A Tar Baby for Political Commentators

Since I posted yesterday about the propaganda and disinformation that infest the reportage on events in Ukraine, the amount of mendacity and fake news surrounding the war has, if anything, increased. The number of what I called “shallow fakes” in the visual reporting has grown enormously, to the point where there’s no reason to trust anything you see.

Images or videos from China in 2015, from Iraq in 2003, from Ukraine in 2014, are being repurposed as current news about the invasion of Ukraine. Just think about it — every one of those images and videos was deliberately inserted into social media or MSM news feeds with a fake identifier. That is, someone fully intended to hoax their audience with bogus information.

Who’s doing all that? How many agents of disinformation are out there feeding this malarkey into the common matrix of popular awareness? Who are they working for? Who’s paying them?

To my mind, anyone who forms an opinion based on what appears in the MSM, including Fox News, is being foolhardy, to put it mildly.

And it’s not just the pro-Ukraine people who are being fooled by fake news. Last night a little snip of video was being passed around on various sites that are (to put it mildly) skeptical about the NWO narrative on Ukraine. It was drawn from someone’s Twitter feed, and showed what was said to be a Russian armored personnel carrier being taken out by Ukrainian partisans throwing Molotov cocktails. It was soon discovered that the footage was in fact taken during a riot in 2014. So right-wing extremists are being gulled by fake news just as much as the news outlets that post that famous photo of Volodymyr Zelensky in his camouflaged body armor.

Once again, who deliberately retailed that disinformation? Who paid for it?

None of this is being done without a reason. The massive disinformation is part of a carefully crafted plan (or plans) on the part of one or more actors with a vested interest in the armed conflict in Ukraine.

As a result, I have decided to back off from any significant reporting on Ukraine. That includes translations of what I consider to be propaganda in various European languages. I hate to slight our translators that way, but I will not allow myself to be used as a conduit for what I judge to be disinformation.

I will make exceptions for items that debunk some of the fake news. Those deserve to be featured.

As for the rest of it, it can stay on CNN and Politico, where it belongs. In my opinion, anyone who takes the Ukraine reportage at face value is being played.

For a reality check, I recommend Sundance at Conservative Tree House, who is extremely skilled in the meta-analysis of current events.

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Before you conclude that you know what’s going on in Ukraine, I suggest that you read two essays by Takuan Seiyo, “Things Are Not What They Seem” and “Ukraine as Quantum Decoherence, Part 1”. I re-read both of them yesterday, and they reminded me of how little I know about the culture and history of that ill-fated region. The map at the top of this post serves as a reminder of the complexity of the situation.

A little humility is in order.

The Ukraine crisis seems to be escalating at an exponential rate. The neocon lunatics who are slavering over the idea of a war with Russia are now pushing for the enforcement by NATO (which means the USA) of a no-fly zone over Ukraine. That would constitute a direct act of war against a major power with an immense nuclear arsenal and hypersonic missiles.

This will not be like one of those little wars against Saddam Hussein, or the Taliban, or Ho Chi Minh. This is the real deal. It’s “On the Beach” territory.

The lunatics are running the asylum now, and there’s nothing that you and I can do about it. God help us all.

32 thoughts on “A Tar Baby for Political Commentators

  1. I have one more crazy theory about this conflict, very simple: What if it’s all about “Food”?

    There is a lot of talk about a coming global famine, China is buying food like crazy, while The US and EU and Australian producers are being artificially beaten down by their own governments… There is also a talk about the coming mini-ice age, that will once again devastate northern food production. And – food is one of the three things every Caesar must take care of: The “Food and Circuses and the military” triangle.

    What if the war in Ukraine is just about Food security for Russia, but they don’t tell, because they are Chess players?

    • Barn Swallow: Russia’s interest in the Ukraine has always been about food; grain, in particular.

      • Russia is a grain exporter now, I hear.

        Mini ice age is upon us, supposed to let up in 2045. Something to do with the sun spots or radiation.

        Btw, I claimed the other day the Russians have been living in the Donbas for a long time. I heard since that at least some of them were moved there by Stalin in the 1930s to work in the new factories, and to counter the hostility of the Ukrainians to his regime.

  2. The problem is, ole Putin bit off more than he can chew, he figured Ukraine would fall in a couple of days and they would just capitulate, it didn’t happen, Putin opened up Pandora’s Box of War and now with volunteers entering the ops area by the thousands from the US and Europe and European governments sending all sorts of nasty goodies to make things exciting. As with all wars, they have a tendency to spiral out of anyones control. Especial with Belarus entering the fray and they are putting pressure on the Poles and Baltic states, so it could end up starting there are well.

    • Really!!??
      Where is it written that a war should be win in less than a week?

      I read a different version. According to it, Putin has very specific goals in Ukraine, which are not conquest or annexation. His interest is negotiate with the Ukrainian leaders to implement his demands, and set a different situation there. His strategic is military pressure until surrender to his demands, minimum antagonizing of the population, with whom he hopes to work latter. That is why his army surrounded the cities, but did not enter them yet.
      If this is true or not, I don’t know, But I also don’t know that his intentions were to conquest all Ukraine (and maybe some other countries) in less than a week. We do not know enough, and are feed with false knowledge. Sure, maybe the situation can lead to WWIII, but maybe it is not Putin who is leading to this direction but other factors, western factors, and that is another thing I reed, and believe it is worth of consideration.

