perceived enemies, or, in most cases, several of the above. Even with a 6 percent margin of error, it is clear that a supermajority of the most active users are toxic..."
"...In addition to the torrent of vile posts, dozens of top users behaved in spammy ways. We don’t see large-scale evidence of bot or nonhuman accounts in our data, and comments have traditionally been the hardest activity to fake at scale. But we do see many accounts that copy and paste identical rants across many posts on different pages. Other accounts posted repeated links to the same misinformation videos or fake news sites. Many accounts also repeated one- or two-word comments—often as simple as “yes” or “YES !!”—dozens and dozens of times, an unusual behavior for most users. Whether this behavior was coordinated or not, these throwaway comments gave a huge boost to MSI, and signaled to Facebook’s algorithm that this is what users want to see..."
This is an amazing post.
It's truly shocking sometimes how terrible the comments are.
Ukraine ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. The reality is perhaps more complex than what described today, including oppression of ethnic Russians there. That said, there is no justification for the invasion and ongoing, heartbreaking onslaught.
It's so crazy how people in the comments can read what's happening and see the videos and photos of the people of Ukraine and make comments like "the Biden Administration and the US media are worse than Putin."
Not morally. But in terms of simple competence in foreign policy? The WSJ is reporting that Saudi Arabia and the UAE refused to take calls from Biden at the same time that they were talking to Putin.
Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is working day and night with the European partners to help Ukraine. But I'm sure you have a point.
Help Ukraine do what? This is precisely what I'm talking about: US foreign policy is incoherent. Is the end goal for Ukraine to win somehow? Russia has every advantage militarily. For the Ukraine to prevail would take a miracle or massive US intervention. That would include a no-fly zone that would involve shooting down Russian aircraft. That is a line that nobody in NATO is willing to cross.
If the expectation is that the Russians will eventually emerge victorious then what are the parameters for continued aid to the Ukrainians? Biden needs to speak up because right now there is a total vacuum of leadership.
So, wait ... you have more knowledge of what's going on with the diplomats, boots on the ground in Ukraine, and the complexity of international law than the people in the State Department? Interesting.
Where in the Ukraine are the Ukrainians winning? The consensus among US intelligence before the war was that Putin would emerge victorious in the event of an invasion. Has that projection changed? If Biden seriously thinks that the Ukrainians stand any chance whatsoever then he should go in front of the country and make that clear.
They're not working to help Ukraine. They're working to help themselves. And pay Ukraine back for its corrupt payouts to the Biden family. And to exonerate themselves from the huge criminal investigations that are coming, as soon as the Democrats are knocked from power.
Not to worry. Hunter and the Big Guy, and many other US and Western decision makers are still spending their ill gotten lucre. They will have to use some of it on lawyers for sure. But they'll have plenty left. The elites only rarely go to jail and only after their minions. I get that they supported all the benefactors and their schemes all over the world in exchange for remuneration. This is an old story. But what do their supporters and defenders get out of it? I guess it's like someone wearing the jersey of the winning team in some infantile sport. A tiny bit of glory must be absorbed somehow satiating and exhilarating them. I never experienced this with either sports or politics so I'm a little like the virgin scold. I wish someone would explain why so many worship these false G_D's.
Man... wow. That's a lot of crazy right there.
It's literally true. What part of it do you dispute?
It's literally not true. Thoughts and prayers.
This should be required reading for everyone. If we've learned anything over the past two years, it's that way too many Americans lack perspective. We're soft. When it rains in Los Angeles, people act like the end is nigh. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, women and children walk around with Kalashnikovs slung on their backs.
Putin is transitioning to what's basically total war. Butchering civilians. Firing at residential housing areas, deliberately terrorizing the people stuck inside this hellscape. Hungry, cold, and scared out of their minds. No water or electricity.
In Mariupol, Russia did this for a week. Then they promised a safe passage, a humanitarian corridor so civilians could evacuate. Ukrainians walked into a trap, took mortar and sniper fire and had to go back. After 11 days, Russia again promised safe passage. And then the Ukrainians walked into a butterfly mine field.
Butterfly mines are small, about the size of your hand, and they look like toys. You know what that means. They're plastic, pressure activated, very sensitive. And they're nasty. Butterfly mines are meant to maim, not kill. The logic is to force at least one other soldier to attend to the maimed one, have him put a tourniquet on - essentially taking 2 out of the fight.
In Afghanistan, Putin maimed around 30,000 people this way, many of them kids. And he did the same exact thing in the Chechen War, in the siege of Grozny. Same ploy. It's a cruel method of psychological warfare, and it's devastatingly effective. The point is to suffocate hope.
Sorry, you can't believe every bit of news coming out of the war zone. Some of it has been shown to be fabricated. The Ukrainians are playing you like a fiddle. In fact, the only honest brokers so far are the Russians. They said what they were going to do, and now they're doing it. We may not like it, but it's not like we weren't warned.
Terry, are you insane?
No, just a skeptic and a realist. And I stand by what I said. The "Ghost of Kiev" for example... totally fabricated. Many videos circulating on media like tiktok and youtube... totally fabricated. They literally used video game footage and dumb people thought they were scenes of carnage from southern Ukraine... 24 million views on tiktok. We are witnessing a media war of lies and exaggerations, and the Ukraine side is winning.
We are witnessing a fascist trying to take over a sovereign country. And, an ignorant fool supporting said fascist.
