@piezoe, a bit of gallows humour for you. I have a surprise landed on my plate today but do plan to make progress later. I've sent the interview to a couple of savvy friends and awaiting their feedback.
Researching and found the impossible. A video where Ben Shapiro makes enough sense to like the video. He could be an ally for Caolan going by this. Sorry, no filter to fix his voice.
I tried to set up a FB account to unclutter the shop and sell some junk on FB Marketplace and they wanted a f'ing picture of my drivers license. fwiw. And that wasn't happenin'. Put it on the curb. Damn. You're 83? Good on ya. I never would have guessed.
Possible quick summary? Russia is at war with the West—and we’re letting them win. Russia treats propaganda like a missile, striking at the West, spreading chaos, and turning Americans against their own institutions. While Ukraine fights for survival, the Kremlin’s disinformation war has been inside our borders for over a decade, poisoning minds and shaping elections. Irish journalist Caolan Robertson reports from the front lines, exposing how Putin’s lies have infiltrated the West, and why ignoring this war, and the lessons from Syria, could cost us everything.
Hi @piezoe, I am not getting any useful feedback from two people I though might be good. One is Ukrainian. I just don't know if they have not viewed the piece yet or don't think too much of it. I'm guessing it's the former. One however sent me this just now which I am taking as being given some homework to do https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A6D4HhTGf/ I'm making this post because over the next few days approximate 3000 people on Facebook are going to tell me that I get all my information on Ukraine from The New York Times/BBC/NPR/CBS/NBS/ABC/The Washington Post/MSNBC and thus know nothing but propaganda and that they, in fact, know the real story from listening to John Mearshimer and Jeffrey Sachs (it's always Mearshimer and Sachs. Always.) You may be one of these people. I may have tagged you on this post to avoid having the same conversation for the millionth time. Look, I'm sorry, but you don't know a lot about Ukraine just because you watched John Meirsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs videos on Youtube. In fact, doing that will pretty much do the OPPOSITE of making you well informed on Ukraine. You know who Sachs is, right? No? Maybe you should read The Shock Doctrine. Mearshimer is a geopolitics obsessed foreign policy realist interested in the Great Powers global chess game and not such minor details as what the people of a country actually want, as expressed through popular uprisings. Here's a suggestion: go seek out the writing, speeches, and interviews of some actual Ukrainian left voices rather than of ugly American academics presuming to speak on behalf of Ukraine. Here are a few people I'm sure you've never heard of who deserve your attention: Yuliya Yurchenko, author of Ukraine and the Empire of Capital From Marketisation to Armed Conflict (https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745337371/ukraine-and-the-empire-of-capital/) https://spectrejournal.com/fighting-for-ukrainian-self-determination/ https://www.workersliberty.org/stor...nspiring-yuliya-yurchenko-ukraines-resistance Денис Пілаш - https://theanalysis.news/ukraine-and-the-oligarchs-denis-pilash-pt-1/ https://theanalysis.news/putins-war...s-of-american-war-crimes-denis-pilash-pt-2-2/ Hanna Perekhoda - https://voxeurop.eu/en/hanna-perekhoda-ukraine-war/ Taras Bilous - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/a-letter-to-the-western-left-from-kyiv/ CrimethINC offers perspectives of Ukrainian and Russian anarchists on the war on their website https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site:crimethinc.com+Ukraine&ia=web Episodes 81-83 of CrimethINC's The Ex-Worker podcast offers perspectives on anarchist resistance to Russian imperialism in Ukraine and of anti-war activists in Russia: https://crimethinc.com/podcasts/the-ex-worker/episodes/83 For more Ukrainian (and Belarusian) anarchist perspectives on resisting Russia's invasion and more Russian anti-war perspectives, listen to The Final Straw Radio, which has devoted many episodes to this subject since 2022: Here's a critical open letter by Ukrainian academics to Noam Chomsky: https://www.e-flux.com/notes/470005...inded-intellectuals-on-the-russia-ukraine-war And one from Chomsky's own Ukrainian translator: https://lithub.com/a-ukrainian-tran...