      • We live in the day of mobile fast moving warfare, Russia thought they could defeat Ukraine in a few days at worst, it has brought out the fact that Russia and their logistics train are a bloody mess, no gas for the tanks and trucks means they cannot move, an army that cannot supply/feed itself is a sitting target which now the Russians are. Putin may have set out as his goal to make Ukraine submit to his agenda, the Ukrainians have a vote and they decided nyet! The Wst was caught flat footed for they truly believed Putin would not invade and was just bluffing, welll they thought wrong and now playing catch up by supplying Ukraine with what they need. Plus there are thousands of volunteers coming in with combat experience that will really make things interesting for the Russians. Double plus good, the Russian morale is extremely low and officers have a hard time getting their troops to move forward, Ukraine morale on the other hand is extremely high and small units are making a difference in exacting a high price against Russian forces.

        • “Russia thought they could defeat Ukraine in a few days at worst”

          Really? How do you know what “Russia thought”?
          How do you know a second biggest country in Europe can be defeated in a “few days at worst”?

          Sounds like straight off CNN.

          • Vera, Because I was US Military for a number of years and worked in National Security dear, that is how I know these things.

      • ” minimum antagonizing of the population, with whom he hopes to work latter”

        LOL I guess you never talked to any Ukrainians… Putin, and the Russian army are hated in the Ukraine – every part of it.

  3. A lot of misinformation indeed. Nothing is like it seems. Nothing!!
    As for me, the only thing I know is that I don’t know anything in regard of this issue.

    I recommend Viva Fray for a wider background on what is going on there. I trust him as a honest person. He himself can be unintentionally wrong, but in any case it is worth to listen, for opening your mind.

    One thing is for sure, the big winner of this war is going to be China. The economical sanctions will harm the west much more than Rusia, and give a big boost to chinese economic, which may implement her plans to replace the dollar by their own money as international currency.
    Of course, it will boost her geopolitical situation, and bring down the already declining America position.

    • If gas and oil are cut off, China dies, it is that coldly simple. So China as big as they are, are completely reliant on foreign oil, gas, and coal, cut off the energy, the Red Chinks don’t have a 30 day supply to keep the Chines engine running.

      • Who will put oil/gas sanctions on China? Their Middle Eastern oil suppliers?

        Besides, they’re right next to Russia. Have big gas deals with Russia, and could possibly build oil pipelines too.

        • All true Green, but there is a vast ocean to ship gas/oil to China, and it takes time, to build pipelines also takes time.

  4. Thanks for the links to Takuan’s posts- quite an education, including some of the dissenting comments.

  5. I don’t blame you. I have been turned around more than 360 degrees on coverage and other information.

  6. The big question must be asked; does China have a military alliance with Russia? If they do, I think we had better sit down and shut up.

    • The Chinese do not have a military alliance, for even the Russians know that the red chinks are eying up Siberia with all their natural resources to take if Russia gets weak.

  7. Baron:
    Thanks for this important reminder and the links to the posts from TS. They remind me how much I miss his contributions here and his other writing. I hope he is still living and is “enjoying” this clownshow.

  8. In the Last Days (daze?) there will be wars and rumors of wars, but look up for your redemption draweth nigh.

  9. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/putin-said-russia-targeting-nazis-ukraine-azov-battalion-nazi-group-ukraine/

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/really-going-ukraine-alternative-scenario/

    Propaganda is like a firearm. It is a tool, so it can be wielded for good or ill. I view everything as propaganda and follow Benjamin Franklin’s admonishment to, “Believe nothing you hear. and only half of what you see.”

    At the moment I’m seeing very little that can be taken at even 50% face value.

    Propaganda is designed to drive political decision based on emotional response.
    Social media is a propagandist’s paradise in that it’s entire purpose to feed the need for emotional interaction that humans crave continually, actually a form of pornographic addiction. The internet, more than any other technology in human history, allows the simultaneous delivery of a worldwide propaganda tsunami.

  10. Ask: Who benefits?
    Who benefits from wiping one country to powder and robbing the other. War is a dirty show to cover up dirty deeds.

    Idiots Slavs who kill each other do not ask this question.

    • Elena, could you please tamp down on your anti-Slav animosity, and geta hold of yourself? As a Slav, I would much appreciate it.

      • Putin has done more damage to the Slavs, than any of our enemies could ever do…

        Attacking another Slav nation. Making his own Slav nation the most hated nation in the world. While his sidekick Lukaszenko floods Slav countries with aggressive, hostile Muslim migrants.

        He should be charged with crimes against Slavs.

  11. This is another example of the numerous historical examples of a bigger country trying to take over a smaller country.

      • I would not call Russia a ‘bear’. According to international standards, Russia is very poor country which is lagging behind in various respects. Russia’s GDP (nominal) is equal to that of Brasil (less than that of Italy or South Corea). United Nations Human Development Index ranks Russia at 52 place in the world (behind Romania and Poland). Average life expectancy for males in Russia is 68,2 years, which ranks Russia 99th country in the world (behind Vietnam, Moldova or Bulgaria). Demographics of Russia is a major disaster for the future fate of that country (death rate has been exceeding the birth rate). Russian autobahn network (roads that we call autobahn here in the European Union) is pretty much the same as in Hungary (1400 km). What I am trying to say is that Russia is no longer a ‘bear’. Russia may still be called a ‘wolf’. An old one, seriously ill, but still dangerous.

    • The smaller country in this case was taken by a bigger country – the USA – eight years ago.

      Everyone who is a little familiar with the situation knows that Ukraine has been governed from the US embassy since the victory of Maidan.

      This is a war between Russia and the US, in which the US wisely uses Ukrainians as cannon fodder why Russia has to sacrifice its own men.

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