Ease up on the Black/White and the insults if you want people to pay attention. Terry is right about deceptive propaganda, which has been turned up to 11 on this clusterfuck. It's possible to simultaneously think Putin is an asshole, but that Ukraine has plenty of problems of its own.
No. I won’t ease up. Russia started a war. The end. He can take his ignorance and shove it.
Oh so the Ukrainians invaded themselves and are destroying their cities and displacing and d killing their own people? Okay.
When the nukes fly from the madman because he says he’s going to use them, will you be okay with that? Or will you still be posting from some safe space inside the kremlin.
Terry, you're embarrassing yourself. Stop.
A maternity hospital was bombed in Mariupol today. What's your email, I'll send you some pictures. Maybe it'll wake you up.
Okay - first prove that this hospital was actually bombed, deliberately, by the Russians. There have been reports of false flags, and staged bombings, and fake events propagated to a naive international online audience. It's hard to believe what's true and what isn't.
I'm a big believer in healthy skepticism. I can appreciate that. In fact, I wish more people would exercise it.
But this is not a video game. And I don't scroll through TikTok looking for war porn.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/09/europe/russia-invasion-ukraine-evacuations-03-09-intl/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60675599
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-presses-offensive-as-ukrainians-try-to-evacuate-11646819525
Also,
https://polishnews.co.uk/ukraine-attacked-by-russia-butterfly-mines-in-the-kharkiv-region/
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/02/26/7326201/
https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/ukraine-protest-london-trafalgar-square-23267392
https://cepa.org/a-special-tribunal-for-ukraine/
War crimes
Absolutely.
Is Ukraine not somewhat at fault for "total war"? Russia has already destroyed most of the military infrastructure. The only avenue left for Ukraine is (1) surrender and negotiate terms, or (2) turn their nation into Fallujah by hiding the army and armory in the middle of the cities, using the civilians as shields. #2 is not a heroic decision.
The Ukraine has made abominable decisions in this war. First, any male from 16-60 (or so) is not allowed to leave. So, basically slavery. Second, it is far more likely that Ukraine is the one firing on the humanitarian corridors (why would Russia?). Third, arming 10,000 civilians with Kalashinovs has lead to widespread looting and plenty of citizen-on-citizen murder and gang infighting. What a surprise!
I'm waiting to hear from a Ukrainian with a modicum of introspection that maybe the central government in Kiev doesn't have innocent lives at heart, but rather its own power. Mind you, this is the same government that was largely installed in a coup-de-tat, disenfranchising everyone in Odessa, the Donbass, etc.
Your Mariupol story strikes me as probably being the opposite -- Ukrainians mined their own civilians. They don't want their human shields to leave.
Why would Russia?
Have you forgotten Georgia? Chechnya?
This isn’t even serious propaganda. Do better.
Mere references to two local conflicts does not an argument make. Those nations are neighbors of Russia and the only two examples you can come up with during Putin's tenure. And, both have complex backstories that, even if those conflicts weren't justified (I am no expert), they pale in comparison to the chicanery and bloodshed that Ukraine has committed in the Donbass, or say, NATO/US powers have undertaken since the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
Ukraine is openly using civilians as human shields. Don't be their propagandist. Their regime is evil and stupid. They are all young, because they eschew and discriminate against the older guard that was more sympathetic to Russia and knowledgeable of its history, the good and the bad.
Edit: There is literally video on Twitter and Telegram of Ukrainian forces (Azov, SBU, whoever) putting boobytraps on playgrounds, and firing shots at civilians as they enter the humanitarian corridor. I know you are stuck on your narrative, but really, consider looking at other sources before you dismissively demonize one side. I'm highly sympathetic to Ukrainian fighters in resistance, but I believe their leaders have failed them (and their voters--which aren't much counted in that corrupt nation--are naive).
Ridiculous. Ukraine isn’t a neighbor? And let’s not. forget his atrocities in Syria.
And BTW just why is Russia sending rockets into apartment buildings and schools? Because they want to be good neighbors?
Baris site really needs an ignore button.
Have you not seen the pictures of Ukrainian battalions using schools and apartment buildings as hideouts and fortresses? Dude! Think for a second, why are they even there???
They are using the city and the civilians as human shields! The US is playing puppet master with the Ukrainian puppet leaders and advising/pushing them to turn the war into a Fallujah-like insurgency. The Russia MoD is screaming about this but you would just ignore it as "propaganda".
If your inclination is to ignore thoughtful comments here rather than debate, your mind is closed like an Idaho potato. Ironic for someone who considers him/herself as "unwoke"!
In 2014, one group of "insurrectionists" was firing indiscriminately at people on both sides of the conflict. Their aim was to cause harm and chaos, to further their goals.
Poland announces new fighters for Ukraine via US air base in Germany, and a few hours later the Pentagon denies. Not that I thought it was a good idea but this is another fiasco, US under this administration are a mess.
And, if you're going to do something like that, why talk about it? This is what happens when we have egg-headed lawyers and academics such as Avril Haines as National Security Director or social workers such as Wendy Ruth Sherman playing diplomat.
A festival of incompetence. Avril Haines is a kind gift from Obama's Camelot times, when the whole disaster started
Festival of Incompetence. Perfect. And they can all ride there together on Kamala's electric school bus.
Self-segregated of course. Ca va sans dire…