-his-recent-comments-on-the-russian-invasion/ Here's are two Russian left scholar/activists who fled to escape the authoritarian crackdown on their dissident speech after Ukraine was invaded with important insights on his country's turn towards fascism and imperialism (http://news.berkeley.edu/2023/10/23...bring-prominent-putin-critics-to-uc-berkeley/): Ilya Matveev - https://alameda.institute/dossier/i...litary-economic-to-full-military-imperialism/ Ilya Budraitskis - https://jacobin.com/author/ilya-budraitskis/ Here are some US leftists who immigrated from Ukraine who immigrated from Ukraine and have valuable insights from their understanding of both cultures (and left political analysis): Axel Grendel - https://convergencemag.com/video/convergence-presents-making-sense-of-the-war-in-ukraine/ https://majoritypost.com/why-does-putin-say-ukraine-is-nazi/ https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/i.../what-can-the-left-actually-do-about-ukraine/ Eugene Onegin, whose writings under his Ukrainian name are required reading on the question of Crimea: https://countervortex.org/the-crimean-clause-of-the-ukraine-question/ https://countervortex.org/crimea-ukraines-other-national-liberation-struggle/ And here are some US leftist scholars, journalists, and activists who based their writing and speaking on making an effort to understand Ukraine from the perspective of the Ukrainian left: Bill Weinberg - check the Ukraine material on his CounterVortex website: https://countervortex.org/?s=Ukraine Suzi Weissman - a scholar focused on the Soviet Union and Russia for decades who hosts the Beneath the Surface with Suzi Weissman Radio Show (https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/kpfk-beneath-the-surface/5002073), the Jacobin Podcast, and co-edits and writes for Against the Current - https://againstthecurrent.org/suzi-weissman/ Cheryl Zuur of Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign (USSC) - https://fpif.org/dsa-and-ukraine/ John Reimann, also of USSC, and editor and primary writer of the Oakland Socialist blog - https://oaklandsocialist.com/?s=ukraine Bill Fletcher Jr. of Ukraine Solidarity Network US https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ukraine-solidarity-network/ https://therealnews.com/panel-solidarity-with-ukraine-from-the-global-south Howie Hawkins, also of Ukraine Solidarity Network US, who is a far more astute observer of global affairs than a certain other Green Party presidential candidate (rhymes with Bill Klein) https://links.org.au/howie-hawkins-...erialist-position-support-national-liberation Steve Ongerth has prepared a "Compendium and Syllabus of non-Campist (mostly) Left Sources on the War in Ukraine": . Oh, and while you're at you should really develop and understanding or what campism is and why it's such a disaster for the left. Dan La Botz's articles on this topic are excellent. https://newpol.org/issue_post/internationalism-anti-imperialism-and-the-origins-of-campism/ https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/i...m-for-international-working-class-solidarity/ As are Rohini Hensman's articles and interviews on the subject, (and, I, assume, her book "Indefensible: Democracy, Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism" though I've yet to read it.) She's also written articles specifically on Ukraine and Russia that you can find here: https://newpol.org/authors/hensman-rohini/ She's interviewed on Ukraine here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca...tracted-struggle/id1484201518?i=1000555236707 A good introduction to the historical context of this war is the final eight episodes of the podcast A Democratic Socialist's Almanac: https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--P...manac-New-Episode-p1389798/?topicId=170996663 The Marxist-Humanist Initiative's excellent Radio Free Humanity podcast is an excellent corrective to campist nonsense on Ukraine and beyond: https://soundcloud.com/mhi-120639128 Here's a recent episode on Ukraine: https://marxisthumanistinitiative.o...sistance-to-putins-invasion-with-ralph-keller Anti-fasacist researchers Alexander Reid Ross and Shane Burley have explored Putin's use of fascist "anti-fascism" and its use in imperialist propaganda in his war on Ukraine: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/lib...ley-into-the-irrational-core-of-pure-violence The No Easy Answers podcast did a deep dive into Duginism and Eurasianism on episodes 47-49, upending the campist lie that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was motivated by security concerns about NATO and exposing the real motive - imperialist revanchis. Also listen to the 12/16/22 episode: https://www.noeasyanswerspodcast.com/episodes/
Thank you again Tuxan for your valuable contributions to this important thread. Here is Caolan on the Front Line.
Thats a brilliant piece of reporting. It's really interesting as well that they discuss how the unit specifically looks for computer gamer skills as pre-training for their unit.
https://www.newsweek.com/steve-witkoff-hand-heart-vladimir-putin-russia-2058746 Steve Witkoff Puts Hand on Heart Right Before Meeting Putin Published Apr 11, 2025 at 4:12 PM EDT